<p>$0. My son has a full ride and gets about 1K spending money per semester from his college for books, travel, incidentals. I sometimes send him treats or clothes, but expect him to manage his expenses within the money they give him. He also has to support himself during the summer.</p>
<p>The biggest expense for me as an undergrad (besides the obvious tuition bills) was food.</p>
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<p>I’ve been asked this many times. Honestly, I don’t really know the answer as the kids earn the money…and they spend it. I, therefore, don’t keep track of that spending.</p>
<p>However, I asked my kids and this is what they TOLD me (disclaimer…don’t know if this is actual or made up). Both kids live(d) in major expensive urban areas for college. Each said that $50 on average a week, was MORE than enough for discretionary spending and that the usually spent far less than that. </p>
<p>We DID pay for housing and food for our kids for four years…and for grad school too. </p>
<p>DS got a total of $650 a month. His share of the rent was $450 and the rest paid for utilities, food, and anything else he could squeak out of it.</p>
<p>DD gets $850 a month. Rent is $640 and the rest pays for utilities, food etc.</p>
<p>Both are responsible for earning any discretionary spending money. We didn’t give them money for dinner out, clothing, shopping trips, concert tickets, movie tickets, etc. Both has small part time jobs during college AND worked in the summers and on vacations to earn money for these types of expenses.</p>
<p>It never dawned on us to support their discretionary spending…and truthfully, I think they used THEIR money a lot more carefully than they would have used OURS.</p>
<p>We pay for room, food, books, drug store, trips home :), sometimes clothing, other times not. She pays for everything else.</p>
<p>We pay all direct costs for college, as well as for health care, prescriptions, trips home, car insurance, cell phone (family plan). Grandparents pay for books (D buys used, even with this generous gift). D pays for all other expenses - works all summer & makes it last throughout the year.</p>
<p>My friend donates plasma to survive lol since he doesn’t get any allowance from his parents BUT they are paying his tuition.</p>
<p>^^ Thats a tough one to answer, b/c it depends on what one includes in “incidentals”. We give our s $250/mo. For him, “incidentals” include expenses for supplies, travel or what have you for his 2 club team sports. Fortunately, he’s pretty frugal and a reasonable amount of the allowance goes into savings. However, that said, he complained when we told him his allowance was coming out of the $$ we’d saved for him for college. He said “you are paying me allowance with my money?” to which we replied " no, we are giving you an allowance with our money- the money we saved for you for your education. If you spend it, it goes away. If you save it, then it becomes your money."</p>
<p>We pay tuition, medical insurance, co-pays and round trip air transportation.</p>
<p>DS pays for room, board, books, fees, cell phone and any incidentals via a combination of merit scholarship, summer and part time jobs. He works full time during the summer. This semester he takes notes for the LD department and started an on-line trading venture.</p>
<p>DW and I self funded our college education through graduate school and feel strongly DS needed some financial “skin” in the game.</p>
<p>Our financial support and his merit scholarship are contingent on minimum GPA thresholds. We have asked him not to assume any debt for college and would consider modifying this arrangement if his circumstances change and he was considering a significant debt load upon graduation.</p>
<p>From what we can tell $250-350/month is plenty to budget for incidentals for a medium size school in a rural area.</p>
<p>My DD and I are in the process of negotiating this right now for next year as I don’t want her to go in with any preconceived notions. Like redwing we would rather renegotiate rather than have her take on loans.</p>
<p>I will pay tuition, room and board, health insurance, car insurance, cell phone (since it’s on my plan). We have a very low EFC so this will be anything not covered by merit aid or grants or outside scholarships. I basically told her that every scholarship she gets will go towards her bottom line, not mine. Stonger motivation to search. The plan is to have zero loans for undergrad.</p>
<p>She will pay books, gas, incidentals from her summer job/winter break job/work study pay check. She will be buying her own quality clunker and laptop before she leaves with combo of paycheck and graduation money. She also paid for her own driving lessons ($375) and is contributing significantly towards senior year expenses.</p>
<p>She is worried about budgeting a lump sum which I told her I would assist her with if she really felt like she was struggling with (i.e. I would be the banker and dole it out to her in weekly or monthly increments.) We are going to start out with her trying to do it herself. She’s just never seen those types of large numbers in bank account before and is worried about “blowing it”.</p>
<p>She is a very frugal child but is going to a school where there will be alot of pressure for fashion expectations and keeping up with the Jones. Finally time to see if all of the hard work on financial literacy finally pays off.</p>
<p>On the upside, her instincts already seem good and no matter where I send her in HS with spending money she always comes back with more than half in change. She is also able to verbally account for what she spent.</p>
<p>She went to a two week event or the summer where food was provided but there were lots of concessioners available. I sent her with $75 spending money and visited on the middle weekend and she had $58 left. I was stopped by another parent from our school who asked how much spending money I had given my DD because her daughter left with $200 and had already blown through it all. Her DD had called her the day before requesting more money. Yikes. My DD had spent $17 in the same amount of time.</p>
