<p>Now that our Ss and Ds have returned after their first year, I am wondering how what you planned and budgeted worked out.
Did it come in under or over your expectations?
What were the surprises? and what are the adjustments that you need/plan to make for next year?
What is your student's contribution, if any? </p>
<p>I will start and say that we under estimated S's boredom with the food service, as well as difficulty accessing food during exam times etc and that cost more than anticipated. Three health issues requiring hospital visits and expensive tests and a crashed computer were our surprises. Reselling textbooks became an issue when professors would not designate that the same text would be used again.
Next year, we are decreasing the meal plan, adding more flexibility to buying on and off campus food and groceries. Also, changing his cell phone plan to a less known but significantly cheaper option.
He was lucky enough to find a summer job, and minus his summer expenses, that will go into the pool of funds for next year, but unfortunately not cover it.</p>
<p>D2 joined a sorority…so, that brought unanticipated expenditures. Excluding those items, the budgeted amount was close to the actual. Given that she had to relocate from the west coast, there were initial start up costs that will not recur next yr. D2 is working again this summer and will contribute over half to her annual pocket money. She also has a campus job next yr.</p>
<p>Basically, things worked out as plan. Didn’t have problem with food service (school uses residential college format) and different residential colleges have different food strengths. So it breakfast and weekend brunch at D’s, dinner at another and, lunch at another. Another reason it worked out is that D is a athlete and had to stay over breaks to practice, while the team covered some stuff it was at a minimum, she basically kept the bucks and ate better than she could have. As for other stuff, everything seemed to be as estimated (books etc) and she had enough spending money to get stuff (the odd clothing items, going out, etc). She had worked last summer and will again this summer for the discretionary funds she uses during the year. Medical (an overnight hospital stay) was taken care of by my insurance as were the other the times she had to see a doctor. So from that standpoint it went well. On the other hand, D is fairly careful with money most of the time.</p>
<p>Our son takes care of personal expenses and we pay for room and board. He got off the meal plan this year and at some point we forgot to keep sending him money and he forgot to complain. The result was that come May he didn’t have enough money in the bank account for security deposits and first month’s rent for his summer apartment and the place he’ll be living in the fall. Otherwise no surprises - he’s pretty frugal.</p>
<p>Son has a part-time job and he usually has more cash in his wallet than I do so I assume that everything went well for food. There was one health incident with his gums but that was covered by insurance. No computer problems - MacBook Pro is working just fine. If they earn their money and pay for their own food, problems seem to take care of themselves.</p>
<p>I buy him his textbooks as early as I can using my B&N membership and any coupons that show up in my email box. We always keep the textbooks or give them away to others.</p>
<p>D started public U in summer to get a leg up, so no job last summer. She went with some savings from the year before that she did not have to touch, and I gave her $150/mos for gas, food, school supplies and all stuff other than tuition/room/board/books. Once we sent a little extra. I did send an occasional Starbucks or Chili’s gift card (locations on campus.) She joined a sorority with the promise of working this summer to pay the expenses back. </p>
<p>She is working this summer, on track to pay for last year and this year’s sorority expenses, and all spending money. The sorority house is MUCH less than the dorm, and the sorority 3 meals a day M-F is MUCH cheaper than the university meal plan and the food is better. She kept her scholarship with a good GPA. So I might just let her put some of her earnings into savings, and use some of “my” savings on dorm and meals to go towards the sorority and her S/S meals. She just doesn’t know that yet ;).</p>
<p>We did not budget anything. However, cost of used science textbooks were way higher than our wildest estimation.</p>
<p>We did not have a budget, per se. I knew what to expect for textbooks from my own experience going back to college a few years ago (I got over the shock at that time!). Except for the unexpected trips home for Thanksgiving and Spring Break, expenses were pretty much as we anticipated they would be. S goes to school on the other side of the country, and our original plan was one trip home at Winter Break. But he was homesick at Thanksgiving, and really wanted to come home for Spring Break - so we ponied up the $ to buy airline tickets, and we’re glad we did.</p>
<p>S used up all his meal plan points in each semester. He sold back books he didn’t want to keep. He didn’t have a job during fall semester at our request, so he could see how much his school workload would be. He had planned to get a job after winter break, but he developed some health issues that interfered with that plan, so for the past few months we’ve deposited a little money into his bank account every 2 weeks (the same amount he had been receiving as an allowance when he was in high school.) His personal expenses consisted of buying rolls of quarters for laundry, riding the subway/bus here and there, occasionally eating at restaurants, and buying CDs and stuff like that. I wish they could charge laundry onto their school account, since it’s really a school expense IMO.</p>
<p>Freshman year, 4 hrs away from home. We sent $100/month for spending. He has a meal plan and no car. So the $100 was for entertainment, any extra food for his dorm room, meals out in town. Anything over that amount was up to him (he has a bit of savings from working over summer/Christmas). We told him that after this year, all spending and gas money is on him. He will be taking a car up next year, which we are fighting. Silly for all 6 guys that live together to have a car … and they are living in sophmore apts on campus. Plus 4 out of 6 live within 45 minutes of each other (real homes). It’s worked out just fine so far. Books - yes, a crazy expense, especially when teachers use them for 1 year. That was the only expense that went over our expectations. Need to find somewhere else to sell them (ebay, Craigslist). All in all, it’s worked out.</p>
<p>Oh, D has a credit card for whatever.</p>