How much spending money does a freshman need if tuition, room & board, books, and travel are covered by scholarship and/or parents?
Is $50 per week enough for incidentals (replenishing toiletries or whatever) and some fun money?
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My kids had 4 years to work and save spending money for college, plus they worked part time during the school year and full time during the summers. I’ll still buy them toiletries, otc medication, some clothes, but Uber eats, Greek life, Truly’s, spring breaks - all on them.
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It depends a lot on the college they attend. My S who went to college in NYC spent more than my D who went to school in suburban PA.
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My dd plans to work full time this summer and may or may not work during the school year. I am not as much concerned with how she gets the money as I am about how much she will need.
If all of the major items are covered (tuition, R&B, books, travel home), about how much does a typical student need per week for extras and fun money?
Could you share a ballpark number please?
Going through this process for the first time, so have no realistic idea.
Thanks in advance.
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Yes, just looking for a ballpark number, as well.
My kids get $175 month plus we still pay for RX, “needed clothes” and dorm room set up and Ubers for after hours. They have never needed to replenish their toiletries due to us buying the larger sizes at move in.
They each have a credit card linked to our account, if needed for emergency or approved expense and same with our Amazon acct.
One has a current balance of $700 in her account and the other (in a much more expensive location) runs hers down each month and also is happy to spend $18 for a cocktail or thrift shopping.
Both have significant savings from
jobs and gifts and have never pulled from their own accounts.
We know kids that pay it all on their own and others that have unlimited access. It really is a personal choice.
I know my kids loved getting a surprise $20 Venmo from us or a valentine/holiday card with a $20 in it too.
Lastly, we asked them over the holidays and both felt this amount worked and I think they appreciate our flexibility when special things come up.
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My daughter is at school in Boston. We cover her R&B as well as her subway pass and any medical stuff.
She pays for everything else (nonessentials), which include dining out, uber rides, concert tickets, clothes, toiletries (aside from the initial batch I bought her at the start of the year) and whatever else she wants to spend it on. She has two semesters under her belt and seems to have spent about $1500 each semester. Boston is super expensive and much of her social life happens off-campus. I would think a more contained school outside of a major city would likely be much more affordable for extraneous expenses.
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“Truly’s” made me laugh out loud…
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$200 per month was plenty for my DD for the first few years. Then during the pandemic she developed a Grubhub habit and spent more.
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My S spends about 250 a month on food out, toiletries and groceries living in the dorm. Some months are more, some are less. The food is terrible at his school and variable in quantity. He is not spending money on other things. I think it is hard to tell before they are there on a budget since if the food was good he would be spending almost nothing.
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D20 is in a very small town and spends way less than $100/mo. She has a credit card linked to our account for emergencies, the occasional meal when the chicken is cooked “rare” in the dining hall, and other approved expenditures. Her grandparents send gift cards to the grocery store in town occasionally. Her school loves to spend money on the students so there frequently are free trips (the state fair in the fall or skiing in the winter) and the independent movie theater in town has current movies for $1 for students and the school provides the snacks.
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The Net Cost calculator provides an estimate for each college. usually in the $100 a week range of course varies by school location. Here is one example from the Penn State Net cost calculator.
Miscellaneous $3,222
Miscellaneous costs are non-billable open_in_new and may vary widely for each student. These costs support the out of pocket expenses of a student, such as laundry, clothing and personal costs, to support their education experience.
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My D had very little by means of incidental costs and I don’t think spent more than $25/week.
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I’ve been asked this question hundreds of times. In the Thumper family, the students worked to earn discretionary spending money and book purchase money. We honestly don’t know how much they spent because this was money they earned, and it was in their accounts. They never asked us for spending money.
We paid tuition, fees, room, board, and all insurances.
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This was our policy as well. We pay to get them there and educated, keep a roof over their heads, food in their bellies, and maintain their health.
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The Army paid my kid while he was in school. I have no idea how much he spent, only that none of it came from us.
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When my daughter started college in Manhattan, she was getting $250/month. Since we both were equally clueless how realistic that was, I told her that we’d review that once we have some actual experience.
However, we do pay for car insurance and do reimburse any medical co-pay. Also she had gotten a prepaid/refill Metro-Card as “move-in” gift because I wanted her to freely explore the City. In addition, there were some GPA-based financial rewards after several semesters, and also the occasional summer job to replenish her bank balance.
4 years later: she never asked for the monthly allowance to be “upped”, and she certainly did have an active social life, dining/nights out, concerts. But, she/they also made a point of taking full advantage of all the discounted/free stuff/admissions they could get as students. She likes shopping at thrift shops and sometimes exchanges clothes with friends to change her look.
(PS: Doing FAFSA were eye-opening some years: Turns out that somehow I ended up being one with the least liquid assets in the whole family? Anyway, I took it as an indication that either my “wealth transfer” had been generous enough, or she’s outright frugal.)
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At a rural school, we paid for phone. We put money on the card that covered laundry and books. We paid for travel to and from school.
We gave kid about $75/week for everything else. (Meals out, local transportation, concert tix, etc.) Offered to buy ski pass as a Christmas present. He never suggested that he didn’t have enough.
This really depends on the school. I didn’t want DS to not feel comfortable going out with friends because he couldn’t afford it or that he couldn’t chip in for pizza or whatever. He had worked for several years during hs and had $ of his own. He’s not frivolous, so I figured if he didn’t use it in college, he’d find a good use for it later. But admittedly, it was no skin of my back to do that…
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Some of the big sport schools pad this amount as the athletes receive a stipend of this amount (plus travel, etc). Penn State’s was one of the highest when this went into effect (about $6000), and immediately Alabama raised its COA to almost that amount. Suddenly it cost much more to live in Alabama.
My kids spent no where near the estimate for misc and travel expenses (or books). They didn’t have it so couldn’t spend it.
At DD2’s school, she had Dining dollars so could eat in the cafeteria or use the $$ at food places (deli, pizza counter, smoothies, small grocery store), so lots of options. She knew a lot of tricks to get food for cheap.
Other daughter lived like a poor college student. Lots of free events, including food, at her school. Both went to schools where all student activities, including sports, were including in the student fees, and sometimes concerts and shows too. Neither spent a lot on clothes.
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