Roughly how much do students spend a month

jimbob_3

Hi,

i know its an impossible question to answer, but my daughter, who lives with her mother, has just asked me to pay her £1,000 per term whilst she is at uni!!!!

Her mother lives with a partner, though they are not married, but they chose to live an 'alternative life style' so choose not to earn much and mostly live off the £400 pm csa money i give them each month for 2 children.

Obviously i would pay less csa when daughter goes to uni, but i was thinking of about £100 pm or even not paying anything and saving it in an account for when she finishes.

So i wondered what students actually spent (both including and excluding rent - know the NUS say £837 pmonth) and what amount parents tend to give.

Thanks

morg_monster

What will the £1000 cover? Does it include accomodation costs? Food costs? Or is it pure pocket money? What other sources of income does she have? I assume her mum won't be giving her much?

When I was at uni (started 1999) my parents gave me £70 a week (rose to £80 by the time i finished 2003). This was on top of my student loan. I worked to earn money during summer hols but not xmas or easter. altogether this money was used to pay everything except tuition fees (my dad paid those but then in my day it was about £1000 a year, not the new system). I lived in decent halls/average rented accomodation, went out to clubs/pubs etc 2 or 3 times a week though drinks were cheap, had enough money to buy myself clothes and other cheap tat etc, was able to save up for a summer holiday each year (my course didn't require much in the way of textbooks, no field trips or equipment etc). I'm grateful to my parents for being generous and I had a brilliant uni experience, but though i sometimes felt strapped for cash at times, now I look back I feel I had much more disposable income back then than I do now in my job, living in london on 23k a year!!! I was lucky in that my parents did not want me to work during the terms and so increased my allowance so i didn't have to.

There are a lot of things to be taken into consideration. If she has no other income apart from the loan and the £1000 doesn't include accomodation, then £1000 a term doesn't actually sound huge, especially if she doesn't want any more cash over the summer hols. She'll be able to afford to eat, keep up appearances, and have fun. If you want her to work during the term and support herself a bit more then you could drop it down. It is a good idea to lay down what you both expect from each other before she starts, ie if you expect that you will not support her over the summer, or if she would like you to split the payment monthly or even weekly (can help with budgeting).

cupid_s

My parents gave me £2000 a year and my nan gave me the same. Luckily I didn't pay fees as both my parents were retired. I worked all summer and saved almost everything I earned from then. In the first year and first half of second year I worked a few hours a week but my course would have suffered if I'd kept this up any longer.

My parents and nan gave me this money on the condition I wouldn't take the loan out (or would tie it up in an account I couldn't access). If they thought I was wasting money they'd have given me nothing and saved it for when I finished as you mentioned.

All in all I probably spent around £6500 a year - it wasn't that long ago so I don't imagine prices have changed that much. A lot depends on the city she is going to uni in. For example average rent where I am is say £55 per week. However I imagine this would be doubled in london.

I would add though that apart from myself and my husband (his parents paid his rent of about £2200 a year) I knew no-one who had any substantial help of their parents.

If you do help your daughter out whilst she is at uni she'd be one of the lucky ones.

jrrowleyws

Last semester I lived off £1800, thats only my loan. It included accomodation and food and £100 of books.

Its easy to live cheaply but then again, my accom is only £2100 a year!

jimbob_3

Thanks for those so far..

yep she works at the moment + gets the £30 p week for staying on at school,

but she says that spends about £100 per week at the moment!! This is somebody who lives at home etc

I am concerned that if i give her too much she will waste it, and that only by having small amounts of money she will learn to budget -

she already has an overdraft and gone over it

Any current students who could supply an idea of their spending monthly?

Thanks

rjh090384

i got £540 a month from my nursing bursary. i couldnt get a job because of placeent hours etc. my rent was £65 a week. i never asked my parents for money except she topped my phone up if i hadnt text her in a couple of days but i didnt ask her too my shoping was about £10 a week maximum. most of hte res was on books etc

jimb0d

1st year my loan covered my accmodation and fees of about £4000, and i spent about £900 a term on everything else (overdraft funded it though). Works out about £75 a week, but sounds to me like you have a daughter who likes to spend!

In all honesty, after her food (£20 a week max), she wont have a great deal to spend her money on apart from going out, and she could get 2 or 3 nights out of £55 easy. Job should pay for any clothes or anything she wants.

However, I do know that some courses need hundreds of pounds for stuff like art materials and excursions.

amyandoli

i didnt take any money from my parents whilst at uni, i used the student loan and worked part time term-time, full time in the holidays, and didnt feel like i was struggling or doing without at any point. my parents offered, but i wouldnt let them, im stubborn!

starbuck_

A typical months spending for me at Uni would be;

Rent: 250
Bills: 50-80
Going out: 150-200
Food:100-120
Gym:30
Other: 25

A term is 3 months, so mulitpy all by 3 (taking highest values) = 1845

But, Im a male so I think you could probably minus upto 20% of this value to get a rough idea what your daughter will be spending - unless she likes shopping!

Will she be getting her student loan on top of the money she is asking you for? How are her fees going to be paid?

Hope this helps :cool:

jennifernil

We give our daughter £250 per month for the 8 months of the uni year, we also pay for her books as required and pay her car insurance, servicing and tax disc. She has a part time job 12 hours per week which gets her another £65 or so per week. She works full time in the summer break.She shares a flat ,which we own , with another student. She has no student loan.

Out of this she spends about £25 pm on gas/elec, £8 on telephone, £10 on broadband, £120 on food, £6 on TV licence, £20 on petrol/travel,and goodness knows what on clothes and socialising, etc, etc. All together she uses about £275 pm she tells me. The rest she saves. We are in Scotland so she does not pay fees at present.

Leaving aside the car, we give her about £2200 per annum.

What your daughter will need will depend on where she is studying and whether she will live at home and travel, or need to rent somewhere. Up here a share in a good 2 person flat is about £275-£300 pcm. And this has to be paid for 12 months in the year.

jennifernil

Sorry, posted twice!

Just to add..............it sounds like your daughter does need to learn how to budget. You will do her no favours by giving her large amounts so fritter away. The overdraft already is very worrying, what does she spend it all on?