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Living costs cover food, travel, going out, phone and course costs, assumed over 39 term weeks. Family support counted over 12 months, part-time earnings over 30 working weeks. The maintenance loan usually arrives in three instalments, so the September lump sum has to last until January.
What The Student Budget Calculator Works Out
- Total yearly income: maintenance loan plus family support over 12 months plus part-time earnings over 30 working weeks. The loan is means-tested against household income: a loan reduced for household income is a loan the household is expected to top up, a memo many households never received.
- Total yearly costs: rent for the full contract length (not just term time) plus living costs over 39 term weeks. Rent is not means-tested, and for many students the loan barely covers the accommodation contract.
- Verdict: the surplus or shortfall for the year, with a shortfall also shown per term week so it is clear what has to change each week.
- Weekly spending money: income minus the whole rent bill, divided by term weeks: the food, travel and social budget the loan nominally exists for. The calculator nets rent off first because that is the gap that matters.
- Bursary and extra costs (advanced): add university bursaries, scholarships or grants (perennially under-applied-for money, worth checking every year), bills not included in a house-share rent (often GBP 40 to GBP 80 a month each for energy, broadband and water) and books, equipment or field-trip costs.
- Term and working weeks (advanced): override the 39 term weeks and 30 working weeks if your course or job runs differently. Holidays stay open for full-time stints.
- Each loan instalment (advanced): the loan lands in three termly lumps; September's runs until January, about 15 weeks, so dividing each instalment by the weeks it must survive beats mental accounting by month.
- Rent as a share of income (advanced): how much of all income goes on housing, and how much of the rent the loan alone covers. The halls-versus-house decision dwarfs every coffee economy.
- Shortfall versus overdraft (advanced): whether the year's gap fits inside an interest-free student overdraft, typically GBP 1,000 to GBP 3,000. Treat it as an emergency buffer rather than income: the overdraft-to-graduate pipeline is manageable while the interest-free limit is respected and toxic the term it is breached.
- Extra work to close the gap (advanced): hours a week at the National Living Wage (GBP 12.71 for those 21 and over) needed to clear the shortfall; 10 to 15 hours a week is the well-worn sustainable ceiling during term. Full-time students do not pay council tax, and the 16-25 Railcard and term-time bus passes handle transport.
Further reading: GOV.UK: student finance.