how much is reasonable for entertainment?

wolfehouse

I a mom of a 1st year (very young=16) uni student.
she is still living at home so has no bills there, has a paid for bus pass, books and clothes all paid for, gets £25/ week for food at school, has a monthly allowance of £30 for fun.

Is this enough or am I being unreasonable? (she announced she had spent £250 of her student loan in 3 months on going out with friends etc.) I just about hit the roof as I was hoping she was saving up for when she moves out this spring.

We are still happily negotiating terms (and she wants to get a part-time job)but I wonder am I being too tough on her?

rhig

£250 in 3 months going out is not much at all for a student, if she is getting £1000 a term for her loan she is really doing well. Paying for her books and clothes may not be necessary, subsidising books may help as it shouldn’t put her off buying them.

Is she moving into student accommodation or a shared house? If she is her rent costs will probably not be too high depending where she is going to be living and the loan will probably be enough to cover it. Being 16 may make accommodation more difficult, she may need a guarantor for rent in which case you may need to sign her contract and be liable if she does not pay.

It may be worth posting which uni she is at incase anyone knows what to expect to pay in terms of rent for the city, it could be as low as £35-40 or as high as £100 depending which area of the country you are in.

ftbworried

Just one question- how has she gone to uni at 16?

emma_b_4

i was thinking that!
is she at college?

wolfehouse

thanks for putting things into perspective for me.

she can go at 16 cause we're in scotland. (she was 4 in primary 1). she did very well on her highers and absolutely hated the way the teachers treated her at high school (and the social scene) and as she has 2 older sisters she is 16 going on 21. She is so much happier at uni and doing well in classes. just really young in some of her ways still.

she will be sharing a house with her sister in spring and we will still pay the rent.

aberstudent

I think the sooner your daughter has financial independence the better - so long as you ask your daughter to let you know when she's indifficulty/facing an overdraft or just not coping.

I have friends sitll in their final year who still have parents deeply involved in their finances - and it makes them and their parents miserable.

As your daughter is young, now is an excellent time to let her find out the freedoms of her own finances - as she has a further three years to learn from her mistakes - by 20 she should be a money saving expert!

£250 is not a lot to spend. Also entertainment is a big part of university - and by this I mean trips, sport, coffees etc, not just drinking and partying - and all this should be enjoyed.

Can I ask why you will be paying her rent when she has a student loan? Rent is a very good thing to budget for, as it can be complicated - in this way I think it's better to let her pay her own rent and organise some way of supplementing her income with a direct debit from you.

However, I do realise your daughter is still a year younger than other students may be - but surely it's good to start your financial independence sooner rather than later.

si1503

She is 16. I'd question if at that age she should be going out drinking at all? £30 per month is an average of about £7.50 per week, plenty enough for that cinema ticket or a couple of "soft" drinks.

I'd question whether she should be financially independant at her age, so many students just spend spend spend and do not understand anything about savings, budgeting, or money management. I know too many students that spend all of their loans, max out overdrafts, credit cards, and will be ending up in considerable debt. Ensure she fully understands how to manage her finances effectively before giving her full control of what to do with them, and even then it would be good to talk to her about them just to ensure she is on the right lines. I never really got this and learnt the hard way. Now in my 2nd year and in around £6k of debt, the vast majority of which is unnecessary and could have been avoided IMO if I'd known then what I know now.

aberstudent

Si1503's comments and mine show the range of student experience with finances - this demonstrates the need to judge on a case by case basis.

I find that I have managed my finances very well - but at then end of it wil still have to repay a full student loan.

Also please, please bear in mind that students don't just drink - all the societies and extra-currics that I'm sure you'd like her to participate in all cost money - as does keeping fit and healthy - and socialising, debating courses and concepts over coffee - find out what she considers to be entertainment - as I class all these additional activities in my entertainment budget.

wolfehouse

besides all the student clubs which i am totally behind she mostly enjoys heavy metal music concerts...usually taking place in clubs in town- occassionally at tea shops around the uni. these seem to cost about £20 a time.
I think that's the biggest generation gap and probably where i resent the money being spent.

aberstudent

I can imagine how this might seem a waste of money as a parent! To just a student without the interest in music, it would seem like a waste of money to me too - but at the end of the day, although it's a loan - it's still HER loan and you can't resent how she spends it (although you may secretly regret it).

I liked a load of wierd stuff at the beginning of unversity, bought loads of CDs, spend a fortune on eating out and dyed my hair purple. But by the end of the first year I had started to rank other things much higher in my budget - it takes a while to work out what is really worth spending your money on.

So yes, there will be wastage, but if she's a smart girl, and it sounds like she is, being at university with good grades already, then she will adapt quickly.

newmum1

At 16 she is still very young, and you should still help her financially but let her have some 'big' responsibilities so that she understands thats she must budget and entertainment should be near the bottom of the list.