How much per month to help daughter?

silvercar

Her accomodation costs are a staggering £6800 a year (Birmingham - I wish I'd realised the difference in living costs before she applied).

Does this include food?

Surely that can't be standard halls?

alrk

silvercar wrote: »

Does this include food?

Surely that can't be standard halls?

Yes, I should have said it includes food monday to friday, apparently a generous weekly amount allowing them to buy extra to have at the weekend!

Even including food I find 6800 a lot!

bouncydog1

DD's accommodation costs are £5600 p.a. without food. Say you are paying similar then the balance is £30 per week for food (based on a 40 week year) - presumably she is in catered halls. Wasn't there an option for uncatered? Might not be too late to change, although you then have to get all of the kitchen stuff needed!

Presumably your DD is living in en-suite accommodation of quite a high standard - there is usually a choice and facilities depend on the price you pay.

Miss_Purple_Hat

Just thought I'd stick my oar in since I'm a new member and a student with 3 years' experience... This post is fairly general and not all of it directly applies to the OP.

When I first went to uni I started collecting stuff for the bedroom and kitchen ages before I went. I bought a set of towels a year before, which marked the start of my gradual collection! It made it cost almost nothing by collecting well in advance, because then the whole family and their friends knew I was collecting and if they wanted to throw out an old pot or pan, or some crockery, it passed my way before it went to the bin.

Unfortunately I seem to be a bit of a hoarder with kitchen stuff - I have tonnes of it and quite a bit spent last year in my grandparents' garage!

First term can be exceptionally expensive, not just for social activities. Societies memberships, sports clubs memberships (at my university you have to pay to join the societies federation and the university Sport thingy before you can then pay to join clubs...) as well as the inevitable newbie socials for societies. These aren't all about drinking and could be a meal out somewhere, but they are a great way to get talking to people and making friends. I went for a couple of quiet pub evenings with my new flatmates in the first week. It would have been very bad to miss these because they got us all talking! (Besides the standard, "name, course, where you're from".)

If possible buy any fresh food once you've arrived and know what space you have - my kitchen in halls shared a large fridge and a large freezer between 13 people, which equated to just half a shelf in each. And one cupboard (used for crockery, pots and pans and food). A box to store cupboard foods in in your room is, as people have said, a godsend.

Money. I worked my !!!! off to save up some money before I went to uni - had about £2500. I have about £500 left of those savings. (I did spend £500 on a holiday last year though - couldn't resist my first trip abroad...) I spent £2000 over the course of 2 years on top of my student loan. That is all. I get full loan but no bursaries, etc., and my parents couldn't afford to help much in those first 2 years. These days I get £20 per week during term time, for which I am very grateful. If I am careful I can save money.

[HOWEVER. My accomodation is relatively cheap compared to many. It is a 42 week let, this year it was £63pw inc water, but no other bills (I had a box room!) but is now going up to £67pw for the coming year, which will be the same as second year. I used to have to pay for a bus pass, which took a £200 chunk out of my finances at the start of my second year. But don't need that these days as I live within walking distance of campus.]

I also made the mistake of buying my books as soon as I got my reading list in first year. Don't bother. Most of them turned out to be a waste of money and copies of those could be found in the library. Wait until after the introductory lecture for each module, where the lecturer generally won't teach much but will outline the course and which books should be bought. (Some lecturers tell you not to bother buying any books for their module at all!) There is also the obligatory race to the library by some students after said lecture to find the few copies of the required books...

People assume holiday jobs are readily available... I spent 2 summers without a job after trawling through websites and trekking around job agencies, because there wasn't anything suitable in our local area.

Crikey, I'm waffling...

Basically in answer to the OP, £200 a month is rather good in my opinion, but if you have the funds available at the moment, perhaps reduce that slightly and use the difference for an initial cash injection?

ultimatedingbat

My folks have never given me money while I was at uni. however my Mum used to send me the Tesco & Sainsburys cards for food every now and again (sainsbury's do the bean cards which you can load up with food, theres 2 cards one for mum one for student).

