@Lindagaf "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. "
I read the question that how much spending money does a student need (whether they pay for it themselves or the parent helps with some of it). Depending on where my D20 goes to college, I could see her getting $200 from me and the other $100-200 from a part-time job either during college or summer, especially if going to college in a big city (LA, SF, New Orleans, Chicago, Berkeley, Miami, Boston, etc). If you are going to college in Ithaca, Bowdoin, Merced, etc. you might not need $400 a month.
Uber was my kid’s biggest expense. Otherwise, eating off campus every once in while wasn’t too expensive. Also, we purchased athletic tickets early, in June of last year, so that expense wasn’t in the monthly budget. My kid is a modest, even frugal spender, so we didn’t have a budget per se.
We never set firm budgets though we knew neither of our kids would go crazy. From the time they could drive, they had joint accounts with me with a debit card. They used that mainly for gas for the car they drove. I would round up withdrawals from that account as a way of building up the balance. $23.39 gas purchase and I transferred $25 into the account.
In college, they could spend what they wanted. But they never spent very much. Had full meal plans. Lived in dorms. We bought clothes but neither is clothes crazed. I still rounded up to restore the accounts. They also had access to credit card that they used for books, fees, etc. I paid those. At some point they got their own credit cards. Typically paid for with the debit card account I established. Unless they told me otherwise, I assumed those were purchases that I was not reimbursing (such as gifts).
They both had summer jobs or internships during the year. That money they saved. All told, I don’t think they spent more than $100 a month on average.
The simple answer is provide an allowance you are comfortable with financially (could be $0 or $1k per month or something in between or more). If you will provide an allowance, decide based on your student’s needs and spending habits. Everyone’s response will depend on those factors. Don’t worry about what others are giving their students. Your student needs to spend within their means, whatever that is.
I didn’t read where the OP’s child is going to school in Colorado, but assuming that’s right…To get a one day, walk up ski ticket (no discount) at one of the major resorts can be north of $150. Per day. If you want a cookie and a coke for lunch, add another $15. If you want a real lunch or a beer, add $25. Most kids don’t ski that way and have 4-passes or some other discount. Or if at CU they go to Eldora or Loveland.
It is very kid dependent and school dependent. Both mine had everything included on their student ID’s like football games, concerts, and speakers. Spending money was for coffees and eating off campus. Both my kids have long hair and rarely pay to get it cut. Neither is big into make up or fashion, although some money was spent on clothing. I sent them snacks and toiletries occasionally through Amazon Prime.
I think a lot of it will also have to do with how much money your kid’s friends will have. If they all have a lot of money, they’ll go out for more Starbucks and food. If money is tight, they will find more free or discounted things to do. I’d start with less because it’s always easier to increase the allowance than decrease it. For what it’s worth my kid spends about $250/mo.
We told our kid from the get-go she was on her own for spending money for fun things. She wasn’t real ambitious about getting a job Senior summer, despite our warnings, and she suffered the consequences a bit when she got there because some kids had lots of spending money (and some did not - she was probably in the middle). We view our kids learning to do without and learning to manage their expenses (and work a job if they want something) as important life lessons.
The only unlimited expense we provided during the year was Lyft. My student was in a difficult living situation in her dorm apartment with some really unkind roommates and we wanted her to have the flexibility to get off campus whenever she wanted. I think Lyft ran $50-$150 a month, but I considered it a necessity socially and also I wanted her to have transportation in case she ever needed it, was at a party and had been drinking, or didn’t feel comfortable getting into a car with someone who had been.
In addition, due to the spread out nature of the campus, she ate breakfasts in her room because it was hard to get to the dining commons and so for a while I sent her $50 every two weeks to go marketing to get snacks and breakfast items. That stopped at some point during the year when I realized how many meal swipes she had left and told her she had to get more creative with maximizing the meal plan at school. We sent care packages, bought her toiletries when she was home, but otherwise, she used her own spending money for fun. She did end up seeking out and obtaining an on-campus job for 15 hours a week the second semester which gave her spending money. It was a hard job, too!
From a student perspective, I think many incoming students do not know the benefits of getting an on-campus job. If I were a parent, I’d be pushing my child to get an on-campus job instead of just sending an allowance. While the extra money they earn is definitely a benefit and lowers the parents cost, the biggest benefit is the social aspect of a campus job. The campus job allowed me to make friends outside of my dorm floor which was super important because the floor becomes more distant as the semester goes on. If I had just been sent an allowance, I doubt I would have ever gotten a campus job.
