My daughter facebook status

jeanmd

It's just coming up to the end of my daughters first year at a London uni and this is her facebook status this morning.

Loving how healthy my bank accounts look - rent up until the start of October is in the joint account, £800 paid off my credit card, and still not in my overdraft. Thank youuu student loan + healthy wage ♥

Thank you Martin Lewis and everyone on Money Saving Expert.

This is how we got to the status:

1. At 16 she was given an allowance out of which she had to pay for everything herself. She was working part time so that helped, but when it was time for her first haircut she asked to borrow the money as she hadn't put anything away for it. The answer was no - this is how you budget. She learnt very quick and was running her own car before going off to uni.

2. We did a very in depth SOA. With me sitting down and explaining every possible bill, how it's paid etc. this very quickly showed them they needed to work part time to have a reasonable standard of living. I also explained that by putting their rent and bills away as soon as their loan came through meant they wouldn't be stressing over them.

3.. We trawled through rightmove looking for a nice flat for her and her boyfriend who was already at Kingston uni. We did this after looking at specific student 'flats' - read boxes with a bed. They ended up with a beautiful, well kept, large flat with a fantastic landlord. This is for £875 in Wimbledon and boy did we look at some dives for that money, a few of which they were considering. It's so good that they are keeping their part time jobs to keep the flat on over the summer.

I must admit that I wasn't sure about them moving in together even though she was almost 19 and I did try talk her into using the halls, but it has worked out well.

For anyone who's in their second year and have to find somewhere to live - please don't just look at student accommodation - her landlord was alright about them having it Sept to May, but also is very happy that they are staying on. Yes, they had to have parents as guarantor's, but so did the student accommodation.

I'm so proud of her, she's had a fantastic time at uni this year, a great social life and is so happy I feel blessed. We really wouldn't have been in this position if I hadn't trolled through the MSE forums. So a massive thank you from me and my daughter. :A

Person_one

£875 a month in rent? Paid for out of loans and part time job?

That must be an incredibly well paying job, their rent is more than my monthly (full time) wage after tax!

Dunroamin

Well done,but even better if she'd done it all herself!

SuperHan

She must have a well paying part time job!

I share my apartment with my other half. Rent is £695 a month, plus bills. He pays half of everything, I pay half of bills and my parents help with half of rent. I work part time and earn around £500 a month, and I just have enough money to pay for food, car, insurance, phone etc, so that when student loan comes in I get back to zero. I currently have £50 in my current account, and I think my money is well managed!! I only get minimum loan though, and as I study outside of London I don't get (and don't need!) the premiums for living there... I would struggle to get by without help from Mum and Dad though!!

I've never been sat down in the same way and done a budget etc though. I just like to think I'm good with money!

MunchyMunch

That is good work paying that rent whilst studying but knowing mine and my friends uni experience we only had about 5 hours of lectures a week so some of my friends (not me) still worked a good 20-25 hours a week outside of studying, especially in the first year when you just have to pass and your actual result doesn't matter. It also helps that you don't pay council tax if you're a student which saves a good £1k a year.

jeanmd

Person_one wrote: »

£875 a month in rent? Paid for out of loans and part time job?

That must be an incredibly well paying job, their rent is more than my monthly (full time) wage after tax!

There is two of them, he's in the Ta's and a waiter and she works too much. but they get by well and if you've looked at the price of student places this is as cheap. In fact it worked out cheaper then her being in Halls.

car

She doesn't run a car anymore SuperHan, that went to pay for her deposit.

jeanmd

Just to clarify the rent:

In halls - 5) The fees for 2011/12 are £6500.00, payable in three installments on the following dates:
1st payment due 19th October 2011- £2600, 2nd payment due 16th January 2012 - £2600, 3rd
payment due 8th May 2012; £1300.00.

So £6,500 x two = £13,000 per year
Rent £875 x 12 = £10,000 per year

Halls only available 23rd Sept to 7th June, plus have to go home during the Christmas holidays. Working it out as a full nine months in halls (it's less) means halls is £1,444 per month.

Own place year round, can have family and friends down anytime and live in a lovely area. Not sharing a bathroom or kitchen is a massive bonus.

I've just looked at student letting again, and for a 1 bed flat on Tottenham court Rd it's £375 per week = £1,625 per month. This isn't a patch on the flat she has, so I still believe she has done well and as I said in post one, please don't just look at student lets.

Note: I'm working out on two people not a single person! Halls would have been £722 per month work out over the nine months per person.

rev_henry

I've done similarly well since coming to uni. In first year I lived with my now fiancee, although my parents put a lot of pressure on me to go into halls. Having seen round mates halls flats I'm very glad I didn't, they're expensive and many haven't changed since my father was here 30 years ago. We had a fairly decent chunk of money left over at the end of first year, this second year we're not living together for reasons I won't go into here, and this shared house is a little on the expensive side but I'm still not exactly hard up.
Next year I'm moving about 10 mins down the road, just SLIGHTLY off the main student beaten track, and I'll be saving £1100 a year in rent. :eek: So that's quite a good tip for people.

Oh and I have a car as well (kept back at home). When it gets to the end of term I really don't understand everyone moaning about having no money, no, actually, I can. They live in overpriced accomodation because they can't be bothered to look properly/won't consider living more than 30 seconds from the bus stop, don't bother to switch utility companies and, frankly, buy overpriced crap in supermarkets instead of learning to shop around properly! I love my housemates but, honestly, what advantage does Sainsburys Own tinned tomatoes give you over basics?
:beer: POWER TO THE MSE STUDENTS :beer:

Moomum

You should be very proud Jeanmd, you have obviously prepared her well for life in the real world. Not only will she finish uni money wise and educated, she will be trained in running her own household, not many students can say that!

jeanmd

Well done rev_henry, you sound very much like my daughter.

My daughter has a forty minute travel to uni which is a lot less time then it use to take her to get to college and as you can see from the figures I posted above she's saved a fortune by living away from the student area. This means they can afford to keep the place on rather then having to move all their belongings twice a year.

SmallL

Totally agree with student accomadation.
Never been in it as im sharing a house with my OH who also goes to the same university. Its ridiculously cheaper and i just heard a friend is going to pay a fiver EXTRA next year to move out of uni accomodation and into an apartment.
If i was moving from halls i would expect a significant discount and wouldn't get pulled into labelled 'student accomodation'.
Me and my OH live very comfortably and although it takes a tram ride to uni its well worth it, we do have a car and it only gets used to visit parents and do a big grocery shop!