I was wondering if anyone had guidance or thoughts on what an average amount of spending money is appropriate to budget for an incoming freshman? Thinking in terms of per week or per month. Living on campus with a meal plan, so really just trying to figure out what a reasonable budget is for other living expenses. Thanks for any thoughts.
This question can apply to most colleges. I don’t have info about CO in particular. As it’s not an urban campus, spending costs are likely to be less than a student attending NYU, for example.
In general, students spend the majority of their money going off campus to eat. (At a school like CO, I imagine a fair bit of money could be spent on lift tickets and associated costs.) My eldest will be a senior this year. She is very frugal. She typically spends under $1000 for a whole college year. Her first year, she spent $700. This included occasional meals out, movies, trips to the mall, etc… We don’t give our kids spending money for college, so whatever they have to spend is what they’ve earned.
I expect that a student should be able to live quite comfortably on about $1200 a year, and I think that’s generous (including a few lift tickets). I have a friend who, as a college student in the 80s, was given a nice sum of spending money. Something like $2k, which was a LOT, as you can imagine. He went out constantly, ate out constantly, bought an expensive fish tank with expensive fish, and ran out of cash by the start of the spring semester. On his break home, he casually mentioned he had no more money and was pretty surprised when none was forthcoming.
He learned a great lesson because that winter while all his friends were off skiing and playing, he was working in the campus dining hall to earn money. If a parent gives their child spending money, too little is better than too much. It’s easy to spend a lot of money on pizza, coffee, and Uber these days. Also, many college kids seem not to keep track of how much they spend, or they don’t think about paying for a friend’s coffee, etc…and they can blow through money if not careful. At least Venmo makes things a little easier to pay back these days.
If you are giving your child money, I suggest you make it very clear that the Bank of Parents doesn’t allow unlimited withdrawals and that you expect your child manage his or her money carefully.
I think the biggest trap is eating out. I have a joint account with D so I can easily deposit funds for her, and I see her making lots of withdrawals for food and coffee. It comes out of her own money, but I wish she would be more careful.
“I expect that a student should be able to live quite comfortably on about $1200 a year, and I think that’s generous (including a few lift tickets)”
Seems very unlikely for a kid at college near a top ski resort where that is the thing to do at weekends in winter. An Ikon base pass (with blackout dates) is currently $539 for students (though some single resort season passes are $400-$500), then you have to get there (bus or gas for a car), eat lunch and rent (or buy) skis and boots. I’d estimate my D spent roughly $800 on skiing last winter (for about 12 days on the slopes, renting skis and boots at her college’s discounted rate and sharing a car with friends).
I agree that eating out can be a major area of spending. Uber/Lyft can also add up if the college is in a city. But sorority/fraternity dues are likely to be even more (typically several thousand dollars) and therefore something to be discussed in advance.
@Twoin18 , I was thinking of 2-3 lift tickets, not a whole season of tickets and all the related costs. This thread was originally posted in a forum for a college in a mountainous state, hence the reference.
Greek life is a different expense and I wasn’t including anything like that in my estimate. It’s worth discussing these additional expenses with your child. I know some parents give their children a lot of spending money, and others give none.
Additional expenses beyond the usual meals out and movies should be considered. I guess a budget could be totally different for a student attending school in a major city, or for a student who plans to join Greek Life, or who plans to ski all winter. Oh, season sports tickets too, for schools with a big sports scene.
Remember, everything is more than you think and activities, clothes, dining, small gifts, transportation, etc will come up unexpectedly. I would conservatively budget $100/week or $400/mo x 9 months = $3,600.
$100 a week?? For what? At least for our S, he has 19 meals paid for at a school known for good food. The town is pretty small so there’s not a ton of other places to eat. Activities and shows on campus are free. Even transportation into the nearest city has a student rate of $3 each way on a bus. If he needs clothes, we will buy them for him like we always have but these kids aren’t growing out of clothes anymore.
Things like spring break or big trips to ski can cost a student but maybe try to find out if those are expenses that most kids have at the school.
And, for the life of me, I can’t figure out how we know the student is near skiing. I don’t see that in the opening post and this poster is new to CC.
You’ll get answers all over the map, as you can already see.
For my family, my kids were given $200 per month. Out of that they paid for their own toiletries and misc. expenses, including the occasional meal out. Most semesters they also worked 10-15 hours per week for extra spending money. They went to colleges near/in cities and definitely got off campus for dining, concerts, outings, hiking/skiing, etc.
