<p>We want to be generous but not excessive. Our daughter earned a substantial merit scholarship, so we feel we can and should be generous in providing additional support. She will be working this summer to pay for the cost of taking a car to campus, but we don’t really want her to work during the school year. We expect her to pay for clothes, entertainment, eating out, (pretty much everything) out of the monthly allowance.</p>
<p>Curious…if she’s going to be paying for her car expenses, you will really need to adjust to much more than my kids spend. I just put 1/2 a tank of gas in my car yesterday and it was $38. If you are including the cost of parking the car, and any other car expenses, the price will be high. Also, when you say “clothing” you’ll need to talk to your daughter regarding what that means. Does it mean a formal for the dance (some schools have those) at several hundred dollars, or does it mean occasional replenishing of something essential? Also you will need to get an idea of what she views as “entertainment”. A Bruce Springsteen concert ticket can cost several hundred dollars, while the school coffeehouse might be free.</p>
<p>She is planning on earning enough this summer to cover all of the expenses of taking the car to campus, so I am not including those expenses. For the rest of it I think the answer is some of all of the above. Some expensive clothes, some cheap, some expensive entertainment, some cheap.</p>
<p>Curious…why not discuss a “budget” with your daughter? The two of you can set an amount that is a reasonable compromise (unless by some miracle you happen to agree). Then DD would have to make her own decisions on how she was going to spend the money you allocate to her monthly. Otherwise, it may seem like you are a bottomless pit that she can draw upon when needed.</p>
<p>Something tells me your family will be able to do this budgeting easily.</p>
<p>I am thinking of around $250, for college in the northeast that is near but not in major cities (but the area [town] is expensive). This is an estimate based in part on what the school thinks the student should earn in the summer to cover such stuff $2,500. Which is what D will earn this summer. If they’re correct this could be a little low and the $300 above may be more appropriate.</p>
<p>I am always amused by parents who live in horror that their child be denied or miss out on anything. Young adults are old enough to plan for and earn money for their own expenses.
I realize that many parents are footing the bill for college, and room and board as well, but how long are you going to give them an allowance?</p>
<p>We gave D about $400 per month, but she didn’t need that much IMO. I gave her more than I felt she needed but justified it because we didn’t have to pay tuition or room and board. In retrospect, I think it only contributed to her wastefulness.</p>
<p>emeraldkity,</p>
<p>Do you have a point you would like to make? I, for one, have no idea what you are trying to say.</p>
<p>I think ek is commenting on someone on the last page…</p>
<p>I agree with Thumper on this one. Kids seem to value “their” money much more highly than they value “my” money. We pay for what’s required - including books and cell phone. Beyond that they used what they earned during vacations. Middle kid spends more freely so she had school-year jobs also.<br>
If they are earning it themselves then how it’s spent doesn’t become an issue between kid and parents.<br>
Fortunately the one still in college goes to school in a <em>very</em> inexpensive area. Unless you want to hit a gourmet restaurant or are old enough to visit the wineries, there just isn’t much to spend money on. Even lift tickets are cheap - of course the ski area is small and quirky.</p>
<p>I burned through about $300 a month in the early 80s, but I was incredibly wasteful. As soon as I started earning it myself, suddenly it seemed much more reasonable to eat the food I was already paying for, than to order a pizza.</p>
<p>I don’t understand how $200 may not be enough. If room & board, tuition, books, computer and school supplies are paid for by us, then I think that $50 a week on going out is MORE than enough. I can go a week without spending any $. They are suppose to be at school studying. Please help me understand. My son will be going to Harvard in the fall and I wasn’t planning on giving him more than $200/mth.</p>
<p>p.s. I’m also hoping that my son will learn to save some of the $50/week that he gets and has to learn how to budget and just say “no” to certain things. He needs to learn now that he can’t get everything he wants. Better to learn it now than when he’s got a mortgage and a family to support. I know that I sound a bit passionate about this subject, but I just think that we live in a society where instant gratification is expected. I want my kids to learn that patience is a great thing.</p>
<p>I think $200 is enough for LA area but I think Boston is an expensive area. The most my daughter spends now is $180 per month(looking at her bank statement).</p>
<p>^^^ boston IS VERY expensive. Though it depends on your kid. I know of one boy who blew thru money like it was water at BC, he liked nice clothing, his parents got fed up and they had the means to pay. Was told to get a job in Brooks Brothers to support the clothing desire he had. He was going thru 200-250 PER WEEK.</p>
<p>Los Angeles is 21 out of the worlds most expensive cities , which doesn’t surprise me after a recent trip to Southern Ca. Boston isn’t on the list.
[City</a> Mayors: World’s most expensive cities in 2008 - Ranking](<a href=“http://www.citymayors.com/economics/expensive_cities2.html]City”>City Mayors: World's most expensive cities in 2012 - Ranking)</p>
<p>The OP wanted a number. Some of these comments seem to say more about the parents and kids issues than what the OP had in mind. Whether you think your kid should earn it all or be given it all, is not the issue. The issue is guestimate of the cost, whoever pays.</p>
<p>The school my D was originally planning to attend (An American college in Switzerland) required about $1,000 per month in spending money - just to get by. Buses alone were about $3.00 each way into town where the kids pretty much went every day. Switzerland is known as the most expensive country in Europe. Lovely school, but costly. Add that to $50 grand in tuition and plane fare back and forth. Whew! So glad she decided on Ireland instead.</p>
<p>Thanks, hikids, could not have said it better myself.</p>
<p>guitars101, I fully agree with you that part of the college experience should be to learn how to live frugally. FWIW, DD, who is currently in the same school that your son will be going to, spends about $50 per week, and this includes $$ for taking the T to a volunteer activity that she has. Also, your DS should be able to easily find a p/t job (~8 hours per week) at the school - there are many available and it really is a good thing for kids to learn to manage their time by having a job, in addition to their cash!</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone would know how much to tell another parent to provide for their child unless they had info about how much their child generally spent and what the parent wanted to pay for.</p>
<p>Without that info, then it does come down to how much a parent is going to pay for a students personal wants and needs-</p>
<p>That is usually part of the criteria when deciding on schools.
A school in an area that is hard to access may require more spending money or less, depending on areas resources and how willing the student is to make use of them.</p>
<p>A school in an area with good public transportation is going to be less expensive than if it were in an area with little public transportation.
Where it is hip to show how creative you can be with free clothing from the Goodwill bins, is naturally going to be less expensive to " fit in" on campus, than at a school where the young women deign to have a different designer bag for every day of the week.</p>
<p>Once room and board is covered, medical care and transportation, books and supplies- they seem pretty well set. There is lots of low cost entertainment around a college- in fact many times you don’t even have to leave campus.
If you want to give them more- that would be up to you, I’m sure some kids will spend what ever they are sent and others will save- you know your kid.</p>