Uni Question

[Raspberry beret]

I think £60 a week split between food and other spends is about right. Maybe a bit extra for books. Like Donna, we used to drink at home then go straight out to a club. We'd quite often go to house parties too.

I used to work full time during the (long!) summer holidays and hardly spend anything then (my parents didn't charge me rent / food etc) and that would give me an extra £2K+ as a cushion for throughout the next year. I would also do a week or two at Christmas and Easter if poss. This was when it was really easy to get a temping job though, I'm not sure how easy it is now but might be worth her registering with temping agencies in the Easter/Summer hols.

Sorry, just remembered she is in catered halls so no food to buy (except snacks) and no houses to party in! I reckon £40 a week spends should be plenty.

[Mrs Moss]

I think you're very generous. I must be a tight wad because mine are expected to self-fund all the way through uni. I've made this very clear to DS1 who is applying next year. It's what I did and always had at least 2 jobs on the go, sometimes 3 - I was in central London and it was expensive. I think as adults they can stand on their own and it's the ideal time to learn about living on a very tight budget. In your situation I'd be tempted to let her get into a little debt and see what ideas she has to resolve it. She could cut back, get a job to bridge the gap, or accept that most people graduate with a degree of debt (or a degree and debt!).

[Katiekipper]

I think she has more than enough TM! Adults with bills to pay get £60.40 JSA. She has no bills, no phone credit to buy, and doesn't need to buy any food except snacks and coffee. Ross won't be getting anywhere near that as we just don't have that amount of money spare each month.

[LorettaCastorini]

Hello!!

Have been reading this thread with interest - uni is quite a way away for us, but god knows how much the fees alone will be by then! Luckily, they will have to be paid for via salaries when they're earning enough, so I'm not worrying about that part of it.

As for the maintenance part of it - if your DD doesn't have to buy meals then I think you are being more than generous. I think it's important for her to realise that even if she's not frittering it away, then she must know that every coffee/can of coke/£4 skirt from the Chazza shop all mounts up. A budget is a budget - and if she knows you will sub her if she goes over her limit, then it's not actually a budget. Good habits now will make for less credit-card debt and overdrafts when she is completely independent. Don't get your hopes up regarding the second year lol - they have found their feet by then, and the rents aren't cheap!

I had a grant - once my rent was paid, I divvied up the rest into weekly amounts to cover my food/books/clothes/fun etc. It didn't cover everything so I did 2 shifts a week in a pub. If I needed anything else, I did more shifts.

As me old dad says to me - it you've only got £20, then don't spend £30!

[redhed]

I think (getting my pompous philosophising hat out. Again. ) that this is one of the big downsides of the whole "student loan" thing. I got a grant, and when it was gone it was gone. I pinched pennies everywhere (I think I lived on onions and lentils for a week once; not nice for my house mates but damn those things are cheap! ) and I only borrowed a tiny amount in the last few months, which I paid back before I'd been working 6 months. But if you're already borrowing thousands each term and stacking up more and more just by being there, I'm sure it's very easy to think that a few hundred more or less a term is neither here nor there. So I think kids at uni are generally spending more (in real terms) than we did, and the pressure to go where your friends go and eat and drink where they do etc must be very strong.