I think what you can earn with minimum wage in 10 hours about covers the incidentals. For my kid on the full meal plan his expenses were toiletries, birth control (after he had a girl friend), snacks, laundry and photocopying. We didn’t make him work freshman year, but in later years he had a part-time job. Some money we put into a joint checking account, some we put into his college’s version of a debit card - he used that to pay for the copying, laundry and probably some snacks. I think I filled it up two or three times a year - so maybe $300 total.
In my opinion if the kid wants to do stuff like going skiing in college, they should earn money for that themselves. Two sons of a family friend loved to ski and they both worked to pay for their skiing. One at UPS, the other worked at a ski resort and got discounted lift tickets…
Also, going out to eat is a want not a need. A kid can be on the meal plan or grocery shop and eat in their dorm…
I agree with @melvin123 Start with less and go up if needed.
We started our ds with $250 per month but told him if that wasn’t enough to keep a record of how much he was spending and on what, and we could consider a bump. Not having any concept of what anything might cost in such a different area of the country from where we lived, how often he might go out, etc, we decided this amount seemed reasonable. He never asked for any more, and I don’t think he usually spent all we gave him during the month, so he was able to build some up for savings and/or use that for other bigger expenses (like spring break trips).
Our view was that we didn’t want him to have to focus on anything (like a p/t job) other than his school work. We didn’t want him to have a lavish lifestyle, but I wanted him to comfortably be able to go to a movie, order pizza, go to a restaurant, etc, occasionally. Always eating on campus gets old. He wound up getting an on-campus job winter quarter anyway. However, he only had that his freshman year. No paid employment the summer after freshman year, but he did work summers after that. Even though his internship between his junior and senior year paid well, we continued on with the allowance we gave him. I think he built up a nice little nest egg during college - used some of that for his 8-week, post-graduation travels to SE Asia before he started his job. And, it wasn’t necessary for us to help with any initial apartment expenses for deposits, furnishings, etc.
He had his car on campus his junior and senior years, so we bumped him up to $300 per month - just to help with gas a little bit. We still paid for his auto insurance. Also, his senior year, we gave him his allowance in a lump sum for the entire quarter. Helps with the concept of having to budget for your spending over a longer period of time.
@natty1988 I agree. Even now, S19 will sometimes eat at home and then go out with his friends if they go out to eat and he’ll just be there to be social. Don’t necessarily have to miss out on the socializing part.
When S was an incoming freshman, I must admit we had no idea what would be reasonable. We did know that his school was in an expensive area further adding to the problem of setting any kind of limit. So we didn’t. Instead we made sure he knew that we would keep funding as needed but asked him not go overboard. Over his freshman year his weekly spending varied from $0 to $200 (dorm sponsored ski trip where travel, room, and basic meals were covered but actives were not). As an average, I’d say $50/week was what he spent. He started his first internship the summer of his freshman year and since then he has covered all his expenses while growing his savings.
“Parents pay to get you on the campus, once you’re there the rest is on you.”
We pay tuition, room and board for our son. This year he’ll live off campus so we’ll cover rent and provide him a monthly amount for food, not to exceed the cost of an on campus meal plan.
He has his truck at school so we pay the insurance because it’s cost prohibitive. He pays for gas. He pays for regular maintenance.
He works summers and most breaks at my company. He’ll make almost $9,000 this summer. Now you know why he’s on his own at school.
There are some studies someplace that show that working up to 10 hours a week…these students had better college performance.
Classes don’t meet from 8-3 every day. There is plenty of time to work…and still get the school work and studying done.
We didn’t want our kids working more than 10 or so hours per week. But we wanted them to work…not just for the money, but also so they would have good work experience on their resumes. One kid’s school year part time job turned into a full time and very well paying summer job she did for two summers.
I think this is a personal family decision. There was a parent on this forum a while ago who wanted to give his kid $1000 a month spending money so she could go to nice brunches on the weekends when her school didn’t serve meals. It was in a high cost area, and economizing by buying bagels was not their choice.
If you want to give your student an allowance, then do so.
Oh…and we politely told our kids we didn’t want them to work their first college terms and we would give an allowance that term. Both found really really good jobs that fit their schedules quite well. 10 hours a week…or so.
If you don’t want your student to work and you can afford to give them an allowance, then do that. That’s a personal decision. Those studies are … well studies and meaningless at the individual level. A motivated student doesn’t need a job to help them excel in college. They don’t need a campus job to enhance their resumes. Top companies don’t care one bit about campus job experience. They want to see leadership and analytical chops. I don’t think anyone my D is interning with this summer has had a campus job. None of her close friends work during the school year unless it’s an unpaid internship that enhances their resume. Some parents want their students to work for their spending money during the year. Some don’t. The former isn’t a better decision. To each their own.
