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Yes, I think it is more than enough, but this might be a one time thing as she had to shop for winter clothes. Let’s see how it goes for the next two months.</p>
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I’ve eaten both in the dinning Halls as well as at the student center. The minimum good meal cost is $6 at the dinning Hall with subsidy and cost around $7 at the student center with dinning Hall meal of higher quality.
Then there is water/organic milk/veg./fruits/poultry etc. which seems to be not cheap around the dorm. We tried shopping in the near by shopping centers.</p>
<p>If her winter shopping is done (as you said in post#67 and 121), then you might consider giving her a set allowance per month rather than an open-ended line of credit and see if she budgets a little more. Eating out every Fri and Sat in Boston seems a bit over the top and can seriously add up. Aren’t the dining halls open on the weekends?</p>
<p>^^^: Some of the dinning Halls are open but not all. But I think Fri/Sat dinners are part of outing some with sorority and some not. I’m guessing this only from her consistent $40 withdrawal from checking account every friday as she uses College cash for on campus dinning.
There is an additional cost of $300 per semester for the Sorority also not sure exactly for what.
How much do you think I should ask her to budget?
College cash: $250
Weekend fun: $120
Mis.: $130
So will $500 a month be reasonable to start with including food.</p>
<p>How can she belong to a sorority first semester of her freshman year??? When would she have rushed and been accepted?</p>
<p>^^^: It seems to happen during the first week during orientation prior to start of the semester. She was accepted in September. The dues seems to be $300 per semester. I was able to find her on the Sorority web site, so that seems to be the norm at her college. She will be showing us the sorority house over the weekend during our visit.
Also I don’t want to be contradictory to her as whenever I talk to her the first thing I ask her if she is eating healthy. I think it is more important to stay healthy and focus on the studies than to save money by skipping meals or eating junk or cooking food.</p>
<p>The $300 is for initiation and ongoing expenses. In my daughter’s case it was around $600 the first year. It covered sweat shirts, initiation pin, formals. She was also allowed to eat at the sorority every Sun. D1’s school rush week is in Jan. It gives all freshmen a chance to get to know each before they make a decision to go Greek or not. D1 did find her circle became a lot smaller once she joined a sorority. Some schools don’t even allow students to rush until the second year.</p>
<p>POIH - I don’t think it’s the amount that matters, it’s best to be what you are comfortable with. The point is to set a fixed amount and allow her to manage it herself, instead of you topping it off every time the balance falls below a certain amount.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Having been in a sorority, I know that there can be a lot of expenses involved - in addition to dues. Formals (including frat formals) can set a girl back a lot with dresses and shoes (although we did trade dresses when we could). Some formals now are “out of town” requiring hotel costs. Going Greek can be expensive.</p>
<p>oldfort: That does make sense, I’m thinking to sit with her after the first semester to go over the cost during the first semester and come up with a semester long budget and let her handle it.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids: Yes, DD did talk about formals and sem formals. The web site also list that the regular mixers happen at resturants too which might be increasing the weekend cost.</p>
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<p>Of course this is every family’s own personal decision…but “weekend fun” in the Thumper household is NOT something the PARENTS pay for…not at all. That is why the kids work in the summers and during other vacations AND why they both had or have small part time jobs.</p>
<p>If the cost of eating is excessive (sorry, but I don’t spend $40 every weekend to eat out myself…I think that’s excessive. Where is she going, Cheesecake Factory?)…maybe she could get a part time job in the dining hall. Perhaps it includes a free meal here and there.</p>
<p>At D1 school mixers are paid for by fraternities. If a fraternity is not too generous with drinks or theme it’s not likely there would be another mixer later.
POIH, I assume you are aware that mixer is between a frat and a sorority and most of the time it’s just drinks.</p>
<p>oldfort : I’m not aware of the mixers so don’t know what it is. From the sorority web site it is clear that it is a mixer between frat and sorority but it says dinner and not just drinks and that also at good resturants.
Hmm. drinks; DW will be in for a big surprise.
I’ve not gone to University/College in USA and so I’m not aware of this concept.</p>
<p>thumper1: I’m only second guessing from her $40 withdrawal every friday. DD might be using it for somthing else.
She is earning around $100 a week thru the research internship, so DD is not just spending. But I thought it might be better for her to save that money into the saving account but I can stop refilling her checking account too.</p>
<p>I totally agree with oldfort-- give her a flat monthly allowance and let her use it as she pleases. Older s saved a lot of the $$ we gave them for allowance and had a nice little nestegg at graduation. </p>
<p>By the way, cooking for onself is often the best way to assure a healthy meal.</p>
<p>From the time my kids started high school, they knew they would have to cover all the costs of books and personal expenses in college. Mom and Dad cover most of the tuition, room & board and fees. Every time they earned money or received a check for a gift, at least half of that went into their savings account for college expenses. This, plus summer jobs, plus part-time work on campus (around 10 hrs/week) is enough to provide a modest amount of spending money. (Of course, I send care packages every now and then, and buy very useful presents for Christmas and Birthday. And we also end up paying for the plane tickets home.)</p>
<p>S2 is a Junior, so when he is home for Thanksgiving, we will get him a credit card. We’ll go through my credit union where they have a special program for students, with a low line of credit. I’m figuring he is going to need a credit card when he goes on job interviews. In today’s world, it is critical that kids learn how to manage credit wisely.</p>
<p>If dd is earning $100/wk in a lab internship, why are you subsidizing her much at all?? Let her learn to budget her own money, give her a small allowance, pay the onetime big things like sorority dues and put the rest in a savings account for her.</p>
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<p>I know my sorority’s chapter at MIT does rush in the first part of freshman year, so it’s quite possible she’s a pledge.</p>
<p>POIH - mixers are pretty much drinks (whether soft or hard, I’m not getting into) and socializing. They’re not going out for dinner. Frankly the mixers I was familiar with were free, since they were held at the fraternity house and the fraternity paid for the drinks (or, the sorority budget kicked in a subsidy, but not individual members). Surely you realize that the bulk of MIT students can’t be affording a weekly dinner at a nice restaurant.</p>
<p>Everyone’s financial situation is different, so there is no one magic number, but I concur that the best thing to do is figure out an allowance, give it to her and let her figure out how to spend it. If she wants to buy an extra sweatshirt that month for a sorority function, then maybe she eats more at the dorms and less out. Maybe she learns to drink water with her meals. That type of thing.</p>
<p>Sorority recruitment at MIT was switched from spring of freshman year to fall of freshman year in 2007. One of the primary reasons was to provide an earlier support system for stressed-out kids.</p>
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If one is a pledge, do they have to pay the $300 sorority dues? Wouldn’t they pay after rush is over and they have been accepted into the sorority?</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>Pledges pay dues.</p>