Freshman year we provided $50/month for toiletries, school supplies, a haircut and the occasional meal off campus. Sophomore year we provided $25/month and paid for a haircut when he was home a couple of times each semester. Junior year he is on his own. He is on a suburban, midwestern campus. He has never complained and seems to have as much/little money as his friends. He has had a 10-12 hour/week job since 2nd semester freshman year and pays his own fraternity dues with that money.
My daughter is very frugal and spent less than $250 between August 15 and Thanksgiving. Her roommate spent $100 per week. She drank water instead of Starbucks and had tons of Flexible Spending dollars left over that she was buying dinner for students who had exhausted their spending dollars. Most money was spent on sharing Uber rides to dinner or a movie. We did allow her to order from Amazon when necessary. She did not abuse it and just order toiletries or a simple birthday gift for a new friend.
Freshman year, my daughter was responsible for all expenses beyond tuition, fees, and room/board. After a couple of weeks of school, she told me that she was missing several meals a week due to the dining hall not being open at times that worked for her schedule, so she requested a little extra “grocery allowance” to have yogurt, granola bars, fresh fruit, cereal, etc in her room. So I gave her $20 a week for this.
She was responsible for books, school supplies, extra-curriculars, toiletries, clothing, entertainment, etc. Her money came out of savings from prior employment, graduation gifts, and certain portions of her scholarships that we decided could be used for this.
@theloniusmonk – She actually gets $400 a semester dining dollars a semester. They can only be used on campus, but they have several on campus cafes that are popular for lunch and a coffee shop. AND during lunch time they can use meal swipes at certain of the cafes too – so that stretches the dining dollars farther. It’s complicated and my D doesn’t fully understand yet.
But you raise a good point – she will have to buy food (either through dining dollars or groceries) for 6 meals a week so we have to take that into account, though I’m thinking the dining dollars should cover at least 1/2 that…unless she buys fancy coffee every day which I am strictly against (see earlier post).
We heard on a lot of tours that first years are famous for burning through their flex dollars in a a Manhattan minute!
Our daughter couldn’t work summer before freshman year because of our overseas living situation. We sent $100 per month for spending for toiletries, snacks, supplies over and above meal plan. We also sent allowance for her private instrument lessons each month. I think she saved as much as she spent of the $100. Sophomore and junior year, no meal plan so $200 per month plus music lessons, still manages to save some of it. We do pay for travel and cell phone, we do send care packages of favorite Asian foods that she misses, and my husband is a big softie and Amazon junky so sends her other stuff all the time.
We paid for laundry and photocopying via the college fill up card. We also paid for cell phone (family plan) and books. We provided about $25 a month of fun money. Older son did the minimum meal plan and no meal plan at all the last two years when he lived off campus. He had a fair amount of money from well paid programming jobs/internships. Younger son did full meal plan. He got a job after freshman year. They are neither of them big spenders. I think the equivalent of what a ten hour a week minimum wage job will earn is a good rule of thumb. We played it a bit by ear. Since we had a joint bank account, it was easy to give the kids more money if the amount was too small at first.
We paid for our D tuition, room and board, books, and put some money on a card that can be used all around campus - book store etc. BUT, for extra spending (Starbucks, dinners out, and her entertainment) she is on the hook. @AlmostThere2018 don’t forget about possible Fall Break, Spring Break, and club or sorority dues. Our daughter is in a sorority and we pay for that. She went on Spring Break (many freshman do group things) and while we paid for her airfare - because we would have paid her airline ticket for her to come home during that time - she paid for hotel room, food, etc. She went away with $4000 of her own money and probably spent about $3000+ the first year. She has our credit card for emergencies and when she needs toiletries or medicine. She would always ask to use it before purchasing anything. Another expense for her was Uber. But many kids share an Uber and split the cost. It really depends on the type of kid you have…mine is very social and involved in alot of things on campus.
My daughter will be paying for half of her billable college expenses from savings earned from summer jobs as well graduation gifts. She has a credit card in her name attached to my account, and she knows she can charge any necessary personal expenses- toiletries, snack foods, etc. However, because she has an unlimited meal plan, she’ll have to pay for any restaurant meals or fro yo runs, as well as entertainment (movies, concerts, etc). I suspect she’ll be pretty frugal. She needs her money to last all four years and because of extensive potential travel opportunities offered by her college her ability to work summers is questionable. We don’t want her to get a campus job as she’ll be attending a college that could be a significant step up from high school with regards to work load.
We are planning to start with 100.00 a month.
Full access to our amazon prime account for whatever they want/need, and money varying between $200 month on low side and $500 on upper end. $100 week probably typical.
@blueskies2day is more typical of what we do. We Are obviously in a minority though.
My daughter has scholarships that covers tuition and board. She pays for meals, books, fees, and incidentals out of her summer earnings. We do provide her car (because in her case it is needed) including auto insurance and gas, as well as her phone, computer, and cash gifts at Christmas and birthdays.
