<p>DD2 will be living off campus in a house shared with friends next year. She keeps telling us that her friends who live off campus now spend far less than room and board charges from the college. It's a small town and rents are pretty reasonable; her portion will be less than $200/month. We are having trouble deciding how much to send for the rest of the expenses. Utilities, food, etc. Don't want her living on TopRamen but also don't want to be giving $300 more than she needs each month and funding her social life or the house-mate's food bill.... especially since some of the housemates are boys. In endurance sports. Who can consume 5800 calories a day and lose weight...</p>
<p>How did you decide what amount to give your kids for off-campus living?</p>
<p>Pardon me while I stare at that for a while.</p>
<p>I mean, wow! I’ve never heard of such a low off-campus rent, and I’ve had kids living in off-campus apartments in three states.</p>
<p>When my kids have been at college but not on meal plans, I have always given them the same amount of money it would have cost for the “normal” 14-meals-a-week-plus-some campus-“bucks” meal plan. What they do with it is their business. (This year, my daughter is living on campus but is not on a meal plan. She seems to be eating OK on this much money.) As for utilities, I consider them part of the rent, even if they’re paid separately – except for luxuries such as cable TV, which I am not willing to pay for. I am also not willing to pay for long distance calls made from a landline. That’s what cell phones are for.</p>
<p>We give each of our kids $200 a month for food (one is a boy and the other a girl). They have had no trouble buying their food on this budget (and toiletries, and such).</p>
<p>Our son moved off campus this year. His rent is $275 a month. I give him what he would be getting if he lived on campus. He is on a one meal a day meal plan with campus dollars. I don’t think he is saving any money but this is what he wanted. I don’t do the breakdowns on what he needs. I just give him what it would cost us if he had done room and board at the school–COA numbers.</p>
<p>cpt, I hadn’t thought of getting a one meal plan - I’ll have to look at that for the “dining dollars” option. It would be nice if she could get lunch on campus.</p>
<p>Well none of mine could make it on $200 a month for groceries. By the time you add detergent, paper supplies to the food, that is sparse. Two of mine were boys and one son goes through a gallon of milk a day, 2-3 loaves of bread a week and several pounds of sandwich meats/cheese a week, a chicken meal is 4 breasts and an omelet is 6-8 egg whites. So dragonmom, you really don’t want her feeding the guys, lol!</p>
<p>I’ve seen rent for $200 at my son’s uni but that’s typically four to six kids in a two or three bedroom apartment and it doesn’t include heat which in New England can be quite a bit of money.</p>
<p>When our kids went off campus, we gave them the rent plus the cost of the full meal plan divided monthly.
Sometimes that was all money; sometimes they had the 5 meals a week plan and cash to the difference.
I preferred having them off campus; it was easier to incorporate monthly expenses rather than the once a semester hits.</p>
<p>rent plus meal plan seems like a good idea. We’ll see how it goes.
They are still working through the spreadsheet of 5 kids in a 4 bedroom house. It’s so good to see them think about all that is involved…</p>
<p>We picked rent plus meal plan, rather than a set dollar amount, so as not to penalize the one whose school was in an area of more expensive rents. Two of ours overlapped for 3 years and were both off campus for 2 of them.
Due to regional housing and meal plan cost differences, one received $400 more per month than the other.</p>
<p>For S we put the total amount it would have cost for him to live in the dorm with the middle meal plan in his savings account. It was up to him to live off of it for the year. He did better than we expected and made it last through the summer as well. Lesson in financial responsibility. ;)</p>
<p>My son’s share of rent is $350 including utilities, 4 guys in a decent 4-bedroom house. I suggested the “one meal per day” plan, but he said no he’d rather buy his own food. He spends about $250 a month on food, sundries, etc. and shared the internet/cable charge which runs him about $30 per month. He has his own earned spending money so I don’t know what other expenses he has that aren’t food/housing related. We gave him a credit card with a $500 limit to use at the grocery store for which we pay the bill each month and the dollar amount is almost the same each month. I told him to go crazy at Thanksgiving and throw a big Thanksgiving for his friends who also weren’t traveling for the short holiday so that month was alittle more. We have found it less expensive than dorm + food by a couple thousand dollars per year and he is happier not living in the noisy dorms and eating the school food.</p>
<p>Wow, LA rent is about $750/month + utilities + food. S has requested & we have paid the least expensive meal plan available, which we give him cash for instead. He is able to buy more than enough with that money. We have done something similar for D, but she’s still figuring out what is “reasonable” and what isn’t. She was shocked that one trip to the grocery store was $100!</p>
<p>Back in the day, when I was at UOr & UCDavis, rents seemed much cheaper than this. OR is still pretty reasonable (relatively speaking) as is Pocatello, Idaho. Unfortunately, neither of my kids is at a low-housing/food school. :(</p>
<p>Son has a 4 BR, 2 bath apt with 6 guys in it. They decided who pays how much based on sharing/single and whatever else. The biggest downside is the apt sized refrigerator. Not much room for 6 different peope’s frozen or fresh foods. I just learned about guzzling a gallon of milk when there’s no room for it after a shopping trip. Of course he and the roommate with us didn’t check the refrigerator space after unloading the car before the mom sponsored (my son’s purchases only) grocery store trip after spring break. Son’s choices were based on tastes, convenience and storage. He now regrets not taking me up on my offer of a small freezer last fall. You also have to consider management rules about extra refrigerators- there’s a clause about them in son’s lease.</p>
<p>My S lived off campus for two years and did not save a penny, especially on food. The kitchen became so filthy dirty he didn’t want to deal with it and ate out every meal. He didn’t want to confront the guy (really one guy) who cooked and never cleaned up.</p>
<p>My son and each of his roomates has their old freshman “dorm room fridges” in their bedrooms in their house for the private don’t touch food. They collaborate on the “group” food which they keep in the kitchen fridge. They have all worked at restaurants so they make some pretty good meals I hear…</p>
<p>The individual fridge is a good idea - they plan to cook together frequently and will be sharing much food, but with a small one all your own you could be sure someone didn’t accidently use something special and expensive.</p>
<p>They pay the utilities and I don’t think there’s a restriction on what they plug in. </p>
<p>The house is currently empty and DD has already been over there digging up the garden. The kid who cried when I made her do yard work at home is bragging about her blisters from gardening.</p>
<p>“The individual fridge is a good idea”
No it is not. Usually there is a regular fridge in the house as well. Individual fridges=waste of energy. C’mon people, learn to get along! I’ve lived in houses with 5 others and we used one fridge albeit a very packed one. Lots of colored tape solved ownership problem. Think of the bigger picture. You should be looking for ways to conserve energy, not just satisfy your own personal “needs.” Good group living revolves around respecting those you live with. We’ve probably lived with morons who abused the “rules of communal living” but it’s not like you are going to spend the rest of your life with them.</p>