<p>I am interested in learning about what amounts of $$ (if any) most families think it reasonable to deposit in a college son or daughter's bank account each month for expenses.</p>
<p>I send nothing. </p>
<p>My D is expected to earn her own spending money, in summer & during the school year.</p>
<p>We only deposit money for room/board for off campus housing and nothing in excess of what the on campus costs would be. Spending money?? That is up to the kidlets to earn. They are responsible for earning all discretionary spending money, and money for books. Both work during the summers and vacations and up to 10 hours a week during school. I'm quite sure their "cash flow" is much better than ours as we are paying the tuition/room/board costs.</p>
<p>Nothing here either. Both of our sons work jobs during the summer and during college breaks in order to earn their own money. In addition, they are responsible for buying their own textbooks, gas money, and paying their own credit card bill (in full every month).</p>
<p>This topic comes up all the time. If you look at the blue bar at the top of the page, you can run a search. </p>
<p>My parents give me money for housing, food, and books, and they pay for my travel home. If your child is in a dorm, you don't need to worry about housing or food costs. You can ask you child what books cost. My parents do not give spending money, and at college I only know of one person who gets spending money from their parents.</p>
<p>We gave our son $400 on his college debit card and another $100 in snack and breakfast foods, as his meal plan doesn't include breakfasts. Textbooks are outrageous so we paid for them. We found an atm on campus and had him open a local account with that bank, so he can use his own money for everything else. We had to laugh when he told us that the atm wouldn't work the first time he tried to use it because, "I put in $11.00 for the amount and it wouldn't give me it."</p>
<p>Unlike some people on this board, I do give my daughter spending money: $125 per month.</p>
<p>I don't think this is unreasonable because she has little opportunity to earn money. She participates in a time-consuming extracurricular activity at college, which really doesn't leave time for a job. And most of the summer internships in the fields that interest her pay little or nothing. </p>
<p>She never spends all of her allowance money, incidentally. Some months, she spends little or none of it. She's at a college in a rather isolated area, she isn't in the Greek system, and she doesn't drink. There really isn't much for her to spend money on. </p>
<p>The situation would be different for a student going to college in a major city. Money flows through those kids' hands like water.</p>
<p>I send my DD $50 twice a month. She is on the full all you can eat meal plan but she is a vegan grazer and eats alot in her room. She also just likes to cook. So far she has set up a regular stop at Starbucks for soy hot choc, a friday night stir fry takeout and uses the rest to buy pencils and art supplies. So she tells me....</p>
<p>Marian if she doesn't spend the money why send it?
I am amazed by my kids friends who get allowances. Almost all of them have no clue how to budget or the value of money.
My kids don't get any allowance. They are frugal and thrifty. They all work for spending money.
I work with young nurses who are like my kids friends. Not only did they get spending money in college, but they also got downpayments for houses they bought. They don't know the value of money and are living beyond their means. I think there is a correlation</p>
<p>We pay for just tuition, housing (includes meal plan), books, and school-related expenses. My D pays for anything else such as movies, restaurant money, shopping, etc. She has money saved up from before college, summer jobs, on-campus job, etc. to cover it.</p>
<p>The school related expenses are fairly predictable with some variance depending on cost of books each quarter so it's fairly easy to make sure we cover it. She just buys the books on her CC, tells us what she spent, then we deposit that amount into her account so she can pay the CC bill. This makes it pretty easy.</p>
<p>We give our daughter $200/mon, same allowance as in HS. She also works at school and teaches ballet, which amounts to about $450/mon. She gets everything paid for, so she has more spending money than I do at the moment.</p>
<p>She spends about $150-$200 a month, only because she buys fresh fruit and organic food that she can't get at school.</p>
<p>A good starting point is the COA that colleges have. This is what the colleges consider the cost of attending their college and if your student were on total financial aid, that is the dollar amount that could be given You cannot get PLUS or Stafford loan beyond COA, you cannot as a rule get scholarship money beyond COA. If you are paying the tuition, room, board, and other fixed costs of college cost, what is left is the COA.</p>
<p>Now, there is room for a lot of play with the allowance since your student may have a major that requires more than the $ amount listed for books, or perhaps a lot less. Perhaps his major requires things that most students do not need. You need to personalize the amounts given your student's particular situation. Perhaps there is a reason for your student to come home more often or less often than the official COA gives. But COA is a good place to start. My two older boys went below COA their first two years of college. I knew there were problems when they started going over it, and that they were spending money on something extra. </p>
