<p>LydiaHawk,
I must echo the vast majority of parents on this board. My S is just finishing his junior year in college and we have never given him a penny of spending money. He has worked paying summer/vacation jobs since his junior year in high school. He also paid for his own laptop computer. That way, he chose what he wanted in a computer without input from us. We do give him money for travel to and from school and for books. We could afford to give him some spending money, but as good a kid as he is, we still think that he will be somewhat more responsible with his money than with ours!</p>
<p>To answer the OP's original question about a "reasonable amount of spending money": </p>
<p>It seems most here have spoken to the issue of whether the parents will supply/contribute to the spending money. That is one question.</p>
<p>The other question is what amount of spending money is reasonable, and the OP asked for a focus on non-urban schools. From other threads, LydiaHawk, I have seen a pretty broad range of opinions on reasonable spending money. There are kids who feel they are suffering with allowances of $400/month (and that is NOT for basic food and necessities but for "fun"). There are others who get by on much less. My observation from reading a number of threads and talking to a number of families and kids is that $200/month "spending money" seems to be about an average/median/mode.
So if "typical" is a good substitute for "reasonable", you might start there.</p>
<p>Now, as to who pays: you will also find a huge spectrum of opinion. In our case, we always believed that S should have a summer job (and since he was age 14 he did) and save much of those earnings toward college spending money. Our plan was that he would cover all of his own spending money needs at school. We altered that plan when he won a good merit scholarship; we felt that this could enable him to bank his summer savings in a Roth IRA for his future and that we would provide a minimal allowance for him at college.</p>
<p>Our idea of minimal was $125/month. We provided this allowance both at Bates College ("middle of nowhere") and Tulane (great, fun city of New Orleans). We figured if he wanted to spend any more than that, he could dig into his own savings. He has never fully used his monthly allowance in either place. And he's had plenty of fun.</p>
<p>But each kid is different (fashionista, barrista or not; moviegoer/concertgoer or not, etc. etc.). And each family is different.</p>
<p>Just trying to give you a little observation of some $$ figures and how they have worked, without stating who should/shouldn't pay.</p>
<p>lol anyone see the mtv true life: i'm moving to new york with the girl who graduated from Wash U who got $900/month from her parents and always went through it before the end of the month? </p>
<p>my spending money will come from my savings, which is how it's been since I started working.</p>
<p>DD will be working this summer. She has a salaried lifeguarding position. She also works a few hours a week during school now. She will earn all of her own spending money and will make one monthly payment of her tuition/room/board bill. She will have a work study job at college. Our kids are responsible for ALL of their spending money...books, recreation, travel, entertainment, etc.</p>
<p>Here's a related question. What's the range for how much kids can bank over the course of one summer?</p>
<p>Not too many folks here saying their kids won't work but my D probably won't. She had a couple part time jobs in high school that always ended when she needed time off for rehearsals and performances (her EC was theater). She worked for 6 weeks the summer after graduation, earning very little money. She will probably not be working this summer since employers in her area do not want to hire someone for just 2 months. Add in the trip we are taking in mid July and it really doesn't look good to a potential employer! Yeah, yeah, I know all about how much character it builds to have kids work and pay their own way and how thats how everyone had to do it when they were a kid...but I never did and I turned out fine, and so shall my children. D is an accomplished thrift shopper and loves a deal (she gets that from me) and isn't afraid of hard work, so I'm not worried. She can work when she graduates college, and I will support her as much as I can until then. While we don't have a set amount we give her it averages about $400 a month, that includes rent and food and some books. Honestly, I'm impressed she can live on so little.</p>
<p>Aren't all the kids in the same boat mladyd? Working just two months, hopefully going with the family on vacation for a week, leaving at the end of August? Oh, well, whatever works for each family. My kids earn just over $1,000 but that seems to be enough of a nest egg, especially with a small campus job. My daughter likes working as a camp counselor - the perfect summer job. Besides, if they didn't work what would they do during the day for two months when all their other friends are working?</p>
<p>jmmom makes a good point. Here's what my son has spent at a fairly rural, small LAC:</p>
<p>He started the year with $1000 of graduation money. He has $100 left. We have bought books, any medications and airplane tickets home and he has full room and board. The only things I can think of that he spent money on besides general pizza, laundry etc. is he flew to NYC for New Years and stayed with a friend. (Cheap flight, $100 round trip.) He has attended two semi-expensive shows (broadway show in Columbus and a Columbus Orchestra concert).</p>
<p>One thing: If kids have too much money they are more likely to party harder. Kids blowing through money are, well, probably drinking a lot or buying drugs.</p>
<p>TH21,
To answer your specific question about potential earnings, my S (just finished junior year in college) will earn $4,000+ this summer for a 7 week job. Yes, it's legal and it does involve a lot of prep work prior to the start of the job. I honestly don't know how much of that he will spend during the year-he's quite frugal with his own money. He goes to an occasional concert or dinner out.</p>
<p>My daughter will earn between $2000-$2500 this summer, depending if she works 8 weeks or 10 weeks.</p>
<p>My nephews have worked in a summer resort area, and worked long hard hours and made up to $4000 in a summer. (Really long days.)</p>
