What is the ideal amount of money to live off at Uni?

Ideal is variable.

If you're the über social type and do everything that a middle class kid at uni typically does (so joining sports, the gym, trips in the holidays, going out, eating out on occasion, dates, ocassionlly buying new clothes and ofc the necessities like food, toiletries/washing stuff, haircuts and rent/bills) - you're looking at £12-15k for the year depending on where you are.

If you're less social and more frugal, you could manage on £8-12k depending on where you are - anything below that will be an incredible struggle.

EDIT: this is including accomodation.. I'd say excluding accomodation:

for the first category:
£4.5-7.5k

second category:
£2.5-4k

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People are really out here using 4.5k-7k minus accommodation? Is it just me who thinks thats crazy lmao, where do they even get that music money from?

People are really out here using 4.5k-7k minus accommodation? Is it just me who thinks thats crazy lmao, where do they even get that music money from?

I wouldn't call £8,000 the limit before it's a struggle, but the accommodation costs vary from university to university.

In my first year, I only spent £1,084.71 above £5,454.95 for accommodation (including a deposit for second year), so £6,539.66

In my second year, it's a bit more complicated as I went on a trip to Hungary and the USA using some of the loan money I had left over from first and second years. Accommodation costs were £4,300, after the expenses for the two trips are taken into account it comes to £1,001.51. So £5,301.51 in total.

Therefore, £1,300 is enough to live on and live fairly comfortably, so £2,300 is definitely enough. In the other thread, there are suggestions on how to eat cheaply and then you can see how far your budget goes. Just go with the flow, you don't have to spend your whole budget every week, save it and you may be able to afford some trips on top or keep it till after uni. I might buy a car with some of my leftover money once I have my degree or possibly put the money towards a deposit for a house.

I'm sorry but £1000 over 40 weeks is not going to even cover decent meals, let alone everything aside from accomodation. That is literally poverty level of consumption.

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Obviously, we are two different people who live in two different circumstances and spend different amounts of money on food and everything else.

However, I would beg to differ about £25 a week being a ‘poverty level of consumption’. In my student house, I probably eat the most healthy and balanced meals out of anyone in my house. I make all sorts of healthy meals that meet my 5-a-day, if not more all for about £10 a week. It can be done all you need to do is know some cheap recipes and cook them. I write down recipes that I find online into a book and tweak them to suit me and the majority of these recipes are cheap and make about 5 portions, which if you freeze about 2-3 of them to have later, you can have a variety of recipes in a week. You can also add lots of vegetables or pulses, which are pretty cheap, to many recipes to add to the flavour and bulk it out.

Here is a recipe I tried the other day and it was delicious and fairly cheap per portion! You can always change it a little to suit your tastes and price.
https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/one_pot_chorizo_and_15611

You can also make curries, chilis, casseroles etc. I sometimes even cook a roast dinner at university – hardly a ‘poverty level of consumption’.

Hey guys, just a follow up to my question (https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5502252).

I forgot to mention that I'm actually transferring University, into the second year. So I realised that I've actually got my first year maintenance loan, which remains largely untouched, as I was living at home.

My plan is to add some of this money to my current £1300 (my £7300 loan minus £6000 for accommodation). But I don't want to treat my first year loan like an overdraft, where I would use my 1.3k and then start eating at my first year loan as I want to learn to budget. I want to take a certain amount of this first year loan, such as £1000, and add it to my £1300 to make £2300.

So theoretically, would £2300 be a good amount of money to live off at Uni? Or maybe its too much? Should I take £700 from my first loan instead to make £2000? etc etc, I think you guys get the gist.

Thanks!

Yeah… £10 would get you like 2-3 lots of protein-based ingredients. Never mind the veggies, fruits, dairy, spices, cereals, bread, rice, etc etc etc

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Have you tried living off £10 a week for food and cooking from scratch? It is doable, and I do it all the time whilst I’m at university. Granted, sometimes it is less and sometimes it is more (about £15) if I need to buy the basics (i.e. garlic, onions, chopped tomatoes, rice, pasta, lentils, chickpeas, beans etc.), but never much more than that.

Protein does not necessarily have to come from meat – beans have a lot of protein in for example. You could also buy a whole chicken and easily get two breasts, two wings, two legs, two drumsticks, a couple of pints of stock and some scrap meat which makes a nice wrap. You can make a curry with one chicken breast giving you about 4-5 meals (providing you bulk it out nicely). Once you’ve done this 2-3 times, you can use the wings for a meal, drumsticks for a meal and the thighs make a nice curry.

A pork shoulder joint can last a long time, giving you all sorts of meals. Minced-beef can give you a few portions if you make into a Bolognese, lasagne, chili etc. – all cheap and easy meals to make.

It is good to have a collection of spices to help flavour food, but you can get these cheaply from an Asian store, same with rice etc. Fruit and vegetables are fairly cheap. I tend to have porridge for breakfast, so don’t need cereals or a lot of bread. Additionally, a small amount of porridge oats (not the flavoured type) can thicken out a dish, make it more filling and it doesn’t affect the taste.

If you want to spend more than spend more, it is up to you, but it is possible to spend, on average, for £10 a week on food.