Just lost £2500 of the budget

Sorry but you've got no sympathy from me - you should only get a grant if you need it to put towards your studying. You obviously didn't need it so why should you get it!

It would of been best to of waited until the loan had been officially granted before booking things, also as the person said above it should of gone to the purpose it was for.

What have you booked exactly? Can you cut down on guests numbers? Get rid of entertainment? Lose food in the evening?

If you're entilted to it then i don't blame you for trying to get it it but I do think you should have made sure you had the money before you started spending it. Don't really have any suggestions other than working extra hours to get the money or looking at changing your plans.

It's not a loan it's a grant, ie free money from the government which comes from the taxpayer! And should only be put towards education not someone's wedding! How are you paying for uni if you don't need the grant?

I'm paying for £2.5k of my wedding myself (h2b and I are paying £5k between us) - get a 0% interest credit card, ours is for 16 months so we save £160 towards it every month to make sure it'll be paid off within the interest free period. Do that - your monthly savings will only be half that, £80 a month should be easy to save.

As an ardent advocate of free university education, I have to say I'd be a bit [shocked emoticon] about this. Not really what people like me have in mind...

Right, whilst i personally think grants should still go towards uni life (living and books etc)- i'm not going to slate you got this. let's be practical.

what had you allocated the money to?

Sorry, but this!

Completely agree with this I'm afraid

Had we not been getting married then the money would have gone towards living (we get by but have no savings and are by no means well off). Had we never been offered the grant and planned a wedding we would have been cutting back on (alot of) things. The grant just meant we would have had to cut back on alot less.

It was going towards the venue. The only thing we could really cut out would be a buffet instead of a sit down meal but as we are getting wed at 12 we thought the meal may fill time better. Also we are only having bacon/sausage baps in the evening and i dont want the guests to go hungry.

As someone who paid my way through uni myself (No grants then, just a hefty loan I am still paying back) and now sees £800 or so a month going on tax to pay for things like student grants I am pretty disgusted at your attitude TBH.

I don't begrudge students grants to help them live, after all they will be the next Doctors, Teachers etc. I do begrudge subsidizing your wedding plans which by the sounds of it are out of your means.

We married within our budget - we diddnt attempt to siphon money from the taxpayer.

postpone until you can afford it or suck it up and lose budget elsewhere. Either way you are getting zero sympathy from me.

I am doing a postgraduate course. I also got no grants to help with my degree. I worked 50 hour weeks to put myself through uni alongside my course. I know have a child to support so the extra money would have been helpful. I posted for advice not a lecture but thanks.

You aren't the only ones who have had to "cut back" because you cannot affor things. We deliberately planned a buffet rather than a sit down because it is cheaper. We are also having a completely DIY wedding because we couldn't afford a "proper" venue. I would've loved to have had a tipi wedding but it would've meant saving up for about ten years before we could do something like that and we just really want to be married and have a nice day. Like you, (and the many people out there) we don't earn much and we don't have our own house. You haven't really had to make sacrifices to be honest - more altering your choices according to what you can afford. This is something you should've done regardless of the grant money.

Kind of agree with everyone else here I'm afraid. FSIL is a uni grad and struggled her way through uni without any grants just hard work and savings. That money is from the taxpayer (us!!!) and meant to go towards your books or other aids to studying not your wedding. Serves you right really. Karma anyone??

This was advice- change your plans or postpone the wedding, I really don't know what you expected people to say?!

Sorry but I think you answered your own question in your 2nd post;

Either cut back on your monthly spends, re-work your budget or postpone.

That is the point though isn't it? People are not judging how another person spends their money they are judging how THEIR Tax payers money is being spent.

If you were to accept money from the tax payer to fund a wedding you need to expect tax payers to have an opinion on how that money is spent.

No different to parents contributing to a wedding they are going to have an opinion on what THEIR money is spent on.

Actually I think it's the business of all tax payers what education grants are spent on! The OP clearly doesn't need the grant towards her education, so why on earth is she entitled to it? I (like many others) have got a £10k student loan which will take me years to pay off. I also did a post-graduate diploma whilst working full time which, including all expenses e.g. books, cost about £2.5k. I didn't get a grant towards it so had to pay for it myself.

I fully support grants towards students who need it, as everyone should be entitled to higher education regardless of income/family income.

Anyway, I still gave the OP practical advice regardless of her (entitled) attitude - get an interest free credit card. Her and her h2b should easily be able to save £80 a month each to pay it off in full, seeing as she had the luxury of putting a grant towards a wedding!

The high and mighty are out in force tonight.

