We told our kids we pay for needs (groceries, toothpaste, shampoo, etc) and they pay for wants (pizza with friends, concerts, daily Starbucks, etc). They each had some savings going in and used that at first for the fun stuff. The older one went a year on her savings and then got a campus job second year. The second one had more in savings from a high school job, but wanted to work and found a campus job first semester. They both learned to budget their spending money and eventually began buying their own groceries and such as well, without being pushed by us. This arrangement worked very well for us.
We gave $500/semester on top of books and meal plan. I’m actually not sure what we are doing for this last year now that she’s off campus … I think we’re still giving her the $500/semester but she’s having to spend more of it on food since she doesn’t have a meal plan, but she’s been working.
We heard a tidbit during D’s orientation, specific to her state U though makes sense for others. I don’t know if other universities track this.
There is a positive correlation between working during college and GPA. It peaks around 15-16 hours/week then disappears if a kid has to work more than somewhere in the low 20s. In effect, students who work 10 hours do better than ones who do not work and students who work 15 hours do best of all.
S1 and D both worked as tutors, the perfect campus job. It gave them exposure within the college and forced them to stay fluent with prior years’ material. They also got paid to study when the tutoring office was not busy.
Yeah, I’d maybe give spending money 1st semester, with the expectation she will line up a job for 2nd semester and start it as soon as she is back at school. Food service jobs are usually easy to get for frosh and have flexible hours.
@Magnetron – Yes, this is right!
Higher ed policy is my professional jam and the research I’m familiar with says the sweet spot is 10-12 hours of work per week is associated with good GPA. Above that, it can start to impact performance.
My kids provided their own spending money, and I know my brother occasionally sent them $100. One also took the subsidized loan and had a little left over after her rent was paid.
It sounds like you have the money to give her, so do that. She won’t need much. A lot depends on if she has a Starbucks habit. One of my kids does, and she never has any money. The other has a smoothie habit, but she could get those off her dining dollars on campus.
We don’t give our kids spending money either but I do send them to school well stocked and will buy specific things for them if they run out of something and have it shipped to them. DS is in a pre-freshman year summer research program and they gave him a stipend to cover his personal expenses (which he is using to purchase games from STEAM.com!). He’s also found he can make pocket change being a research subject. He made $30 as part of a nuero study where they recorded his brain activity while learning several words in Swahili!
My kids knew from an early age that their savings (birthday money, babysitting, graduation gift money…) was to be used for their spending money in college if they chose to it spend on something else that’s their problem. I realize every family has different expectations, I’d suggest giving her a lump sum for the semester instead of a monthly allowance so she can budget it. Since an academic semester is 15 weeks I’d say $300-$375 per semester. I know my oldest spent less than $300 of her money her first semester. She was also surprised how many campus events offered free food. With her meal plan your D will not go hungry!
@twoinanddone – my D def. has a tea and coffee habit! For Christmas she got a pour over coffee maker from her uncle and for graduation I got her a really nice travel coffee mug. She’s taking an electric kettle and I’ve made it clear she now has the tools to make GREAT coffee or tea in her room so she needs to do that and take it with her on campus rather than using dining dollars at the on campus coffee shop every day. We’ve even joked she should start a little in-room coffee shop for her hall mates, lol.
@3scoutsmom – yes, good suggestion to give a lump sum for the semester!
“S1 and D both worked as tutors, the perfect campus job”
Another good college job is being a server/busboy in a restaurant. You get a salary plus you take home cash tips every day. I did this senior year (1990’s) and was making as much as $100+ day when I worked Friday and Saturday nights. My rent was $300/month for a room living in a 4 bedroom house with pool. The rest of the money was spent on food, beverage, gas, clothes, and going out. My parents paid for tuition, books, and health fees but again tuition was around $700/qtr (UC).
To the OP, I would think that when D20 goes off to college, her freshman year she won’t work and we will give her some spending money each semester. Really depends on how much savings she has by the time she enters college and if all of her expenses will be eligible and covered by her 529 plan?