<p>To OP, your parents are being generous on the spending money front if they are covering all of your other expenses. Take what they are giving you while you can, they might start talking to other parents like the ones here. If you need more money, get a job.</p>
<p>My mother gave me a monthly allowance of $200. I still got a campus job to pay my bills. I let the $200 accrue until I needed cash to travel.</p>
<p>In other words, I didn’t need to beg her for money when it was holiday break. I had enough money to purchase a plane ticket.</p>
<p>S gets nada-- we’re paying full freight t,r &b. He’s responsible for books (rents them on chegg.com) & spending $ including transportation. If he pledges a frat-that’s his too. </p>
<p>FYI-- his graduation gift money we divided by 4 years-- so he could spend $300 of it this year (and in theory $300 ea as a starting point)</p>
<p>Dad & I pay tuition, fees, room&board, cell phone (on family plan), car insurance, and two round-trip tickets home. He has a modest Stafford loan, because we want him to have a stake in his education. As an engineering major, I expect he will get a well-paying job when he graduates, (although with this economy, who knows?) </p>
<p>S1 is responsible for all other expenses, including books. From an early age, at least 1/2 of all gift checks went into his savings account, as did most of his summer earnings. He also has a modest part-time job on campus. He’s pretty frugal, and so far, he is managing his money just fine. </p>
<p>My parents used the same formula for me, except I had to buy my plane tickets. I have my own memories of my checking account getting down to $1.25 and having to wait a few days for my next paycheck…</p>
<p>ALL OF YOU OTHER COLLEGE PEOPLE ARE LUCKY!!! my freakin mom only gives me a hundred A MONTH and on top of that… she decides where my financial aid is spent on… and… on top of it all… she says that she can take my allowance away any time… just because I’m 17 and underaged… SHE ONLY GIVEs ME THE EXACT MONEY… it sux… and i have a hard time applying for a job cuz they say im not experienced… i don’t like uptight parents. (i can’t say hate cuz then i’m saying i hate my mom)… why cant she be like dad and be cool… i got divorced parents and each time i’m with my dad he gets me the stuff i NEED… but also gets me stuff i want if reasonable… my moms all like… "I DECIDE… THATS IT… NO NEED FOR EXPLANATION!! GOD I HATE THAT</p>
<p>My daughter gets $40/month from me to spend on whatever she wants and I pay for books, cell phone, medication, travel home (she has my credit card for these and I review it carefully). Anything else she wants is from her earnings.</p>
<p>Kyle,
That attitude might be part of the problem. Do you get money from both of your parents individually? You get $100/mo from one parent and whatever you need from dad when you are with him. Your mom isn’t uptight- she is setting appropriate limits on you and teaching you how to manage it. Maybe her finances are tight. Try being a little more sensitive and grateful, and a little less entitled and whiney. Might go a long way. Be appreciative. $100/mo is a LOT more than many kids get.</p>
<p>Now I know why college dudes are always hungry. Its because they have mean parents who dont give them enough money to eat food.</p>
<p>I automatically transfer $100 every two weeks from my checking account to my daughter’s. She also has a credit card, which I pay, for gas, books, art supplies, and the occasional dinner out. She has a campus job that pays maybe $300 a month. Reading through this topic, it appears that I give my daughter more than most, but I have a personal reason to spoil her. I spent a year abroad in Paris in college, and my parents sent no money (except one time I called crying). The lack of money was a serious source of worry and misery for me. I don’t want to put my daughter through that.</p>
<p>I had told my S that he needed to have a summer job and the earnings would have to be for incidentals throughout the year. We pay for tuition, room, board and books. Initially he was going to pay for books but his summer job did not give him the hours he’d expected.</p>
<p>Anyway, I noticed he was having a really good time this summer, went places and bought video games. So I suspected he didn’t save as he should have.</p>
<p>I couldn’t take it anymore and logged in last night to his account (I opened it jointly with him). And, he’s pretty much broke.</p>
<p>I’m not saying anything, though. He has a good meal plan, so he won’t starve. I made sure he had all the documentation he needed so he could get a job on campus. And I expect he’ll be home over the holidays and work some hours (his employer kept him on the books)</p>
<p>I don’t see how he’ll be paying for the ski club, though. A tough lesson in the need for budgeting for him.</p>
<p>My S started his freshman year with $6000 in his savings account that we told him had to pay for his books and cover spending money for all four years. He also paid for 50% of his laptop out of this money. Now he is left with $5000. Additionally we gave him $100 in cash to start the semester six weeks ago. I asked him the other day how his spending is going and he said he still has $40-$50 in cash left. All of his meals are covered by meal plan and he really has little reason to spend above and beyond that. Altogether I’m guessing he’ll only spend $50 per month above and beyond room and board, book and tuition. I’m also guessing girls would be a bit different based on clothing and accessory “needs.”</p>
<p>Son will (hopefully) be replenishing the above savings with summer employment.</p>
<p>My parents never gave me an allowance… They contributed a bit towards college and bought my books, I paid for the rest out of student loans… I’ve been working since, literally, the day after I turned 14 and I’ve always paid for my own things. I’m generally speaking very frugal… Bought my house when I was 25 and put a full 20% down payment on it… Let me tell you this… Biggest check I’ve ever written in my life!!!</p>