It sounds like you’ll need to cover your D’s incidentals for at least a semester, if not a full year. I’d think you could stock her up on toiletries and snacks, then provide anywhere from $300 - $500 for the first semester and see how it goes. Some can get by on less, some need more. YMMV.
Both our kids worked, work study and this was their spending money. Neither used much of it. . My son doesn’t spend much so at some point it will go to payoff the small loans. We pay for school, room /board, books, etc etc. We go shopping to target etc to get what they need. Both buy used books on Amazon when they can. Both really don’t ask for much. They have their own credit cards linked to us. We keep very little money in there and do replenish when needed. This is not very often. They both have meal plans. If my daughter wants sushi… She pays. She buys her own clothes. She worked hard like 3 jobs this summer and saved a lot. She did study abroad in Indonesia and wanted to takeoff spring term to travel but she used her own money to travel around South East Asia for 2 months. Movies, entertainment they pay for. Anything outside the meal plan they pay for. They are linked to our Amazon prime and use it rarely beside school books. They both decreased work study when tests etc and they needed the time to study.
I gave my daughter -0-. She was in NYC. Summer earnings were enough to tide her over until on-campus work earnings kicked in. I did pay for the meal plan first year; after that she was on her own for meals as well.
The bigger expense was the cost of textbooks. My daughter was responsible to pay for those as well, but I found out mid-year that she had opted to share one pricey book with her roommate, but that essentially left one or the other of them without access to the book at any given time. I offered to buy the book for my D, and she turned me down … but in hindsight I realized that if I had offered any sort of direct funds while my daughter was in school, paying for books might have been a better way to go. Though at the time, it was a stretch for me just to pay tuition & room costs… so no regrets. My daughter did fine. That class without the textbook? She earned an A+. So maybe she realized something I didn’t.
This is all very interesting! My daughter has zero saved up (we live in a place where teenage employment doesn’t happen - even babysitting). She will be in a small town with limited employment off campus (but potential employment in larger towns farther away). Not much on campus employment unless you have work study. She will have the full meal plan and will stock up at Costco on snacks for her room for the year when dropping her off. I like the $100 per month figure given above and will try that out for first semester!
We’re in line with @blueskies2day and @maya54
My kids got about $75+/week for eating out, entertainment, whatever, when they were on full meal plans. While living in apartment, it’s about $200/week to include food, given as a lump sum for the semester/quarter. They don’t work during the school year. During the summer, they work on campus and their pay just covers their living expenses so nothing left for the school year :).
They usually charge books on family credit card. Special additional items can get charged after discussion, and we sometimes treat them to special celebratory dinners for birthdays etc. I think we’re average, or even below average, amongst DDs friends.
They’re appreciative of what they’re given and honestly, after paying private college tuition, this part is a drop in the bucket.
Everything except tuition and room and board was paid by D, including books, toiletries, clothes, travel expenses, etc. Each summer she works two jobs and then works at least 10 hours/week at school. Her summer earnings were her contribution to tuition, although she was allowed to keep $1000 for other expenses. Somehow she has managed to go on spring break each year, travel abroad including an extra week in Croatia and a week in Italy, see several concerts in her college town and will now take the last three weeks of summer off after her full time internship before beginning her senior year. Working and contributing builds character.
My daughter’s scholarship covers tuition, room, board, and $1500 year in books so she doesn’t have any school expenses. She also got a nice amount of money from her high school graduation so we are starting with $100 per month to her checking account and $100 to savings account. We expect internships/work during future summers and if she has plenty of money will put the $200 we give her monthly all towards her savings account.
It is very common for kids to end up selecting peers based upon how much in extra $$ they have to spend. It makes sense. No sense hanging out with those who go out to eat often when one can’t afford it themselves. You miss too much.
The good thing - as seen in this thread - is many kids don’t actually get a lot (some definitely do). This tends to allow the pool of friends available to choose from to be large enough (usually) for most to find good pals to hang out with. One of my most common recommendations to students (mine and others at school) is to go to clubs, the cheap movies, or other events in the first month and friendships usually just “happen.” Friendships can also happen from study groups.
Friends are super important in college - not having any can lead to some bad experiences. The worst thing for a student to do is to hide in their room. Whether they have a lot of spending money or not really isn’t “the” issue as to whether they can find friends. They’ll just end up finding friends with a similar amount.
My kids had their own jobs to earn spending money for discretionary things…like eating out with friends, and entertainment. You know…they had a very nice peer group of friends, and their friends weren’t all from low income families struggling to pay for college.
They were all college students, and they weren’t going to $300 per ticket concerts (unless they saved or got money as gifts to buy tickets) or eating out at $100 per person restaurants.
And back in the Stone Age, my roommmate was from a multi millionaire family,and frankly, you never would,have known, because she certainly didn’t flaunt her money. And she was very happy to share a pizza from the local place with us, and go to the university funded movies on Saturday.
I think your assumption is wrong…plus, I also think it’s nice to have friends from a variety of backgrounds…and also learn to live within your means (which might not be the exact same as your parent’s means when you are a college student)