When I started work over 20 years ago I paid Ł20 a week for bed, breakfast and some evening meals. On top of that I was expected to do my share of housework and not ask to be paid back if my mum asked me to pick up something for dinner on the way back from work. Ł25 these days sounds remarkably cheap!

Some of my friends parents who were better off charged what rent for a bedsit would have cost pluls extra for food and then handed the rent element back to help with renting or buying a first home.

The important thing is that she realises what things cost so you should be expecting her to budget for clothes, car etc AFTER she's paid her living costs and not the other way around.