Both of our college kids are on their own for spending money too. They have worked since they were 14 so they know what it’s like to have their own cash. But I will say that our son went a little crazy spending first semester freshman year - but it was his money - it’s calmed down a little now since his bank account is getting much lower!!! He has already secured a nice paying job for the summer too. My daughter (junior) has a job off campus that pays well and she works about 20 hours a week - actually makes more money than she spends!!
My son doesn’t have a meal plan. We give him the equivalent amount of the meal plan and he uses that for shopping, cooking, eating out and also spending money. $125 a week or $500 a month. Seems like a lot, but now that I look, it less than cost of the 3 highest meal plan tiers. As a freshman, we bought the unlimited plan. It wasn’t wasted, but it wasn’t enjoyed either.
My daughter has $125 transferred from her savings to debit account monthly for spending money. This is money she earned with summer jobs. We pay for all basics (tuition, room and meal plan, books, laundry, cell phone/data plan). Our agreement is that she needs to budget and not transfer extra money on her own if she were to overspend.
Good thread. My D will be attending college in the fall in a much colder climate than she was raised in. I’m wondering how to factor into her budget the cost of warmer clothing. We will, of course, take care of the warm winter coat but I’m not sure how much sweaters/warmer pants/skirts will cost and how it should impact the savings from her summer job earnings.
MaterS - if you use the word “allowance” in the search function, you’ll likely do better than “spending money.”
GnocchiB, try to get the warmest things early. Unless you’re planning to shell out big bucks for the biggest name brands, the normal range of outerwear available depletes pretty early. By Thanksgiving, choices can be limited. Ime, at least, and we live in New England. And you can find discounters for many name brands online. My kids lived in college sweats and sweatshirts. Get warm boots. We bought all the big stuff and scarves, gloves, a few sweaters. They were on their own dime if they wanted extras.
We were also on the Thumper plan. And asked each to split the cost of their laptops first year and kick in to their student contribution from summer earnings. Freshman year, we bought their books. (They quickly figured out used or rentals.) We occasionally sent a little extra (a little.)
adding: the threads about what to give sons for food money always blew my mind. $500/month is more than we spent on groceries when all 4 of us were under the same roof.
Almost all of my friends in undergrad made their own spending money. I don’t understand the idea of giving a kid an allowance when he or she is perfectly capable of working a part time job but to each their own.
I spent somewhere around $400/month after bills including food and gas and all that.
Interesting about the part-time jobs at school thing. Both of my kids are full pay and get an allowance from us to cover some spending money, toiletries, haircuts, etc. but both have part-time jobs to earn more/supplement. Both kids report having classmates inquiring why they work and were surprised by it. :-??
Question is too broad, freshman in a dorm or older student in apartment that has to buy their own food? What part of the country? LA/NYC or Arkansas? Do they have a car? Many kids don’t eat the cheap crappy fast food anymore (McDonalds type) and better food costs more these days with all the emphasis on healthy. Answers are diverse depending on family, where they live, their income, how much they want their kids to fund, and where they go to school. There is certainly no right answer, but mine in apartment probably goes through $150/week, $600/month for food/gas/whatever, and orders on my Amazon account when needs stuff. Might go through less, might need more, depends.
My children needed a higher allowance during freshman year until they found high pay summer internships before sophomore year.
Also I’m still shocked that DD spent $8 per week doing laundry in the machines during freshman year.
@MaterS. 8 bucks a week on laundry?! My daughter gets her laundry done by a service ( thanks to her grandmother who believes doing laundry is a waste of time in college) and its 10 bucks a week. The 8 to do ones own seems crazy.
Both of my kids’ roommates were surprised they had an allowance. Their roommates had unlimited usage of their parents’ credit cards. D2’s roommate asked her how that worked, what happened if it ran out. There is a wide spectrum of on how each family operates.
We pay for tuition, R & B (full meal plan), travel to and from school, sorority dues, phone, and car expenses (except gas). We also paid for the dorm room set up and some clothes (climate difference between home and school). Grandma pays for books.
D is responsible for earning her spending money to cover incidentals, food off the meal plan, gas, entertainment and extra clothes. We don’t give her an allowance. I occasionally send her care packages with snacks and deposit a little money in her account. Her weekly budget, depending on her earnings, ranges from $50 - $100 a week.
My S just took his girlfriend to Florida. I drive them to the airport and I quietly asked S how much cash he had on hand. I then pressed $60 in cash into his hand and said go, do something fun. He said thank you and hugged me. I’ll probably do that til I’m 100 years old. Oh well.
Same here, PG. it’s easy to slip my kids $50-$100 when I can…and I will also do so…whenever possible!
For those paying fraternity/sorority dues, how much does that typically run? Just curious.
It really differs so much by school there’s no one number. Room and board in our Greek system cost pretty much the same as room and board in the dorms. It depends on the size and upkeep of the physical house, how deep is the social calendar, and whether individual activities are included in dues or paid for a la carte.
OMG. Crazy, spoiled kids.
To answer the question:
–We provide: $140/mo. for entertainment, laundry, local transportation (if she chooses not to use the free student bus), and any added toiletries/supplies after we stock her up before each semester.
–We pay: tuition, room, board, books, and transportation to/from school.
–She pays: all sorority-related expenses (dues, parlor fees, pins, events, etc.), travel expenses for weekends/vacations with friends.
–We also provide: A yearly clothing allowance. She gets $500 in August and $500 in February. She can spend it however she likes. She can buy one $1,000 item per year (an exaggeration; she wouldn’t do that, but if she did it would be her choice and she wouldn’t get any more $$ for the year for clothes), or she can choose to bargain shop. The only things this allowance does not include are a winter jacket (which was a one-time expense) and any special-occasion attire if we have a wedding or some such family event.
It depends on where S goes, but he’ll probably get ~100-250/month allocated to him. Because I travel a lot for work and he’s traveled a bit on school trips and such, he’s been an authorized user of one of my credit cards for nearly 3 years now. When his girlfriend is in town, he’ll take her out a few places and spends more. Otherwise, he gets a book or two each month, and refills his transit card. He hates buying clothes, and is really pretty frugal. At this point, he’s spending ~80/month or so, so doubling that might work as a start.
He has a few thousand dollars from grandparents, etc. saved up, and that may end up being his first pool of funds to draw upon.
I wouldn’t categorize any of these kids as spoiled, some families spend more on their kids or wouldn’t consider putting a budget on them. They may live bigger than others, oh well, personal choice. I know many kids besides mine with basically unlimited access to money, but they don’t take advantage of it. Kids have their own savings from their earnings and gifts over the years, but at this time of life, their cards/expenses are tied to our account and they use it as they need it. No allowance or budget for clothes, or anything really, we just aren’t like that. We trust them to use good judgement and they do.