<p>I was reading on some of the other boards about the rather extravagant (in my mind at least) allowances that college students were receiving, or hoping to receive and was wondering what the views of parents on this issue were? </p>
<p>In my mind it is perfectly acceptable to give your porgeny some cash every now and again, but shouldn't savings and work-study be more then enough to support themselves during the school year?</p>
<p>I took care of the major stuff, tuition, books, tickets home. She was responsibile for entertainment and day to day monies. Gave no allowance last year, D had work study job and savings from the summer. This year it will be the same thing.</p>
<p>we set up a bookstore account to be billed to us. This is for books- and extras although she didn't use it much- it was nice to know it was there.
She bought her own tickets home- but while we told her to let us know when she needed money- she was more likely to go really cheap and get bus tickets which she could afford, than train tickets which are a little more.
Her summer job goes directly toward tuition, but workstudy job pays for anything else she needs- I encourage her to have all doctor appts during summer- but she does have small charge for presciptions and such.
We also will be going with her to move in and will pay for whatever she needs to get settled- gotta love no sales tax :)</p>
<p>We have changed our "policy" on this since the last thread on the topic. "We" are covering the same basics as sybbie, for starters. In our case, S has earned a substantial merit scholarship of $22K/year toward these basics.</p>
<p>He also has had summer jobs 3 of 4 high schools years (took college math course the other year). We had planned that these earnings and savings would cover his "allowance" needs: entertainment, food out, cell phone etc. What we have decided now is to afford him the opportunity to bank these earnings to the extent possible in a Roth IRA, to begin saving for his own further-out future.</p>
<p>To that end, we are going to provide $125/month allowance. If he wants to spend any more than that, it will be from his savings that don't go into the Roth IRA. I have seen allowance suggestions all over the map (if there is an allowance), most commonly around $200/month. I saw a lot of kids fretting on another thread about having to struggle to get by on $300/month for incidentals. Seems ludicrous to me, but what do I know :confused:?</p>
<p>Same as Sybbie here. D has summer and work/study earnings and seems to get by just fine spending very little of it. Direct deposit is her thing - she refuses to take ATM withdrawals from her back account and has become very miserly since entering this phase. No allowance whatsoever here, but zealous grandparents send $25 or $50 cash every once and awhile for no important reason other than expressing their pride. That cash quickly burns a hole in her pocket. If they sent checks, she would deposit them and be reluctant to touch the $$.</p>
<p>we're in line with Sybbie & Maize&Blue.</p>
<p>Summer earnings, birthday $, etc have been saved-- she has about $10K now. We will do $100/month, plane tickets & the cell phone plan. Anything else is up to her. Once she has a job, the $100 will drop out.</p>
<p>She will probably get a job for 2nd semester because we wanted her to have some time to adjust.</p>
<p>She has a credit card in her own name that she can use for an "approved" expense (such as a plane ticket, school books) that we would cover. When she graduates, she'll have a credit history.</p>
<p>S gets $75/month during the school year. Last year, he was in a club sport, and he paid his own expenses, including travel, out of summer work earnings. </p>
<p>Since he is close by, I treat for periodic sushi dinners.</p>
<p>We pay for tuition, R&B and books, cell phone.
Son does take the Stafford ($2625 freshman year) which we believe helps him value his education a bit more than if we covered it all.
We supply no allowance.</p>
<p>He works summers and on-campus workstudy. Pays for (exhorbitant) NJ state car insurance, incidentals and all spending money for entertainment, pizzas, travel, etc.
It worked fine this past year and we're sticking with this plan.</p>
<p>$150 month for incidentals. We cover travel, books, cell phone. D is very responsible and frugal- unlike Wild Child who is the bottomless pit into which we deposit the family's money.</p>
<p>No allowance for either kid.</p>
<p>S was responsible for cashing savings bonds and paying his tuition bills (plus his R&B when he lived in the dorm first year). Once he left the dorm, he took care of his living expenses, books, cell phone, etc., pretty much out of his own pocket--working 10-15 hours on campus and doing freelance web design for additional hours during the school year and full-time during the summer.</p>
<p>D will be doing the same thing when she heads off next month. She just got her first cell phone this month, and she's paying those bills. Plus, once the first tuition/R&B installment gets paid, we'll be transferring responsibility to her to pay her own bills as well.</p>
<p>It may sound rough, but now that S has graduated, we're confident that he understands the world of household finances and the consequences (penalties) for late payments.</p>
<p>I like this thread, I am going to save it and when my D says, well, everyone gets more, I can show her this...</p>
<p>We got our two Ds ATM cards, not credit, but debit for checking account...it is amazing how tight fisted they can be when its "their money"</p>
<p>We pay room, board, tuition, fees, health insurance, car insurance (no car at college), clothes, and all medications. DS pays for books, and all other extra expenses . He worked during the summer and had a great job during the school year. This will continue this year too. He has had NO trouble living with HIS budget...it's the money he's earning that is getting spent.</p>
<p>For years now, my husband had had it set up that every payday (every two weeks), $15 goes into our son's savings account. That used to be for saving toward college (not a lot, I know, but what we could manage); now it will be allowance. But in reality, it will be more a case of each of us (parents and son) spending what needs to be spent when it needs to be spent. Meeting our expected family contribution will be challenge enough. Incidentals will work out however they work out. We expect our son to live frugally, work summers, and, if he needs more "fun" money, earn it himself.</p>
<p>I have told S he will have to use summer earnings to pay for books and incidentals, though this was predicated on his having work-study. Brown does not expect work of freshmen, however, so if he gets a job, it will be on his own. For this year, I anticipate sending about $60.00 a month, along with fairly frequent care-packages of shampoo, razors, cereal bars, etc. Anything else will have to be out of his savings. I really hope he will seek about 5 hours of work to cover the other expenses, but am not sure what will be available.</p>
<p>I mean five hours of work/week. Too late to edit.</p>
<p>Similar for us: we pay tuition, room and board. No allowance S (like his sister did) pays for books, social life, travel, with summer job, savings, etc. We do allow him to use an ongoing scholarship he has towards that. We did add cell phones for both this year (very late adaptors) but considered the payments as their major Christmas present.</p>
<p>My parents probably won't send much. My brother got around $200/month, but he had a car at school and was able to drive home every weekend. He also didn't do as well in some classes when he was trying to work at the same time, so parents decided to give more $$. My family is pretty "one-pot" about money, so I'll probably just ask if I really need anything. I'm going to try to talk my mom into paying for my cell phone rather than sending me any money.</p>
<p>Just out of curiousity: some of you mentioned sending care packages. For some things, that seems really nice, but for everyday stuff like toiletries or packaged food or school supplies, it seems like it would work better to send money and let the student buy it, rather than pay to ship it. I suppose I just feel that way because I do most of the shopping for my whole family, so it seems weird to send it.</p>
<p>No allowance here. We pay tuition, room and board, cell phone. Last year she got a bonus $1,000 scholarship that paid for books. We're hoping that happens again. During the summer she works for 7 weeks at a camp and then has a work-study job that pays most of her expenses during the school year.</p>
<p>I don't get any money from my parents towards college (but I live at home). I have a job, working 30 hours a week during holidays and 18 hours a week in term, in a video game store. I paid for my own laptop this summer, and I'll be paying my tuition (about 4000 euro), and for books and for pretty much everything except my food at home and bed.</p>
<p>$200/mo. I'm a spoiler. I don't want her working at college unless it's a research-type job. I do want her to enjoy some of what Boston/NY has to offer. She is a good kid that doesn't abuse her privileges and doesn't take them for granted either.</p>