<p>Hey guys. In looking at all the financial stuff, something people don't really talk about much is the amount of money you would need to cover all the non academic stuff (clothes, food outside of what's on the meal plan, and just general miscellaneous stuff, like going into Boston, seeing a movie, shopping, etc.). In your experience, how much extra did you find yourself spending a month on stuff that was just for pleasure?</p>
<p>Everyone’s budgets vary obviously. Some students have an amount allotted to them by their parents, their savings, or what they generate from working throughout the academic year. I generally budget for myself $20/wk. Sometimes I use less (especially if I don’t go off campus that week) or sometimes more. </p>
<p>Bus tickets to Boston are now priced at $30 for 10 tickets (5 round-trips to and from Boston). Personally I only use about one or two each semester, so I look at that as more of an investment for my semester instead of a weekly purchase. Again, some students go off campus more than others - I know students who use an entire bus pass in two weekends (if you go off campus Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday this is quite feasible) and I know others who have used one bus pass for their entire four years.</p>
<p>Also, I allot a separate amount for taking a cab to and from the airport, if I don’t want to use public transportation and another amount for shipping items home at the end of the spring semester.</p>
<p>As welles10 mentioned above, the amount of money that you spend on nonacademic things varies greatly from student to student. There is no way to give you an accurate idea of how much you’ll require because we have no idea on what your activities will be at school. Will you be someone who stays on campus more or goes off campus? Will you eat out or order food more, or stick to the dining halls? Will you participate in an activity that requires you to take on some expenses (no organization at Wellesley requires you to pay money to join - minus the societies - but many activities that they participate in may require some additional cost)?</p>
<p>Instead, I’ll try to give some more common, non academic expenses, you might incur. </p>
<p>Movies: $9.50-$10.50 evening prices, depending on the theater. Matinees $6-$8.</p>
<p>Shows in Boston: Many (most?) have student priced tickets for $20-$30, depending on the venue and show. Also, when I was a student, the Student Life office would buy a boatload of tickets for certain shows and offer them free to students. Not sure if they still do this in light of economic times, but if they do, take advantage of them! The office will buy tickets to the ballet, to Broadway shows, etc. etc.</p>
<p>Non Dining Hall Food: When I was a student, one of the more popular places that people would order from was Lemon Thai. Pretty good food that was fairly reasonable and delivered very quickly. We usually ordered in the evening, so a dinner order would be $10-$15 a person, depending on what you got. I also really liked Ty’s Pies because they would deliver hot subs that were large for a very reasonable price of $5-$8, depending on what you put on them. These prices probably aren’t current now, but just to give you an idea.</p>
<p>Going into Boston: In addition to the bus passes that welles10 mentioned, you need to take into account the subway system, known as the T. It is a $2 fare per ride (it used to be 85cents when I was a first year!!!). However, the fare is reduced to $1.70 if you have something called a “Charlie Card,” which is a plastic card on which you can store money. Depending on what you’re doing in the city, getting around can start to add up quickly if you’re hopping on and off the T a lot. There is a monthly pass that is flat fee for unlimited rides, but I would think you’d have to be spending oodles of time in the city in order to justify the cost. More info on the T is found at mbta.com</p>
<p>Other Social Activities: These would be parties or events held at other campuses in the city. All on campus events at Wellesley are free for its students (of course), but maybe you want to attend a party at some other school. These can be anywhere from $2-$10. Maybe you want to attend a Harvard football game - again, there’s a ticket price. Similar for just about any other event on the many campuses in the city. Because of the high number of schools in the area, there are some sweet concerts and events at those schools that you’ll probably want to take advantage of. </p>
<p>On Campus Activities Cost: This will totally depend on what you become involved in, but there may be some expenses associated with what you decide to participate in. All organizations are funded from the Student Activities Fee, so you don’t have to pay for the vast majority of things that you do through an organization. But each org has its own leeway of how to spend its money, so there’s a lot of latitude here. As an example, I played a club sport while at Wellesley. Because we weren’t part of the Athletic dept., we, as students, had to arrange everything ourselves: coaches, practices, uniforms, transportation to games, equipment, etc. etc. The club paid for coaches, required membership to a national governing body, uniforms, lodging when we had a tournament that required an overnight, and some athletic equipment out of the budget. However, as an individual, I had to pay for my own cleats, my own practice uniform (not required, but made practice a lot easier), pooled gas money when we went to away games (club sports do not have access to school buses/vans), and food when we were away for games. It added up. </p>
