student living @ home - how much is fair to contribute?

savvy

jr666 wrote:

too be honest it probably did

LMAO nah more like the exasperating bf at the time that was moaning cos he was bored of me studying!!! :rolleyes:

jr666

haha point taken!

Dezzie_2

I think you are not helping them if you don't take same money from them. It's a hard old world out there. I suggest £25 a week tha's what mine paid towards their keep. It's not a fortune but gets people into good saving habits. I banked the money and gave it him back towards a deposit on a house when he left uni. Hope this helps. :T

savvy

jr666 wrote:

haha point taken!

Yeh will teach me to go out with a toyboy.......................oooooops sorry Godders!!!!

savvy

Dezzie wrote:

I think you are not helping them if you don't take same money from them. It's a hard old world out there. I suggest £25 a week tha's what mine paid towards their keep. It's not a fortune but gets people into good saving habits. I banked the money and gave it him back towards a deposit on a house when he left uni. Hope this helps. :T

That's a great idea especially if they don't know you are doing it. I would LOVE to do that, but know that there's no chance of being able to in my position

november

My daughter is 16 and has just started college. Admitedly she gets £40 from her father but she told me I could stop giving her any money as she knew we were struggling and she has a job working Saturdays and Sundays. I've offered to pay for her bus pass or otherwise she won't manage. She doesn't get an EMA as my partner and I earn just above the level for that. We are struggling basically as I went to uni as a single parent in order to get off benefits and bought a house etc so my kids could have a decent standard of living. I went from having nothing and having to buy even basics like bed so have debts from back then including students debts/loans etc. My daughter understands that and I think she is a wonderful young woman with a very sensible and empathic head on her shoulders.

She wants to go to uni but to do Social Work. I believe there are busaries for that (I hope). In any case she is expecting to work while studying. I don't know if I will take rent off her as it depends on how much she gets. I will expect her to pay her own way though for anything she needs as an individual. I suppose if I had to pay her fees I'd expect her to pay me rent. Or if she pays fees or whatever which leaves her with zero for books, travel and other essentials I'd forget the rent. She pays her own clothes etc now at 16 (both my kids had allowances - I buy one outfit plus school clothes they buy the rest). She did want to go away to uni but admits she probably won't be able to afford that and will probably end up living here.

We'll probably do what we did when she started college - work out how much she needs and how much she has coming in from job, loan (if she can get them) etc and go from there. If she has any spare I see it as only fair she contributes towards her living costs. She already knows the household budget so knows how much it costs to run this place plus she knows what we have coming in as a family and where it goes.

venace wrote:

I think charging your child to live with you while they are still in education is abit unfair, id be abit ticked off if i had to work in uni, and then work a job, and then not have enough money to enjoy myself cause my parents took it,

Well my 16 year old understands it.

I'm not saying parents should or should not take rent from their adult children once they leave school if they are in education but I do think that students should have an understanding that once 18 you are an adult and if your parents continue to help you out if they can then you are fortunate. It isn't a right.

rammy007

i have a 16year old who has just started college,and i recently contacted the tax credit office because our payments for her were slightly less than when she was at school although they had reassured me that cos she was at college they wouldnt alter,they told me that i now get slightly less because there is a young persons element which is slightly less than the child element and at 16 they are capable of some employment when at school or colleg.We are having major problems with her because as well as getting wages from a job(£45 per week) she keeps demanding money as well,we had agreed that she could keep whatever she earns but was to save a small amount of this but she keeps blowing it all as well as getting £20 ema and she thinks we are the ones being unreasonable,it doesnt help the fact that her friend who is 17 and never had a job gets big hand outs from her parents but they can afford it her mothers earning are all cash in hand so this is extra to the wages/taxcredits her dad brings home,its no wonder she doesnt want a satuday job and is doing her no favours.Also my friends daughter works for m&s shes 17 and from october everyone regardless of age and sex will be getting £5.70 per hour so the 16 hours of the daughter of the op will make £91.20
Also i wish me and my other half had £65 per week pocket money to ourselves!

FairyElephant_2

Quite agree that youngsters should be made aware of the value of money, and the cost of living, from as early an age as poss (this is one of my real bugbears!).

But....parents who are saying to student offspring NOT to take the full student loan so they don't start off in debt - need to read an article (can't find it now) by Martin some time back.......

The gist was this - DO take the loan, as much as is offered, and if you don't need it then whack it in a savings acct earning as much interest as poss (plenty of advice on here to help you find one). Apparently there are plenty which pay more interest than the loan is costing you.
Then whan you graduate you can pay back the loan, so you won't be in debt, but will have earned interest on the money in between!

Teach them good moneysaving tactics as soon as poss!

Savvy_Sue

FairyElephant wrote:

The gist was this - DO take the loan, as much as is offered, and if you don't need it then whack it in a savings acct earning as much interest as poss (plenty of advice on here to help you find one). Apparently there are plenty which pay more interest than the loan is costing you.
Then whan you graduate you can pay back the loan, so you won't be in debt, but will have earned interest on the money in between!

I only discovered a couple of days before eldest went off to Uni that he didn't realise he was being charged interest on his loan! :doh:

Mercifully his response was that he would therefore move the money he's earned over the last couple of years out of his current account (where in fairness it HAS been earning some interest, if not at the best rate, but now doesn't) and into a savings account.