Girls vs Boys: Who relies most on their parents?

Picture the situation: you’ve opened up your very own student account and the student finance is rolling in. However, after a hefty Fresher’s week, your funds have taken the strain of one too many Jägerbombs, not to mention those all-important textbooks.  It’s looking like soon you might just need to open up an account with the bank of Mum and Dad.

And why should you feel guilty? Your parents have left you to fend for yourself. You’re now forced to live on a diet of foods you can actually cook which, if you’re honest, somewhat limits your meal choices. Even worse than that, you have to pay for it all yourself.

So, when your parents ring up worried about the health of your bank balance they’re usually more than happy to fork out to keep you topped up on the essentials.

According to a recent survey conducted on behalf of savethestudent.org (and compiled in this excellent student spending infographic below), girls receive £1,125 on average per term, whereas boys only receive an average of £713. That’s a staggering 158% more for girls from their parents than boys.*

This infographic is brought to you by NatWest Student Accounts – taking the hassle out of student finance.

But what’s the reason for this disparity between the genders? Is it that girls give into temptation more easily when looking at things to buy? Or maybe this proves that boys are much better at budgeting than girls. Perhaps a more likely scenario however, is that daddy’s little girl knows how to tug on her parents’ heart strings better than her male counterpart. Whatever the reason, it looks like boys are going to have to work on their persuasion skills if they want to squeeze any more money out of Mum and Dad.

But are you being honest about where that money is actually going? Statistics reveal that you’re probably not.

Of those paents asked in the survey, none believed that their little girl had been completely dishonest about how they spent their money. However, the survey revealed that statistically, girls are more likely than boys to lie to their parents about what they spend their money on. Looks like daddy’s little girl’s halo is starting to slip.

Not everyone, however, is lucky enough to have a helping hand from parents. Luckily, there’s plenty of help out there to support you during your time at university. Many student accounts offer interest free overdrafts to help you out with a bit of extra cash if you’re struggling. You often don’t even need to worry about paying it back until a few years after you’ve finished ‘Uni’.

There are also plenty of tools out there to help you manage the money that you do have, such as the student budget calculator which will hopefully help you handle your finances a little better.

Living away from home can be hard and, frankly, sometimes you need to splash the cash on some luxuries to get you through. Whether it’s in the form of Mum and Dad or the bank, there’s always a helping hand available to you during your time at university.

*Based on data from a GMI nationally-representative online survey conducted between 29^th July and 2^nd August, 2013. The total sample size was 400 adults, of which 200 were full-time students aged between 18-25 years, and 200 were parents of full-time students in their first, second or third year.

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