<p>How much spending money per week for Freshman going to school in large city (Montreal). The student is living on campus with full meal plan. We want to give her enough to have some fun, but not so much that she is going out too much and neglecting school. Any suggestions on how parents set up or transfered money wold be appreciated. She was not abke ti work during the summer and we would like her not to work the first semester. So all the money is coming from parents.</p>
<p>I’m toying with saying to my DD: “you’re fed, you’re clothed, I’m going broke sending you there, so…”</p>
<p>I will probably go low, like $100 / month (25/week).</p>
<p>If your DD will also be buying books with the $$$, I’d go higher – like $1,000 for the semester, since the books can be easily $500.</p>
<p>You are going to get a lot of different ideas here, but one thing worth remembering is that being on a full meal plan is no guarantee that the student will be able to get enough to eat from that plan.</p>
<p>Often, meal-plan meals are available only at conventional mealtimes, and students may have classes, jobs, or extracurricular activities that prevent them from eating at those times. Thus, they have to pay additional money to get food elsewhere at other times. This semester, if my daughter were on a meal plan (which she is not), she would miss four out of five weekday lunches and two out of five weekday dinners – and she has a relatively simple schedule, with only 4 classes, 1 extracurricular activity, and a small (usually 4 hours per week) job. </p>
<p>So whatever arrangement you make with your student, be prepared to change it if the student’s schedule interferes with eating the meal plan meals.</p>
<p>As for transferring money, I have tried sending checks or making monthly deposits in the student’s checking account. But I am getting old and lazy, and I am now dealing with a college junior. We figure out the money stuff (how much she needs for books, spending money, her off-campus rent and utilities, and food – which she pays for in cash) before each semester, and I make one massive deposit in her checking account. She takes it from there.</p>
<p>My daughter gets $125 per month spending money, but she is on a rural campus and is not involved in Greek life. She might need more if she were in a city or belonged to a sorority.</p>
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<p>Or more. Lots more.</p>
<p>Ours were always able to find jobs in the summer, so spending money was out of their own funds. This past summer was a different job-hunting environment, so I would be cutting them a little slack if they were younger and less experienced. (your D may have had other reasons for not being able to work - not that it matters)
For rent and such we have used a number of methods. H is a shared owner on D2’s account, so we transfer it with the click of a button (at the same bank). D1 was in another state and wanted to be more independent (or not have us know what her balance was!) I frequently used PayPal to send her money. We both have accounts, so I would send her a “payment”. Haven’t done that in a couple of years, so I don’t know if it still works the same way. I had to say it was for buying something, not just a cash transfer, but she got it in her PayPal account and was able to electronically transfer it to her bank. I think they held the funds for a couple of days, but nothing like mailing a check and having to get it to the bank or ATM, then the few days’ hold.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting this question. I am having the same issue. My older daughter worked over most summers and always seemed to have enough money to last her, although I would give her a fifty or a hundred bucks whenever we’d see her. Now the younger daughter has started school and I can already see that she will be a different animal. She goes through money at breakneck speedl i am making her start out spending her graduation and work money, so she gets the feel for the balance going down with the spending, but she will need more money in few months. I think $125 to $150 per month is fair, but I think she’s the type who will always find there is too much month in her budget.</p>
<p>We paid for books and cheapo airfares home (gotta love thos e $59 Southwest fares). Other than that, our daughter never asked for a dime of spending money. She worked summers. She had some savings. She always had at least a few hours a week in a campus job. She covered her own spending money, plane tickets elsewhere for spring breaks, etc.</p>
<p>I could be wrong, but I got the impression that this arrangement was not at all unusual among her friends at Swarthmore. Parents cover tuition, room, and board. Student covers walking around money.</p>
<p>Our D is living on campus in big city, has dining option, no car. We covered her books and got her a few school t-shirts, hoodies, etc. then threw $250 in her discretionary account. She called and asked if she could get a $35 school jersey. We said sure. If she needs $ she’ll let us know & we’d know what it was for. She’s not frivolous and has some of her own hard-earned money, so for us - there is no problem. Might be another story if she were a “shopper” like my other daughter 
