<p>I am having a hard time deciding how much allowance my daughter should have at school. We are paying tuition, books, meal plan which actually allows for about 10.00 a day for meals, laundry. She does make trips into town through school shuttle but it seems to me she is spending more than she needs...I hate to make her send me receipts but I think she is overspending. She knows she has to buy her own unnecessary things, new shoes, make up...things I think she doesn't need. I will take that amount out of her savings to put on the credit card we have set up for her. I would like some opionions on this...she is going into NY City this weekend to see a friend with her roommate...Obviously will be quite expensive...I need to give her a cap to spend</p>
<p>How much allowance does she have now? If she's already spending 'more than she needs', then I'm not sure setting an allowance would make any difference. Perhaps you could just step back from the situation and let her manage the money herself, including the credit card payments?</p>
<p>My D is making around $30.00 a week on her work study job, and she says that's plenty for her day-to-day expenses, makeup, laundry, etc., but it's goign to be different for every student.</p>
<p>She has actually only been there a month...I foolishly didn't set an allowance thinking she has a credit card and will only use it in need...she is not working as she is a health science major and has 7 classes...very overwhelmed with that as it is...The first bill should be in any day but it seems that she is going into town more often than I expected to get stuff she "needs". This is the first child away at college, my son lived home and commuted.</p>
<p>There have been many threads regarding this over the years- it seems like about $200-250 per month is the average amount of money a kid needs/wants- with of course some great guys in small towns not needing much at all, and other girls in NYC needing more!</p>
<p>The other big question is who provides that money- parent or kid? You can have a long argument with every one as to who provides or does not provide the money :) We told our kids to budget $250 for cell phone bill, clothes, toiletries, sundry items, etc. That has been about right, though does not include the extra income they could or might earn at a campus job. </p>
<p>$200-250 is not lavish, but not cheap, esp if it includes cell bills and clothing replacements. And do remind your DD not to use it all up every month, save some for potential fun travel opportunities which may arise</p>
<p>apf, it sounds like you really need to have that conversation with her. Maybe the best way to start is to have HER give you a budget of what she thinks is fair. That will give you a better idea of what her ideas are about what she <em>needs</em>. And if she can break that into what she thinks she should pay for and what she thinks you should pay for, you'll be that much farther ahead.</p>
<p>Since my D left for school over a month ago, I've sent her $80.00. That's it. BUT, she has told me that she hasn't been out to eat at all, I pay for her cell phone, she has a card to pay for her prescriptions, etc. So really all she needs cash for is walking-around money, laundry, etc. I'll be going down in a couple of weeks and guaranteed I'll spend some money getting her stocked back up with shampoo, peanut butter, whatever. </p>
<p>There have been many threads about this, and I agree with somemom that, while it is really different for different kids, 200-250 a month seems to be pretty common.</p>
<p>Also, I think my D went out a bit more during orientation and the first few days of classes. Now that she has a lot of studying to do, it has cut back. She did tell me the other day that she still had some of that $80.00 left.</p>
<p>A friend's D thought that unlimited fancy brand coffee daily and $200 jeans were an OK lifestyle for a college kid and then low paying grad. To me this is way out of line. If that girl got what she wanted I would think her spending money would have been a few hundred per week. I also think that such lavishness leads to problems later. I used to say such a girl needed to marry a hedge fund manager. Now I guess that may not even cut it.</p>
<p>Personally, I think that it is not good to pay for a lot of expensive dinners, etc. However, MANY kids at expensive colleges do have unlimited expense accounts. How unhappy for the rest. Good to learn early how to manage one's money, since this is reality for most of us mere mortals.</p>
<p>Do not set her up for failure. You are paying for her schooling, food, and her other needs. That is what you should be doing. Anything beyond that is great. However, do not spoil her by boosting her allowance to meet her wants. If you do that, the mants will increase continuously. If she does not have the money, then she can not buy things. If she wants it bad enough then she can get a job. Sounds like you are a great father, but start to pass on the reponsibility a little.</p>
<p>I just realized that she has 7 classes so I understand a job is out of the question. Does she save up during the summer?</p>
<p>Depending on if the kid goes to school in acity or not... IF in a city between 250 and 300 a month. If not about 200 a month</p>
<p>We pay for tuition, books, meal plan and cell phone. Son pays for other expenses out of summer or school year earnings. Since we have a joint checking account we can see that he's one of those low expense boys! I personally feel the best way for kids to have a stake in their spending is to have them spending money they have earned.</p>
<p>I like the idea of having her present you with a budget, then you can have the conversation about what luxuries you are willing to pay for. (Starbucks once a week, but not every day? Dinner at a restaurant once a month, but not every week?) As a rule of thumb, most kids can have a lot fun on what you can earn working 10 hours a week.</p>
<p>We're starting out with $200/month for a student at a a rural college. I'm pretty sure this will turn out to be too much, but we'll see. </p>
<p>At drop-off in late August I gave her $800 for Sept.-Dec. and it's up to her to transfer the monthly amount from savings to checking. That way if she wants to spend more in one month and less in another, she can choose to do that. This is a girl who is naturally frugal (unlike her mother). A different kind of spender might need more training wheels.</p>
<p>This year, she used her summer earnings to buy a laptop for school. I think next year she'll be able to fund her own spending money with summer earnings.</p>
<p>We gave S2 $250 (he's in good sized town ..pop. 70,000) for the first month. He blew threw it like crazy. The vast majority of it was spent on food. His cafeteria was not open the first two weeks (renovations) so he ate out a lot and made a trip to Wal-Mart to buy food and other stuff for the dorm room and spent way too much there. He also used some for gas for his truck. </p>