To be fair to the OP she's not throwing a strop because she hasn't received the money she's asking for sensible suggests on how to cut back. Also it's not really her fault, if the government are going to offer people who aren't really in need free money who's going to turn it down?!? I wouldn't, I doubt many honestly would!

Like someone said previously maybe gives us more details of your wedding planning and we could see if we can help you cut costs

Not the tone set in your thread on OT?

What degree do you have to do where they give you a reward for finishing?! I clearly chose the wrong degree...

In my view this is where the UK Gov has got it wrong, and the Welsh Gov has got it right - (when I was at uni, not sure if this is still the case) the Welsh Gov will give all students who choose to stay in Wales to study an automatic grant of around £1,200 - this goes straight on fees, so there's no 'cash in hand' to spend on anything other than education.

You asked for advice. Advice was given. You diddnt like the advice...Not sure what was being expected here?

I think MrsT is a different poster to the OP Mini? Unless I've lost my mind (possible I admit)...?

I can see why you get a reward for signing up to a Chemistry Post Grad! Is that really a grant though? Seems more like an incentive, like what's offered if you do your degree in maths...

I struggled with foundation GCSE so unfortunately that was never an option for me!!!!

This thread is like that living dolls show last night….can't believe what you're seeing but have to keep watching!

if you get a grant to go towards your education - yes education - it should be spent on your education and expenses towards studying for your education - i've paid tax since i was 14 - any chance i can get a grant? No, oh…back to paying for the wedding out of my own wages then….I'm sure this sounds incredibly harsh but come on? You really expected everyone to bypass the fact you put money aside that should be spent elsewhere for your wedding???

In terms of cutting back, you need to review what your priorities are and see whether you can choose alternative suppliers.

Now I'm confused! You ARE the original poster MrsT?

My minds mashed. !!

I dont think i was setting a tone. . Like i said in OT i wasnt making judgments i was just curious to see what others opinions where. I think most are entitled to money they dont need and was interested to see if others thought the same and also received money they didnt technically need.

Its not for me to judge people when i dont them or their circumstances.

Oh yes, Mini is definitely green eyed and monsterous....after all, haven't you read her sig....' I'm a bitter old married, I lurk around wedding forums, drinking wine and dispensing bad advice.'

i have to say I agree with the majority...an educational grant is for educational purposes. Your money MrsT does not seem to be a grant at all, an incentive, yes. The OP should readjust spending anyway, even if she had the grant...surely by spending it on the wedding she'd be then down on money for the education side. Why plan a wedding that is out of your comfortable budget anyway? Isn't that the point of setting a budget?! I know we had a total which gave us leeway so if we needed a little extra it was there.

Oooh bugger me! Went off to make dinner and missed this (we eat late!)

sorry poster who I quoted in error- thought you were the op.

op- everything I said to the person I quoted wrongly.

Lots of love

the bitter, green eyed one. (Eyes are genuinely green)

My mind is boggled ... open was offered 2.5k then wasn't offered it ... but someone else posted about 4k, 7.5k and 20k???? eh????? then they posted "haha ..smug post" aimed at mini but actually they are not the op as bizarrely and triumphantly claimed??!

in terms of op spending tax payers money issue .... if she had posted that she had been saving money each month for her wedding but now she is not getting her education grant her saved moneyeing will need to go on that rather than the wedding would she have got some sympathy? the direct link she made between the grant money and the wedding seems to be the bit causing offense?

don't know why I'm raising it really as agree it's a misuse of a grant ...but do feel sorry for her upsetabout the wedding ... lots of people stretch themselves with wedding budgets ... silly? yes but give her a break!

I

Been reading this post with intrigue!

Whilst I agree with the majority, an education grant/ incentive is exactly for that.. to help with education.mi cant help but wonder how many ppl, if in the same position would do the same thingnif the money was there.

I personally would rather my tax money go to someone like this lady, whether or not it is used for the right or wrong reasons, who is getting an education and looking after herself and marrying than have my money go on benefits scroungers who have 10 kids and never work and milk the system dry!

I do think that your grant if it was given should go to education but set a new budget and go from there. There are beautiful things that can be diyd to cut costs dramatically ie invitation, favours etc and having buffet instead of sit down meal.

Good luck. Although slightly on the immoral side if you had recieved your grant and paid for a wedding with it, I dont think you deserve some of the comments. X

Absolutely, she would've got my sympathy - in that situation she would've been saving her own money towards the wedding, whilst rightly so relying on the grant to go towards her education. Just like the system would've intended! I'm all for education grants, but I'm fully against them being used for other purposes eg weddings!

As someone who doesn't qualify for a grant from university or funding of any kind (other than tuition loan) but has a house and child to look after off nothing more than child tax credit and child benefit you get no sympathy from me