<p>We have given D1 $200 over and above her expenses - travel, clothing, books, cell, as when she was living at home. She is living off campus this semester. We pay for the rent directly, $100 for monthly parking (it’s $250, so she is paying for the rest), $400 for food. We have agreed that we would stop giving her spending money once she is a senior. This will be our last year. I think if she were going to school in a city the spend would be a lot higher.</p>
<p>As far as working on campus, I have always insisted on D1 working part time, it was one of the stipulations that we continue to give her allowance. She works in an office on campus 10 hrs/week, and 2-4 hrs teaching dance in town. There were 2 reasons for it - teaches her time management (I don’t believe kids need to spend all of their time studying), and it looks great on her resume. A lot of students have a hard time finding summer jobs (internship) because lack of experience. It is much easier to get on campus work without experience, if a job is available.</p>
<p>We have a boy in college and a girl at a private HS. We were going to monitor spending before we decided on an amount when our son went to college.</p>
<p>Here’s our post-first semester report. As far as we can tell, the boy spends as close to nothing as one can. He’d rather be poked in the eye with a sharp stick than go shopping. His sister charmed and coerced him into clothes shopping before college and did so frugally – otherwise he would have bought nothing. He took a blazer from my closet (an inexpensive one and a couple of dress shirts that don’t fit me as I’ve gained weight since I got them) for his major extracurricular activity – despite the fact that I offered to buy him a nice blazer when they were on sale. As far as we can tell, for the entire first semester, he spent at most $150 in cash on books and possibly another $150 on a college cash card on meals – he’s 6’4" with a reasonably big frame (probably 210 lbs) and has been in a perpetual state of hunger for about five years (he started at a slender 5’3") and is annoyed that although he can go as many times as he wants per day to the food service, it closes at 7:30 PM and he wants a second dinner at 10 PM. Hopefully, he has stopped growing and the eating will subside at some point. Perhaps a little is spent on his debate team trips, but as far as we can tell, nothing else. </p>
<p>He called me to ask for a set of cleats and a calculator as his had broken. He now needs a printer as his roommate moved in with some buddies from his sports team and took his printer with him. That’s about it.</p>
<p>In HS, we’d been giving him $100 per month. Most of it accumulated. So far, we just put money on the college cash card and watch his bank account to see if it is dropping. There was $500K in it all term, with no cash withdrawals.</p>
<p>We do the same for our daughter, who likes to shop for clothes and shoes but may be remarkably frugal. She comes back from Wet Seal and says proudly, “I got two pairs of boots for $25” or “four pairs of earrings for $8”. She came back from an outing to Harvard Square and told me that “there were some really cute blouses at Urban Outfitters but they were $48 so I didn’t buy them.” She does get allowance of $100 per month and spends some of it on clothes and some on meals with friends near her school.</p>
<p>My daugther gets $200 a month for spending, but we do buy her textbooks. She tends to be a bit thrifty as well, so I think that if she has any extra at the end of the month, she shifts it into savings.</p>
<p>Oops. No K. I wish. That bank account is only for cash and has had $500 all term. He does have others, but nowhere near that. The big numbers are sitting in the 529.</p>
<p>oldfort, no girl interest yet that I can see, and has managed to miss signals of interest thus far. He’ll conclude at some point that he has time – he’s intensely driven, highly dyslexic and at a high-end school and has done extremely well so far and probably wasn’t sure he had time – or some nice girl will hit him over the head and drag him back to her room. But so far, no cash outlay on anything.</p>
<p>So based on what I’m reading here, it sounds like parents with sufficient financial resources are paying for books, room and board, cell phones, and a few other personal expenses-either directly or indirectly. Money for entertainment is the kid’s responsibilitiy and amounts to about $100/month. Special circumstances are up for negotiation-and help keep parents connected to what the kids are doing. Is that about right?</p>
<p>M’s Mom, that matches what we’re doing although ShawSon has paid for some of his own books first semester but this semester he suggested that we (meaning me) could get them cheaper online, which I did. But, he doesn’t appear to have had meaningful entertainment expenses since the summer. I guess, 'rent of 2, that this would be a small town setting. Unless you drive or take a bus, there’s probably not tons to spend money on other than second dinners.</p>
Another factor is the course load and difficulty of classes. A PoliSci or history major, for example, will typically spend far fewer hours doing hw/studying than a computer science major so they’d have more free time which sometimes translates into more entertainment along with the higher cost as a result.</p>
<p>Regarding the campus job, keep in mind that they’re usually less than 20 hours/wk and in many cases more like 10-15 hours/wk. Most students can handle it fine, even those with heavy course loads if they’re focused and manage their time well. There are benefits to having the part time campus job besides the income as has been mentioned.</p>
<p>Regarding spending money - it really varies all over the place with some students paying most of their own way for everything to some who pay their own entertainment/incidental costs but not direct school-relates costs, to those who are handed a new car and handed Daddy’s credit card and given carte blanche to do whatever they want with it.</p>
<p>Freshman Year we gave D 1200 for fall semester, figuring that there would be startup expenses for the dorm room; spring semester will be $700. She’s still got more than 700 of the fall semester money in the bank. Next year we’ll expect her to use summer earnings to fund personal expenses, but we didn’t want to put that on her freshman year. </p>
