<p>One way of managing expenses has worked well for us… My S has two credit cards. One is paid each month automatically from HIS checking account. He uses that to purchase things he will pay for. He uses the other credit card for anything we have agreed to pay for.</p>
<p>Our kids would pay for anything beyond the Family Plan, but they haven’t yet.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t pay for a laundry plan. IMO a little physical labor is good for kids and doing laundry simply isn’t that time consuming.</p>
<p>Thx, Yalemom, when you mentioned putting funds on a card, I wasn’t sure if you meant the laundry plan. So their ID functions as a credit card for laundry machines? Or are these separate cards that you buy for the laundry machines? Anything else? When I was in college, we had to get rolls of quarters from the bank to operate the machines (which, by the way, were horrible–the driers only had one setting and fried all my clothes).</p>
<p>Stringkeymom - Yes the ID functions as a laundry credit card for doing your own laundry in the machines in the residential colleges. The laundry plan is different - I think you take a bag of laundry to some drop off place and pick it up clean and folded a few days later. (I sure would like for someone to do that for me!) No quarters needed. However, I would suggest keeping lots of quarters in your car for parking meters when you visit!</p>
<p>There are some jobs on most campuses that are ONLY funded with Work Study funds. If a student does not have a W-S award, they cannot apply for that job. DS had that experience. He applied for a job on campus when he was a freshman that he was very qualified to do, and the employer wanted to hire him BUT it turned out it was W-S only and DS did not have W-S. Oddly the job went UNFILLED all of that academic year as NO W-S students applied for it.</p>
<p>Each school & sometimes each dorm w/in the school has a different system for laundry. Freshman year, S had to purchase a separate laundry card that he could use to wash clothes in the washer/dryer on his floor or anywhere in his complex. My D’s dorm let you use the student ID card that had $ on it for laundry or any other campus purchases. For S, it worked for everything on campus except laundry. They were updating laundry systems so eventually all machines on campus would take the student ID card which had $ on it for laundry.</p>
<p>Private companies also offered laundry services. We & the kids agreed it was an exoensive luxury so none of us spent time or energy on the details. It seems extravagant to all of us, tho I have heard on this message board of folks who have had their kids use it–different strokes.</p>