I did write this all out once already, but it lost it, so here goes again.
I’m currently working full time (& studying with the OU), and so’s the rest of my household, and we (between us) on paper earn ~70k/yr. But, we’re seriously skint. Hear me out.
Living on 6k a year is rubbish, fair enough. But, it’s a tax free 6k. Being tax free makes a huge difference. I earn, gross, £1750 a month. I actually take home £1,212 after paying taxes (national insurance, income tax etc). Also, the more you earn, the more tax you pay; and that’s percentage-wise, not just pounds and pennies. Remember the 50p-in-the-pound debate? Yeah.
The majority of students live on/ near where their campus is. So you have virtually no travel costs. Whereas I currently pay upwards of £150/ month just to commute to work. Lucy for National Rail, not so brilliant for me.
Student rents are cheap (because even if the room itself isn’t, the renting year is reduced (in most cases) making it cheaper). Where as I pay £200/ week rent (to my mother) and I buy everything that you’ll assume my mum buys for me (food, shampoo etc). And chip in 1/3rd of all of the bills. So essentially, I live on £20 a week for luxuries (like tobacco, alcohol, travelling to see my boyfriend, and chipping in for the milk at work).
It’s not like mum doesn’t need the money though; she’s on a good wage, yeah, but then (as previously mentioned) expenditure goes up with income. And as she’s a teacher, her income has not increased with inflation (& she hasn’t had a pay rise in forever). So the standard of living has gone wayyy down on what it was (and that wasn’t brilliant, even 5 years ago).
As above, Council Tax is a killer, and the gas/ water/ electric situation isn’t easy either (and keep rising). Electric bill for last quarter was £500+ - and we’re careful to unplug stuff, and do things like charging mobiles at work to keep the costs down at home.
Dear OP: You would actually (probably) be worse off if you left uni, and got a job on 12k a year and tried to live on your own. Honest, you really would. Google “salary calculator” and type it in. You’ll take home just over £914 a month. So, with average rents for a shabby-as-hell flat in a dodgy estate in Essex (where I live) being around £500-£550, that’s over half your money gone. Then add in water, electric, TV license, heating, council tax, travel costs, food, toiletries, house insurance . . . . you see my point?
You’d actually have less money. And you wouldn’t be able to afford to live away from your parents. Who probably couldn’t (but this is just a guess, so fair enough) be able to afford to keep you without you paying rent. So even if you move back home, you’re skint.
So by my maths, you’re doing alright on your 6k.