<p>I think it's great that kids have their own money to spend, but it is also a good indicator to parents about what is happening if they see what is being spent.</p>
<p>Most schools list a recommended allowance in their financial stats.</p>
<p>Fortunately we can afford to consider school the kids' "job" and don't want them to feel that they have to work an extra job. We've always taken this attitude - from elementary school on. Sometimes they do work (summers, seasonally), but only if it does not interfere with their studies or ECs.</p>
<p>There are NO jobs on my campus for students who do not qualify for work study. You might not believe me, but that's the world I live in right now. The only jobs currently available right now are library jobs that require fluency in an East Asian language or advanced computer networking skills. I do volunteer in the community for no pay. My parents give me $50 a week, a small fraction of the $22,000 a year in scholarships I have earned. I feel neither entitled to it nor spoiled for it.</p>
<p>This topic has been covered many times on this board, it seems that $200-$250 is the average amount needed for personal expenses beyond Tuition, room & board, and books. People vary greatly as to who provides it- some expect their kids to earn it over the summer and in work study jobs, some pay that amount and more for their kid to have fun in NYC, and every where in between on that spectrum, but in generally seems to come down to 200-250 as the average amount needed, no matter where it comes from</p>
<p>What I would like to know is when did striving for a solid education become the equivalent of a job? I've heard this mentioned many times on CC. Education, especially beyond high school, is a privilege. Could the "softness" of our children's generation be due to some of this "let's give our kid everything" mentality? It's wonderful that so many parents have the finances to hand their adult children allowances but is it the right thing to do?</p>
<p>Right there with you. When I went to college, I worked for both my living expenses and my spending money. I lived at home for two years and then on campus after I saved money.
I learned how to budget my money.
I can't believe a high school student needs $200 spending money a month!! I guess that is how my son's friends can afford going to Starbucks everyday and buy Coach purses.</p>
<p>I also disagree with the "let's give our kid everything" mentality. Mine get the amount the college suggests and if they want to spend more than that, for example trips with their friends, they're on their own (from summer jobs, gift $, etc). And they do realize how fortunate they are.</p>
<p>However, I am grateful that they don't have to work an extra job while they're already working a full time job (I know that in high school they certainly put in way more than a 40 hour week - and I'm pretty sure they are in college as well). Anyone who has had to moonlight will tell you that it compromises their main job. I feel that college kids have a remarkable opportunity to explore their options and to immerse themselves in their education (in and out of the classroom). It is too precious an opportunity to compromise if you don't have to.</p>
<p>We give my son $100 a month for spending money. I don't agree that an allowance deters your kid from appreciating the value of money. They still have to budget and prioritize. In my son's case, he uses money he has earned over the summer for any large purchases of extra spending, as these days $100 buys you a tank of gas and a meal at In-and-Out! When he had a car repair last month, he paid for it with his own funds. He also pays for all travel, his hobbies (and he has a couple of expensive ones) gifts, clothing, etc.
We want him to focus on school and not feel he needs to worry about the financial end of things too much right now. He has always been frugal, not just with his money but with ours as well, and has worked since he was twelve. I appreciated his frugality when we saw his credit card bill this month, which he pays himself in full with the exception of books. He bought most of his books used on Amazon, saving us money even though an inconvenience to him.
If our son has a small bank account that he's built up by saving much of his summer and other earnings when he graduates, all the better. He'll be in a good position to move out on his own at that point without needing a lot of help from us.</p>
<p>We did the same for our 23 yr old D, who graduated and is now living on her own, completely financially independent.</p>
<p>Clearly the opinions on this topic are all over the map -- as shown in this thread and the many others on this topic. We gave D an allowance of $50.00/mo in HS, with a "raise" to $60.00 her senior year. She was expected to buy her own clothes (except her school uniform), toiletries, & incidentals and to pay for any activities (movies, concerts, etc.) & gifts. She did. If she didn't have the $$ for something, she did without. Allowance stopped right after HS graduation. Now that she's in college, she earns her spending $$ by working during the summer, and as a personal trainer at school. She never asks for $$. S is on the same "financial plan."</p>