<p>My daughter finally decided on a college, and I sent the deposit to Wellesley a few days ago, so I guess my question is more for those who are already students there, or who have a student there.</p>
<p>How much spending money do you think she'll need for incidentals, occasional meals out, etc.? We're trying to help her come up with a realistic budget (and savings goals for the summer).</p>
<p>This is a hard question to answer because it depends on the kind of activities your D will get involved in, and how much she’ll want to go in to Boston. My D joined a club sport, and had to buy her own equipment and pitch in for travel to weekend tournaments, etc. The club sport is her greatest single expense. Laundry, I believe, is 1.75 per load (either wash or dry), but I think this is going up. Bus tokens to Boston on the weekends are $3 apiece (one way). Sometimes there is an admission fee to parties on campus that are sponsored by clubs or societies (i.e. $7 admission at the door). But many, many activities are free as well. The activities sponsored by SBOG (Schneider Board of Governors, the student activities association) are free. These include things like the Macklemore concert on Marathon Monday. Many of the dorms also sponsor their own events (like an Oscar night TV party) that are free for residents. Many classes take field trips to NYC for museums, concerts etc. and these are all free.</p>
<p>The town of Wellesley does not have many “college-budget” establishments, unfortunately. Ordering delivery from Lemon Thai Restaurant seems to be as popular as ordering pizza was in my day. There is a shuttle bus to Shoppers World/movie theater/Natick Mall on Saturdays, so students have a chance to go shopping at big box stores, where things like printer paper and shampoo are way cheaper than they are in the CVS in Wellesley.</p>
<p>So true - such a hard question to answer. I started off depositing $200/mo in my D’s account but she wasn’t really using any of it so at winter break I dropped it to $100/mo. SHe’s still not using it and has quite a bit saved!</p>
<p>She plays a varsity sport which takes up a lot of time, but she also goes into town fairly often. She does order from the Thai place sometimes and they have made a trip or two to Whole Foods.</p>
<p>I guess it comes down to the social events on other campuses are only a few bucks and she does not have time to go into Natick to shop. I do a lot of ordering things for her through Amazon Prime so she doesn’t really need much money.</p>
<p>Not sure how much our experience has helped, but thought I would put it out there.</p>
<p>Yeah, I budgeted about $80-100/month but in reality I only spent money at the beginning of the semesters (textbooks) and towards the end (extra food for finals week, going out with friends to celebrate finals being over). That’s just me though – I didn’t do much shopping or felt the need to go to the movies when student organizations and Netflix, etc had activities/films that interested me.</p>