<p>I mentioned to my parents that a few of my sorority sisters get an 'allowance', and maybe they could do something similar. They laughed and brought out my most recent tuition bill, my lease for the house I'll be living in with 5 friends next year, and my book list.</p>
<p>I got the picture.</p>
<p>Deposit 2 K in a savings account (like ING) and set up an automatic $ transfer to your checking account every month or twice a month.</p>
<p>both 300 and 500 per month sound like a lot of money to me…however, you haven’t specified if that amount includes gas money, or if a lot of money should be allocated for transportation.
I’m in my 4th year of college and my parents have not given me an allowance. I was expected to work at home (household chores) for the money to cover soap, toothpaste, haircuts, etc. as well as any thing i wanted to do with my friends that cost money. I live on a very small campus that doesn’t have a lot of free activities to do. I decided to get a job in my second semester but I was unable to keep up my studies and the stress was just too much for me. After that plan failed, I pretty much have been trying to work for my mom when I can but mostly have to be the one person in my group of friends that can never go out b.c i don’t have any money. I know my parents can afford to give me things like soap or money for a meal when the cafeteria is closed, they just choose not to. I can tell you I haven’t learned anything from this experience except what it’s like to be broke, boring and hungry. It feels like my parents are purposely trying to add stress to my life, not help me succeed in getting my college diploma.
It has recently been put to me that if my parents are willing to pay for my college education, then the expectations I need to live up to are to be a good student and to form healthy relationships with my peers. I’ve lived up to my end of the bargain: I’m a good student, and I surround myself with good people (i.e. not doing drugs, not sleeping around, don’t have a boyfriend who hits me, don’t mug old ladies). Parents should live up to their end of the bargain and financially support their child’s other needs (social growth).</p>
<p>These posts go back to quite long ago and I know some of these posters well. I agree with the $0 for allowance, which is what we did. We paid for tuition (after scholarship)/R&B/travel, but beyond that (books, entertainment, etc) was all on him. When he took his car to school, we continued paying the insurance, but he was responsible for everything else. He made enough money working various gigs (making films - events and commercials, computer programming, and other school jobs).</p>
<p>$100/week for food (off campus apt.) and spending. Probably 75/25 split. S is not doing enough home cooking, but we expected this. He’s slowly learning that fast food/convenience food is expensive and that he has to plan or get stuck eating oatmeal for two days. Dining hall was much more expensive.</p>
<p>We send S2 $85 a week. He lives off campus so the money goes for gas, food, incidentials. Much of it is spent at the grocery store. He cooks almost all of his meals at his house. He’s a big guy (ex defensive lineman) so Lean Cuisines don’t cut it for him:)</p>
<p>His truck is an old gas guzzler hand-me-down from DH, no cheap fill-ups. He lives in an old wreck of a house with three roommates. Rent, utitlities,cable/internet total cost us less than $400/month
He is at a university that is really cheap compared to most I read about on CC.
With his total yearly tuition and fees less than $4500, we don’t mind sending him food, gas, toothpaste money. If he were at a school costing 20,30,40K a yr. it would be a diff. story.</p>
<p>Son works 7.5 hours a week tutoring and that pays his expenses. He made $5K this past summer that’s in the bank. He also has full access (checks + debit card) to our checking account but has never touched it.</p>
<p>I visit Boston College from time to time and the amount of money spent on clothes, laptops, vehicles, etc. surprised me. There are students that receive a lot of money from their parents while attending college. A long time ago when I had my car serviced at Foreign Motors of Boston, I saw the high-end cars that were parked overnight on the street. Many of these cars had dings here and there which you’d expect from parking cars in places where the owners don’t care.</p>
<p>digmedia, so you still around haunting the keyboard.</p>
<p>[The</a> Secrets Inside Your Dog’s Mind - TIME](<a href=“http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1921614,00.html?xid=yahoo-feat]The”>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1921614,00.html?xid=yahoo-feat)
assistant Duke college prof studies dogs when all he had to do is study college students on an allowance. :)</p>
<p>We transfer $35.00 a week to my S debit card (special card that does not allow overdraft, or OD fees). If he wants something more he can save up. If it’s something school related he can call and we try and figure it out together. He’s very active in school and so a PT Job would be counterproductive right now but it may be an option in the future and then we will adjust accordingly. Were just trying to make it work as a family.</p>
<p>The part-time job helps when looking for a full-time job in the senior year.</p>
<p>We provide cell phone (family plan he never comes close to using allowance) and books - son supplies rest. He hasn’t had to work during the school year because he earns enough in the summer. In fact he’s been putting money in a Roth IRA, I wish I’d had so much money when I was his age!</p>
<p>We provide tuition, room & board and cell phone (family plan). He pays books and all else he needs. He’s become pretty frugal. ;)</p>
<p>$0.
