<p>What amount of weekly spending money is reasonable for a college student? School websites indicate amounts that I think are fairly low. I have two children going off to college in next month and given just what they eat at home, I can't imagine the $25 per week suggested by the college as enough money. There are other expenses as well - entertainment, toileteries, etc.</p>
<p>Do they need spending money for all their food? Are they on a meal plan and/or have $$ on a school debit card? My D is quite frugal since she's mostly spending her own money. She usually manages to "take advantage" of us when we visit during Parents Weekend, i.e. we take her to Target and she stocks up on toiletries on our credit card. :) Most entertainment on campus is free or reasonably priced.</p>
<p>Assuming these students have meal plans to cover their food, I'd say that amount is reasonable, perhaps on the low side, but still reasonable. UNLESS-and this is a big factor-they are going to be in a city. We've found the attraction of a city can be a double-edged sword, meaning it's great to explore the offerings of a metropolitan area, but transportation, museums, concerts, etc can be costly.<br>
As the previous poster stated, somehow large quantities of toiletries and school supplies were purchased on MY dime rather than out of the student's spending money! If that won't be true in your case, I'd suggest an increase in the amount mentioned.</p>
<p>Ah, I still fondly remember coming home for fall break and returning to school with my suitcase loaded up with cans of tuna and soup from my mothers pantry.</p>
<p>Thank you - Yes, one has a meal plan with 19 meals per week, the other child's plan is only 14 meals per week. I don't want to give the date when I was in school (but there were war protests) but I recall ordering pizza, subs, etc just going out locally and I spent about $15 per week for those sort of items. BTW jeans costs $5 then! (A draft beer, legal age was 18 then cost a quarter!) So what do you think? How about male vs female expenses?</p>
<p>I would say it is completely dependant on what friends your kids make at college. If they end up in a group of kids where no one has extra money to spend on late night pizza, your kids aren't going to be spending that much money during the school year. If they end up in a rich group of friends that loves taking weekend trips to near by cities and going to clubs, your kid could be burning more than $100 a week. That sort of stuff you cannot really forsee. I'd say (as a student who lived in a city and had a meal plan) $50 is more than enough each week (and I found I spent less than this most weeks). Even if your kid had 100 meals a week they would still be eating at local places not on the meal plan. They may also want to spend money on things like football games, basketball tickets, seeing shows, and other little things that can add up.</p>
<p>Hi. This question comes up periodically. In fact, I asked this same question a little over two years ago. Below you will find links to the other threads, beginning with the one I could find that was the most recent.</p>
<p>Agree with venkat89 - I would think every kid would be different. We tucked $200 in an envelope in our D's trunk freshman year and the trunk came home in May with the envelope untouched. She had some money in her wallet when she headed out last August and that was all she needed. She just took advantage of all that was happening on campus and wasn't a kid who left campus much. Another might be different. She had a debit card - she only used this to get money to buy goggles for chem lab! She also ended up with over $600 left on her meal plan at the end of the year!</p>
<p>My S will have an unlimited dining plan. He has been working and saving all summer (and last summer) to have spending money while at school. He is also going to have a job on campus to keep a little income coming in also. Other than that, we aren't providing any extra money on a regular basis.</p>
<p>I really don't care how much spending money my son needs. It's HIS problem, ha ha!</p>
<p>We pay for tuition, room, meal plan (equivalent of 20 meals per week) and books. If he wants anything else (entertainment, off-campus food, etc), it comes out of the money he earns over the summer. We do send him back to school stocked with toiletries, kleenex, etc. I also ask him in August what clothes he thinks he will need and offer to shop with him. After he gets to school, if he decides he needs more clothes, he can either put them on his Christmas list or buy them himself. It teaches him to think ahead ("It's August and it's hot, but in November I'll need a jacket...")</p>
<p>D has whatever spending money she can save from her summer job. We aren't in a position to help unfortunately.</p>