I expected she might need more $ for social stuff, but so far they haven’t done anything more expensive than the movies. We have no prearranged monthly amount to send her. When the $250 starts to run out, she’ll let us know.</p>
<p>My son has to pay for incidentals out of summer or school year earnings. What someone can earn at a minimum wage job for 10 hours a week who is on full meal plan is more than enough money for movies and eating out. IME the food plan is too much food.</p>
<p>Son is responsible for everything beyond tuition, fees, room, and board EXCEPT that we carry him on our cell phone plan and pay for travel home and back during breaks.</p>
<p>Now that he is living off campus, we deposit an amount equal to last year’s room and board charge and he manages the budget for rent, utilities, food, etc.</p>
<p>“You are going to get a lot of different ideas here, but one thing worth remembering is that being on a full meal plan is no guarantee that the student will be able to get enough to eat from that plan.”</p>
<p>I am just figuring out that meals aren’t served here on weekends and sometimes they just decide not to serve breakfast or dinner. Our remedy to that, though, was not money for going out but a package of hot dogs and some bagels. Problem solved.</p>
<p>Twisted - I don’t think that is true that they just decide not to serve. There is a menu schedule posted on the housing website for each dorm, and don’t forget that you can go to the other areas as well. My daughter has really been enjoying the marketplace at Mojo, and it is apparently open extended hours.</p>
<p>AS for getting the money to S in college. He opened a checking account at our bank “linked” to our account at the bank. I have online access to his account, he does not have access to mine. Then I set up auto transfer of $100 per month from my account to his. We were lucky because the bank had an ATM on his campus. He also had a debit card linked to the account, so could use that for expenses. As for books, I transferred $500 to his account prior to his going to the bookstore, he later told me how much he spent (with the debit card) and I transferred the balance back into my account. The $100 was for food in excess of meal plan, toiletries, laundry detergent, hair cuts, school supplies (other than books) etc… Anything else was on him.</p>
<p>Before this goes too far down the “my kids paid for this or that” vein, the OP was also asking for ways to get money from one place to the other, anybody have a good way?</p>
<p>I am aware, how do you think I knew they weren’t serving? Their weekend hours are limited. This past friday they only served lunch so I couldn’t eat breakfast or dinner, and on Saturday they did not serve dinner-- and I missed lunch because I was at the football game. It’s a bit more reasonable now that classes have started however the meal options are still completely inadequate if you are living on meal plan only at this school unless you are unlimited. If any of my ECs end up meeting weekends I may miss the only meal that’s served on Saturday unless I eat all three meals within the four hours the caf is open, then I guess it’s more than one. This also means my last meal of the day is at 2pm. Sundays are manageable but I am sure I am going to end up missing meals then too, because it’s just my luck I am free in the two hours the cafeterias are closed. And the highest meal plan before unlimited is two meals a day 5 days a week and the other two you can only have one. If I have snacks (which would have to be paid for with money I don’t have) then two meals a day is fine, but one isn’t good enough and the unlimited meal plan comes with almost no blue bucks leaving me no money for laundry, and the only other option is the most expensive meal plan, which is $400 more just to add blue bucks-- or just wait til it rains to do laundry.</p>
<p>All I know is that I am damn hungry on weekends! >:( If your daughter knows a secret I don’t, I’d love to know. I am new and certainly don’t know everything. The website only shows Mojo being open an hour later than EQ on Sundays and that’s the only variation, doesn’t really help.</p>
<p>ETA: I opened a checking account at my mom’s bank and added her name to it, she can transfer money directly from her account into my account online so I can use it with my Mastercard or withdraw cash if I need it at the ATM. Also great for emergencies because it can be done 24 hours a day and the transfer is instant.</p>
<p>We pay for books and airfare home. Everything else my kids earn by themselves over summers and part-time on-campus jobs. We do buy a few essential items of clothing (a couple pairs of jeans, new sneakers, etc.) when they’re home in the summer. Oh yeah, and $15/mo toward their cell phones – the rest of the cost is on them.</p>
<p>They don’t ever ask for money. I suppose if they had a pressing reason we’d try to come up with it, but we just never established that expectation with them.</p>