<p>you suggest giving your child for weekly spending money? What do you do about food allowance when a child lives off-campus?</p>
<p>When DS whom we still claim as a dependant on our taxes moved into an off campus apartment last year (junior), we wote him a check for $250 a month. We live in the same metropolitan area as the university and his apartment. He was always welcome to come to the house for dinner (30 minute drive-each way). We made a point to prepare extra food in order for him to take the left overs. He could always tag along when we shopped at Sam’s Club. It was our way of thanking him for choosing to make time to be part of the family unit.</p>
<p>ADD ON TO EARLIER POST</p>
<p>Now that oldest DS is in the ARMY Reserve, we are transitioning him “off the payroll”. He is a Senior living in an off campus house. We no longer pay his rent, food allowance or utilities. The open door meal offer stands as I described above. He usually comes home on Saturday night or joins us at church on Sunday. The trip to Sam’s Club is still much appreciated.<br>
We will sign the car over to him soon. He will be responsible for the insurance as well as renters insurance. His cell phone is part of our contract. We will continue to pay for his phone plan until the contract expires (Aug 2010). </p>
<p>They have to grow up some time. However, it is always sooner than they want.</p>
<p>Middle DS attends OOS. His scholarship covers all his tuition and housing for the full four years. He pay for his meal plan and the required $300 for campus cash account. The $300 funds must be replenished at the start of each semester. The electronic funds are used for dorm luandry machines.
We allow him to make reasonable purchases on a college student Sam’s Club Account. We routinly send care packages with home baked cookies.
From time to time, he will go to Sam’s Club with a friend. If they ask DS to make a purchase, DS collects the cash from them and DS asks me to transfer funds from his savings account to ours. He has never taken advantage of this privilege. He hates to spend his money. He has been creative on dates too. They agree to eat in the nicer dining hall requiring more swipes. He will charge his date’s swipes against his account and attend free events or games together. (SMART Young Man!)</p>
<p>Both kids (in California) were expected to cover their non-academic expenses, e.g., food other than their meal plan or entertainment, with either their savings or money earned through part-time jobs during the school year. We covered tuition, room, board, books, computer, and all the necessities for the dorm room, plus transportation home and back between semesters (winter break and summer break). We also covered any medical expenses and any emergencies that may have occurred.</p>
<p>We’ve told our kids we will give you what we would have paid for you to live on campus w/ a meal plan. Anything above that, you have to pay for.</p>
<p>There’s not a correct answer to this. Just do what’s best for your circumstances and don’t worry about what others are doing. No matter what you decide, some parents will always give their kids more, and some will give their kids less, and nobody is any righter or wronger than the other. My parents sent me nothing and I survived.</p>
<p>If you search this forum, you will find at least one thread per month about this. Some parents pay for tuition, room and board and expect summer earnings to cover the rest, some send lots of money every month, some pay for certain things (cell phone for example) that make their life easier but not for sorority dues or movies/frappichinos. Some expect the kid to work for part of the basic room and board fees.</p>
<p>It also depends hugely on where your kid goes to school. Small campuses in isolated areas have lots of free or nearly free stuff to do - going to school in NYC or Seattle or Chicago or DC is quite different. Mine is in a little town - limited shopping, one movie theater, no mall, good cheap off-campus eats. Her summer work is more than enough to do what she wants and then some. Living off campus is actually mugh cheaper than the dorm (compared to say, California or New York, where rents are out of sight). We had been sending her the equivilent of the dorm fees, but will revisit that - I think she was banking some of that!</p>
<p>We paid the amount of the lowest priced food plan when our son went off the meal plan. Now that he’s also not living in campus housing we’ll pay for rent and utilities We’ve also always paid for textbooks. He’s responsible for paying for everything else either from summer savings or working during the year.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions - what do your children spend per week on miscellaneous items such as laundry, take-out. snacks, clothing, entertainment, etc.?</p>