How much money do you guys plan to have saved up for college spending (outside of standard costs like tuition, textbooks, etc.)? How do you plan to budget?
As far as budgeting I plan to make one grocery run at the beginning of the semester and then set aside $20 a week to restock. I will have a meal plan so I’m just buying fruit and snack stuff to have in the dorm. I’ll also budget for gas, it depends on where I go how much. Other than that I’m very frugal but I will set aside so much a month to eat out or see a movie or whatever.
I have a budget of around $400/month.
$89 is for Tae Kwon Do membership/classes.
$90 for gas (I have to drive home every weekend, which is about 30 miles so I spend a lot more on gas than most. The fact my car has horrible gas mileage doesn’t help).
$120 for food (I have a meal plan, but it’s only for 10 meals a week, so again this is much higher than most students with a larger meal plan).
$101 is for miscellaneous purchases - toiletries, eating out, going out, overage in the other categories, etc. I rarely spend all of this though.
Since my Financial Aid refund was around $8500 (none of it being loans), I’m actually spending way less than I have available… Otherwise I would not be spending so much.
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The $400/month answer seems most accurate. $200-400/month sounds appropriate. I probably spend $100-200 on food (eating out) every month (Friday night pizza adds up), an obscene amount on coffee/energy drinks, and then other college student purchases.
Carte Blanche, but I really don’t spend very much. Make my own coffee, food, hardly ever eat out, etc.
Pre-21: around what everyone else was saying.
Post-21: sigh
It’s only been a few months, and I’m over it just because of how expensive going out can be.
It also doesn’t help that I hate beer and can hold my liquor. But that’s beside the point. 