How do uni students live off so little

As I've said, parental support isn't available, why? During my 3rd and 4th years both of my younger siblings will also be at uni, that's a lot of money for anybody's parents to spend.
No, most if not all scholarships I've seen are income based and unfortunately I'm ~1000 over qualifying for any of them.
gotta love the system.

What about the money they currently spend on you on food and stuff?

I am looking to be going to uni in september but worried that I won't be able to live comfortably. I'll only have less than £1000 to live off for the year. How do the university students cope? Part time jobs? Or do you take your balance past £0.00

I am looking to be going to uni in september but worried that I won't be able to live comfortably. I'll only have less than £1000 to live off for the year. How do the university students cope? Part time jobs? Or do you take your balance past £0.00

to be spent on fuel to pick me up at the end of term

Jesus where you going to study? China?
What about other expenses they are relieved of when you go? Electricity? Bus passes/ lifts? Meals out without you there anymore?

One thing bear in mind is that many families will be getting child benefit of around £20 a week up until the September after the student left school and just before they go to Uni. Whilst that £20 doesn't cover everything it is still a significant drop in the family budget to adapt to.

In essence I agree with you but it isn't quite that straightforward.

I'm not saying it is, it's a very flawed system. However parents above the bracket sadly have to be more prepared as like it or not they are formally expected to help pay for their child's time at uni.
However I do think it's silly, high income doesn't mean high disposable income, they could have very high mortgage payments (although unlikely at the moment with interest rates so low, but any family on a fixed rate mortgage Is likely getting stung right now) they could have lots of kids (dunno if it accounts for that)

I think they scrapped child benefits for earners over 50,000. Could be wrong though

But we don't know what the family incomes of the people concerned in this thread are and the cut off point for most grants and bursaries is well below £50k anyhow.

I'm not saying families shouldn't contribute anything only that if one is considering the cost save on the weekly budget by the student not being at home you maybe need to deduct about £20 from that in terms of family income loss. The double sting comes in that whilst families are expected to support the student on the one hand the child benefit has ceased because the student is deemed capable of contributing to the family income.

Help can be given in other ways apart from just handing over the cash like building up a food parcel via special offers and BOGOFFs. Scouring charity shops for any household items you know your student offspring needs and so on.

Why's everyone saying get an overdraft? Overdrafts are bad ideas, you don't need one.

Why's everyone saying get an overdraft? Overdrafts are bad ideas, you don't need one.

He does if he can't get parental help, can't get a job and wants to spend more than £1000 over the year.

0% interest including a year after graduating... how terrible!

Getting an overdraft and part-time job is pretty essential if your loan can't cover you. Also try and work full-time during summers - you can make around £1500-2000.

That's almost £20 a week. You're only one person, I lived on £10 a week for quite a while when my loan ran out, and in subsequent years I saved a lot of money once I'd learned how to make the cash stretch further.

That's pretty extreme though. I averaged £70/week at university - there's no way I could have consistently spent £10-20/week without losing a lot of weight and being miserable everyday. There are so many other costs that you forget about too like books, stationary, clothes, public transport, birthdays, mobile phone, gym, cinema etc. Of course a lot of those are luxuries in terms of survival but you don't go to university just to survive.

Another option for the OP is to defer his entry and work full-time during his gap year. You can save up a lot of money doing that if you live at home plus you'll have a year's worth of experience on your CV.

It's money you have to pay back, it's irresponsible. Why work throuh your sumers when careful budgeting could mean you don't have to have one. Live within your budget, dunno why you're telling the guy to be irresponsible

Nonsense.

It is not irresponsible to use a student overdraft - it's irresponsible to use a student overdraft with no plan or intention to pay it off. Most people use it to ease their cash flow, no different to credit cards and that's entirely sensible and responsible. I would have worked summers either way, it made no difference whether I used an overdraft. They are extremely low risk and not taking advantage of one when you're experiencing financial hardship is frankly stupid.

I bought a lot of books in my first year, but then later found that I could get almost everything online or in the library. So I no longer bothered to buy them in later years. Stationary isn't difficult - a pen and a cheap notebook is enough. Clothes I would assume they have already, this is very much a luxury, as it everything else you mention.

Okay, so it might not be great fun - but unfortunately it's either go to learn or don't go at all, and it seems a bit silly to me to opt for the latter just because you can't go to the cinema.

You say work full time during the gap year - it's not that easy to get random full time work, particularly if they know you're going to run off to uni in a year's time!

Overdraft, work in the summer to clear it, repeat.