<p>We do pay for books and give the kids some spending money. Our rationale was that we are paying A LOT for their education, and we want them to spend their time at school getting education, and not working meaningless jobs in order to have pocket money. </p>
<p>By now they both have paid jobs at their schools, but those are jobs that contribute to their educational experience (TA, research, writing associate, etc.).</p>
<p>Our kids seem to use the money wisely. If we felt that we are sponsoring drunken parties and irresponsible/wasteful behavior, we might have reconsidered given them allowance.</p>
<p>Our approach to spending money was to match dollar-for-dollar any summer money that our son earned. He worked part-time each summer (mainly in debate camps, also in social research), earning between $1,500 and $2,000. Whatever he banked, we matched. He was rather frugal with his spending given that half of every dollar spent was his. It covered all of his entertainment, discretionary food purchases, and books and supplies at college.</p>
<p>"Aren't all the kids in the same boat mladyd? Working just two months, hopefully going with the family on vacation for a week, leaving at the end of August? Oh, well, whatever works for each family. My kids earn just over $1,000 but that seems to be enough of a nest egg, especially with a small campus job. My daughter likes working as a camp counselor - the perfect summer job. Besides, if they didn't work what would they do during the day for two months when all their other friends are working?"</p>
<p>Yes, they are all in the same boat and hopefully the ones who need the $$ will find the work but that won't always happen. My D will be taking a summer class, coming home for at least one family visit, then taking a trip to meet her bf's relatives. Very few kids actually come home for the entire summer and even fewer stay in town to live/work after high school. It's just too expensive here.</p>
<p>Re summer earnings: For the last w years, S had two jobs. He fell into one cushy job for $1000 flat for the summer. Was supposed to take 12 hrs/wk but took nowhere near that. Other job was your typical student summer job at $6.75ish/hr. 10 weeks, betw 30-40 hrs/week, he made around $2100 from that. Banked most of his earnings; just not much of a spender.</p>
<p>Another kid in our area made over $5000 with his own landscaping business; an entrepreneur-type, he had employees, had to buy equipment etc. so the $5K was after expenses. Kid goes to Babson, I think he found a "fit." ;)</p>
<p>I made between 4-7k each of the summers I was home from college. My little sister makes about 3 - 4k working summers and she's 17. She'll probably make more by the time she gets to colleges with raises and all if she keeps her current job (which she intends to.)</p>
<p>I have a different opinion on spending. Their first job is to do well in school, not work. Working is something they can do for the rest of their lives. If they have saved money from summer jobs, then use it. If not, don't make them starve on weekends or miss out on all the college experiences due to lack of money. If you can afford to send them to college, budget for spending money. If you feel strongly they should earn it, keep a running tab and give them a bill when they are out of school and working. One of my childrens' friends ended up in the hospital trying to work, go to school, and keep up grades. If they are in a rigorous program, trying to get into grad school, do you want them risking their grades to earn spending money?</p>
<p>My son has a job as a fill-in bank teller lined up for this summer. He starts the Monday after graduation and works until two days before he leaves for college. He doesn't have his schedule yet, but they are saying 37-40 hrs per week, spread over potentially 6 days. There may be a midweek day off if he has to work Saturday mornings -- it's not exactly clear. No family vacation time though.</p>
<p>The good news is that it pays really well for temporary summer work -- I think he will earn $3-4000, and we expect him to bank $2000-2500 (after taxes and summer expenses [gas!]) towards his spending money at college.</p>
<p>He's very excited about this job -- and if he likes it and does well, they rehire for future summers. Best advice for kids -- start looking and applying in MARCH.</p>
<p>Drwbrs - I'm not sure what kind of college job you are envisioning but my daugther works a total of 10 hours at two jobs. One of them is at the desk of the guest house where she sits at a desk and does her homework, checks in guests and maybe runs the dishwasher in the kitchen. Her second job is working one hour a night in the faculty dining room where she clears tables. Her gpa is 3.7 and she has a very busy social life. Have a little faith that the kids that work are the more organized ones. I know that for myself, I get more done when I have more stuff to do. I don't think any of us are talking about strenous long hour jobs during the school year.</p>
<p>My D has been working as a computer tech for the last couple years- it also will be her first job after graduation, as she wants to stay in Portland and it will give her a little more flex time to find something else.
It sounds like it has been great, she meets lots of students- albeit some who don't follow directions and want her to wreak miracles, she also has been meeting alums and emeritus profs, who still come to get computer help. She told me a pretty cool story the other day about a retired prof who was quite um- getting up there, but was still doing research ( I think he was in chem) he said" you probably aren't interested in all this" to her, but lit up when she told him that she had taken both biochem & ochem, and had a very interested audience for his digression ;)</p>
<p>We sent our daughter 3000 miles away to college with her small savings account (Christmas and birthday money from relatives) and didn't think about a regular allowance. We found out months later that she promptly got a job on campus and started saving for Spring Break in the Bahamas! I never thought her the "Spring Break" type, but she was breaking out of her mold. She graduated in 3 years, got a job for two years while dressing in thrift shop clothes and living in a crummy area with a house full of housemates, and then used her earnings to pay for much of her med school tuition. She was accepted to Yale but chose a state school to save money. Now she is an MD, working full time, and is planning on paying for her own wedding! (She will get her reward for her financial responsibility - our wedding gift will be a down-payment on a house.)</p>