London budget

LondonDiva

A friend of my cousin's daughter is coming to London from the States for a semester at Uni and has asked me questions about a budget.

It's been a while since I was a student, so not sure what advice to give when she emailed me to ask for a general idea of how much she should be budgeting to spend per week.

She's a pretty frugal person, and her housing is already paid for, so hermain expenses will be food (groceries and eating out), entertainment, and shopping.

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance:)

melancholly

I guess travel will be a big one.... that will depend on where she lives and where her lectures will be.

Food can be as much or as little as she wants, depending on if she cooks or if she eats out. Similar with entertainment.

Where will she be living? If it's halls, will she need to pay extra for internet? Will she have a kitchen? (and I guess, washing machine, but that won't be expensive, just well worth knowing in advance)

A complete ballpark shot in the dark from me would be £250 a month would be very nice and it would be do-able on a lot less.

Dunroamin

I have to say that's very tight - it's only what someone would get on JSA.

There's not much point spending a period in London if you haven't got enough money to benefit from it in terms of entertainment/culture etc. I'd think that £100 a week plus travel would be much more realistic.

LondonDiva

Dunroamin wrote: »

I have to say that's very tight - it's only what someone would get on JSA.

There's not much point spending a period in London if you haven't got enough money to benefit from it in terms of entertainment/culture etc. I'd think that £100 a week plus travel would be much more realistic.

Her accommodation is already factored in.

Dunroamin

LondonDiva wrote: »

Her accommodation is already factored in.

I know - otherwise it would have to be far more.

Are you talking about surviving or living? You could survive on M's suggestion but that didn't seem to me to be the point.

melancholly

I guess a lot of people who are working and have bills to pay would live to have as much as £250 a month to just spend on having fun.... Yes you can have more and go out 5 nights a week, but lots of things are free and LondonDiva said this is a frugal person... Visiting museums and famous places is mostly free. London doesn't have to be about throwing money around - it certainly isn't for most residents!

Dunroamin

melancholly wrote: »

I guess a lot of people who are working and have bills to pay would live to have as much as £250 a month to just spend on having fun.... Yes you can have more and go out 5 nights a week, but lots of things are free and LondonDiva said this is a frugal person... Visiting museums and famous places is mostly free. London doesn't have to be about throwing money around - it certainly isn't for most residents!

But she's got to buy her food out of it so it's not just for spending money. I don't know if she'll have utilities to pay out of it as well but it would be quite difficult to shop and eat really frugally if only staying for a few months because, by the time you find where the cheap places to buy food are, you'll be going back.

Museums and galleries are free but theatre and concerts aren't - tourist attractions most certainly aren't free! Most adults staying in a major city would want to experience these at least occasionally.

Someone of over 25 on JSA gets £308 per month to live on, which is over 25% more than your suggested budget. Whilst doable on your home turf, I wouldn't want to live on less than that in a strange area and particularly when I wanted to get the most out of the experience.

I agree that my £100 pw is quite generous but I'm afraid that your £57 per week is barely surviving.

Dunroamin

LD, I wonder whether you've read the recent survey and article on student spending?

"Accommodation: £4,159 a year (£12,478 over three years)
Food: £1,440 a year (£4,319)
Leisure and clothes: £1,707 a year (£5,122), though this figure seems low, especially for London-based students.
Utility bills: £616 a year (£1,233)
Household essentials, including toiletries: £376 a year (£1,129)
Books and equipment: £344 a year (£1,032)
Travel, including going back home: £483 a year (£1,450)
Insurance: £129 a year (£258)"

Although I have several question marks over these figures (for a start, they don't state how many weeks are being counted as a year), they do show that the average amount spent by students on food, leisure/clothes, household/toiletries and books comes to £77 pw (if taken as a 52 week year) for a student outside London.

Perhaps this might be useful information to pass to your friend?

JimmyJar

Student oyster card is about £816 I think.

barbarawright

One thing to consider is that most American students over here for a term are from very well-off backgrounds (the fees for a 2 week summer course can be up to £1000 without accomodation :eek). I have a fair amount of dealing with US students in the college in Regent Park and am amazed at how many hire cars for the semester. And then they're surprised that they can't park on Oxford Street :rotfl: So economising may not be what her friends are thinking about which could make it tricky when she's staying in on Saturday with a bowl of pasta.