Student bank accounts and managing their Maintenance Loan

Spendless

For goodness sake. I'm used to the judgemental posts on other parts of this forum, I've been here enough years but naively I thought this board would be more factual for the question asked (and many of the replies were - thank you).

Just about no one gets paid 3 times a year (except students!) and son managed his budgeting just fine (he did a foundation year first so this is his 3rd year at Uni not his 2nd) until he got stuck at his accommodation in the first lockdown - why because he refused to leave one of his housemates alone (all others had already returned to their parents houses) who had decided not to return. Days later that housemate's parent was diagnosed with Cancer and started undergoing treatment and housemate has not been to her parents house since Dec 19 under the doctors orders of keeping away due to risking infection and  the requirement to isolate before and during any visit. So son's budget has been stretching far further, as he's refused to leave housemate and hasn't been home with me as much to raid my fridge instead. Plus the grocery prices went up and the 'deals' he was once buying ceased and getting the cheaper items before anyone else did became harder.  With 3 lockdowns and a tier system in the past 14 months it's unlikely it's all been blown on clubbing! Son  did find work to help out (as per my initial post) but this has been very hit and miss again due to a pandemic. Subsequently he's been trying to play 'catch up'  with his finances ever since

I've been given some ideas that will help him going forward. Thanks. 

Spendless

KxMx said:

I think your son has done well to ask for help when he is struggling, but please don't manage his money for him by having it go into your account, he will learn nothing.

The suggestion of a second bank account puts the solution and responsibility in his hands, which is the best way for him to learn and gain confidence in himself. 

I'll put the 2nd bank account  as a suggestion to him, now I'm aware he can have an additional one. 

jennystarpepper

I'd be very proud if this was my son, not many ask for advice. 
I think a second bank account would help as others have said.  Have you had a look on the save the student website, you may get some more ideas?

 The only way I could think of to save money is to have take away style food in the freezer that will cook quickly, (I'm not suggesting he spends all his money this way) I buy the cheap cheese and tomato pizza and put extra cheese / meat / veg on them and then freeze, I also buy M&S curries, they usually are on offer... 3 for X£, which is still much cheaper than takeout.  Even from frozen they can still be quicker than waiting for delivery.

He and his housemate could also downloan the receipt apps, it might buy them the odd pint!

[Deleted User]

Keep his student account as an income / key bills account and open second for spending with a weekly/monthly standing order plus extras like part time work 

jay1804

I would suggest for him to get a Monzo or sterling account they have budgeting features, that will allow him to have a clear breakdown of his spending. 

callum9999

jbrassy said:

Spendless said:

Shakin_Steve said:

All sounds a bit convoluted. Simply get him to transfer his maintenance loan to your account and you set up a standing order to pay him monthly. But the best way forward for him is to learn how to budget properly, he will need this skill throughout his life.

That might be a way forward to have the money moved to us first. I think I'd struggle if our household salary was only paid in 3 times a year tbh. I can't think of any jobs that are paid that way. Plenty of people have month left at the end of their money, even when paid 12 times a year.

Sorry to be brutal, but maybe he just needs to learn to budget better. I was in the same situation as your son at uni. Got the minimum maintenance loan (paid 3 times a year) and my parents paid my rent. I always ended the year in my overdraft, then got a summer job to pay it all off and earn a bit more on top. 

To be honest, I wouldn't worry too much about it. He should teach himself how to budget as most other people have to. I personally came out of uni with a £1000 overdraft, a £5000 career development loan for my masters degree, as well as the £20,000+ student loan from the Government. I don't regret it at all as my student days were probably some of the best I've had in my life and I've paid most of that off (only £3k left of my student loan which I could pay off today if I wanted to). If uni helps your son get a well-paid job, the debt will take care of itself.  

I personally think it's pretty horrible to tell someone struggling financially and asking for help (help being the important word - not handout) to just "get better on yourself".

Yes, in an ideal world, everyone would be able to teach themselves everything, but that is obviously not how it works in reality.