What do experienced University parents feel is a reasonable weekly/monthly budget?

This is for a student in catered rooms walking distance from lectures and tutorials.

Thank you for any guidance. DG

This depends on various factors - cost of living, do they do extra curricular activities that require funds ( games kit, trips to other universities etc), study costs ( books, trips etc), cost of travel home etc

Mostly we just paid for accommodation and DCs covered everything else from student loan but that was self catering. For DC who was mostly catered but doing expensive sport we took a different approach.

We worked out a weekly budget together before they went off ( and reviewed it at our mid term visit, then again at Christmas) which covered lunches and incidentals. There wasnt much time for social life!

For sports kit and training camps etc we bought that on top as it was unpredictable.
The same with text books - not many were required.

It made them less independent than our other DCs but it worked for us. The sport was a special opportunity which we didnt want them to miss out on due to lack of funds and terms were short and intense so it was more of a pocket money situation.

If you have a DC who likes to socialise then I can see that being more problematic to agree. If its feasible then I think I'd expect them to earn money in the vacation to fund it! Equally you dont want them so short of cash they cant participate to make friends.

Generally, I think I would encourage them to come up with a budget then go through it together to check its realistic and be prepared to adjust later if they make a good case for it.

I dont think there's anything wrong with the budget reflecting family circumstances. Personally we wanted the DCs to learn to budget and generally they weren't extravagant but they knew if they messed up we could and would bail them out rather than give them an excess in the first place but there were still friends managing on less whose families couldn't 'sub' them. ( In a few cases I suspect DCs were subtly helping them out and different families will no doubt have their own views on this).

Hopefully some more recent parents of students will be along with more specific help!

I have never really got involved in this tbh. DD gets the basic maintenance loan and we pay her rent and that is it. The same plan is about to go into place for DS1. DD always seems to have plenty of money and reckons the only reason students run out is because they drink so much (she is a non drinker). She runs a car as well and we do pay the insurance on that as we have a multi car policy, but she pays for her own fuel (she doesn't drive to lectures, only to shops and when she goes out into the countryside or to the coast with friends). She does a sport which is not expensive and is in a society which is, but we do not pay for either. In the scenario you describe I would not be offering any more money to be honest.

We left DD to budget for herself and will do the same with DS1 - they are both pretty mature and have also both had jobs so know what money is worth. We have said we will be there to catch them once, but so far it hasn't been needed. I suppose if one had a very young and inexperienced person going straight from school who was used to having everything laid on you might have to take a different approach, but I don't get the impression that is what your DD is like DG.

Generally I agree Amber.
For this DC it was a particular opportunity that was expensive but was a great opportunity not only in terms of the sport but for wider personal development.
Done things are priceless

Yesterday’s Moneybox live on radio 4 was about budgeting for university. From memory they said something along the lines of - the maintenance grant would equate to around £660 a month but the average spend is about £770. They mentioned that there was lots of info on their website. Sorry I can’t remember more detail, worth a listen.

We have done the same as Amber, we pay the rent, car insurance, phone (cheap Giffgaff, they buy their own phones if they want a new one), they live off the minimum maintenance loan. DD has always had some money left at the end of the year, and while she isn't a big drinker/party animal she does spend some money on that sort of thing. She has had jobs sporadically. DS is much more of a spender but as far as I know didn't go into debt in his first year he had a well paid job over the summer & has a job in his university town as well.

I think if students only get the basic maintenance loan and parents are not able to pay rent, it would be very hard for them to manage tbh. The higher rate (means tested) loan for eligible students whose parents are on low incomes was meant to mitigate that, but the government scrapped it. I think I heard that it may be reintroduced.


It always strikes me as strange that students don't get free prescriptions. I do as I have a medical condition which gives them to me; but my kids have to pay. Seems wonky logic as if they want exemption it is based on parental income again. Though personally I have issues with free prescriptions anyway and think almost everyone ought to be making some kind of contribution, but that is another issue.

My DD found a website about uni budgeting. I’ll ask her later for a link. From what she was saying it was quite useful and took into account which uni you were at.

DS1 was only entitled to the minimum maintenance loan, so we paid his rent and he managed (self catering) on the c.£1200 per term that the loan worked out at. He also had a small income from an ISA and some accumulated savings, but said that he usually had more in his account when the next loan payment went in than the last, so was spending less than c.£75 per week on food, socialising etc. At the time, 'catered' accommodation at his university was based on £50 being allocated out of rent to be spent in university outlets on food. It didn't roll over each week and most people we spoke to said that they had to spend extra. No DS1's budget, this would have assumed about £25 / week.

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

Another vote here for me paying the rent and DC having the min loan to spend- seemed to work, didn't get asked for any more money





Amber I think that the students can get free prescriptions based on income (otherwise send them to Scottish / Welsh unis )