Our youngest is just going into his second year at Leeds uni and we are discussing finances. How much a week do you think he needs to live on a week after his rent and bills are paid. Needless to say we have widely differing views on this. Any in put much appreciated.

No advice but interested to hear -my oldest is just starting second year at Leeds uni!

I don't know (my youngest left uni 6 years ago :) ) - but we gave them the equivalent of the halls' rent and they had to find the rest of their money themselves (fees then were £1000 a year). They managed by taking out the loan and working in the holidays. I had no idea what they spent - they were over 18 and it was down to them :) :)

As two adults can comfortably live on £50 a week for food, drink & entertainment, a single person shouldn't have a problem with £25. :-)

> As two adults can comfortably live on £50 a week for food, drink & entertainment, a single person shouldn't have a problem with £25

Hehe - you try telling today's student that :) :) It's a very difficult time for them learning to budget what money they have. Do they keep to a strict budget and risk missing out on some of the student 'experiences' that most of their friends will be joining in with or do they spend a bit of money and have three years to remember. Trying to do the latter without spending too much can be difficult. My son is a natural scrooge, but still had a great time  - I doubt he lived on £25 a week tho' :) :) My daughter had a whale of a time, but didn't accumulate any debt apart from her student loan thankfully :) :)

If they want more they can look for a job. :-) Most 'full time' courses are actually only part time anyway.

> If they want more they can look for a job. :-) Most 'full time' courses are actually only part time anyway

We strongly discouraged our children from working during term-time. A decent university course needs all the time that they can give it (especially if they want a social life). They earned enough during the holidays to live on. We found that giving them a fixed amount at the start of each term and then NO MORE, made them learn to manage their finances quickly :) :)

IMO it's not a good idea to go away to university unless you will have a reasonable amount of money to live on. Being stuck in digs without the means to go out with your friends could lead to depression etc. If money is going to be really tight, then they are better off living at home with mum and dad (and a roof over their head and familiar surroundings) and either working (apprenticeship etc) or going to a local uni/college. Although many students managed fine when we were young with only a small amount of money, things have changed in recent years and managing on a VERY low income when away from home now (with much higher expectations of living standards and a social life) can be quite damaging both academically and mentally IMO :(

We strongly discouraged our children from working during term-time.

I would agree with that. One of my daughters is even cutting down on the number of dogshows she goes to at weekends as she needs all the spare time to study.

> One of my daughters is even cutting down on the number of dogshows she goes to at weekends as she needs all the spare time to study

Good for her :) She will have plenty of time for showing in the holidays and when she has finished her studies :)

>We strongly discouraged our children from working during term-time.

I would disagree; they're at university as an alternative to entering the workplace immediately on leaving school, so need to get into the fulltime working mindset asap. I know of 'full time' courses that only involve 10 hours of tuition a week; if the student studies independently for an extra 20 hours (and how many do?) there's still 10 hours before they get up to 'full time' working hours; plenty of time for a part time job as well as having plenty of time to socialise.

> I would disagree; they're at university as an alternative to entering the workplace

Exactly :) They are there to study and enjoy the whole uni experience - not to work. They will have another 45 + years to work :)

My daughter worked out that her three year course could have been done in two years as the 'week' was not exactly seven hours a day, more like two or three.
This was twelve years ago I think, but we paid her tuition fees, which were under seven hundred for two years, free for the last year for some reason which we never found out, but decided not to ask why! We gave her £1000 a year, plus £100 a month. She had a weekend job in a local bar and she more or less kept afloat. She learned an awful lot about budgeting and how to eat well on a limited budget. All very useful when she started work on a low income and living in London. She's now doing very well and we are immensely proud of her.

Why not look at the rates of benefits.

Income-based JSA https://www.gov.uk/jobseekers-allowance/what-youll-get

Status

Weekly amount

Single (under 25) £56.80
Single (25 or over) £71.70

Universal Credit monthly amounts. http://www.focusondisability.org.uk/universal-credit-benefit-rates-2013-2014.html

single claimant aged under 25 - £246.81.
single claimant aged 25 or over - £311.55.

People would be expected to pay all their bills out of this excluding Rent and Council Tax.

>She learned an awful lot about budgeting and how to eat well on a limited budget.

That's one of the vital lessons of university. :-)

Surely as adults they should be made to understand that you can't have it all. I had a paper round after school from the age of 13 and a Saturday job !. Why should university students not make an effort to earn too ?. Parents would be doing them a massive favour if they encouraged them to budget and appreciate money. So what if their friends perhaps have parents who can give them cash to play with, we aren't all able to do that - it's life.

>They are there to study and enjoy the whole uni experience - not to work.

LOL! Surely they're supposed to work hard at university??!

University shouldn't be seen as a jolly time before work - it should be seen as a way of making the next 45 years more profitable. A lesson in how you don't want to spend the rest of your life, if you like.

