How much board should I be paying?

celler

Firstly as others have said you probably could not live cheaper elsewhere.
Hopefully your using the loans wisely either stashing them for better interest than your paying or will pay later.Or at the very least using them to better your future opportunities.
Working whilst doing full-time education though good for giving you the cash costs you study time that in some ways could negate the whole degree thing altogether.
Without getting too personal you say you live were your ma and her fella, perhaps your ma is being pressured to up your input by her partner.

Everyone is different in there approach and really only you can decide how to deal with the circumstances you see before you.
Personally in my mind a young adult needs more disposable income than someone older. The friends you make now, the social skills you develop and the network of contacts you can build around you may become priceless later.
To remove your ability to maintain a healthy social life could perhaps prove costly.That said wouldn't let you squander it on jack D and smokes though.

Person_one

thorsoak wrote: »

Parents cannot claim child benefit/child tax credits etc once a child goes to university as the child is then deemed to be self-funding.

If they were truly expected to be 'self funding' then the amount of loan and grant they get wouldn't be dependent on their parents' income.

Shelldean

Interesting my DD is in similar boat to OP.
Third yr student, she gets full grant and full loan due to our finances, plus her tuition loan.
DD doesn't live at home so get maybe a bit more than OP as you get more if you live away from home. You also are awarded more if you are studying in London, as my DD is.
DD pays £35 a week for her keep, this covers ALL food, electric, heating, BB and toiletries. DD doesn't drive but does have to pay her own fares, DD also pays for her own mobile contract.
DD does have a part time job which is luckily flexible so when she has placement she can if need be reduce her hours down, she cant even request no shifts if she needs to.
In a normal week she does appox 12/14 hours. For this she gets about £150 every 2 weeks.
She is managing to save a good chunk of her loan, due to her low housing costs.
But the difference between my DD and OP is that in DD's rent everything is included, OP pays for their own food, toiletries and others things that are included in DD's money.


BTW students are exempt from council tax, while I was getting CT benefit, DD showed on my claim as a non dependant but with zero deductions for being a non dependant. DD gets a letter from Uni every Sept for me to show the council.

[Deleted User]

duchy wrote: »

Jade.... Correct me if I'm wrong but what you're actually doing is instead of using your loan/grant to live on -you are saving it all towards the future and living on your earnings each month ?

Yes that's correct

twigpig

I don't know if £600 is your total income or what you get on top of that but I think you should be paying a quarter of the total that you have. £150 is fine on £600. If you have more incomings, then £170 is perfectly reasonable. I expect your Mum has asked for more either because she really needs the extra cash or she sees you blowing your cash on "unecessary stuff" whilst your Mum accepts less than she should from you.

Edited to add that if your board is a quarter then I think your mum should cover everything within that but you need to take the quarter as a quarter of everything that you earn , not deducting what you're trying to save first.

You might find that with all the extras that you're already paying for, it might be about a quarter of everything anyway. It's also worth adding up in reality what you're contributing to on top of board so your mum can really see these costs too when you sit down to have a conversation about it.

Maybe your mum sees you saving all this cash and feels that she should charges a bit more and those figures on the whole of it look reasonable.

paulineb_2

candygirl wrote: »

Good luck with that then!!;)Hope he can survive in the REAL world:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

My mum didnt charge me board, neither did she charge my brother. He went away to uni and then was out of work for a long time and by the time he did have a full time job he wasnt living at home. She was also of the view that as soon as kids get a job why should they automatically be charged rent. I wouldnt have been able to pay her rent when I was at university anyway. I didnt have a part time job and it wasnt for the want of trying, but at that point, bearing in mind I was at uni 25 years ago and it was grants then and not loans, I had very little to live on after I paid for books and travel.

To say that someone wont survive in the real world just because their parents dont charge them board is ridiculous. I actually moved out of home not long after I got my first full time job and I did make sure that I gave my mum something, I gave her about £100 off my first wage but she wouldnt have expected it.

I appreciate everything my mum did for me and I still do, so does my brother, when I have spare cash I'll take her for a meal, shes going for a haircut today and I've paid for it and my brother also takes her out for meals.

Every family is different, just because some parents charge kids rent the minute they get a part time job, others dont. And yes, for some people putting money aside and giving it to parents will help with budgeting skills, but some parents dont need it.

And saying that people need to live in the real world, well many parents are happy with a token contribution and of course people wouldnt get a flat of their own for £30 a week. If the family is struggling and needs more cash then thats the way it should be said.

But if someone doesnt have much to spare to give the extra, what are you supposed to do? Because I assume when the OP was younger, she wasnt paying rent and the mum and stepdad managed financially.

However, Im not sure that saving your student loan for the future is the best idea either. Why take out a loan when you can live on your earnings? Because its not savings really, its money that will need to be paid back at some point (I do know that lots of people dont make payments to their loans as they dont earn enough to have it automatically deducted from salary)

Theres plenty of time to save when you leave uni and get a full time job. Also, if its your dad who suggested this, perhaps thats part of the reason as to why your mum doesnt seem happy with it all. You live with your mum but your dad is suggesting how you manage your finances.

If I were your mum I might not be too happy with that either to be honest.

paulineb_2

amberstar wrote: »

Thanks again to everyone for your replies.

I think from all the replies I guess I need to sit down properly with my Mum and work out from her how much she needs to cover my costs. I always thought £130 was reasonable when I was covering my all other costs such as food, toiletries, laundry products and the fact I'm rarely in the house due to working so much and studying (whenever I'm not at studying I work). Any ways, we have never sat down and done this which is why I don't understand how much I need to pay to cover myself (hence my post on this forum). I intend to do this tomorrow with her that way I can see and I'm willing to do this.

With regards to my loan, my dad is really pushing me to save this as well as he doesn't want me to live at home much longer. I'm not going to delve into the personal reasons behind this.

Sorry, but I think you need to make decisions for yourself about whether you want to stay at home longer or not.

And your dad shouldnt be pushing you into anything. If there are reasons why its not positive for you to live at home, why cant he offer you space where he is?

You are a young adult and capable of making your own decisions, but if you leave home because your dad wants it, you might bitterly regret it later.

And I dont know the reasons why your dad wants you to leave, but he shouldnt be pushing you into leaving home, thats really unfair, its putting pressure on you.

poet123

Whether paying board is financially beneficial ( to the "child") is an individual thing also I think.

With our sons we took it and banked it for them (without their knowledge) to give them the illusion of less disposable income in preparation for when they were solely responsible for bills etc. That was the idea....in practice, the one who spends to his last penny still does that, and the ones who all through Uni had a budget, never went into overdraft and only spent what they had still do that. So I am not sure it served the purpose we wanted it to serve, but it did give a nice sum saved without them being aware of it.

Gigglepig

OP rather than think of how much extra you need to pay, add up how muchit would cost you to run a separate household. That way, you can focus on ow much you in fact save each month (and decide if t is worth it).

[Deleted User]

Gigglepig wrote: »

OP rather than think of how much extra you need to pay, add up how muchit would cost you to run a separate household. That way, you can focus on ow much you in fact save each month (and decide if t is worth it).

Sorry correct me if I'm wrong but I don't see the relevance in suggesting this? I moved out in first year and I'm fully aware of how much it costs to run a separate household, this isn't the situation I'm in currently.