<p>Hi,
Son is going to Upenn this coming summer.
I was wondering on top of school housing, meal plan, books and school supply, how much extra money he needs for all other expenses.
How do you give him the money I mean by credit card, debit card or cash?
Please advice</p>
<p>Why not open a joint account at a bank between you and him and then that way you can deposit money in there whenever he needs it.</p>
<p>My son’s LAC has a “School Dollars” account that is accessed <like everything=“” else=“”> through his student ID card. I’m sure a larger school like UPenn will have something similar. We/he can deposit money into his account (I snail mail in a check), and he can access that money pretty much anywhere on grounds, including the dorm’s laundry room. I haven’t kept close tabs but really believe it’ll total ~$800 for the entire school year. This money mostly went for food that was outside his meal plan. (From my few visits this year, not a whole lot has been spent on laundry. . .)</like></p>
<p>A separate question that there are annual threads on is where to set up a real bank account if your son doesn’t already have one. I opted for opening one for him at my own bank, so I have access to it. The other option is to open an account at a bank with a branch at/near his school, but sometimes kids transfer/withdraw/whatever, and I know I’ll be at my bank for the foreseeable future. Most banks have “student” checking accounts that are free and allow 2-3 withdrawals per month without any fee. We’ve found he hardly <em>ever</em> uses this account–he’s had extremely minimal cash needs through the school year.</p>
<p>He also has a credit card in my name for emergencies. I’ve given each of my kids one as they begin driving on their own.</p>
<p>You should get lots more information from the school as his move there gets closer, particularly if he attends a summer orientation session.</p>
<p>Most schools give you an estimated amount required for personal expenses, transportation, etc., on the same page or paper that gives you the tuition & fees info…that might help. For example, Occidental gave us these figures:</p>
<p>Books and supplies $1,054
Local Transportation $807
Misc./Personal Expenses $1,397</p>
<p>Our deal with our D is that she’s paying for her books & supplies & personal expenses. Her summer earnings should be sufficient to cover that. She is much, much tighter with her own money than ours, I’ve noticed! </p>
<p>I’d like to be sure we’ve got some way to add money to her bank account if something urgent comes up, though, so I’ll be curious to hear how others do that.</p>
<p>After tuition & fees, housing, and books (so, for food and personal expenses), I found that about $250/month was sufficient for me (note that this had to cover all my food, since there was no meal plan). I knew people who spent more and people who spent less. I was careful, but not a cheapskate. Taking food out of the equation, since you mentioned a meal plan, I was probably using around $50 of that $250 on not-food expenses.</p>
<p>Edited to add: I also think that students earning their personal expenses money, especially if they are not freshmen (and thus have had a year to get used to things) is a good idea. I did that for most of college. I spent about the same when I was earning my own money vs. using my parents’, though - I would have felt horribly guilty throwing around my parents’ money, and with my own, being careful with my spending was a necessity.</p>
<p>Search for some of the past threads on this issue - because there are a lot of threads and this issue comes back each year. My humble opinion on this issue is - `no money. Kids will budget and spend much more wisely if you give them no spending money. They should be able to earn enough through summer work to pay for books, etc, and should be able to earn sufficient money while on campus (through work/study or 8-10 hour per week campus job) to pay for their own personal expenses. We pay basic room,board, tuition and fees, (or equivalent, if off-campus housing) and cellphone plan (since it’s a family plan and extra phone charges are only $12 a month).</p>
<p>Start with the school’s average COA. That is what they budget for kids on financial aid. You can make adjustments according to specials that your child needs/wants. The COA formula worked very well for all three of mine.</p>
<p>IME what a kid can earn in a minimum wage job 10 hours a week, is a good amount of spending money. Textbooks can be expensive, but vary by major. We have a joint checking account for our son - so we can easily give him money for the things we’ve agreed on. (We pay for books and give him a sum of money equal to the cheapest meal plan.)</p>
<p>S found that $200 a month was more than enough. I doubt that he spent it all. He did not have to budget for travel, books, or clothes (he would never have any if I did not buy them for him). The allowance went to buy late night snacks, movies and shows, and occasional forays into town with chums.</p>
<p>im a student, but i will have too tell u it entirely depends on where the school is, im not normally a spender but i get bored really EASY, and its really hard too get around near me and its EXPENSIVE.</p>
<p>There was a good thread on this last year. There are so many variables that it’s hard to recommend an amount. We considered this year a test with our son to see how much he needed. He is a conservative spender and keeps good track of his finances. We’ll do a year-end review to see how it worked out. Second semester his schedule makes it hard to get to a dining hall for lunch and/or dinner a few days a week, so he cut back the meal plan and we added the difference to his allowance. This summer we do expect him to have a paying job instead of unpaid volunteer work or internship (keeping fingers crossed in this economy). Since he attends an OOS state U with IS tuition, our college costs are much lower than they could have been. We keep that in mind when setting his allowance. If the COA were higher, we’d expect him to kick in more.</p>
<p>$200/month is plenty. Mine spends less than that in a big city. She even buys clothes for herself but not the expensive ones.</p>
<p>I’ve responded on multiple threads with the same query. I have only a “guess” about the other costs my kids have at college because THEY are responsible for earning ALL of that money by working in the summer and during school. We don’t provide them with a nickel of spending money. Both have earned sufficicient money for discretionary spending (and we also have them pay for their own books). Both attend(ed) undergraduate school in VERY expensive areas. I asked DS once and he said that an an “average” of $25 a week was plenty. Some weeks he spent nothing extra and other weeks he spent $100. But truthfully, he could have been spending $500 a week…and I would not have cared…he earned it…it was not something we parents contributed to.</p>
<p>
Which is why I don’t even try to guess. S2 is finishing his sophomore year and lived off-campus this year. We pay the school bills, add money to a school debit card for books and transfer $800 per month to a linked bank account to cover the equivalent of the dorm room-and-board costs. I actually have no idea what his rent and food costs are, and he has never discussed with us the need for additional money (he knows better). The only discussion we have had lately is when he contemplated an unpaid summer internship for this summer. Our only question was whether his on-campus job for next year would actually cover all of his discretionary expenses. I guess he decided the answer was no, because he’s planning on coming home and working this summer.</p>
<p>Both sons set aside $600 from summer earnings for the first semester of college. One found it was enough, the other got a job halfway through the semester for about $50 a week. The answer to the OP’s question depends on whose money the kid is spending…</p>
<p>Even if your child is providing his own discretionary spending money, it’s nice to give him some structure and advice on how to handle the money. If your child is already great at handling money and budgeting already, that may not be necessary, but if you have been providing a financial umbrella over him it can be helpful to make the transition easier. A lot of kids do get into financial difficulties over the school year because they just did not think about budgeting and keeping track of their money. Easy to run up the bills with the campus credit and ATM cards if you are not keeping count.</p>
<p>We have friends who are very proud of their high achieving, responsible son. He was one of those kids who always did the right thing. It wasn’t until he was off at college and responsible for his own discretionary spending that they realized he had no idea of how to monitor his spending. At home, there was always mom and dad’s wallets that came to the rescue, and so it is with most high school kids. We don’t even think about it, unless the kid has a problem or takes advantage. Because this young man is at a city school with lots of ways to spend the money, it just went. Too fast. And he had no fixed plan or method to help him get back on track. This can be avoided by giving them a system to help them track their expenses.</p>