Spending money?

Parents Forum
41

We followed a similar path to the Thumper family. Our kids knew ahead of time that they had to pay for books & spending money. Both got jobs the summer before freshman year of college. All D2 could find was night stocker at Walmart, so that is what she did. Both also had some money from graduation and some grandparent birthday/xmas gift savings going into college as well, and worked most summers while in college. D1 was offered a job in the Writing Center starting sophomore year of college, so she also did that during the school year. D2 didn’t work during the year, too much academic stress to add that in. I think they were both VERY savvy about book purchases (used, rental, library for short usages, purchasing from older students, etc.) because it was their money.

We also had a couple other rules:

  • If kids took an internship that wasn’t at home, they had to cover their own expenses for that. Except that I figured my grocery bill didn’t go up as expected, so I I subsidized their grocery bills to an extent if they were not home for the summer. But they paid their own rent/housing costs and some of their food bills. D1 did an unpaid internship in DC one summer, and D2 stayed on campus every summer (including this summer after graduation) in a research position.
  • If they wanted to do something like a sorority that had fees, that was on them.
  • Told them that they could major in what they wanted, but that they had to be self supporting within a few months of graduating. D1 found a job she loved that started in August after graduation, and D2 is headed off to grad school in the fall. Both came out of college with some money in the bank, so they had cash to pay for apartment deposits, travel to new city to look for housing, and some inexpensive furniture. (I did give older kid an Ikea gift card for graduation, but paying off D2’s loans so she is not getting this – but did suggest Ikea cards to relatives who asked for college graduation gift ideas.)

Since D2’s grad school stipend is pretty slim (but does include health insurance - hurrah!), I told her I’d cover last visits to dentist and eye drs. this summer, and send her off to grad school with a year’s worth of her daily contact lenses. I’ve also told both my kids that I will pay for Lasik as a college grad gift if/when their eye doctors say they are good candidates. D1 is still waiting for her eyes to stop changing. Both pay me for a portion of the cell phone bill, since they are on my plan, but will charge D2 less because of her lower income for quite a few upcoming years.

42

My son’s school has a dining hall open from 9pm to 2am for those missed dinners

43

My children do not have a meal plan. They have not had living relatives sending cash gifts since they were toddlers. They receive $300 per month for expenses.

44

We began with the idea that we would supply a small allowance first semester, so effort would be focused on academics. The intent was that DD would get a job second semester, and by her second year would generally be earning her spending money. However, DD instead achieved excellent grades, and proposed to overload and graduate early. Given that an overload pattern would reasult in one semester less tuition, we kept paying allowance. The location of the school makes a big difference: DD is an expensive city, as compared to my isolated private school. We wanted her to take advantage of opportunities to attend concerts, travel, etc, as we knew -or thought we knew- she would only be in Boston for four years. Perhaps we should have cut her allowance…she fell in love with Boston and travel, and elected to stay :(. We are very proud of her decisions, and will likely handle the same way for D2