<p>My daughter is an incoming Barnard student. She’s responsible with money and we want to give her a reasonable allowance to cover her expenses but not unlimited amounts. She’s been working this summer to make spending money for entertainment and extras as well.</p>
<p>So what is a reasonable monthly allowance to cover basic “extras” such as the subway, occasional taxis, a few meals when she’s sick of dorm food and so on. What other extras will there be? She has friends at NYU – is it worth getting a monthly subway pass? </p>
<p>Any input and suggestions from parents and recent/current students will be appreciated!</p>
<p>If she gets in with the Barnard babysitters, a monthly pass is probably worth it. When our girls were there, I think the pass was $75 and fare was $2.50, so that was worth it. You’ll be able to judge the cost of meals for yourself on move-in day. Back to the baby sitting, the pay is about $15/hr.</p>
<p>A monthly subway pass is now $104. I only started buying them in the summer between Junior and Senior year, when I was interning every day. The monthly is really only worth it if you take the subway at least 5 days a week (individual fare right now is $2.25, so you have to take it more than 46 times in single month, or 23 round trips. that’s a lot if you only travel on weekends and the occasional weekday.)
(I was a Barnard babysitter and I still babysit regularly, but babysitting on its own was never enough to merit a monthly. parents are required to give you cab fare if the sit is below 96th and ends after 9 PM, I believe, and you can always spend that $10 on a subway card and get a lot more bang for your buck.)
as for the rest, it really depends on your daughter. you can eat very cheaply in New York, especially around Barnard/Columbia, or you can find expensive restaurants. I’m the kind of person who takes a taxi maybe once every six months, but I have friends who take them all the time.</p>
<p>That depends so much on your family situation. Many girls are on a careful budget and others are spending money every week on professional manicures and hairstyling – with everything in between. Freshman year they are stuck with the dreaded mandatory meal plan so you are already spending a fortune on mediocre food. after freshman year, there are a number of great places to get food that are healthy and the same price as the bad dorm food. cabs can actually be affordable if a group gets together to share, and the subway is a great value. The biggest $ “suckers” are probably frozen yogurt and coffee drinks – both in abundance in the neighborhood, but pricey.</p>