<p>I am a student and $25 a week should be a perfect amount. I had 14 meals a week (plus our school made us get an additional $300 dining dollars which can be used at on campus food court and a few other restaurants such as Domino's). I found that the only other expense would be an occassional party or club or bar 2 or 3 times a month which might cost $10 and maybe a movie which is 7 or 8 bucks. So $25 should be plentiful. If they save some of that $25 weekly then they could buy a new shirt or pair of jeans every month.</p>
<p>As far as necessities like toiletries, I always bought it bulk so I didn't have to shop for any of those items often. I think maybe deodorant was the only item I bought regularly. I could often find toothpaste bundles that had 2 or 3 packs. I was fortunate enough to have an internship after my freshman year at a paper mill where we received free boxes of paper products. I had plenty of paper towels and tissue to last me the entire sophomore year.</p>
<p>It depends on what is considered spending money. Neither our kids bought clothes or shoes for themselves. We paid for their books. they were on full meal plans. The spending money was for snacks, entertainment, subway fare (for one), occasional purchase of toiletries and laundry. $200 a month was more than enough. I'd say most months they spent under $100. S, however, has a roommate who loves to shop, so for him $200 is too little.</p>
<p>The deal with our son is that we pay for room, board and tuition, he pays for the rest. He made enough in the summer not to have to get a job last year. I do tend to buy him clothes, but he's no clotheshorse. A bunch of t-shirts, khakis, 1 pair of sneakers, 1 pair of sandals, 1 dressy outfit. That's it. The t-shirts tend to be gifts.</p>
<p>S has plenty of money of his own to be able to afford clothes. But he won't buy anything for himself (neither will H or S1). So I end up buying for everybody.</p>
<p>Like some previous posters, a relatively clean break, depending on your kid's resources and your desires, is for the kid to be responsible for 'extras' which would include movies, restaurants, etc. and for you to handle what you have decided to which might include tuition, housing, meal plan, college fees, and transportation between home and the college. </p>
<p>This is what on-campus jobs, part-time jobs while in college, and summer jobs are for. They can easily earn enough to handle their 'spending money'.</p>
<p>Agreed with poster above. I'm not really sure about spending money as that is the responsibility of my kids to earn...so that they can spend it. They both work during summers, vacations, and while in school. Whatever they earn must be enough to cover books, clothing, entertainment, and any other discretionary spending. Neither has ever asked us for a dime of spending money, and we haven't inquired about their weekly spending.</p>
<p>We gave each of our kids $100 a month. Meal plans covered food. My daughter didn't work during her undergrad years, but she still had enough money even though she went to an expensive city for school.<br>
Our son works a lot during school taking part-time jobs through his college. I'm not sure why we're still giving him the $100 bucks, as he makes far more than that himself (he's a soph). His dad's a sucker, though, and I guess doesn't want him to feel he gets less support than sis, who graduated. To son's credit, he saves his money, which will help him out a lot when he graduates.</p>
<p>I was looking at some of son's paystubs he left out yesterday, and was kind of taken aback with how much money he has made for various jobs for the last couple of years. I said to DH, so we are paying for son's college, we give him spending money, and he's making $$$ each year from the school which he puts in HIS bank account? What's wrong with this picture!!!??</p>
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[quote]
Like some previous posters, a relatively clean break, depending on your kid's resources and your desires, is for the kid to be responsible for 'extras' which would include movies, restaurants, etc. and for you to handle what you have decided to which might include tuition, housing, meal plan, college fees, and transportation between home and the college.</p>
<p>This is what on-campus jobs, part-time jobs while in college, and summer jobs are for. They can easily earn enough to handle their 'spending money'.
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My family has this arrangement: my parents pay for tuition, food or meal plan, reasonable housing costs, books, and transportation to and from home, and I pay for any extras and my own entertainment costs. If my parents visit or I visit home, they may buy me some extra stuff, like clothes or toiletries, but those are pretty much my responsibility. It works well. I spend money carefully and pay attention to how I'm saving it.</p>
<p>I tended to go with the COA, adjusting for the meal plan choice. This one expects to work, but my second one has a very full schedule due to the major he has that really precludes regular work, and the oldest was an athlete which also took up a lot of time. They did not have problem with the allowance; it's after college that money issues became difficult for them.</p>