<p>I'm a girl, going to be a freshman. I've been googling and looking at posts on here about how much spending money is necessary. I didn't think I would spend anything close to $50-$100 a week in college (which seems to be the average I've read on here) and it's making me very concerned I won't have enough if I am not able to find a job on campus. I'm excluding all money spent on books and tuition, and I live on campus with a good meal plan and a bus system as the means of transportation. So that just leaves spending money for activities and some necessities from a convenience store. I won't be eating off campus much, there are no malls or shopping centers close by, there is a movie theater on campus and tickets are only $5, when concerts are held at school tickets are $10 tops, I rarely drink, the gym is free, and my laundry for first semester is paid for as well on a school debit card. So I assume $200-$275 would be enough to get me by for my first semester, am I wrong?</p>
<p>Sorry, but even $50 a week for 16 weeks would even be quite Spartan. All I can say is that there’s always something that you don’t count on. GL</p>
<p>What exactly would I be spending $50 a week on when laundry and meals are covered, no transportation costs and no shopping centers? Sorry, I’m just trying to really figure this all out.</p>
<p>It depends A LOT on where your school is. If you are in school in Washington DC or NYC, you are going to spend more. There is more to do, more to buy, and your school friends will probably be going out to do more expensive things.</p>
<p>My D1 ended up in college in a smallish town, and she said $25/week was usually enough for her. That was a few years ago (she graduated 2 years ago), so maybe a few bucks more would be needed now (say, $30/week?). She did have friends with cars (met after she got to school), so sometimes they left campus to go to dinner or to the mall in the next town over. She ate at the frozen custard stand near campus, went to movies at the nearby town movie theater, and ordered pizza with her friends. She bought her roommate small birthday & Christmas presents, and went with a club for a weekend in a nearby big city. Her college caf didn’t have Sunday night dinner and her friends would want to go out. She did not participate in Greek life (which has costs involved). I think she might have given her friends a bit of gas money if they drove her somewhere she needed to go.</p>
<p>Just to make sure you can go out with your friends, have pizza when everyone else is, go on a club outing that costs extra, etc – you probably should budget a little more if possible. Maybe $30/week?</p>
<p>I was in the same boat as you. Rural school, rarely spent money, etc. The only times I did buy things were when I paid activities fees for my outdoors club and when I bought booze (and you said you don’t drink, so there goes that expense). I’d recommend having $20-$40 in your wallet at all times, as well as around $20 per week for any activities, needed items, sporting events, etc. However even that may be a stretch, but start off with $20 and then go down or up as needed.</p>
<p>Thank you for laying out your daughter’s experience to give me an idea of what exactly I will probably be spending money on. It helps a lot. Fingers are crossed that I will be able to find an on campus job, which is a worry since my school has so many students.</p>
<p>$275 being only for going out type stuff you can probably manage fine, but you’re probably going to want more than that. </p>
<p>Are you at a big university? If so there’s going to be subject tests going on all the time. I know the economics ones where I go are awesome because they often pay based on how well you do. Numerous times it’s equated to like $25-$35 an hour (though for only like 2 hours) just because I tried to do whatever task well. Where I go there’s also a bunch of ergo ones that generally pay $15/hr and last several hours. Medical ones pay a ton but there’s often a lot of conditions (I notice them mostly wanting only females too…) and you might have to take drugs though. </p>
<p>Sign up for some studies. It’s pretty good pay if you don’t have a job. Not steady pay but you can easily make a few hundred a semester without doing any medical ones, just in your spare time.</p>
<p>Thank you! Helps a lot</p>
<p>I am going to a big university so I’ll definitely look into that. I have some health issues though so that would most likey exclude any medical studies but I’ll look into other studies available</p>
<p>My D did work on campus starting her sophomore year (she was invited to work in the school writing center). But she didn’t work freshman year. Although at her college they said that any student who wanted to work in food service could do that… so that is a place to look into right away. Not glamorous, but usually pretty flexible hours, and you can work a pretty small number of hours if you want to. My D had worked summer prior to freshman year and saved some money before that, so she was okay with not working for a year. But if she hadn’t, she probably would have been scooping potatoes freshman year. :)</p>
<p>My plan was to work this summer before the school year too so I could just focus on getting adjusted to college and not have to be concerned about money, but unfortunately I was unable to find a job.</p>