How much to live on per week

~Chameleon~

rubytuesday wrote: »

I started off studying Contemporary European Studies which was Politics, Economics, History and French but after my second year I had my daughter and was ill so wasn't able to go to France for a year which was part of that degree which was a four year degree; so I eventually went back to another University for my final year and ended up with a BA Hons in Modern European History and Politics.

I'm very proud of myself as I was in court engaged in a custody battle for my daughter during my finals but still managed to come away with a 2:1.

My daughter has definitely inherited my love of learning but my son has dyspraxia and school was an anathema for him but he has been a great success in chefing and now another field and he also has his own business which is doing very well.

So I am very proud of both of them too.

Well done you, that is a fantastic achievement

rubytuesday

Oh I am the opposite generally and have probably left myself out to dry!

But well done to you for overcoming what life has thrown at you and getting even more strings to your bow.

Just for the record so that everyone is reassured that my daughter doesn't live on Shepherds Pie and Chilli alone she has sent me a pic of a wonderful chicken curry she made tonight.

I've just spoken to her and she said she spent the evening stripping chicken thighs for the meat and the bones are in the freezer for stock at a later date.

I'm very impressed - she says she's a changed woman!

She did however spend £29 on a food shop and £25 on her weekend in Newcastle!:eek:

~Chameleon~

rubytuesday wrote: »

Oh I am the opposite generally and have probably left myself out to dry!

But well done to you for overcoming what life has thrown at you and getting even more strings to your bow.

Just for the record so that everyone is reassured that my daughter doesn't live on Shepherds Pie and Chilli alone she has sent me a pic of a wonderful chicken curry she made tonight.

I've just spoken to her and she said she spent the evening stripping chicken thighs for the meat and the bones are in the freezer for stock at a later date.

I'm very impressed - she says she's a changed woman!

She did however spend £29 on a food shop and £25 on her weekend in Newcastle!:eek:

She's having a great time only afforded by having such a wonderful mother to teach her how to cook/budget to make the most of her student life. You should be incredibly proud xxx

PaulW1965

littlereen wrote: »

I just finished a 3 year degree as a mature student and my budget was £50 per week....I survived, lived pretty well actually!

I didn't rigidly break the money down, I took the £50 out in cash every Friday, and once it was gone it was gone..... I bought two books at the start of my course and no more, the library had plenty and you can get lots on google books. All toiletries and make up etc was stocked up at Christmas and birthday as I have a love for expensive stuff. £50 was perfectly do-able, and my course was 37.5 hrs a week! Admittedly I did end up getting a job part time but all the money from that went towards running my car.

Errr none of that adds up? You weren't actually living on £50 a week - you are just describing how you spent £50 worth of cash every week!

PaulW1965

looby75 wrote: »

My daughter is at Newcastle, with her maintenance loan and grant she has about £70 per week after paying her rent on her halls.

The last few weeks she's spent approx £40 and put away the extra £30 to save towards her deposit that she'll need when she has to move out of halls at the end of her first year.

She's started batch cooking, she's lucky that she's very close to a great market where she can get fresh meat, fruit and veg and a large Asian supermarket where she can buy rice (and noodles ) cheaply.

She's also only 25 miles away so can get home easily to do her washing, because otherwise it's £3.50 for a wash and £2 to use the dryers, she prefers to spend the money to come home once every few weeks because she says the machines at her halls don't really wash very well and she gets fed when she comes home :rotfl:

So it is perfectly possible for a student to live on the amount the OP suggested.

So it is perfectly possible for a student to live on the amount the op suggested.....as long as the student can return home all the time....

Who knew?....

looby75

PaulW1965 wrote: »

So it is perfectly possible for a student to live on the amount the op suggested.....as long as the student can return home all the time....

Thanks for the input....

did you miss the part where I mentioned she was saving around £30 per week out of the £70 she has after paying for her halls. Even if she didn't come home it wouldn't cost her £30 per week to pay for the extra couple of meals and use of the washing machine. She also has to pay for train and bus ticket to get home, so is about equal to what she would pay for doing her laundry anyway (she would rather use ours because she says the ones at uni aren't very good) so she isn't really saving money on that by coming home.

Edit to add, she's been at uni for a month now and been home for one weekend (3pm sat until 3pm sun)......not sure how that makes it all the time.

PaulW1965

looby75 wrote: »

, she prefers to spend the money to come home once every few weeks

looby75 wrote: »

Edit to add, she's been at uni for a month now and been home for one weekend (3pm sat until 3pm sun)......not sure how that makes it all the time.

Make your mind up? Is she coming home every other weekend or not?

PaulW1965

looby75 wrote: »

did you miss the part where I mentioned she was saving around £30 per week out of the £70 she has after paying for her halls.

It's actually irrelevant;) We're only 4 weeks into the academic year so how could you or your daughter possibly know that she has a £40 to"save" every week? What she has is a surplus. Things like spending on clothers, shoes, hair cuts, travel passes, christmas presents, etc don't actually occur weekly - they occur in large chunks irregularly so it's only sensible to "save" something every week to "spend" later.

That's called B-U-D-G-E-T-I-N-G......

rubytuesday

PaulW1965 wrote: »

Make your mind up? Is she coming home every other weekend or not?

Every few weeks is not every other.

Few means three or more I believe.

thatlemming

Paha everyone on this thread is so much better with money than me and the majority of people in my halls! I've just taken to working in tesco for a few hours a week so I can carry on affording everything!