Hi everyone,
My daughter will be moving to a house off campus next year and won’t be on the dining plan. I’d love some suggestions about what is a reasonable amount to give her each month for food.
Thanks!
Does the school have an off-campus student budget or cost of attendance listed on its web site?
If not, would it be reasonable to budget her a room and board total similar to that of the dorm, and let her manage how to allocate it between rent, utilities, and food at the off-campus place?
@ucbalumnus They don’t have an of-campus budget listed. I am thinking of using the room and board total, but the meal plan is ridiculously expensive so I was thinking we could save on food. I don’t want her to go hungry! But I do want to be reasonable.
I’m sure you’ll get answers all over the map. My kids have received $75 a week. It seems to be plenty. They could probably get away with less but it saves me quite a bit over what I would pay for a meal plan and I want them to be able to buy quality and fresh fruits and vegetables. That amount also covers things like shampoo, soap, and such as well.
The local cost of groceries varies considerably. Also consider if your student will be buying any prepared meals or making their own sack lunch each day.
You can start with a given amount, and have your kid keep track of spending…and adjust up…or down…after two months.
My youngest graduated from undergrad in 2010…got $50 a week for groceries and it was plenty. We did not subsidize eating out in restaurants.
Same kid is now in professional school…and uses the same amount per week. $50. She is a very frugal shopper, does a lot of her grocery shopping at Aldi (a very nice new store is five minutes from where she lives). It helps that she also eats very little meat, so that keeps costs down.
Both in really high cost of living areas…with plenty of pricey shopping options. Our kid couldn’t afford Whole Foods…so she didn’t go to Whole Foods.
We did do the initial off campus apartment stock up with both kids…kitchen staples, and paper goods too.
And we sent gift cards to the grocery store sometimes in holiday cards.
Our kids also became very good at actually using leftovers!
You can enter to the grocery website near your daughter home and make a list of groceries that she would need.
@“International Dad” certainly one can look into food costs…but when my kids decided to move off campus, and ditch the meal plan…I made it very very clear that they needed to manage their grocery shopping and cooking…themselves. Certainly, they could call with questions.
But I didn’t shop for them or make shopping lists for them. Maybe that’s not what you mean.
When my D moved off campus, we added some Dining Dollars to her card so she could easily grab lunch during the day if she didn’t bring something with her. I went with her for a big stock up trip at the beginning of the year and after that she had a weekly budget and was responsible for purchase and cooking.
I’m not planning on shopping or cooking for her. Just looking for ideas about a reasonable weekly budget.
I think it depends on location and eating habits. My daughter eats mostly vegetarian- when we see her, we load her up with non perishables- beans, zucchini spaghetti, oatmeal, almond butter, brown rice, quinoa, etc from Costco… the expiration dates are pretty far out. The food that we purchase takes up the space of an entire closet ( she has the space). She fills in during the week- buying lots and lots of vegetables, fruit, and sometimes unique ingredients if she wants to cook something different. She spends about $40-50 a week… mostly on lots and lots of fruits and vegetables.
She usually brings lunch to school and eats dinner out on Friday and/or Saturday. She shops at a local supermarket chain in town and at Target.
@thumper1
My suggestion is just check the prices online to make a budget. The prices are different in DC or Alabama.
“from Costco”
If your college student lives where there is a Costco (and has the space to store things), there is a way to give them access to shop there even if they don’t have their own membership. Buy them a Costco gift card. People with Costco gift cards can go shop in the store even if they don’t have a Costco membership. Cool hack - let them get the Costco pricing without having to buy them their own membership.
My daughter spends less than $100 per month. When she’s home, which is at least every two weeks, I try to send her back with stuff too, particularly meat and cooked dishes. She eats out at least once a week in addition to that grocery bill.
My first got $50 a week, but he was in a small town with his car.
The second lives in the city, won’t have her car, will likely eat out and order out often, so will get the cost of a full meal plan as food allowance.
My first kid went to college on Boston which is mighty pricey. He ate a ton of veggies, and fruits, and quickly discovered that the Asian Market on Commonwealth Ave was far less costly and had better produce than the grocery store two blocks away.
Second kid also goes to the local farmers market in season. She likes the fresh farm eggs, and is willing to pay more out of her budget to buy them.
Like I suggested…set a budget and keep track of spending for a couple of months…and adjust if needed.
Re: Costco or other stores like that…just remember, the quantities are pretty big, so if your kid is shopping for only one, they might be too big.
My kids both used Costco or BJs along with roommates for things like TP, paper towels, and the like. But they did check prices and coupons because sometimes those places are not the least costly places to go. The CA college kid and her 6 roommates did a Costco run about every 6-8 weeks to replenish the essentials they all shared.
My kids now live alone…and really, the Costco quantities are way too large for them right now.
I did $100 a week for food, electric and internet.
“Costco quantities are way too large for them”
Definitely the case for many of the Costco items. I was thinking mainly about the poster who mentioned the kid was vegetarian. If you’re eating mostly fresh produce, even though the Costco quantities are huge, there are still some things that would make sense if that’s a big part of your weekly diet. Cheese and some yogurts (I’m the only one in the house that eats it but I have no problem going through the large container of Greek yogurt ) are others that might work.
Same thing with certain supplies - like contact lens cleaner.
It wouldn’t make sense to get a college kid a Costco membership because they wouldn’t use enough of the items to make it worthwhile. But I can see my college aged kid using a gift card to buy cereal and a few other large items as needed.
But yes, it’s tough to imagine what most college students would do with a package of 24 eggs, 3 gallons of milk or a half a cow. 
My daughter is the vegetarian (mostly). She does not buy her produce at Costco… she shops at the supermarket for fruits and veggies. We stock her up with food from Costco that can last for awhile… like quinoa, oatmeal etc. She eats those foods every day and cuts through everything we buy. At first we bought too much … but we figured it out.
When she is home… she eats a Costco size bag of broccoli in 2-3 days… so buying produce in Costco may be ok for her… but that’s not happening because she doesn’t have a car. I have never seen anybody eat as many veggies as my kid. [-(
I gave my kids the same amount of money for food when they lived off-campus that they would have paid for a full meal plan on-campus.
This sounds outrageously high, and perhaps it is. But neither of them had access to a car, and neither had a supermarket within walking distance. And they were not living in apartments where the residents planned to cook together and shop together using someone’s car – in both cases, the agreement was that individuals were on their own when it came to food. So they got their food on campus, or ate takeout, or bought things in pricey convenience stores.
It worked out OK, and even though it was expensive, it was cheaper than buying them cars.