They also usedto do some shopping when they visited, take me out to dinner and get me a few bits. I also had a store card for Dorothy Perkins so that I could keep myself in decent clothes as long as I didn't take the !!!! (To be fair I think I only spent about £150-£200 int he whole year and some of that I paid off myself). The main reason it was doc perkins was because they were one of the few places I could get jeans & trousers to fit me

My budget for the week was around £50 to buy everything I needed and I bought my own books bar 2 which were £30 each

Personally that is very generous and between £40 and £50 per week is perfectly enough. I might add for socalising I rarely used it on drink. A trip to the cinema now can cost you between £5 and £10, bowling £10, society social events like plays or shows £10, gigs £10-£20. it all depends on what your child is like. My folks would wang me a bit of spare cash when they could, or I would borrow a little to give them it back. I should add that in 3 years I only went into my overdraft once and that was thanks to careful budgeting, and a summer of working my !!! off (I saved nearly £2000 in one summer).

However part time work is not always possible. i was unable to find part time work while at uni, but I was lucky that in one summer I found three jobs I could do together. Second summer not so luck, this summer, no luck what so ever. I go back to university soon and part time work is FORBIDDEN by the university.

ultimatedingbat

Miss_Purple_Hat wrote: »

When I first went to uni I started collecting stuff for the bedroom and kitchen ages before I went. I bought a set of towels a year before, which marked the start of my gradual collection! It made it cost almost nothing by collecting well in advance, because then the whole family and their friends knew I was collecting and if they wanted to throw out an old pot or pan, or some crockery, it passed my way before it went to the bin.


First term can be exceptionally expensive, not just for social activities. Societies memberships, sports clubs memberships (at my university you have to pay to join the societies federation and the university Sport thingy before you can then pay to join clubs...) as well as the inevitable newbie socials for societies. These aren't all about drinking and could be a meal out somewhere, but they are a great way to get talking to people and making friends. I went for a couple of quiet pub evenings with my new flatmates in the first week. It would have been very bad to miss these because they got us all talking! (Besides the standard, "name, course, where you're from".)

And everything else you said is exactly right. I spent a fortune in the two months (close to £2500 including rent at £1600 though) but I had a membership for my universities newspaper at £30, a societies membership £10, and socials. I went to my first burl;esque night which cost me £10. All in all them oney adds up!

Going out in freshers is expensive however if you do it right it's not bad. I only went on one freshers drinking night as I didn't fancy it. I went to the alternative night which was amazing, and got to meet the rock society and go to a gig.

Kitty_Ears

I'm halfway through my second year, I live with my fiancee. My parents have been supporting me with £100 a month at the moment as my fiancee has started a new job and won't be paid until Sept 30th. That £100 pounds has really helped me, bought me prescriptions and some basic food supplies. I normally get around £550 a month and my fiancee was refused JSA because of this.

I find this surprising that parents are willing to help out their children's social life! I never would dream of asking my Mum for money and if she does help me out, boy does she let me know about it for days on end!

SoapyDish_2

£200 a month is sufficient to live off comfortably - it's what I get from my parents. I'm not sure exactly how much I spend, because I also have a job during the holidays, but most of that goes on topping up my student loan to be able to pay my accommodation bill every term, or on big one-off spends like a skiing holiday last year. £200 is enough for my day-to-day expenses, being able to go out clubbing once a week or so, and to get the occasional takeaway with friends.

stormbreaker

One of the common things running through this thread is DO NOT BUY BOOKS!. In my sons first year he asked me to purchase a book. I researched it on Amazon to discover it had very poor reviews. Many of which suggested if the purchaser was considering it for certain courses then the work within was so easy and of schooling level, perhaps the purchaser should question their ability to be on the course! I did not buy the book.
My son has since bought only one book and he did so from Amazon 'used' books. This came as a hugh surprise to me as he was what I called a 'book snob'. He refused anything secondhand when he was younger and refused to use the library!! Now the Uni Library is almost his best friend!

johnswife

My youngest daughter is starting this year and is getting all the grants etc. She worked out that after paying for her accommodation she would have about £60 a week for food etc.
She is doing a pharmacy degree and received a list from uni of the books that are required. 4 books about £200 on eBay but she is going to wait until she gets there.
Then yesterday she received an email to say she has a scholarship for £1000 per year which she is extremely grateful for. She will have to get a lab coat and not sure what else.

She is intending to look for a job when she gets there so she should cope.