<p>spending money, allowance, whatever you want to call it. how much do you get per month? what's a decent number?</p>
<p>we had this thread not so long ago. Responses range from "I get 22 cents a semester, everyone feel sorry for me" to "I get 5000 dollars a week, everyone admire me"</p>
<p>Any money issue is going to be a touchy subject because it reflects on your class and a lot of people want the world to be "class-blind". Obviously it can't be, and that's another discussion, but that's why the "spending money" threads often end up with people being critical, or defensive.</p>
<p>Having said that - I get $200 of spending money a month from my parents. I am a freshman about to finish up my first year (yay!). The first semester I didn't have a job, even though I worked all through high school. It was a VERY good choice and if you are financially able to take a semester off from working, I highly recommend it. Adjusting to college is difficult socially and academically and it was really awesome to be able to have that extra time for other things. Now that is second semester I do have a job, and I save almost all of the money I make at my job for my car that I am planning on buying at the end of this summer. So my parents are still giving me the same amount of spending money.</p>
<p>I live on campus and I have a meal plan, so mostly what I spend money on is snacks for my dorm room, school supplies, giving friends gas money when they take me places, occasional dinners out, even rarer shopping trips (I will admit I have a credit card for this that my parents don't know about) and of course any recreational substances, which not everyone uses of course. $200 does go very fast when you are buying your own toiletries and things like that - you don't realize how nice it is that your mom supplies your bars of soap until she doesn't anymore. Budgeting is also quite difficult, at least for me, because the ways you spend money vary differently day to day and week to week. The main rule is just all over frugality.</p>
<p>How much money you need will obviously look much different if you have a car and need to pay for gas/insurance, if you don't have a meal plan, or if you are paying monthly rent. Next year, all three of these things will apply to me. My parents are going to continue to give me $200 a month, and they will also pay my rent, but I will have to work a lot more, at a better paying job, to be able to pay for gas and other "extras" because that $200 will just barely cover groceries and nessecities. </p>
<p>Bottom line of a very lengthy post: it depends on the person (and the family) how much you will need but you could probably live off less than $100 a month without paying for food, rent or gas. Just be wise about when and where you spend your money.</p>
<p>I get 0. I am incredulous at how much money some people receive.</p>
<p>i am incredulous that you would use the word incredulous in that sentence.</p>
<p>my parents give me a credit card which i basically charge anything i need on it, like gas, groceries, and anything i don't think my mom would yell at me for (like if i need a new shirt for a date function or something). ontop of that i get like $1000 deposited into my checking account a month which covers rent/utilities (which eat up the vast majority of that)/spending money on food if i go out to eat (which i do a lot...i'm a regular at subway), bars, movies, poker, etc.</p>
<p>I probably use about $100 a month in gas. And I'm not even in college yet. Grr I'm waiting for the moment when I go off to college and I can get a $76 metrocard which can buy me unlimited subway and bus rides for a month.</p>
<p>sorry pachisi, i guess i should start utilizing the search function more often.</p>
<p>eh, don't worry. People will love to tell you how smart and frugal they are since they only spend 350/month. </p>
<p>For the record, going into college next year I'll get 600 work-study a semester from the school and that will cover my books and spending, and I doubt I'll use all of it. I'm not big on the two-hundred dollar shopping trips every week and all that. If you have the money more power to you, I basically just buy food.</p>
<p>Im pretty frugal with my money tho Ive bought myself some new clothes which I was due for (never really went college shopping ;)). I also bought a new laptop, but hey my desktop takes up too much room and Ive been working hard for my money ( I dont get "allowance" I have a job in an office ) plus my dad's buying my desktop off of me ;) (a year old but I custom built it so it still works well).</p>
<p>I also never got allowance in high school, I worked for any extra money then as well.</p>
<p>be happy and cherish a spending allowance, you're very fortunate to get it now and it won't last forever.</p>
<p>I get $100 a month and at a residential school in a pretty rural area. Most of it goes towards food/snacks when I miss co-op meals or feel like going out (for fairly cheap too). Sometimes I go a month when I hardly spend any of it, and then there are times when I spend $200 in a couple weeks (usually when I decide to buy something online) and then I don't spend a lot for a while. I don't really keep tabs on how much of that $100 I spend in a month because I have money leftover from my summer job still. I haven't had a job this year, but I'm going to have one in fall.</p>
<p>Get a job during college people.....stop leeching off your parents for money. I spend roughly 1.5k a month and not a penny comes from my parents.</p>
<p>Hey they offered, I'll take it. Thanks.</p>