My D plans to get a job in college to cover her personal spending but not immediately. (She’s attending a very rigorous school, will have time consuming labs in Fall, and we’d like her to settle in for a couple months to get her bearings.)
We’re paying for 16-meal plan plus some flex ‘dining dollars.’ She plans to eat breakfast in her room most days by buying easy prep groceries like instant oatmeal, yogurt, etc.
What monthly $$ are you giving your student to cover modest amount of food/snacks for the room; toiletries; occasional coffees/ice cream & meals off campus; and off campus entertainment like movies?
[I know she will have other personal expenses like clothing, travel, etc. but not including those here.]
Thanks in advance!!
Also make note of whether your student is in a particularly high cost place like NYC, Boston, or California? Tks!
low cost midwest; 2 in college, meal plans cover 2/3 meals; NO extra spending money from us. They are on their own for all sundries, 1/3 of meals, books, and so on. Both have very small, on-campus 10 hr/week jobs to help cover costs; both kids work full time in summer. Both did not take jobs first semester of their first years; they waited until they figured out how it all worked and lived frugally off their own savings.
We aren’t giving spending money either. That’s on my daughter. She’s saved enough from summer jobs, graduation money, etc… to have a very comfortable amount to get through the year.
My kids worked the summer before college to start with a spending money nest egg. They got money for HS graduation gifts, too. That is what my kids used. No allowance. Neither worked 1st year on campus, and had plenty of spending money. One started working soph year, the other never did but made money in the summers. It was good for them.
My kids are miserly with money. While in the dorms spending was less than $500 for the year. In an apartment it was about $150/month for food and occasional meals out. They all had campus jobs but we get their bank statements sent to our house.
S2 has the 14 meal plan so normally eats 2 big meals per day. We loaded him up with granola bars at move-in. He ended the year with some left.
We asked our kids to work during summers to generate money for incidentals at college. But we did not expect them to work during the academic year, b/c the curriculum itself was so intensive (UChicago, RISD). Nonetheless, our #1 did do a couple of online research gigs; but mainly he earned money working at a debate camp during summer. For #2, the one attempt to work during school year (in a shop at school) led to an accident. She did work a couple of summers. We were satisfied with the results.
Agree with most of the posters above. Freshman year they had to have the full meal plan, housing was paid for, we paid for books. Therefore most everything else was “an extra.” They started off the year fully stocked with toiletries etc. I don’t think they spent more than $100-200 the whole year, my son is pretty frugal 
My kids never worked during the school year (until junior year of college) but managed to make and save a decent amount from summer jobs. Plus the graduation gift money.
We paid for the full meal plan the first year - let them choose other years. We also paid for phone and insurance (car/health). My guys (3) paid all their own expenses otherwise from jobs they had (summer/school). They learned to be frugal and take advantage of the many free or low cost options their colleges provided.
No regrets. No complaints from them either. None have felt their jobs interfered with their studies. They were quite flexible with studying needs.
Our son also used his own money for spending. He ran out late in spring semester so we put a couple hundred on his meal card. Local businesses accept payment through the student card, so he can go to 7-11, Pizza Hut and several others with just his card. This year (sophomore year) he will get an on campus job for a few hours a weeks and use his summer money for food.
I should add that the $500 for the year included books. They got used books and rentals where available.
We don’t give our girls any spending money over the meal plan and laundry, and neither have to work during the school year. My oldest, a rising senior does work during the school year tutoring athletes at the school athletic center 6-10 hours per week for a little extra cash, but the bulk of her money is earned during the summer with full time internships. Our incoming freshman has worked 3 jobs this summer and has about $3500 saved up to use as spending money over the school year. Since she is pretty tight with her money and does not have as many vices as her sister (Starbucks addict) I suspect she will have a good bit left over at the end of the year.
I think that the personality of the student matters here also.
D2 attends university out of the country, which means that checks take a long time to clear and show up in her bank account. She is also very careful with money. As such we gave her one check which we hoped would last the entire school year rather than a monthly amount. If you ignore the amount for new winter gear (university students are outside a lot more than high school students, and are out in all weather) and ignore the amount intended for books, we probably gave her about $1,000 for incidentals and meals out and movies and such for the entire school year. We thought she might need more at some time. However, she did not use it up – there was some left at the end of the year.
Okay, interesting. My daughter, alas, is starting college fairly broke. She saved all her babysitting and Christmas money to travel for two weeks with a friend in Europe right after graduation (Yes, we ARE brave parents, lol!), then we had a family vacation, and now she’s working at a sleepaway camp where she’s earning a whopping $150 (total!!) for 3 weeks. That only left 2 weeks which obviously wasn’t enough to get a job, esp. since they weren’t even contiguous. (Her HS graduated kinda late and her college starts early so it’s ony an 8 week summer for her.)
She has realized that as much as she loved her trip and loves the camp, all her friends are banking $$ for college and she’s not.
So I think we’ll have to give her a little cushion to start this Fall, but hopefully she can get a campus job after a couple of months or Jan at latest. She signed up for their online job posting service, but quickly learned students with work-study have priority, which makes sense.
Would still love to hear from anyone else who is providing some funds to help me figure out how much!
Tks!
Our child is at a college that doesn’t have meal plans. She will never go hungry, at least. We give her $0. If she wants spending money for the school year, it’s on her to earn it during the summer. We do pay for toiletries and clothes, etc…when she comes home over breaks. She is very frugal and for her first two years at college spent something around $700 each year.
My rising freshman will have saved a combination of graduation money and paid summer internship money. She is going for a BFA in dance and has a pretty crazy schedule. She has ballet at 8 am every morning and will have late night and possible weekend rehearsals. She has a very nice scholarship for dance and is in the Honors College, so we’d like her to focus on retaining her scholarship and not working fall semester while she transitions to college. (she has never been able to work a scheduled job during high school year …baby sitting only)
We live in Philly and she will be at school in NJ with easy access back to Philly or more exciting to her, NYC. She will have toiletries, tuition, books, food and “dining bucks” that may be used around campus. She will use a combination of her savings and we will send $100.00 a month.
Thanks, @amom2 and others – $100/mo seems about right until she gets a job. And we’ll send her with a decent supply of toiletries and starter breakfast items/snacks.
Funny, I just remembered my parents gave $20/mo back in 19coughcough until I got a job. Of course my semester tuition and fees was $700! Sigh.
@AlmostThere2018
You know, your daughter can also get a job while she is in college part time. Working 10 hours a week should be manageable and give her sufficient spending money.
The issue of how much you give her is your family choice. Some folks give spending money in college. Some don’t. Some give some money but do expect their kids to work too.
Maybe you can give start up spending money for the first term with additional as needed, and an expectation that your daughter will also work…and not to fund another trip to Europe (if you want her to earn college spending money).
My 2014 S did not have the opportunity to make a lot of money the Summer before he started college. He was in Lexington, KY (low cost compared to Philly, our home) and we allotted $40.00/week on top of his meal plan.
He worked hard the Summer after Freshman year and the weekly stipend slowly disappeared.
No joke - when I asked other parents to determine a reasonable allowance, one mom told me she gave kids $1000.00/month … on top of full meal plan, books, tuition, etc! I couldn’t even hide my shock.
Um. . . @thumper1 – this was literally the first sentence of my OP:
“My D plans to get a job in college to cover her personal spending but not immediately.”
It’s just going to likely take a couple of months b/c she can’t get work/study jobs, plus she wants to get her sea legs. . .
So, yeah, she’s on it!