living costs at uni

[Dan-Mei]

Can anyone give me a steer for what a child might need in food and drink etc in self catering halls living away from home at university?

[Ann]

When my daughter was at University I gave her ?400 a month to cover all her living costs including travel and clothing and I believe other families had similar arrangements.

She also picked up casual work at weekends and during the holidays.

Student loan still huge with course fees alone!

Hope your child enjoys the experience and good luck with the next stage in their life.

[IlonaM]

Rather depends where she will be studying, but Which recently published this helpful article: https://university.which.co.uk/advice/student-finance/whats-the-average-cost-of-living-at-university

Which also has a budget tool.

A lot of universities give guidance on their websites about local living cost estimates. for example see these search results - https://www.google.com/search?q=student+living+costs+in+hall&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab

[Passiflora]

Also depends on what parents earn (parents have to submit past and present earnings etc to Student Finance England)so that will reflect on a student's Maintenance Loan which is the money they will have paid directly into their bank account by Student Finance to live on i.e. rent, food, drink (odd bottle of vodka)!, toiletries, going out, clothes, etc. My daughter graduated last year (July 2017) and managed to keep her food/drink bills to around ?20 per week by shopping at Aldi and Lidl but that had to be topped up regularly by parents!

I have other children who graduated in 2014 but that was when the ?3,000 odd Student Loan was in operation.

[womanofdulwich]

I thought parents paid the rents and maybe utilities and the students eeked out their loans for everything else.

[Ann]

Yes womanofdulwich, that?s what most of us thought!

My daughter went to university in 2012 which was the first year the tuition fees escalated to ?3000 a term.

We were fully prepared to support her with cost of living as stated above and she went to Cardiff where living costs are reasonable.

We didn?t take out the old fashioned?student loan? because we didn?t want her to graduate with debt but can appreciate a lot of parents can?t.

Her student debt is still in excess of ?35,000 and growing at 6% a year. If we were unable to support her financially it would be nearer ?50,000!

She?s back in London and enjoying her life and working but gosh, who wants that amount of debt?

[Passiflora]

My youngest is in her second year at university and has just received her statement about how much she will receive in maintenance loan for the next academic year. This is from Student Finance. Her maintenance loan just about covers her rent and bills she will be paying in a house share for her and student friends.

Her Tuition Fee Loan of ?9,250 is of course paid directly to the university for her course.

[womanofdulwich]

But they're all in the same boat. Mine have the loans and debts.

[Pugwash]

I have offered ?100 pm towards my granddaughter's costs - her rent is ?140 per week in halls and she is awaiting details from Leeds as to how much maintenance grant she will get from Leeds uni.

We contributed around ?1000 a year when her mother and aunt went to uni . My 32 year old despite having a part time job and 2 children is till paying off her student loan. Her older sister eventually replayed her loan after 20 years.

[seenbeen]

Jules-and-Boo Wrote:

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> I don't think you can buy an apartment in UK with

> a loan from a broker - you need a deposit and

> mortgage.

> Uni fees in Europe are much less than UK as well

that is not a genuine post- it is phishing- as is the one after yours.....