<p>I guess I did better than most then, but I felt like I spent a lot. As I said in my first post, I don't drink and I don't have a car at school, so I save what would go toward gas :). I'm a girl and just like with the other girls who have commented, buying clothes put a bit of a dent in my bank account. But the biggest expense was Christmas; I spent about $200 there. So, without a major holiday coming up, I should do a little better this semester. But, knowing myself as well as I do, I'll probably spend more on clothes. It's funny actually, I keep buying clothes, even though my dresser and closet at school are pretty much full. Oh well.</p>
<p>Holy crap apparently close to 1300 (includes school supplies too though). That scares me... well i guess i should save money this semester (i used to live with 1000 a yr!)</p>
<p>I spent about 1500$ last semester.</p>
<p>My school has 3 10 week quarters instead of 2 15 week semesters. Last quarter... was expensive:</p>
<ul>
<li>$150 at Target for all the random stuff you don't pack on cross-country trips: detergent, shampoo, contact solution (that stuff's expensive!), a mirror because my freshman room came with one but my current room doesn't... etc. A lot of that was actually snacks/drinks that I really shouldn't have bought anyways... argh. </li>
<li>$100 on a dress for a formal</li>
<li>$150 on random clothes--a winter jacket, the rain boots that I really should've bought last year, two sweaters and some jeans and a skirt... yeah. Also probably shouldn't have bought all that.</li>
<li>$80 on a 1-year anniversary present for the bf</li>
<li>$80 on Xmas presents (yay for secret santa!)</li>
<li>$250 eating out--but my dorm doesn't have food on weekends and our board bill is cheaper because of that, so that's not too bad I guess. </li>
</ul>
<p>So except for the food, which my dad covered, that's... $660? Going by how much I made last summer, I have about the same amount to spend for the next two quarters... which really means its time to start cutting back on random (and fattening) stuff!</p>
<p>My school also has quarters, and I haven't been keeping track as well as you guys have...probably a couple of thousand, but no more than five. There are just weird expenses that come up.</p>
<p>I spend $30 a week on food at the grocery store and thats absolutely it and i dont have a mean plan. so 30x15 weeks is about $450 total for the semester. Even that is a stretch. My parents dont give me anything and neither does anybody else, so just the $450</p>
<p>im with evelyn rose... living in LA there are just expenses in every corner where you always spend more than you possibly thought you would</p>
<p>this is the one area of college where having no social life is benificial:
My total is $48. Three haircuts, $14 each plus two dollar tips. I cut it myself the first month but it grew in really gay looking so I had to suck it up and start paying for it.</p>
<p>I make a little less than $200 a month at my job. That's usually more than enough, although over winter break I used almost all of the money I got as holiday presents because I wasn't working very much. This is also in Boston, which is not cheap. I'd say the most annoying expense is cab fare. Public transportation here shuts down at 12:30 which is way too early, especially on the weekends.
I don't count book money as spending money; if you include the expense of textbooks, which I didn't pay for, then my total for the semester is much higher.
If you're having a hard time on the money your parents' send you and don't feel comfortable asking for more, I highly recommend getting a low-committment, on-campus job. A lot of people overestimate the difficulty of having a job while in school, but working on-campus generally means that you can tailor your work schedule to your classes and only have to work ten-ish hours per week. You are also in control of your finances, at least to some extent, which is nice.</p>