<p>Is $300. a month a fair amount allowance for a freshman boy at USC? The money would be to pay for extras such as sports admissions, movie/cultural event, hair cut, Jamba Juice if beyond the meal plan, occasional trip to Disneyland if there is a group going there, new video game. We thought of asking our son to make a list of things he spends money on the first two months and see if $300. a month covers it. He will not have a car freshman year.</p>
<p>That seems more than enough. You can also buy a yearly pass to Disneyland for entertaintment.</p>
<p>Columbia, do you have a great source for discount annual passports at Disneyland?</p>
<p>No offense mdcissp, but it surprises me that you are still giving your son allowance at his age. I'm sure you have your reasons, but perhaps you should consider making him get a job. It teaches him responsibility and the value of hard-earned money.</p>
<p>mdcissp's son is looking for a job - it is on another post. We are planning on making budgeting suggestions for the first year, then turning it over to her from then on. We were thinking the $250/month from her work/study would be just right for expenses, but then she was granted a scholarship to replace the work/study (YAY!) so now we are strongly recommending that she budget the $2,500 scholarship over ten months.</p>
<p>alamemom, I don't know of any discount. But I think D paid ~$300 for a yearly pass. She and her friends often dine(:D) at Costco on $1 meal before going Disneyland. I believe one of her friend has a big van, so it's free for her. My daughter will foot her own spending bills. So far she has been keeping it under $200/month for the last few months(with free entertainment). She paid for clothes and gas, but if she goes shopping with mom then her clothes purchase is on mom's credit card. It's a good incentive to bring mom along. Her summer earnings is enough to cover her yearly spending. To encourage her to work, I match her yearly W-2 and contribute to her Roth IRA.</p>
<p>It seems like parking is free with yearly pass
MouseSavers.com</a> - Regular Disneyland Gate Ticket Prices</p>
<p>More info I found googling
[quote]
Annual Passports
To see all known discounts on Disneyland tickets and passes, click here.</p>
<p>All Disneyland Annual Passports give you admission to both parks. The options are: </p>
<p>$129 Southern California Select Annual Passport - This weekdays-only pass is valid 176 pre-selected off-peak days of the year. All holidays, Saturdays and Sundays are blacked out, as well as peak periods such as midsummer, the winter holidays and spring break. If you want admission on one of the blackout days, you can get in for the reduced rate of $40. This pass offers some restaurant discounts. A parking pass, valid on the same days as the annual pass, costs $59 extra.</p>
<p>$169 Southern California Annual Passport - Valid 227 pre-selected off-peak days of the year. All holidays and Saturdays are blacked out, as well as peak periods such as midsummer, the winter holidays and spring break. Unlike the Southern California Select pass, you are able to visit on off-season Sundays with this pass. If you want admission on one of the blackout days, you can get in for the reduced rate of $40. This pass offers some restaurant discounts. A parking pass, valid on the same days as the annual pass, costs $59 extra.</p>
<p>$259 Deluxe Annual Passport - Valid 315 pre-selected days of the year. Holidays and peak-season Saturdays are blacked out. If you want admission on one of the blackout days, you can get in for the reduced rate of $40. This pass offers some restaurant discounts. A parking pass, valid on the same days as the annual pass, costs $59 extra.</p>
<p>$379 Premium Annual Passport - No blackout days. With this pass, you can visit both of the parks 365 days a year if you wish! Includes parking and many restaurant and shopping discounts
[/quote]
</p>
<p>To tang007: My son wants a part time job on campus. However, I don't know how easy it is for a freshman to find a job on campus as soon as he arrives. Also, we want him to find work related to his professional interests in CS so that it will help him find a summer internship. For your info., I don't give my son an "allowance". Since we don't live in California, it is entirely reasonable for my son to have a certain amount of spending money available for extras-on campus events, hair cuts, shampoo, detergent, etc. without calling home. I call that an "allowance". Call it what you want. My son wants a part time job without any nagging from me. He is very responsible.</p>
<p>How odd that the term "allowance" would bother anyone. We've always called it that too. And my daughter gets a bit more than mdcissp is planning but she also buys most of her own clothes. It is much easier to give her a lump sum so she can cover shuttles to the airport, prescription co-pays, and all the other little expenses of life. And she does have a job as well. And a pass to Disneyland!</p>
<p>The Disneyland pass is starting to sound like a must-have.</p>
<p>Can we agree to each make our decisions regarding how we raise our children and not make patronizing statements? Some of us see no difference between HS and college (in both cases they are students with limited opportunity to earn money), others think that once the children reach 18 they should be fully self-sufficient. Both are valid points of view, with their upsides and downsides. Each of us will decide what is right for their own family. If the term "allowance" is too much of a problem, let's call it "living expenses" and not dwell on who is providing the money.</p>
<p>mdcissp, this topic has been beaten to death over the years, mostly in the Parents forum. Here is a recent thread: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/507776-how-much-cash-incidentals.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/507776-how-much-cash-incidentals.html</a></p>
<p>To Groovy Geek: Thank you for the thread. Since LA is a very expensive city, and I have no idea what extras cost at USC (living expenses vary from city to city depending upon where the college is located), that I wanted to know if $300. a month sounds o.k.</p>
<p>alamemom, what happened with my daughter is that she went to Disneyland once and then was somehow able to apply the cost of that first ticket to an annual pass. So I don't think you have to make a decision about a pass immediately. I don't know the exact details but she ended up going back three or four times, sometimes just for the evening. She didn't have a car but had several friends who did.