I told my son I’m not sending him any spending money. He works a PT job now and can save up money to take with him to school. If all his tuition and room and board are paid with an unlimited meal plan on campus and free bus fair anywhere around town as part of tuition I do not see why he’d need ANY additional money. Whatever he takes with should be plenty.
My third is entering college, and I have no idea. I think my other kids had about $3000 saved up. I buy their necessities, but just like at home, you want to go out to eat or a movie, you pay. If you run out of money, don’t spend or get a job (my other 2 worked part time in college).
S19 should make about $2000 this summer. That’s his spending money. We will buy his books and I imagine I’ll send him care packages with snacks and toiletries every so often. We will buy him what he needs for his sport if it’s not provided - running shoes as often as he needs them, different layers if he doesn’t already own what he needs, etc. He’s a frugal kid. I don’t see how $2000 won’t last him. I think this is a question a student can get answers to just by asking current students at the school.
We will probably give D19 $200 or so a month as well, but I am not sure how we will manage that yet…do I put it into her checking account? Does that count things she buys that charge to CCs?
For example, she will probably purchase toiletries and other incidentals from my Amazon account (charges my CC) and just get it delivered to school…I expect there will be greater spending on Amazon for the first month or so while she gets settled.
Her uber account charges to her CC, but that is thru our account and paid by us too. So, there seems like there will be bits and pieces that I would have to track to see how much she is spending…and then figure out how much cash to transfer to her checking account each month or so. Will be a learning process for all of us, and we will adjust as needed.
“do I put it into her checking account? Does that count things she buys that charge to CCs?”
Yes, we put it directly into their accounts. My kids used debit cards in college instead of credit cards. No credit cards until post college. They put their Amazon and other charges directly on their own cards. Need an Uber/Lyft (they can set up their own account), that’s on their dime/out of their budget as well. Money gone for the month, they wait until next month (but they do have savings to draw upon as well).
Other than allowance and college costs including books, the only other thing we paid for was cell phone service. Clothes and stuff were Christmas/birthday gifts.
However, we all have different financial means and it is perfectly fine for each family to handle things as they wish and can afford.
@homerdog See post #4, first paragraph.
@socaldad2002 , will you be my dad? ? Wow, you’re generous. Personally, I can’t see any reason at all why a student who lives on campus and has a meal plan included needs $100 a week, barring some mitigating circumstance.
We did not give our kids any sort of budget. Just told them to buy whatever they felt was appropriate. I guess some kids can’t handle this sort of thing. Ours could. We wanted them to participate in anything they wanted. Their average was about $75-100 a week (not including UBER or LYFT which we happily piad for on our cc anytime they wanted) when they lived in dorms with meal plans. This included things like going to concerts, eating out with friends on Sundays when there was no dinner in dorm and also for friends’ birthday dinners/brunches, coffees and occasional gift or clothing purchases. What kept them from spending say $500 or more a week? Well when a friend asked my daughter said “I would never do that to my parents. I know what they in general are willing for me to spend on and that’s what I do.”
We gave our freshman son $50 a month towards random fun spending. Any fun stuff beyond that came from his personal savings. He had a summer job the two years before college and many years of saved up babysitting and birthday money so he headed off to college with a decent amount of his own money. He has his own credit card that he is responsible for paying. He also has a credit card with his name on the card but it is linked to our account so we pay it each month when we pay our own portion of it. He could use that one for necessities such as groceries, train tickets, textbooks, and any other random items that were necessities. We left it to his discretion as far as what was a necessity and what was fun spending and it worked well. Most months (other than textbook buying months) I think he put $50-$75 on it.
Our D is responsible for books and her own spending money. Other than Starbucks now and again she doesn’t spend much. I think she spent less than $800 total last year, inclusive of books.
Perhaps I am a meanie – I made my kids provide their own spending money; room and board was everything they actually ‘needed’
Our kids both had jobs…and that is how they got the bulk of their discretionary spending money. I have no idea how much they spent…because it was money they earned and they budgeted and they spent.
Will your college freshman be working? If he or she works 10 or so hours a week, they should be able to earn sufficient discretionary spending money. And they can also learn to live within their means.
If you want to, you can then include money gifts from time to time.
Or you can give your student an allowance if you choose to. It’s a family decision…and YMMV.
I do know families where an allowance was given but the expectation was that the student would also have a job.