<p>How much cash per week or per month are you giving your child aside from paying for room and board?</p>
<p>D gets $200 per month, paid twice monthly. This is for entertainment, non-food-plan food, misc school supplies, non-essential clothing, health & beauty supplies, impulse buys like that purse she absolutely MUST have. She says it’s more than adequate for her needs.</p>
<p>S gets about $100 permonth, but nothing sent regularly. It covers misc school supplies, non-food-plan eats, and the occasional $5 bet to a hallmate for standing outside in the freezing cold (-3 degrees) temperatures in just his boxers. He lost.</p>
<p>lol lima, that’s probably just as well.</p>
<p>-0-
(10 char)</p>
<p>Nothing on a regular basis. Once in a while I’ll drop some double-digit number into his account. He had some money saved up from high school, he has a job, he seldom goes off campus, and he spends practically nothing.</p>
<p>There was a thread that was just like this one about a month or so ago.</p>
<p>Nothing. My daughter uses her own money for books and all personal expenses. (Although we do give her cash instead of presents for her birthday and Christmas, mainly because I can’t figure out gifts for her anymore.)</p>
<p>Nada. She uses her own money for food, clothes and entertainment. Of course she isn’t too far away, she is off the compulsory food plan this year and it’s easy to drive over and take her to a market/bring food. Room, tuition, books and fees are paid for.</p>
<p>Not a dime. Summer jobs earn spending money.</p>
<p>this concept of an allowance sounds nice. where can i get a parent that will pay one? mine are stingy and are only paying for most of my outrageously inflated tuition.</p>
<p>Personal spending money comes from his summer work and his job during the school year.</p>
<p>He couldn’t care less about clothes, I’m kind of sorry to say. I would be happy to pay for some new clothes if he would take the time to go shopping.</p>
<p>I pay his car insurance, but he pays for gas. (If he loses the accident-free discount or the good-student discount, it will be up to him to pay his insurance.)</p>
<p>I’ll skip the long story from the previous thread. Suffice it to say that DS1 has a full-time job in the summer and a part-time job during the school year (about 8 hours per week). DS2 is doing the same.</p>
<p>$0 for weekly allowance from the parents. Kids earn their own “weekly allowance” once in college.</p>
<p>There are tons of threads about this issue. Perhaps someone will link them. </p>
<p>Bottom line…this is a personal family decision. However, our kids have summer and school year jobs (about 10 hours a week) that cover their incidental spending (we included books in that as well). Our kids did a MUCH better job managing money they earned than money we just “gave them”. In our opinions…college was a good time to learn some money management. We knew they had a roof over their heads and a meal plan! Anything beyond that…they earned (entertainment, clothes, books, trips, gifts for friends, dinner out…etc).</p>
<p>Wow I give DD $70 every two weeks. After reading how many are self sufficient college kids there are and have own jobs maybe it’s time to cut that off!</p>
<p>As usual, I’ll be the contrarian. We give our kids allowances. It’s our belief they they should focus on classes and ECs. And yes, we know they party too. We also support their eating some non campus food once in awhile!</p>
<p>All three have a significant EC that will greatly aid future employment. They have worked (or are working on) getting significant leadership positions that give them access to people important in their desired fields.</p>
<p>If money is a struggle for a family, of course kids should work. I did. But I observed my ambitious, wealthy friends use the time to aid their futures and saw the benefit.</p>
<p>This year (S is a freshman) he gets $100 on the first of each month. But he’s already been informed that any spending money in future years will come from his summer earnings. I’ll still pay for books and clothes, though I’ll gradually phase out paying for clothes.</p>
<p>hmom, that’s why we are giving D an allowance as well. I always told her I didn’t want her working, at least during her first year; I wanted her to concentrate on getting settled into college. Next year, who knows; it may depend on whether she can get a summer job with our very high unemployment rate out here.</p>
<p>Yes, there have been quite a few previous threads about this. Agree it’s a personal family decision, and that for those who do give an allowance, the amount can vary widely.</p>
<p>In our family, the monthly allowance stopped at HS graduation. Learning to make smart financial decisions, starting with a balanced budget, is a critical life lesson.</p>
<p>We trend to transition our boys over time. As freshmen, they get $200/month. We wanted them to concentrate on a good transition to college at the beginning—academically and socially. We wanted them to have the opportunity to try a variety of things–clubs, interning etc.</p>
<p>We expect them to become more financially self sufficient gradually as time goes on. Oldest son renewed his license for refereeing soccer games as a sophomore in college–the pay is great and his commitment is flexible. He also taught Hebrew and tutored bar mitzvah students at a synogogue near his campus.</p>
<p>S2 will be looking for work when he returns to campus after his study abroad this winter. Academics are harder for him. He has some extraordinary opportunties, though, including serving as president of his fraternity as a sophomore, when the president was badly hurt in a car accident over winter break and could not finish out his term last year.</p>
<p>S3 just finished his first semester. He is thinking of refereeing as well–he enjoyed doing it occaisionally in the past and the $$$ is great.</p>