Nice people thread part 6 - thrice by twice as nice :)

PasturesNew

GDB2222 wrote: »

I'm beginning to wonder whether it's a bit high. But he's expected to buy clothes and books out of that, plus his rail travel to/from uni.

It's a fortune.... it'll be £200 takeaways, £100 clothes, £300 beer and fags.

lostinrates

GDB2222 wrote: »

I'm beginning to wonder whether it's a bit high. But he's expected to buy clothes and books out of that, plus his rail travel to/from uni.

Seriously? You son fails to budget, he calls his mother and says I miss you but cannot come home and she won't pay??:D

One of my godmothers has a rule for her kids and grandkids that she always pays for them to visit her, whether its the train fare or cash for petrol. Becuase she can afford to, and wants them to visit. Its a nice, motherly rule i think.

Clothes...as i said, surely he has them...and books, that is obviously course dependant. Has he received a book list yet? I was lucky, i only had to buy four, about three hundred quids worth, everything else was in our library, orderable through our library, on disks of journals or the main campus library, which there was a bus too (about thrity miles) or in a university i then got a part time job at so got a staff pass to. Tbh, i would have worked there for nothing to have access to the library, which was vastly better than ours....you put in orders for journals and they appeared, no matter how obscure with in the subject or related subject, and they appeared withing half an hour.

GDB2222

LydiaJ wrote: »

So I was too hasty in disagreeing with your comment that it is freely available from the atmosphere - sorry. I hadn't appreciated that your "cost of condensing it out" comment included considerations of how low the concentration is and therefore how pathetic the returns would be. TBH I probably misread it as "cost of condensing it" (ie cost of liquefying it, which is comparatively trivial) rather than "cost of condensing it out" (ie cost of extracting the 5ppm from the rest of what makes up the atmosphere, which is huge). Oops - I should pay closer attention to what somebody has actually typed before disagreeing with it.

On the plus side, if manufacturers do eventually resort to condensing He out of air, there'll be loads of O2 and N2 as by-products. In any case, I thought that the idea is to get superconducting magnets that work at liquid nitrogen temperatures?

zagubov

GDB2222 wrote: »

I'm beginning to wonder whether it's a bit high. But he's expected to buy clothes and books out of that, plus his rail travel to/from uni.

There's only two train stations in Edinburgh and they're not far apart! Are you telling us he'll live near one and study near the other?

Is he planning to put the Arsenal season ticket on ebay to finance his lifestyle? Selling it to somebody who could actually use it? Like the choice of team. My grandpa played for them!:D

£600 per month sounds like tons even if it includes rent!

michaels

I got £2200 (full grant 88-91) and hall fees were about £350-400 per term which included cheap meals if you ate in the canteen which I didn't as I couldn't stand the food. The other 300 per term seemed plenty to live on though terms were only 8 weeks and my parents took/fetched me as it was only 2 hours from home. I worked a bit in summer hols but mostly spent that on travelling in same hols, even afforded a ski trip one year but...I didn't drink much (nor spend much time studying and thus didn't spend much on books).

silvercar

GDB2222 wrote: »

Students - how much is reasonable as a monthly allowance? DS is staying in halls but catering for himself. We'll pay his rent, but I'm not sure how much he needs for food, clothing, etc?

Also, he's going to Edinburgh, from London, and I don't fancy driving him there. (I'm a wuss when it comes to driving.) He wants to take loads of stuff with him, but this isn't very practical by train. Do any NP have a brilliant solution for getting him and his stuff there, not necessarily at the same time?

Edit: And we need insurance cover for his stuff + laptop.

I was going to PM you, then I thought that is being wussy.

After much serious consultation with other parents and assuming that he is only getting the non-means tested element of the loan (£3575 a year outside London for those living away from home) and also assuming he isn't getting any bursaries or grants from the uni or other sources, some of us are paying the hall fees and telling the darlings to budget the termly loan payments to last the term. So £1170 to last from mid Sept to mid Jan.

silvercar

zagubov wrote: »

Is he planning to put the Arsenal season ticket on ebay to finance his lifestyle? Selling it to somebody who could actually use it? Like the choice of team.

DS is thinking of buying a Man U season ticket. Apparently you can sell unwanted individual tickets through the official websites.

GDB2222

silvercar wrote: »

I was going to PM you, then I thought that is being wussy.

After much serious consultation with other parents and assuming that he is only getting the non-means tested element of the loan (£3575 a year outside London for those living away from home) and also assuming he isn't getting any bursaries or grants from the uni or other sources, some of us are paying the hall fees and telling the darlings to budget the termly loan payments to last the term. So £1170 to last from mid Sept to mid Jan.

Thanks so much. It does sound like I am being taken for a ride with the allowance, then. Do your hall fees include food?

lostinrates

GDB2222 wrote: »

Thanks so much. It does sound like I am being taken for a ride with the allowance, then. Do your hall fees include food?

Ultimately, what you decide is right for you might not be what the rest of us had or did might might still be right for you/your son. Don't let us tightwads bully you too much.

As a minor aside, dh and his brother paid their own way bar hall fees through uni, with some gifts from his parent along the way, but their sister was paid for. Sil is now thirty one and moving to a new country closer to home and her dad flew with her and though no one has said we strongly suspect is aiding her with her accomodation still. Horses for courses. He can afford to and wants to, and if she wants to be and her fiance is ok woth it, who are we to sit back and smle wryly. (of course we are, but thats a poor reflexion on us, not them)

GDB2222

zagubov wrote: »

There's only two train stations in Edinburgh and they're not far apart! Are you telling us he'll live near one and study near the other?

Is he planning to put the Arsenal season ticket on ebay to finance his lifestyle? Selling it to somebody who could actually use it? Like the choice of team. My grandpa played for them!:D

£600 per month sounds like tons even if it includes rent!

No, he'll be bicycling around Edinburgh. But, he has to pay for train tickets Lon/Edi. Mind you, if he books far enough in advance, the single ticket price is about £25 each way. The standard return is £128 (with railcard).