The tutoring jobs can become a time suck. My daughter did it and they assigned her a student. My daughter took it very seriously and would spend her own time preparing for the tutoring session. This past year the student didn’t qualify for the tutoring program, but her mother paid my D to continue tutoring her daughter. She did make money doing that because she charged for prep time too. However, she preferred working at the school gym at 5:30 am as she just went in, set out towels, checked IDs and the check came. Not so much thinking involved.
Any chance you can calculate out how much you both think she would earn at a job, then give her that much for the first semester (lump sum) letting her know that this semester “college” is her job - figuring out studying, clubs, etc, and thereafter she can fit in something she’s found/likes to more or less “continue” on her own?
It seems like that would help her learn to budget and with an amount that’s likely for her future.
Like others, when we visit or they come home we help out with various little things like personal needs or certain foods. One of mine protested once (not a hard protest, but a mere “you don’t need to do that”) and I reminded him that my mom still does that for me when we visit so he’d better get used to it. In our family, that custom doesn’t go away very quickly. It’s part of our mom “job” (but a fun part). We never get them anything they don’t actually want/need, of course, and mine don’t come home often, so it’s hardly a regular thing they add to their budget.
You can also send care packages. the first year I sent them all (my 2, niece, nephew) Halloween popcorn tins from the Popcorn Factory. I’d send USPS envelopes (the $6-8 same price of any weight) stuffed with treats and I’d try to put in $20 or a gift card. Sometimes I’d shop at amazon and send a box of groceries, a new toothbrush, some hair things, etc.
It’s fun to receive a package.
It depends if you’re including the parents’ Amazon Prime account! My D21 regularly puts things in the shopping cart.
When the time comes, we plan to have our daughter earn her spending money during the summers. The exception would be if she has an unpaid internship in which case I’d think $200 a month would probably be enough.
@Creekland – I had thought about that but I think that might be more generous than I was thinking – 10 hours a week at min. wage is about $75 a week. I think keeping it less (more like $25 or $30) will let her see the benefit of working when she does start b/c her disposable income and will go up!
Agree with everyone that we can stock her up when she comes home and there’s Amazon Prime for anything ‘big’ that comes up that she really needs. But I don’t want her to get too used to that. She ended up choosing a college at the top of our budget (passing up some nice merit opps) so she knows she’s not getting a lot of extras, including expensive summer ‘opportunities’ from this point on that translate in my vocabulary to ‘additional expenses.’ Hopefully she can find paying summer opportunities that also give good experience.
No spending money, she earned hers. The first year tough she definitely had grad gift money to use, and she didn’t work the first two years (except some occasional ref work for intramural leagues, and a local babysitting gig). She did work fulltime every summer, before and during college, and was paid well.
From junior year on she has had the same on-campus job which pays pretty well and is relevant to her future career, so it’s a win-win for her.
But her meal plan is unlimited so there’s no chance of starving.
We did about CAD $50 per week as a budget which had to pay for breakfast every day (meal plan is expensive), incidentals, pizza, and going out (beer…drinking age is 18). He is pretty frugal and that figure seemed to work well. He does have a Tim Hortons (Canada’s Dunkins) and we had him ask for gift cards for that. All of the money came from what he earned the previous summer. He had a ton left over.
Well…I get money from the Veterans Administration that goes up after a child turns 18 to 274 a month on top of my disability. I am going to deposit it in her account starting this OCT and continue through freshman year. She will start with a nest egg and should be able to live very well!
Your kid gets their own Amazon Prime account for free if they are a student (I think for 6 months, then they start charging).
"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.
How much is the dining dollars and does it only cover places on campus? Typically if the dining dollars are say $100 per quarter or semester, that would help with coffee shops, pizza, fast-food, Mexican etc as long they’re on campus. If they can be used at select places off-campus that’s even better.
“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?”
Given she has to make up five meals during the week, I’d budget $200 a month initially and see how it goes.