<p>I need to figure out a monthly budget for personal expenses.</p>
<p>I spend $20-$30 a month. If I had my way I would have $50-$100 but that’s a bit much for me.</p>
<p>What exactly are you trying to figure into it? My only real personal expenses are food, but I don’t have a meal plan. I spend ~$450/month on food, but that can easily be cut down if needed.</p>
<p>On the Michigan website it says about 2090 dollars for two semesters is needed for personal/miscellaneous expenses ([University</a> of Michigan Office of Financial Aid: Cost of Attendance](<a href=“http://www.finaid.umich.edu/financial_aid_basics/cost.asp]University”>http://www.finaid.umich.edu/financial_aid_basics/cost.asp)). That comes out to about 232 bucks per month for 9 months. I was wondering if a typical student actually needed that much money for personal expenses like clothes, eating out, entertainment, personal items, etc.</p>
<p>Well, clothes and entertainment are going to be completely dependent on the person. I don’t actually keep track but I think I spend in the range of about $5/month for stuff like deodorant, shampoo, soap, etc, which for a guy is probably about average.</p>
<p>In the dorms with a meal plan…you won’t spend more than $200 the whole year.</p>
<p>It depends on what you do. I spent money on food, club sports fees, and concerts. I think it was about 1k for the year. If you get a part-time job you’ll have enough spending money</p>
<p>I enjoy eating out with my friends, so I tend to spend more. I probably spend $100-150 a month. Do you like to eat out, go out, go to the movies, etc. on a regular basis? In general I think girls tend to spend more than guys.</p>
<p>All depends on your lifestyle-</p>
<p>you can spend a lot or a little.</p>
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<p>I disagree with this. You’ll get sick of eating in the dorm and want to go out more.</p>
<p>MHailJ is a freshman, he has no idea what he’s talking about, just ignore him…</p>
<p>On a related note, if you plan to eat out a lot, hit up clubs, and drink every week, I’d plan about $150-200 a month.</p>
<p>MHailJ is a freshman, he has no idea what he’s talking about, just ignore him…</p>
<p>^Wrong. Where do you get this information from?</p>
<p>On another note, some get bored of dorm food. Others do not. I never did and actually enjoyed it because there were so many options. Also, nutrition facts are right in front of your face, which was always a plus for me.</p>
<p>when i lived in dorms last yr, i rarely spend any $ on food, probably less than $100 the entire yr. The rest of my expenses was on personal items like toothpaste etc</p>
<p>We’ll ignore room and board, because I assume you know your meal plan and living expenses.</p>
<p>Freshmen are lucky in that they essentially don’t have to pay to drink. Frats provide free alcohol, albeit of terrible quality, so you can easily get away with having a good time on the weekends (Thurs-Sat) without having to buy much alcohol. Of course, beer lines can be long and some houses sometimes run out (or at least choose to stop serving random dudes) by midnight. Alcohol should also be on the house at house parties. The frat scene tapers off for students after freshman year, and declines fairly quickly after sophomore year (this is obviously situational, but that’s how it was for most people I know). If you have a fake and like to hit up the bar once or twice a weekend, or you want to pregame with friends, you can probably get away with spending anywhere from 30-50 a night (depending on where you go, what kind of drinks you’re buying, what your tolerance is, whether you’re buying drinks for girls, etc.). Drinking is easily my biggest expense at school after room and board. I’ll get some coffee now and then, I’ll hit up a movie now and then, but those expenses are variable and hard to predict. I might drop an additional 50-100 on non-food/alcohol expenses per month on average.</p>
<p>What cellphone services do you guys use? I’m trying to find a good service that has texting but they’re all quite expensive. Just trying to figure out my mandatory costs each month.</p>