<p>Cafeteria is open now. He says he has revised his budget plan in his freshman seminar class ( a requirement for the class) and plans to do much better in Oct. It's a learning curve. He'll figure it out.</p>
<p>Early on, our kids understood that anything beyond tuition, room, and board is their responsibility to finance. They work full time during the summer and contrary to what many other kids on CC seem to be doing, they also work during their school breaks. Their Winter break and Spring break will not be a trip to Cancun, Puerto Rico, Florida, or where ever the "happening place" may be. They will be working full time. The reason being is that we feel strongly that our kids understand how to be self sufficient. They know that if they need money, they can find a job, work, and earn it.<br>
We don't send an allowance---they're 18 and over. Even when they lived at home they didn't get an allowance or gas money. They earned their money. Sure, we would kick in a little extra once in a while and they appreciated it. Sometimes when I read threads like this on CC, I get the feeling that "old school" parenting has been replaced with a type of parenting that promotes dependency rather than independence Another note, each S is responsible to pay their own credit card bill.</p>
<p>I do feel strongly that she cannot work right now w 7 classes but I do need to give her an amt not to go over...I know that...I know she has been getting food and stuff at Walmart and a few decorationss for her room, which is fine with me....I know I made amistake in not setting an amount but I will rectify that when I speak with her</p>
<p>To the OP- you know what her track record is managing money. If she was careful about spending in HS, you've got a good indication that once she gets "stocked up" she'll be ok. If she blew through every nickel she earned the minute she got it, then you need to be very clear with her on what you are prepared to send her every month or every semester. Also, many kids find that the incidentals of college (toothpaste, a box of laundry detergent etc.) cost a lot more than they think they do... mainly because Mom and Dad always bought that stuff.</p>
<p>My suggestion is to give her a tiny bit of rope... after all, people learn from their mistakes... before you yank her in. On the other hand, if she's getting addicted to croissants and lattes from the corner bakery instead of eating cheerio's and toast at the (already paid for) dining hall... now would be a good time to explain your financial support whether it's a monthly check or a sum for the entire semester.</p>
<p>We put a lump sum for the quarter in daughter's account from which she pays her credit card charges. That way she knows how much there is to spend and learns a little bit about budgeting her money (i.e. not blowing it all in the first month of school). Also, the money is really hers and she doesn't have to get our approval for her choices. We give her enough so that with her summer earnings she has aboutto $300.00 a month.</p>
<p>I agree with whylion.</p>
<p>You will do your D a great favor by establishing an allowance (monthly or term), providing that amount, and then leaving it up to <em>her</em> to decide what she needs/wants. </p>
<p>Asking her for receipts, getting into talks with her about what she does/doesn't need is punting on the most important element here - her learning to manage within whatever budget she has. You can be generous, lavish or frugal in the amount you give her. That is not the issue. What matters is that she learns to make the trade-offs herself and can decide on a weekend in NYC, knowing that this means fewer "little things" she can buy whenever she has a want, because the trip was important to her. That's what financially responsible adults do.</p>
<p>If she's always been good with money, as another poster said above, it will probably go easily. If money has burned a hole in her pocket in the past... she might have hard lessons to learn. Much better that she learn this by running out of her $250 (or whatever) one month.... than learn it by running up a multi-thousand$$$ credit card bill when she's first out on her own after college.</p>
<p>It will also be a gift to yourself, as you will stress far less sweating the day-to-day details of what/how much she spends. You will have established that.</p>
<p>Sometimes, if you haven't had this "talk" prior to college, it might seem a little overbearing to clamp down with a budget at this point. But you can present it as a natural progression - now she is at college, now she has different kinds of spending needs, you don't want to baby her by looking over her shoulder at every expenditure, you trust her to start managing her own money.... so you will allocate $x and she will be on her own. Use it as a way of expressing confidence in her, rather than expressing doubt in her.</p>
<p>BTW- if she is frugal, you may be able to give her money for the term; however, if money burns a hole in her pocket, I suggest doling it out month by month at least the first term, then working into providing it more often. One of mine was out of money the last month of every term, but she has it figured out now.</p>
<p>When DS graduated last summer, we sat down and agreed upon what things we would provide - and what things he was expected to pay for. We made an old fashioned paper list with two columns - e.g. Books, Tuition, Health Insurance, Doctors Bills, Auto Insurance were in my column, Gas, Food, Clothing were in his. Anything that was not on the list we agreed we would discuss when that expense came up. </p>
<p>Once we had the list, we then attempted to come up with an expected amount per year for all of the items on the list. For the items on his side of the list, we then converted that into a twice monthly amount which we then agreed would be his budget. A portion of that, $250 twice a month, I agreed to pay for. (Note - he is living at home but must eat multiple meals out per week due to his work, job and athletic schedule.) The rest is up to him to earn or pay for out of savings.</p>
<p>Why twice monthly? That is how often I get paid - and he gets paid the day after I do. Turns out his job is also on a 1st and 15th schedule so he gets his income in two lumps per month.</p>
<p>We don't give any monthly allowance. We pay tuition, room and board, books, computer, cell phone, gas money to come home for breaks, stocked up on toiletries before arriving at school and on breaks. All entertainment and going out is out of her summer money. Clothes I buy before school starts and for Christmas/bday. She works 6 hrs a week on campus. She has tons of money in her account!!!</p>