mdcissp, I think that $300 a month sounds good to start and then he can let you know if he needs more. Special events, trips or other unanticipated expenses (seasons tickets for football!) may come up so as long as you have a way to get him money quickly, you should be fine. I have my daughter's bank account linked to mine and can transfer money easily. Incidentally, with my eldest child some years ago, I tried giving her a semester worth of "living expenses" (aka allowance) at a time but that did not work out well at all. Now we do it month by month.</p>
<p>Thanks for the info! I was thinking a Disneyland pass (or the promise of one when she gets to LA) might be a good graduation present.</p>
<p>I think that's a great idea and wish I had thought of it.</p>
<p>Oh the old disneyland pass...I am a senior here...and I LOVE my pass...I think the first year my roommates and I went about 40 or 50 times...even if it was just for a quick ride on space mountian and dinner...and yes...you can buy a normal ticket at the beginning of the day and when you leave you can change it over to the pass and you just owe them the difference...then if you go on a blackout day I believe it is 40...which is why I always get the second (higher priced) southern california one...lol...it gives me sundays..and my roommates and I have found the beauty of wednesdays with all the tourist parent with their strollers in toon town leaving other rides empty (not of course in summer time)....but yes...disney is great...</p>
<p>I have never had an "allowance" from my parents here and I do have a campus job...I am from out of state and found it fairly easy to get a job...they have a career fair for work-study applicants during the first week (orientation/ welcome week) but I found it best just to ask around...like counselors and stuff...because the fair has pretty mundane jobs like at the bookstore and libraries...whereas asking around I was able to get into the neuro department (which is my major)....</p>
<p>I think if the child has a meal plan then spending should be minimum and it will teach them to budget their money more effectively...</p>
<p>My kids both had work study jobs, at about a thousand a semester. I don't know how they spent it and didn't want to know. I just paid USC's bill, and if they wanted "walking around" money, it came from their work study. </p>
<p>Both had jobs on campus within hours of arrival. My impression is that there are more jobs available than kids to work them.</p>
<p>My D got discount tickets to DLand just last week at the USC Ticket Office. I don't think the discount was very much, but she said a combo ticket to both California-Land or whatever it is called with DLand would have been highly discounted.</p>
<p>"It seems like parking is free with yearly pass"</p>
<p>Just in case someone hasn't read all the details in the Disney pass info that was quoted along with this comment, I want to make sure it's clear that parking is only free with the most expensive Premium Annual pass. You have to pay an extra fee for parking with the other passes. Parking was just raised to $12 per visit so if you are driving it's essential to have some form of parking pass. Premium passes also get a bigger discount on some meals (15% instead of 10% with the Deluxe) and a 10% shopping discount, so depending on how often it would be used the Premium may make more sense. </p>
<p>For our family I buy myself the Premium to cover the parking and discounts, and everyone else gets Deluxe (we don't want to go on the dates Deluxe passes are blacked out, like Saturdays in the summer).</p>
<p>Also, you may want to know that if you renew after the first year, you usually get a $20 discount for renewing by mail.</p>
<p>For comparison from a Southern Californian: We typically have given our daughter $40 a month to either put on her Spirit Card (for on-campus meals not on the meal plan) or to keep in her wallet for "walking around money" (i.e., there is a Burger King across from Cardinal Gardens, grin), plus $10 a month for her laundry card. Unless something "special" came up we wanted her to mainly rely on the meal plan since we're already paying quite a lot for it (grin), and that amount seems to work for her needs to give her a break now and then, along with some groceries in her dorm.</p>
<p>Last year, since she was in a dorm with a kitchen and they had to provide all their own cleaning supplies, etc., we ended up adding another $20 for groceries (paper towels, dish soap, extra food, etc.). Since there are four girls splitting these expenses that was plenty. They all had meal plans too so they didn't get very extravagant about buying extra food.</p>
<p><em>However</em>, keeping mind, moneywise, that she is able to come home every couple months for a hair cut, bringing her laundry with her, and she takes groceries back with her to supplement the meal plan (water bottles, popcorn, etc). </p>
<p>Occasionally she has entertainment expenses like movies or off campus restaurant visits, but a majority of her entertainment events have been free, such as through the Visions and Voices and Learning Community discussed in previous threads. And of course she had her football pass; the basketball and baseball games come free with the Spirit Card. Her religious group has paid for some off-campus activities such as going to the Getty Villa. They also went to Disneyland; she has her own pass but we gave some extra $ to eat there.</p>
<p>A couple times prescriptions came up; the amounts were fairly small. She does have a work/study job so she paid up front and we reimbursed her via check. Even if your student is getting a work/study job, if he or she is far from home you'll want them to have some extra cash on hand at the start of the year for unexpected contingencies like prescriptions, or if they're over 18, something a friend of mine did was get her son a Discover card in his name with a limited credit line, with the bills going to her. That way he could pay for unexpected supplies needed, medicine, etc.</p>
<p>Just sharing this thinking that you can perhaps compare what additional things an out-of-stater might need, as well as calculating the kinds of activities your child is interested in, and this might help figure out the right amount for your own needs accordingly. Each situation can be quite different but perhaps hearing a variety of experiences will help give you a better idea.</p>
<p>I told our son to keep a list of expenses for the first two months to get an idea of how much money he needs. I can see him heading out to Jamba Juice frequently and am not sure how that works out on the meal plan.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Is $300. a month a fair amount allowance for a freshman boy at USC?
[/quote]
It depends on what other expenses you are paying and the agreement you have with your son. In our family that is $300 too much ... we're paying tuition, transportation, books, fees, and room & board ... our kids can figure out a way to find bucks for everything else themselves.</p>