Is £100 a week enough to live in London as a uni student????

I’m starting uni this September and was originally going to commute to uni but have now decided to live there for my first year.
I checked on SFE and it says u will get up to 13k if u live in London. So l estimate that I will get around 12k because originally for commuting I could get up to 8k but I got 7k. The accommodation I have looked at is around £7000 - £8000 so assuming it is 8k | will have around 4k left a year.
The amount of weeks I will stay in the accommodation is 38.3 so that gives me around £100 a week.
If I get 11k I would have roughly £78 a week so is this also enough?
Is that enough to live in London? I won't be drinking so would it be enough to go out and have lunch if I wanted to or enough for groceries?
Also is it too late to apply for student accommodation?

Yep that's doable.

Are u sure I can completely rely on the loan. I don’t want to give my parents the struggle of giving me money every month.

Partly it depends on you, of course. Travel is relatively fixed though looks at buses rather than the tube. East cheaply, buying from basic supermarkets. If you're not drinking you don't have major expenses.

Ok thank you. Also is it too late to apply for accommodation? Uni is literally starting next month and I only made my decision now to live there since before I wasn’t planning to go to Queen Mary but now I am

I’m starting uni this September and was originally going to commute to uni but have now decided to live there for my first year.
I checked on SFE and it says u will get up to 13k if u live in London. So l estimate that I will get around 12k because originally for commuting I could get up to 8k but I got 7k. The accommodation I have looked at is around £7000 - £8000 so assuming it is 8k | will have around 4k left a year.
The amount of weeks I will stay in the accommodation is 38.3 so that gives me around £100 a week.
If I get 11k I would have roughly £78 a week so is this also enough?
Is that enough to live in London? I won't be drinking so would it be enough to go out and have lunch if I wanted to or enough for groceries?
Also is it too late to apply for student accommodation?

I’m starting uni this September and was originally going to commute to uni but have now decided to live there for my first year.
I checked on SFE and it says u will get up to 13k if u live in London. So l estimate that I will get around 12k because originally for commuting I could get up to 8k but I got 7k. The accommodation I have looked at is around £7000 - £8000 so assuming it is 8k | will have around 4k left a year.
The amount of weeks I will stay in the accommodation is 38.3 so that gives me around £100 a week.
If I get 11k I would have roughly £78 a week so is this also enough?
Is that enough to live in London? I won't be drinking so would it be enough to go out and have lunch if I wanted to or enough for groceries?
Also is it too late to apply for student accommodation?

It’s survivable but it won’t go very far.
An extra £50/week would go a long way as you can use it all on recreational/disposable money. If you work over the summers and make another £3-4,000 this would really boost your quality of life & student experience.

If I apply for the accommodation with en suite I am left with around £100 a week but the rooms with a shared bathroom I am left with around £130 a week. I plan to go back home every weekend to stock up on food that I can store easily like peanut butter or pasta. and I can buy the ones that need to be refrigerated or need to be fresh like milk or eggs or fruit. So hopefully I should have enough money.

Be aware traveling is quite expensive nowadays, between the energy transition & increased costs since Russia-Ukraine travel not only train but also by car nowadays costs quite a lot. I suspect the food costs wont be too bad if your happy eating pasta, rice, beans, frozen stuff… your challenges will be going out to social events or being a member of societies with costs associated. Here is where you’ll probably find is most difficult on your budget.

How much do societies usually cost. Because if they aren’t too expensive I know my parents can handle it. I think what I will be spending on is food and the train going back home for the weekend. Maybe some other small things here and there too. So having £100 a week won’t be too bad I think (that’s if my maintenance loan is 12k. If I get 11k then it might be around £75-£85 a week).

Societies vary massively from very small one time fees (maybe less than £20 for a whole year), to costing multiple hundred pounds to join plus regular further costs every week…
It depends on what the society does, how much university funding there is & what resources universities provide… it really varies hugely.

Not on this topic but I just applied for accommodation. I need to change my SFE application to living away from parents in London so I can get a greater maintenance loan. Should I do this now even though I haven't received a housing offer or should I wait for an offer to come through? Also, can you talk me through the steps on how to change this please? Thank you

I think it’s best to apply as soon as possible, as your application will be in a queue and you will want SFE to approve this before you arrive at university.
It’s been years since i have done an SFE application, i suspect you’ll find advice directly on the website on how to do it. If you have questions there is a forum on this website called ask student finance where you can directly contact people who work for SFE and can give you advice.

I was doing it but it said it will take up to 6 weeks for sfe to reassess my application. This means it would be approved after I start uni so I won’t be able to pay for the first semester. But I think a way around this is to open a student bank account and use their interest free arrange overdrafts (they offer 1500 a year). Is this a good idea?

SFE wont process any payments to you even if you get approved until you have registered in person at your university anyway.
SFE always recommend putting in alternative provisions in place for your first couple weeks. Some university halls providers will allow rent payments to be delayed with proof of this but it’s really at there discretion.

I lived in London while at uni and had a similar budget. £100 a week was tight but manageable. If you’re not drinking and keep an eye on your spending, it should cover groceries and a few outings. For student accommodation, it’s best to apply soon if you haven’t already—places get snapped up pretty quickly.

SFE wont process any payments to you even if you get approved until you have registered in person at your university anyway.
SFE always recommend putting in alternative provisions in place for your first couple weeks. Some university halls providers will allow rent payments to be delayed with proof of this but it’s really at there discretion.