<p>I realize this is very subjective, but am trying to get a handle on a reasonable amount of spending money for my college-bound son. He will be attending Carleton College. Any experienced parents out there who have found a way of approaching this question? I've searched other threads but the one's I've seen refer to big-city living, specifically NYC. Doesn't seem like a fair comparison to Northfield, MN...!</p>
<p>Try zero. First year he uses his graduation money. Subsequent years he uses summer earnings. Works for us!</p>
<p>Lydia,
You must not have read the right thread or perhaps didn't read enough of it. I'll give you the quick answer that I think the majority of us do - Have them save the money from summer jobs and use that. Once room, board,tuition, books and cell phone are paid for, expenses in non-city areas should be minimal. My daughter is a junior in college and we do not usually give her any money, but she does work a couple of jobs on campus (total 10 hours a week) and that helps out. This quarter has been an exception. She's on a study abroad and cannot work so we've given her money to tide her over and to make sure she can afford to come home.</p>
<p>We're not planning on giving our daughter any money this fall either. If we (the parents) pay for tuition, room & board, books, fees, cell phone, and travel to and from school, she should pay for it herself out of $$ earned from her summer job. I think it makes them think more about where it's going when it's THEIR money. Just my two cents' worth.</p>
<p>Ditto CO Mom, except that we also expect our son to pay for his own books. He is a freshman in Boston; I'd guess he spends about $100 a month, excluding books and bus fare to visit his girlfriend.</p>
<p>1moremom, we're still contemplating making daughter pay for her books as well. Since she's staying in state and saving us A LOT in tuition, etc., we may pick it up. Hmmm . . . maybe she should pay for car insurance instead?!?!?</p>
<p>ditto 1moremom. Our son is in Chicago - also a town with tempting things to spend money on. He is currently hustling for a summer job, and will work part time at school next year.</p>
<p>My daughter has not been able to work throught HS other than occasional babysitting. She commutes an hour and a half each way and plays a varsity sport as well as being a member of 2 other clubs. On the weekends during the summer and fall she plays travel ball, which also takes her away for 2 weeks. She has looked for work, but to be honest, where we live no one wants to hire a kid for just July & Aug, who can't work weekends and has to be off for 2 weeks. With that said, she does save her babysitting money as well as gifts she receives. She is paying for her prom expenses (very expensive as we are in NYC) out of that. We will start off by giving her probably about $30 a week. We will pay for books. Once she gets a job, she will have to use that for spending money.</p>
<p>I would expect son to contribute even if he had chosen a less expensive school. He has a job lined up of for this summer. If he decides to study abroad next summer and doesn't have enough in the bank for the following year's expenses, he can take out a Stafford loan or do work study.</p>
<p>i think that some of you who are parents of incoming freshmen should think about how much the financial stuff might be impeding your kids' experiences. if you can't afford to give them money, that's totally understandable, but if you can afford to and are just kind of not doing it on principle... maybe you want to reconsider? i know at my school, the kids who have no money are always the ones sitting back at home when everyone else goes out to dinner on weekends, to the movies occasionally, sorority functions, etc. i know that if i had no money, i would have had an incredibly different (read: bad) college experience. and i don't even mean like going out shopping and stuff, just socializing normally.</p>
<p>Washu--my kids have both been able to do plenty socializing in school without me paying for it. That's what summer earnings are for; additionally, both had small hs scholarships and graduation gift money to start out. Perhaps the kids at your school with "no money" needed to put their summer earnings towards tuition. But for those like all the parents who answered above, that's not the case.</p>
<p>I think they spend their money more carefully because the know what they had to do to get it, and I think that's a good thing!</p>
<p>washu - My daughter has money - she earned it and she spends it how she pleases. Perhaps it's more the mindset at her school - there are no frats or sororities, it's not in the city but she goes to St. Louis quite often, goes to concerts, dances. Not really sure what she would do differently if she was spending my money instead of her own except I would be the one scrimping. We're not real strict parents, if she needed money for something, she would tell us and if she had a good reason, we would probably give it to her. But, she's always worked and enjoys earning her own money.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the school washu
we chose a school that was in a city with good public transportation as well as in a neighborhood with some entertainment/shopping options
so money needed for transportation is minimal.
weekends are often spent on campus- studying- doing laundry- working or making dinner with friends- so those costs are minimal as well. ( the places they go to dinner could be for Pho- about $3.50 for a huge bowl)
the students aren't known for their fashion savvy, in fact clothing seems to be taken from the bins at the thrift shop, so not much money is going to be spent getting the "latest bag" or your nails done.
We paid for her medical expenses, although she often forgot to tell us when she had to pay for prescriptions. We also pay her bookstore account bill.
However her workstudy job covers most of her books and other expenses, she hasn't even asked for money for food more than 2x this year, even though she is no longer on board.
