<p>Last year, S1's freshman year, he left with about $4200 (combination of grad and b'day gifts and savings from job). Between parents, grandparents and scholarships: tuition, room-and-board (7 day unlimited meal plan), books, fees and plane tickets home 3X were covered. I also set him up with toiletries and cleaning supplies when he moved in in August.</p>
<p>Over the course of the school year he bought and assembled a server for the entire dorm, went half-in on a used Suburban and an X-Box, joined a fraternity, spent occasional weekends in Phoenix, one trip to Mexico and a road-trip to southern Cal, and entertained and fed himself. He still came home in May with about $1700 left.</p>
<p>I believe that if they know they are responsible for their own spending money, they will find a way to survive.</p>
<p>Some do and some don't. I know too many who go waaay over budget. Deplete the overdraft protection, bounce checks, over the limit with credit cards and still need more money. It can be a problem. If you have one who is careful with money, thank goodness and be happy. Otherwise, you may want to give some guidelines. For the financially clueless and careless, you may want to set up some structure and a budget, ration out the money and e-mail regularly, going over expenses and forcing the kid to look at what he is spending. Actually I wish I had done some of this with mine, but they were fine in college. It was when they left that the problems started. They hate to shop and there just wasn't anything to buy on campus. But I always start with the COA since that is the number that educational loans and grants will cover and has some back up for it, and go from there. Kids at city schools or with special majors may need more funds so you do have to adjust accordingly. You can either do that or let them sink or swim on their own, but it can be a costly lesson for all, and not mean they will necessarily learn better that way.</p>
<p>I firmly believe that spendig money is D's responsibility, though we do load her up with supplies (bottled drinks, snack cups, popcorn, toiletries, etc.) at least a couple of times a year. We also pay for books, necessary sports gear and all things medical (and those perscriptions do add up), basically any area where we don't want her skipming.</p>
<p>D earns $11/hr during the summer and last year, chose not to work during the school year (though she's been offered an interesting campus job next and will work this year). I was surprised by the number of expensive dinners ($40-55) and designer bags she purchased last year. Her money her choice, but it certainlly signaled to me that she was ready to shoulder more of the load, so this year she will be paying for her cell phone texting plan and for her haircare - - thus having to choose b/w expensive meals and expensive hair care/products.</p>
<p>D plans on providing at least her own spending money and possibly her books through a combination of summer jobs and (very) part-time employment during the school year.</p>
<p>We told D that it's up to her to earn money for her personal expenses, so spending money is really up to her. She's got a bank account and a debit card, and she seems pretty responsible with it so far. She seems to have gotten her dad's frugal gene.</p>
<p>We will keep an eye on how she's managing it at first, though, to make sure she seems on track for her summer earnings to last through the school year.</p>
<p>Our son got by on less than $25/wk frosh year. Meal plan, free campus activities, bringing a cache of necessities from home during breaks and the occasional care package of goodies made his relatively financially self-sufficient. Hopefully there wasn't a significant beer budget!!!</p>
<p>H and I had fully intended to cover tuition, room & board and books and have D be responsible for everything else. We expected her to wind up at a mucho-expensive school AND we had a high EFC. </p>
<p>Turns out she fell in love with her safety -- big state U, honors college, full tuition scholarship. So we feel she has covered her major contribution with the scholarship. Her choice has given us the flexibility to be more generous, but we also want to support and encourage her growing independence and financial education. </p>
<p>We're paying the bills for room and board and fees directly. For freshman year, we'll cover the other stuff as well, but she will be responsible for managing that money. So as a family we worked out a budget for everything else she'll need for fall semester: books, personal stuff, travel home, incidentals. Then she adjusted it downward ("that's WAAAY too much Mom.") We'll send her a monthly check for $300 and she'll have to keep track of it and make it last till Christmas. That's $1,200 over four months, but books for fall semester and 2 trips home are included in that. At winter break we'll revisit the budget again and see how close our estimate was. </p>
<p>She's always been frugal, appreciative, and very responsible. She wants to get a part-time job (we've suggested she wait till second semester) and plans to work next summer. So we may come up with a different plan for sophomore year.</p>
<p>We also are big believers in paying for all but spending money. That is why she has a summer job. That being said, a lot of my friends do send their kids money of varying amounts, some frugal, some extravagant and it seems that whatever the kids start out on, that is what they manage on. In other words, they spend it all no matter how much you send!</p>
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I was surprised by the number of expensive dinners ($40-55) and designer bags she purchased last year. Her money her choice, but it certainlly signaled to me that she was ready to shoulder more of the load, so this year she will be paying for her cell phone texting plan and for her haircare - - thus having to choose b/w expensive meals and expensive hair care/products.
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<p>Sounds just like my D, but she acquired that habit after college.</p>