<p>Shopping: Again, varies by individual taste, but Boston and the suburbs are home to the gamut of commercial retailers: from the more student friendly H&M to as upscale as you’d like from all the designers, many found on Newbury street. There’s also a very active online student forum where you can buy all sorts of things from your fellow Wellesley students. An ancillary form of entertainment is to see which students are selling what particular items: that girl who seems to always be selling a different designer handbag for several hundreds of dollars, the girl that has posted the same goddamn top again and again for weeks (or months) on end, the girl who got something as a gift (like an ipod) but is now selling it so she can make some extra money, etc. etc. Trust me, you can waste a lot of time perusing the ForSale conference.</p>
<p>Miscellaneous Expenses: Shampoo, soap, shaving cream, toothpaste, etc, - basically hygiene products. You’ll eventually run out of what you brought with you, so you’ll have to buy from CVS in the ville. School supplies like notebooks, binders, pens/pencils, paper, etc. Supporting your fellow students by buying cookies/brownies at their bake sale, or getting candygrams, or buying t-shirts, or participating any other fundraising event they have. Orgs will fundraise all the time and trust me, you’ll buy something - if for no other reason than to get your friends to buy your wares/services when your org is fundraising.</p>
<p>If other alumnae and/or current students can think of other common non academic expenses, feel free to add.</p>
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<p>The Student Activities Office still gets tickets to shows, ballets, musicals, etc. They try to have one event each month, but students do have to purchase the tickets from the Activities Office now. Tickets can cost anywhere between $15-25 depending on the event.</p>
<p>Things that I personally tend to spend a lot of money on include magazines (save a lot of money by subscribing if you are a big magazine lover like I am!) and Starbucks (there is one very conveniently located in the Ville and that too adds up quickly). Those are my day-to-day type of expenses. Then, two or three times a semester there have been Wellesley-organized day trips that are tons of fun but can suck up some money. For example, my first year I went to two Red Sox games (organized by Wellesley; tickets were $25 each but then you get to the ballpark and everything’s really expensive, of course), and went twice to NYC for a day trip (also organized by Wellesley/specifically the art department (but you didn’t have to be in art)–>cost $20 for transportation but again then you’re in NYC and have to eat, get into museums, etc.). Then last year there was a trip to Provincetown (so fun!) and another trip to NYC. Also hard on the pocketbook can be shopping trips with friends–most people tend to mimic the behavior of those around them, so if your friends are frugal you probably won’t spend much, but if your friends are free about buying things, you might feel free, too. </p>
<p>As everyone else has said, spending habits are highly individual. I spend relatively a lot on Starbucks and the odd off-campus meal when I could restrict myself to eating/drinking only on the meal plan, but I get a kind of bored of having dining hall food every single meal (even though I generally like the food at Wellesley) and I use Starbucks as my off campus escape and personal study room, so that money spent really contributes to my personal happiness. Conversely, I don’t go to parties or drink, so the money that some people would spend on that sort of thing gets put to other uses for me.</p>
<p>Also, there is a selection of magazines for sale in the campus center emporium (little food/coffee store). You can purchase them with your points – though you are only given 50 points per semester so the cost could add up quickly if you buy a lot of magazines from there. Subscriptions are definitely the way to go to save money!</p>
<p>I personally spend an ungodly amount of money at CVS for no apparent reason except that it’s there and the only nearby place to get basic supplies.</p>
<p>Again speaking for myself, a typical trip to Boston averages about 30 dollars: 10ish for bus and subway, 15ish for a meal, 5 because I can’t go anywhere without buying a coffee/bubble tea/smoothee. Compared to California, I think Boston is pretty pricey! I’m always on a quest for a good cheap meal (like, 6 dollars) and it’s sometimes difficult.</p>
<p>CVS is the devil. I agree, I easily spent $30-$50 extra at CVS on random things. Going to Walmart/Target/Natick mall can turn into splurge sessions as well. </p>
<p>But it doesn’t have to be a 24/7 thing. Some months will be filled with more activity than others, so you might spend a lot at one time (i.e. mid October-early November), and not very much at another (mid-late november-winter break). So in the end, it can balance out. </p>
<p>There are cost saving measures that you can take as well, like participating in activities during the week, when the exchange bus is running (and free) so you get your Boston/shopping fix without having to deal with Senate bus on the weekends.</p>