When in need of more money, asking your parents is comparable to arranging an overdraft. Your initial efforts would typically involve phone calls, followed by letters, and ultimately, a face-to-face encounter if those attempts fail.
Similar to banks, parents are also mindful of interest rates. While banks seek to recoup more than they lend, parents expect to gain someone more intriguing at the end of the course, compared to their disgruntled teenager at the start. Thus, your parents are likely to be more generous when they discern your keenness for your course and career prospects.
Both banks and parents would be interested in understanding your lifestyle habits to ensure that their money is being judiciously spent. However, it’s essential to be mindful of oversharing. Although train tickets, book tokens, and Tesco vouchers could come in handy, they may not be acceptable at most club nights and similar events.
Your parents are most inclined to contribute money for items strictly necessary for your course, especially when they can be convinced that you’re thinking about costs. If you can tell them the prices of preowned textbooks, they would be impressed. Conversely, you won’t earn much praise if you talk at lengths about Happy Hour deals.
If you intend to reach out to your parents for funds, ensure that you’ve already contacted them a few times before the money request. Let them know you’ve arrived safe, and you’ve attended at least one lecture. It would help if you didn’t make all of these calls on the same day.
It isn’t easy to handle parents that suspect you’re only interested in their money or those that believe you’re genuinely interested in conversing with them. Regarding the former, you might need to demonstrate your concern for them and their cash by asking plenty of questions regarding their lives and their grandchildren. When dealing with the latter, you’d need to steer the conversation towards your educational prospects, moving away from other aspects like their new conservatory.
When written correctly, letters could be a powerful tool in persuading your parents to give you more money. Keep the tone chatty and add some details regarding events or things you couldn’t participate in due to insufficient funds. If done well, you might not even require a pre-paid reply envelope.
Indeed, you could be required to arrange a face-to-face visit with your parents. Suppose they are visiting you and you wouldn’t manage to afford the fare home. In that case, you could serve an elaborate Saver beans on toast and cheap wine meal. This would show that you’re putting in effort despite limited resources. Ensure that they leave feeling quite hungry.
During the meal, you could casually refer to your flatmate’s grades and how they remarkably improved after his parents got him an iPhone. Alternatively, you could bring up the well-paid pole-dancing job you spotted in an advert, which could fit perfectly into your coursework schedule.