<p>We still pay for trips home, healthcare costs, contacts, and cold weather outer clothing, and running shoes (an area where we really don’t want her economizing – the $50 great deal shoes could end up with hundreds or thousands in PT and doctor bills based on past experience.)</p>
<p>There were two things we saw with some other kids in years past that we didn’t want to emulate: the kid with the credit card with no limit, leading to no comprehension of money, and the kid whose parents doled out the money dollar-by-dollar, request-by-request, leading to no development of independence and budgeting skills (and also, from what I’ve heard, a fair amount of lying.) We give the money as a lump sum each semester, but this is building upon some foundation we’d established in high school, where we increasingly gave her a clothing allowance that was hers to spend. It was remarkable how different the decisions were once she had control of the money – the $150 jeans were no longer on the interest list, and I appreciated not being lobbied for them. YMMV.</p>
<p>Yes, Shawbridge… small town, indeed! My kid spends next to nothing, too. As a result, though, it has led him to believe that he needs to work next to nothing hours per week. Fall term he was only working 4 hours. Last year it was 7 to 10. Now he’s completely out of money… not even enough to split the cost of a pizza. Too bad, so sad.</p>
<p>“Now he’s completely out of money… not even enough to split the cost of a pizza. Too bad, so sad.”</p>
<p>Just the way you said that sounded so alarming to me… are you going to let him starve?? If he doesn’t have any money left for food you just say “Oh well, too bad?”</p>
<p>*There were two things we saw with some other kids in years past that we didn’t want to emulate: the kid with the credit card with no limit, leading to no comprehension of money, and the kid whose parents doled out the money dollar-by-dollar, request-by-request, leading to no development of independence and budgeting skills (and also, from what I’ve heard, a fair amount of lying.) *</p>
<p>I agree with not giving a “no limit credit card” (unless you’re so rich that you can continue that thru the child’s adulthood! LOL )</p>
<p>I’m a big fan of having kids earn money by tutoring (either for the school or privately) for a few reasons…</p>
<p>1) the kid chooses his own hours</p>
<p>2) tutoring keeps concepts fresh to a student. My older son hasn’t had Cal III or Spanish since freshman year of college and hasn’t had Chem since AP in high school, but by tutoring those subjects, it keeps it fresh.</p>
<p>3) he’s earning his own “play” money! He’s much more economical now when making purchases. We still pay for books, basic clothing, cell phone, car, etc…but he pays for movies, dates, etc.</p>
<p>BTW, one of the reasons my sons must buy textbooks out of their allowance is because I wanted them to do the research to find their books used, on-line, and cheap. For at least one of my sons, if DH and I were paying, he would have just gone ahead and purchased the expensive new ones at the college bookstore.</p>
<p>althought multiple of threads of this topic come up every year. This is my very first participation. It just got me very emotional with mixed feelings. On one hand, I felt very bad that we could not afford any extra $$ for DD who is 3000 miles away. On the other hand, I am just so proud of her.</p>
<p>At our income level, the school only asks us to pay for room, food, and all other personal stuffs. We pay school bills for two of the three quarters and DD takes care all the rest. She pay the school bill for one of the quarter, all expenses including books and her trip home. </p>
<p>DD works full time in summer @ school. Taking 4 ~ 5 classes per quarter and two part time jobs. You all know how hard that is. Just thinking about it bring tears to my eyes that we could not afford additional assistant. </p>
<p>Parents, if you could afford, please give your college kid some $$. A $20 bill so they could go with friends to have a pizza would mean that much to them.</p>
<p>I think it really depends on where you student goes. I consider myself to be quite frugal. I rarely buy clothes unless I need them and try to avoid eating places other than where my mealplan is covered if I can help it, but 50 dollars a week does not sound unreasonable or excessive to me. My parents set it up so that I have to pay my credit card bill, tuition, room, and board from one account. I have a credit card because sometimes it is necessary to have a credit card. I arrange my own flights home and can order textbooks from Amazon. Everything is just so expensive though! I live in a very urban school and most people go clubbing 3 days a week. I go once every few weeks, but it’s still expensive. You usually have to pay cover fees and coat check fees. This time of the year not taking a cab is not always an option. Most people here are drinking excessively 3 days a week. Alcohol is incredibly expensive. That is pretty much the norm here, and I don’t really know anyone who doesn’t participate at least a little. I am the kind of person that hates spending money, but I still spend more than I would like to be spending. Another thing is winter clothing. I did not really factor that in, but it is so expensive! You cannot find a serious coat for under 100 and most are a lot more than that. Long underwear, boots, socks. All of these things add up, and you really cannot go without them. I didn’t own anything meant for wearing below 40 degrees before I got here. I bought things that were on sale and not really as warm as they could be because I was scared of spending money. I don’t know what I am actually trying to say except that life at a college can be more expensive than you expect it to be. I wish I had thought more about this before choosing my school. I am lucky in that my parents completely support me. Sometimes I wish I had taken the full ride to my state school, because I get tired of dealing with money. Looking at the bank account is painful.</p>