I realize that some colleges things are quite different, I have heard reviews from friends who visited a few schools where clothing etc, was a BFD, and someone who didn't have the same kind of cash to burn, might have stuck out.
But if you aren't interested in having to spend money to have a good time with your friends on off hours, there are schools that have lots of free/low cost things to do, out and around campus,and where you won't stick out if you are or if you are not on financial aid.
<a href="http://web.reed.edu/student_activities/gray_fund/past_trips.html%5B/url%5D">http://web.reed.edu/student_activities/gray_fund/past_trips.html</a>
many free things to do-and this is at a very small college albeit in a "happenin" city.</p>
<p>I think it's a very good thing for my kids to earn and manage their own spending money. They always seem to hang on to it longer than they do the money I give them!
and even when they were little and they would accumulate money from birthdays and from allowance, they would hold on to it.
They might have wanted something in a store, but when I would remind them that they had the money to buy it, if they really wanted- they would then decide they didn't want it * that* bad!</p>
<p>I don't think anyone was suggesting that kids have NO money. They are just saying that they are not necessarily going to supply the "fun" money. That is the students responsibility.</p>
<p>Yes, my daughter is broke right now. But that is because she chose to fly to visit boyfriend over Spring Break. She chose to buy him a $50 birthday present. And she chose to drive 75 miles an hour through a construction zone. We do not send her spending money. That is what summer jobs and school jobs are for. And if she chooses to spend most of her summer earnings visiting her boyfriend, as she has announced she is going to do, then she may not have much spending money for next year. But that is her decision, not mine. And isnt that part of what college is about learning to make wise choices?</p>
<p>All of that said, we do pay for a monthly trip to Wal-Mart for juice, crackers, Crystal Light, canned fruit and such. She is a dancer and watches her weight. Plus, she has always tried to eat nutritiously. I don't mind paying for 100% juice or instant oatmeal to replace donuts.</p>
<p>I think it's a very good thing for my kids to earn and manage their own spending money. They always seem to hang on to it longer than they do the money I give them! And they certainly haven't suffered socially because I don't buy their pizza and Starbucks. Daughter's part time job is at a clothing store, so she can buy anything "extra" at her discounted rate.</p>
<p>My husband and I came from very modest means and we have done very well for ourselves financially. But having to think twice as kids about every purchase has taught us just how hard you have to work to earn it. If there's any disadvantage that our teens have, it's the lack of that type of knowledge. Spending money is a good place to start learning that lesson.</p>
<p>Another vote for summer jobs.</p>
<p>On a related note - our d is going off to college in NYC without a meal plan. - Does anyone have estimates for a food allowance for her? Either per diem or per week?</p>
<p>I would say bravo to the parents who encourage their kids to learn how to manage spending money during college - it took me a couple of years to realize how valuable a skill it is to learn that responsibility . . . now I'm graduating and glad that my parents decided to do it the way many of you have (with me paying for books and spending money). It used to frustrate me that my friends here got an allowance while I did work study but I'm proud that I've earned all my spending money while here and that it's saved my parents some money, too.</p>
<p>TH31--my S attends college in NYC. Last year, we paid for the mealplan, which was about 4000 dollars(!). This year, we gave him the money in monthly installments instead, because the meal plan was so expensive, and he ended up supplementing it out of his spending money as it really didn't cover all meals. we started last semester at 350 per month (X 4 = 1400 for th semester.) We upped it to 400 per month this semester, as it was not going far enough. So, it cost us 3000 for the year, and we saved 1000 from price of the meal plan.</p>
<p>I loved this from washu07:
"i know at my school, the kids who have no money are always the ones sitting back at home when everyone else goes out to dinner on weekends, to the movies occasionally, sorority functions, etc"</p>
<p>I can just picture some poor, penniless kid sitting at Washington Univ (that is, evidently, so expensive I couldn't even find their tuition listed on their web site) with nothing to do. It's breaking my heart.</p>
<p>More to the point, I informed my older S, when we had the "funding available for college" discussions in the winter/spring of his senior year in HS, that he would be expected to use savings to pay for miscellaneous expenses (e.g. fun stuff) at college, so he'd best be sure he got a paying summer job between HS and college to beef up his account. I wanted to be sure he realized this well ahead of time, so he couldn't say he didn't know what our approach would be. He gets some $ every month from us for food (dorm has kitchens where students cook) and we flew him out and back (once at start/end of school, once at Christmas), but otherwise he gets to pay for CDs and trips and room decorations and camera supplies and whatever himself. He's basically out of cash now, I think, but has a summer position lined up that will replenish the account quite nicely for next year... unless he decides to spend a lot of it over the summer.</p>
<p>I will note that we've already had this conversation with his younger brother (current HS junior) and it seems to have helped motivate him to look for a paying job for this summer also.</p>