student living expenses

PURRING

My daughter is going to start at Scottish uni in Sept. She has a place in halls but it's not catered for so has to buy her own food etc.
We will help financially,but taking all loans etc into consideration what is a reasonable weekly / monthly allowance.
I was thinking around £70 a week but is that way too low ?
Any general advice would be appreciated. Thanks

PabloNeruda

Find out how much for a pint of snakebite and black at the Student Bar and work from there. :beer:

seaweasel

Which university is she going to? I seem to remember that's more than my mum gave me, although I was doing some freelance work at the time too. You could always start off with that and adjust it depending on what she finds her outgoings are (or if she gets any part-time work).

Haven't been in to my old union for a few months but probably about two quid, and anyway snakebite and black's called Diesel (never been fond of it though).

melancholly

£70 a week sounds generous to me! that should easily cover food for a week for one, with a little left over for some drinks - and if she find that she needs a lot more than that, she could try and get a part time job somewhere. i ran up a lot of my overdraft during term time, then temped solidly through all the holidays - that worked for me!!

MercilessKiller

Some how, even with parents support, and the loan, I still ran into overdraft.. but I hardly ever went out.. didn't spend much on drinks and stuff.. it was mostly petrol/car costs I suppose!

ka7e

My daughter will have about £65 per week to pay for all her food, transport and personal expenses in central London. Any paid work she can get will be for extras! Budgeting and appreciating the value of what little cash you have, is all part of the learning experience.

DrFluffy

£70 a week on top of her loan etc sounds more than geneorous! My gosh! I'm usually trying to survive on that A MONTH!!!!

smallvillex

£70 is definitely enough for a student to get by on. However do mention trying to find a part time job, even if its only for a couple hours a week. Working while i was at Uni definitely helped me.

Broke_Student

Does the Scottish system have a set recommended parental contribution? If so then giving her the parental contribution should be sufficient if she makes use of loans/grants/bursaries available to her.

jennifernil

For food and incidentals, £50 per week is more than enough. For food alone £5 per day should easily cover it, so she should have a bit over for "luxuries" !!!

Kaztheworrier

Do you have accessibility to the student support fund at student services. We hit a major rut with our rent and they 'gave' us £500 towards rent etc and you dont have to pay it back. Most colleges/uni's have this funding available. Its either student support fund or access to learning fune and you can apply on top of your normal funding. It will also help with books, travel food etc. Good luck:o