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Student Budgeting

Student living costs in the UK 2024

The student budget is a tricky thing to pin down. But our latest National Student Money Survey reveals where students' money goes once and for all...

purse with £5 note sticking out

Credit: Yevgen Kravchenko, kamui29, Bell Photography 423 – Shutterstock

We all know that student living can be a pricey business. But, how pricey is it exactly?

Rather than taking wild guesses, we can tell you what your expected living costs are, based on what thousands of other students are telling us.

Whether you're wanting to budget your monthly expenses, or simply see how your spending compares to the average student, we've got all the stats on student living costs that you need.

If you're struggling to keep up with rising living costs, see our guides on how to cope with the cost of living crisis and making money online.

Average student living costs

ExpenseCost per month
Rent£540
Groceries£144
Household bills£76
Transport£65
Going out£51
Takeaways and eating out£48
Clothes and shopping£32
Holidays and events£29
Health and wellbeing£22
Interest payments£19
Course materials£18
Mobile phone£16
Other£16
Gifts and charity£14
Friends and family£14
TOTAL£1,104

In our latest annual National Student Money Survey, we asked over 1,000 students where their money goes. The results were very interesting.

The average student's living costs are about £1,104 a month, but our findings reveal that Maintenance Loans often fall far short of covering students' living expenses.

It's probably no surprise that rent takes the biggest chunk out of the student budget. This year it rose to £540 a month. This is a £101 increase from 2023.

Groceries are the second biggest expenditure for students, coming in at £144 a month. This might seem like a lot, but it breaks down to around £33 a week – not too bad for a weekly food shop. Nonetheless, to cut down the costs of groceries further, check out our guide to saving money on food or even try our weekly meal plan.

Everyone knows that students love a good party, and it turns out £51 a month is spent on going out. Some might be surprised that this is more than double the amount students spend on course materials. However, with tuition fees at such a high rate, there's increasing pressure on unis to keep extra course costs to a minimum.

Students also estimate they spend £76 a month on bills, which include gas, electricity, water, broadband and a TV Licence. Our complete guide to student bills has step-by-step advice on how to set up, switch, split bills, and we also have guidance on help with energy bills during these testing times.

Student living costs across the UK

As the graphic above demonstrates, the most expensive places to live as a student in the UK can be found in the South of England.

London is the most expensive region along with the South East and South West. This will be partly due to the cost of rent in London and the surrounding regions, which often dwarves the amount you'd pay for an equivalent property elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland and the East Midlands are comfortably the cheapest regions in the UK.

But it's worth noting that in this year's survey, student living costs exceed £1,000 a month in almost every part of the country.

Know exactly where your money goes with an app-based bank.

Which students spend the most?

Four of the universities in the top 10 for total spending (excluding rent) are based in London – London Metropolitan, City University, the University of East London and LSE.

The rest of the top 10, aside from Open University and Aston University, is made up from universities in the south.

The very lowest spenders are those at Nottingham University, with students spending just £337 a month on all expenses excluding rent. Lancaster, Lincoln, York, Warwick, Leicester and Loughborough University all came in at £400 or less.

At some unis, the average cost of bills seems very low (£5 at Liverpool Hope, for example) – but bear in mind that these figures are averages. A lot of students' utilities will be included in their rent, so they would likely have reported that their bills cost £0.

The table below lists all universities and the average that students spend on living costs, after rent. How do you compare to your classmates?

