Hi
Am curious how much students spend a week or month at U Miami? Obviously it varies a lot by person and their means — but curious what a typical amount might be. My child is likely to go with the crowd.
And for those who give their children spending money — any tips on how to manage?
Dinner outside once a week. No alcohol money :-). Say 100/mo
Yes — am a little worried about alcohol and other substances. Girls often don’t have to pay for alcohol. Have heard that vaping and marijuana also rampant.
If you are a girl having alcohol, better to pay for it yourself. Also very important to tell girls to keep their glass covered at all times and not accept drinks from others. I heard of even girls spiking other girls’ drinks.
The amount people give their college students varies dramatically. I don’t think you will be able to dictate how the money you give is spent.
I am not sure what you mean by ‘go with the crowd’. If you are talking clubbing, that’s expensive at the U. Drugs are not uncommon, including cocaine.
If your D joins a sorority that will be expensive too…dues, events, clothes for events, etc.
Best to talk about these things before she leaves for school in the Fall. My D is at an LAC in Maine and easily spends $200/month (mostly meals and alcohol), and that’s with no Greek Life or club scene.
Some of it is not really predictable. If the food is terrible the amount quickly goes up. My S spent between 200-300 per month just on meals and supermarket shopping, and that was with other kids driving to stores so there was no transportation expense.
Our kids had jobs in college that were used for their discretionary spending. Will your student have a job?
Thanks. Probably not at first. Getting used to the transition.
In some sense you have less visibility on how they are spending money if they are earning their own money than if they are just spending it on your credit card. I am more concerned about how the money is being spent than about the actual amount being spent, within reason. For that reason I would rather the money is spent on a card than spent as cash that you’d give as an allowance.
Kids will spend what you give them. My kids had to earn their own way with occasional supplementation from me or an uncle. As freshmen they spent less because they were living in the dorms, eating in the dorms (or sorority house), did things on campus like sports events or entertainment. Neither were old enough to go to bars so mostly hung out with friends.
As they got older, lived off campus, they spent more on things like concerts, chipping in for gas to go places (gee, that would be a MUCH higher expense now), buying clothes. As freshmen, they were just finding their way. Both went to schools where the cost of sporting events, on campus events (even concerts) was included in their student fees. Neither had a car so it was harder to spend lots of money.
My kids earned their spending money from their summer jobs. I didn’t give them anything. My daughter was frugal and graduated with savings. My son is the type to spend every penny he has. His bank account is very close to zero by the time the end of spring semester arrives. This past year he spent spring break working on rehabbing a home to earn some extra money.
So your student used your card? Or they had a card that you could monitor?
@neela1 i guess we felt the opposite. We decided our kids could earn their own spending money. And they could learn to live within their means! Both had good jobs and we guess earned enough to support whatever they wanted to buy. Neither ever asked us for money, but we did give them gift card gifts, and the like often enough.
Both learned budgeting and the like, and we thought that was good.
It was also nice for them to have a job on their resumes.
Keep in mind, your kids don’t have to have your permission to get a job, earn money, and spend as they please when in college.
People have asked me how much our kids had for spending money, and honestly, I can’t give an answer…their money.
But really….this is such a family decision…and no way is right or wrong. Families need to do what they think is best in their family!
Thanks. That’s how I did it as a student, but somehow I didn’t transmit that to my daughtw.
He just uses my card. I think he spent some 200/mo when campus dining is shut down or not good post covid, and he was eating out a bit more. Maybe he is down to 150/mo when school is session now. I don’t keep track. My wife does.
I strongly encourage summer internships. He is making very good income this summer. Generally we pay off his card, and his earnings go into his savings which he asks me to invest in the market. Maybe my wife pays his summer expenses from his earnings – I am not sure. Most things in the summer are taken care of by his internship company, including housing in Manhattan, and about 60% of the weekly food bill. We keep a loose eye on how the money is being spent during the regular semester-- he is very frugal for any big ticket items. He just eats out on and off. It loosely works out.
My D20 is at school in an expensive city (Boston). She spends about $1200 per semester on “fun”. She is responsible for earning this from her summer job. Summer job money also has to cover her books.
She uses one of our credit cards for groceries (agreed upon weekly budgeted amount), her subway pass and any medical expenses.
I was given $100/month spending money (had full meal plan and dorm) in 1978! I felt rich, but it really wasn’t. I had to buy textbooks, pay trainfare home occasionally, buy toiletries, etc. I looked up what most schools expect students to need for spending money, and back then, a hundred a month was actually less than what the school expected the kid to spend. Nowadays, it’s about $400/month, I think, if you look at what the federal gov’t budgets for student expenses (beyond tuition, room and board).
Kid worked a supermarket job summer before freshman year, lots of hours, to bank probably about 6K before school year began. I didn’t want to have to deal with paying for a young man’s private spending money, plus I wanted him to realize what went into the money that he spent. It was a good thing, made him much more aware of the work that money represents. After that, I think that he thought of spending money in terms of how many hours working at the supermarket it took to earn that money.
University of Miami estimates that an undergraduate living in the dorm spends about $2,346 on personal expenses over the academic year, according to Cost of Attendance | Undergraduate Financial Assistance | University of Miami . Since this is about 8 calendar months, that comes out to be $293.25 per month.
I want the kids to internalize some intrinsic value of money. Not tied to the number of hours of work. Atleast with the kid that is closest to the job market, I suspect if he thinks of what he can spend as a proportion of what he is going to earn, he will be spending too much. I want him to be rooted in the sense of what he can spend to be closer to how he grew up than how he is going to earn. I think that is a more frugal situation. And for the most part we have no private spending money :-). Whether it is their money or our money, they have to clear it with mom :-).