I will pay for tuition/room/board/books/all expenses</p>
<p>It did not even occur to me to provide pocket money for son. We pay for tuition, room, board, books, airfare home, and cellphone. He covers fraternity dues, recreation, etc. He earned money the last two summers and uses that for his personal expenses.</p>
<p>The money we send S2 for food and other essentials (toiletries,paper products,school supplies,gas…it’s a four hr. trip home) is way less than the cost of “board” when he lived in the dorm last year. His mealplan was a $1500/sem. The money is not so much “pocket money” as it is “cost of living” money. If he were to blow it on entertainment,he would be hungry and have no toilet paper!</p>
<p>if you got by with 2k all year then 200/mo works :)</p>
<p>We don’t provide an allowance. S1 pays for books, spending money, rent if he’s not living at home for the summer, and a small amount towards tuition. He also has a merit scholarship and takes out Staffords (though not the max). He’s covering 40% of COA. We pay the rest, and plane tickets home for winter and spring break. However, I am not above stocking him with snacks and clean socks when we send him back to school. 
He spent $900 freshman year including books – this year, books are more expensive. No car (he refuses to learn how to drive) and he’s included on our cell plan ($9.99/mo).</p>
<p>He works FT during the summer and 7-10 hrs/wk. during the school year. All of his jobs have been related to either CS or math, so they are useful for gaining real-life experience whether he chooses academia or the workforce (or both). The CS gigs also pay decently.</p>
<p>He knew years ago that we would not limit his college choices, but that this meant he would have significant buy-in to help pay for it, esp. if he turned down a major merit $$ offer (which he did). He has more than lived up to his end of the deal.</p>
<p>DH and I both put ourselves through college w/o parental help. We didn’t want our kids to go through that experience – OTOH, they were not getting a free ride from the Bank of Mom and Dad, either.</p>
<p>My parents gave my brother an allowance because he lived off campus and needed $$ to buy food and pay rent, so basically they spent on him what he didn’t make in room and board. He had a job to pay for incidentals, but my folks would chip in some extra sometimes (not too much, my mom didn’t want him to have so much money he could get into trouble). They also gave him the car they bought me for high school when I left for college, but he had to pay his own insurance/gas. BUT he went to a public university close to home and so his education cost them a lot less. Plus he needed more time to focus on his schoolwork, so they provided some funds so he would have to work less. </p>
<p>I went to a private college on the other side of the country, so I got a lot less parental support. They paid room and board, books, tuition, flights home for major holidays, and some set-up money for beginning of the year needs, but I was expected to earn money for personal expenses. Sometimes though, I would be between jobs or have an unexpected expense arise and then my parents would contribute something, but I knew they were already sacrificing a lot just to keep me in school so I tried to be careful and earn enough to pay for myself or else go without. </p>
<p>It’s kind of pointless to ask a question like this on CC (in case you didn’t notice) where people are from so many different backgrounds, and their kids go to school in so many different areas with different costs of living and costs of attendance that it would be impossible to determine a real “average”. You’re better off asking your friends to see what they think is average, or else asking your parents what they are willing to give (the more important metric).</p>
<p>Never had a job cause parents didn’t want me to. At Purdue I probably had a $500 on average allowance from my parents but REALLY regret being such a wastrel. I was in a fraternity and always ate out with my friends so pretty much used all that money or exceeded it and asked them… Now at my new school having no friends, no social life I just used $30 bucks in 9 weeks here. I have however went home 3 times by train for a total of $500 in which doesn’t really count since imo it isn’t be part of my allowance…</p>
<p>Okay, regardless of who pays it, what is the average monthly college expense for incidental expenses? Obviously this is going to be a range, but what is the most typical ballpark?</p>