UniversityTotal (£)Groceries (£)Takeaways and eating out (£)Transport (£)Going out and socialising (£)Household bills (£)Mobile phone (£)Clothes and shopping (£)Health and wellbeing (£)Course materials (£)Holidays and events (£)Gifts and charity (£)Relatives or friends (who you financially support) (£)Interest paymentsOther (£)
Aberdeen51778392470871836347013106530
Aberystwyth4541503964231113342213261415255
Anglia Ruskin4909940577755254121180914927
Arden460652525110125135013100100150
Aston60918043585883253014918145750
Bath445122544153809231015159553
Birmingham398111303237531434161591117109
Birmingham City622136525783150182621203315281
Bournemouth532107373822187182117936270112
Brighton7701494941629717403312795231254
Bristol41716638443436731979418610
Bucks New6811506511011375182828182500503
Cambridge5061474547313124372027303551115
Cardiff400121365832566281213113117
Cardiff Metropolitan57221023113382743432717000030
Chester5221295638843313299201924212918
Chichester74613741487212913171202017210030
City, UoL83718114062101843032502486321714
Coventry585147625061822737331734120203
De Montfort584184473385812219162676241421
Derby385904060500030302010250030
Durham5201714765524942321842201019
East Anglia45211629303071926219211325458
Edge Hill49313528154025102310513152338025
Edinburgh464133524643409301132221171316
Essex64617357763554148946913713600
Exeter461151386434441423158227121514
Falmouth6908025255069212015520101502000
Glasgow392937537304716179819115520
Glasgow Caledonian524187331975113131813121683311
Gloucestershire655205293366158152315133147903
Harper Adams448195142540471571662041805
Hertfordshire447921513325311668025400056
Hull4061742022608071249011502
Imperial College London713202798476449185204564201010
Keele48515629555674321910178110018
Kent419115554570251211212501010515
King's College London5039755538155153815838172217
Kingston475145308701073826518052500
Lancaster4751265348114131430258101013011
Leeds4561105885376013221662713512
Leeds Beckett554140132370716625214101750116
Leeds Trinity518158724076512814621054376
Leicester3941033938406220341351957010
Lincoln35410327192814132514430705614
Liverpool54017338393495152123611670128
Liverpool John Moores4991755952582282321438801317
London South Bank57811727331439016013271102000
Loughborough42814660653919102214421124015
LSE6721407515285451055151050105020
Manchester563111567478547441215132027347
Manchester Met67215560697481154196522256618
Middlesex784214715586881846162060700040
Newcastle513144324563101191934131367611
Northumbria6011136768519020361621181561369
Nottingham4309434525457933161718153721
Nottingham Trent54312557727139163720633644511
Oxford78119411099618926581915463713140
Plymouth397120354152391132131010103914
Plymouth Marjon545400503040000501010000
Portsmouth51617950502082523154262422015
Queen Margaret61520050100757003020203020000
Queen Mary6871707253953512492529661302941
Queen's Belfast596127348782812340242110134050
Reading413754053326093720105319005
Royal Holloway65615260777143144813201925223359
Salford55312453517656152072172179023
Sheffield4221233355227063587191620111
Sheffield Hallam58516355487311213389143192100
Southampton39411943434643121416241616102
St Andrews34289364820361022211419140011
Staffordshire42113029353468162916126335011
Sunderland73316064749811216281010501106040
Surrey80422153741151251839201459204356
Sussex447132366954861714926110012
Swansea396108232726771535117201422111
UCL61417077781016219302515914617
Ulster4651095833803413223799110500
University College Birmingham411110753348671027173310080
University of the Arts London61411248401121936331022870024
Warwick4901554759516012301752413546
West of England, Bristol3609227385540142015815131175
Winchester5221033359731782119113140190
Wolverhampton608150652550150232525135033000
Wrexham Glynd?r51311353579788423022737030
York31813131322597211451972014
York St John586124436082603964542414120010
AVERAGE
564
144
48
65
51
76
16
32
22
18
29
14
14
19
16

The data has been filtered to exclude universities where there were not enough respondents, or where the results included significant outliers.

Check out our list detailing the cost of student accommodation at each UK university for more info.

Is the Maintenance Loan enough?

It's all very well working out how much students spend each month. But the big question is, how do they pay for it?

The majority of students will be eligible for some form of Maintenance Loan to cover their living costs at university. However, most students report that it doesn't stretch far enough. The average student receives just £600 a month from their Maintenance Loan, which falls £504 a month short of covering the average living costs (£1,104 a month).

In fact, 58% believe the Maintenance Loan isn't big enough.

Students told us:

  • Student Finance offers the bare minimum. I know many students that are having to find extra funds elsewhere or having to drop out.
  • I avoid going out with friends to save money and it really impacts me.
  • Student Finance barely gives enough money to live on! If that honestly. Rent can be super expensive and the whole idea of university is to study and learn – but the majority of that learning time is taken up by a part-time job…

Half of students (50%) turn to their parents for extra funds, with students getting an average of £171 a month from their mums and dads.

But, fewer students than last year are relying on money from their parents. Many are turning to ways to make money from home, and the proportion of students getting a part-time job rose from 56% in 2023 to 58% in 2024.

Some students turned to less conventional ways to fund themselves during university – from stocks and shares (4%) and social media (3%) to cryptocurrencies (3%) and sex work (2%).

It's clear that the Maintenance Loan isn't enough to cover living costs for the vast majority of students. The government needs to make some serious changes to Student Finance in order to fix this.

To make your Maintenance Loan last longer, check out our guide to budgeting at university.

Jessica Murray

WRITTEN BY Jessica Murray

As an Editor of Save the Student, Jessica Murray has written extensively on student money news and money-saving tips. She was co-host of our podcast, No More Beans, and is now a journalist at the Guardian. Her tips and insights range from fun guides for freshers, to information for graduates entering the workplace.
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