<p>My child lives off campus and has a car. How much money do you think is needed to meet expenses (food, gas, laundry, and pocket money).</p>
<p>Not near enough information. Where is the school? How much driving needs to be done? Is it possible to prepare most meals at home, or is eating out a lot a necessity? Is there a room mate? Will they share food and rides?</p>
<p>Our son does not have a car. He earns about $75 dollars a week net pay from his on campus job. We give him $200 dollars per month and he is managing very well. He cooks in his apartment for the most part.</p>
<p>And even more important is the location - things in Boston are going to be a lot more expensive than say things in Iowa!</p>
<p>We gave our older kid same amount of money for food as if she had lived on campus (3000/semester). She worked on campus, took home 2-300/mon, and we gave her additional 200/mon for spending money. She paid for gas, laundry, toiletry and entertainment by herself. We paid for books, travel and clothes until she graduated. Her school was in a small college town.</p>
<p>I think it varies a lot by location. My D1 went to college in a small town where she said she would struggle to spend more than $25 a week in spending money (going out, pizza, etc.). But she had also applied to Georgetown, and says she probably would have spent three or four times that if she had gone to school in DC. </p>
<p>Our deal is that our kids are responsible for their own spending money and book expenses. They spend a lot less when they own paying the bill, I think. They have mostly lived on campus with no car, so haven’t dealt with the costs you are talking about. But if they did I would probably give them $50/week for food. Honestly, I wouldn’t pay for a car at college. If they wanted it, it would be their expense…</p>
<p>There’s really no way for anyone to answer this. As mentioned, expenses differ depending on region and size of the city, on whether or not there is a meal plan for lunches when on campus, on how much driving needs to be done, and on how much fun you feel like funding. The amount of money your D earns herself will factor in. And it’s true that they’re a lot more careful with money when they’ve earned it themselves (and know that they can’t get more with a phone call). My kid is cheap by nature, but even cheaper with her own money. </p>
<p>Pick a dollar amount and see how it works. Ask for a record of where it went before you adjust upward.</p>
<p>DD1’s only spending money for coffee cream, milk, and bread/eggs. Everything else is airlifted (ok, driven) once every 4 weeks to her. At the beginning of the semester she had enough fresh, frozen, and packaged food to survive for a year :)</p>
<p>The answer tho is ‘it depends on student’s cooking skills and eating habits’. $25-50 a week is about right, but some of DD1’s roomies are spending $50 a week at Whole Foods type places… or worse, eating out for every meal.</p>
<p>D1 ate a lot of fresh food - meat, fish, shrimp, pasta, fruit and veggie, just like she would at home. I went shopping on some grocer online to try to purchase a week worth of grocery based on what she would at home. It was more than $50/week. I think it is a good exercise for your kid to do. Make sure they include coffee, sugar, paper goods, spice, cleaning stuff.</p>
<p>Our D1 lives in a college-owned on-campus apartment with a full kitchen. She buys her food at local groceries and prepares all her meals at home, apart from an occasional restaurant meal or picking up something quick at an on-campus cafe or snack bar. She budgets for the amount of the full meal plan in the college dining hall, but doesn’t spend nearly that much even after restaurant meals. (Bottom line, then, she eats better for less money than the college meal plan). </p>
<p>Laundry expenses are fairly trivial; she probably averages one or two loads a week. </p>
<p>The big variable, it seems to me, is car expense. D1 doesn’t have a car; she bikes, walks, or takes the train. She’d like a car, but if you have a car it’s not just the gas money; it’s also oil changes and other maintenance and repair costs, plus (if you’re properly accounting for it) insurance and depreciation on the vehicle. That’s a lot. We told her we’d rather pay the $200 membership fee plus the $8/hour charge to use the Hour Car rentals available on campus, because for the amount she’d use it (mainly for grocery shopping once a week) that’s cheaper than buying, maintaining, and insuring a car.</p>
<p>We told our kids that cars were not part of the CountingDown Family Scholarship. They knew well before senior year that we could (barely) swing their dream schools if they had financial skin in the game, or they could follow the merit $$ and we could help them with other things later. Had either chosen to attend our flagship with the significant merit money they were awarded, we would have talked about subsidizing a used car. As it turns out, both attended schools in large cities with great public transit.</p>
<p>We do not provide book or spending $$. What they get in that regard is what they earn, both over the summer and during the year. S1 was able to make good money in the summers and so didn’t work too much during the school year. S2, OTOH, took his sweet time about finding a work study job and felt the pain in his wallet! He now is making ~$120/mo take-home from his W/S job. It’s enough to cover his basic expenses, but not much else. Am waiting to see if he takes the initiative to make money this coming summer and/or make sure he earns his entire W/S grant. :)</p>
<p>S1 was required to be on the meal plan since he lived in the dorms. Waste of $$ since he didn’t eat much, but he had no desire to move off-campus. </p>
<p>S2 lives on campus, but has dropped to a 6 meal/week meal plan. We send $100/mo to cover groceries and generally send him back to school with staples. (Most of his suitcase was stuffed with cereal, parm cheese, pasta, turkey and stuffing when he went back to school yesterday. :)) $100/mo. is cutting it pretty close --but we are saving about $400/semester off of last year’s meal plan (and $800 from the required freshman plan). May need to revisit that next semester.</p>
<p>Suitcases full of food… Sounds like Mrs. Turbo visiting her birth country :)</p>
<p>The way we see it cost wise is simple; the 8 meal a week plan + $300 flexible dollars was around $1500/4 months, and by the time you add nick-knacks, snacks, coffee, etc etc for the 24/7 student of architecture, plus eating out, it came close to $500/month for 4 months. Home cooking and delivering gourmet frozen meals once a month (which we visit anyway), bulk shopping at Costco, etc has dropped this down to $150 a month (both her costs and ours). Plus she eats healthy foods (only the finest Elbonian and Asian cuisine items - Mom is a foodie). The savings pretty much cover the monthly payment for her brand new car.</p>
<p>turbo93, I now think of you and all your airlift comments every time I go to my D’s college in the city. She is in a school apartment with a kitchen. She decided on no meal plan for her second year and doesn’t have a car. She can get to one higher end grocery store on the college bus but groceries do get heavy. So I find myself buying up staples, freezing individual portions, trying to figure easy foods for her to fix. It helps to know someone else does it. I know it saves money but haven’t really figure out how much… your numbers are impressive. Thanks for all the humorous encouragement!</p>