> LOL! Surely they're supposed to work hard at university

<sigh> You have misread what I said

> University shouldn't be seen as a jolly time before work - it should be seen as a way of making the next 45 years more profitable. A >lesson in how you don't want to spend the rest of your life, if you like.

Which is why I said that they shouldn't have a job at the same time as studying. The uni 'experience' isn't all about getting drunk .............. But , what do I know :)

I graduated from London recently and you cannot live on £25 a week, £35 yes and thats not including going out, however London is much more expensive than other cities.

I am op. He will have 108 pounds a week after we have paid his rent. We think it's plenty. He says it's nowhere near enough. The trouble is he says everyone else has loads more, which we know isn't true.

> He will have 108 pounds a week after we have paid his rent

Well that is double what he'd get as an unemployed young person.

Also many minimum wage jobs would not leave him with that after rent.

>He will have 108 pounds a week after we have paid his rent.

That's what I earn in an average week in my job! He's a very, very lucky boy to be so well off!

so out of that he has to pay food and 'household' stuff, clothes travel (to uni?) and entertainment? sounds like well more than enough to me!! unless that is including a load of tuition fees or something I think you've been more than generous. I suppose his perspective may depend on your financial circumstances and what standard of living he's gotten used to but still think it's plenty. Also if he is in a house share there will presumably be initial costs for kitchen stuff etc that you will probably have to fund for him.

I agree it is plenty. Tell him it's to help him learn to budget and that's it's for his own good, he will love that one!!!

Haha that's probably more than he'll end up earning after he leaves uni and gets a job !. Sorry, but what planet is he living on ?!. As for his saying it's what everybody else is getting well so what if it is - life isn't always fair !. I apologise if I sound rude but when I think what my 84 year old Mum has to get by to live on and she was sent out to work full time at 14. How I wish she had a weekly budget like that.

If he has £108 to spend per week on food etc. everyday costs.
That is plenty in my opinion! No way did I have that much per week when I went to uni.
He is obviously not living in real world yet :-)(as a youngster who has had everything paid for by parents?)
I think when he finishes Uni, reality will hit hard as I doubt he will have that amount left after he pays his rent and bills once in his first job!

My daughter is I her third year of a four year modern languages degree. Flo has worked throughout her A levels and Uni years.

This year as part of her degree course she has been abroad for a year and has been teaching both in both a school and also has done private tutoring in northern Spain and is now in Corsica working in a lovely hotel.

Her CV is going to be loaded with so much experience that I know when her CV is being reviewed amongst all the other grads she is up against that it will stand out.

Thanks for all your useful input. Yes we probably have let him get used to having it easy. Now he's going to have to learn to budget. I showed him the thread and he was a bit sheepish!! He's a lovely lad by the way. Just a normal healthy cheerful 19 year old and he has worked all summer but had spent most of the money on entertainment. Next year he ll be going to Germany for the year.

How much has he saved through working to fund that? ;-) Or (not meaning to be nasty) is he expecting to be spoonfed more pleasure?

> Or (not meaning to be nasty) is he expecting to be spoonfed more pleasure

LOL - each to their own how they bring up their children :) Despite us 'spoonfeeding' our children by subsidising them to a certain extent  through uni, they have both just bought their own homes (in quite expensive areas) by working hard and saving for their deposits - no help from mum and dad there :)

Our main words of 'advice' were not to have a credit card at uni and that we would not give them ANY more money other than what was agreed at the start of the year etc - including holidays etc :) :)

I think I used to average about £50 a week when I was at uni, which was 4 years ago. That is for someone who has always been tight-fisted with their money and drank very little. I did not work during term-time as lectures were 9-5 plus work to do at home, but I did during the summer holidays.

The main cost that hit hard was textbooks. In first year when your modules are more general the university library will have plenty of copies of core texts. Come second and third year when your modules become more specialised the library will not have sufficient copies, and because they're more specialised they can be up to £40 a time, even with buying them second hand. The first term was the hardest because I think it tends to be the longest, you have the most textbooks to buy, membership fees to any clubs/societies you join (constructive extracurricular activities very helpful on the CV), more socialising because it's the start of term, and then you get to the end of the term and it's time to buy Christmas presents. Summer term is the easiest to budget because you spend most of the time revising.

I possibly live off less than £50 a week now that I'm earning, which isn't out of necessity as I put plenty into savings but because I already own most of the things I need. Incidentally I live in Leeds myself and work at the university. If there's any one thing I think the students could cut back spending on it's probably fancy dress clothing!

I mentioned this thread to my son who, at 27, was more recently at Uni than me! He said that £50 a week would be ample for your son for 'playing with' - the students with lots of cash to flash were the ones targetted by the drug pushers.

> If there's any one thing I think the students could cut back spending on it's probably fancy dress clothing!

Do they buy, or hire, I wonder? Could that be an opportunity to set up a student-focussed fancy dress business?