i make $9/hr with a biweekly paycheck, no meal plan and pay for gas/utilities/everything except rent (paid with financial aid) phone bill, car insurance, health insurance. i get along fine because i have savings from the summer but i struggle a bit with so little hours. i’d rather eat ramen and get a good GPA than eat chipotle and struggle the entire time though… if all a person needs to buy is gas/luxury food(aka food one buys instead of eating off of the meal plan if one has a meal plan)/toiletries/luxuries then ~10 hours should be more than enough especially if you make $9+ an hour
but that’s just what i think based off of my experience. some people might need more money if they like to go out more, have more expensive tastes, have more bills to pay etc. so jealous of the people who don’t have to work while in school and can focus primarily on ECs and classwork…
I think it might depend on the job. My D works 10 hours this semester - TA type work, not flexible hours but tailored to her schedule. It is no problem and she admits she could work a lot more without affecting her academics. Last year she had an off-campus waitressing job with a changing schedule and limited flexibility for both days and number of shifts. It was the same job she’d had over the summer, but a couple months into the school year she quit. While the job was roughly 20 hours a week, it wasn’t the number of hours but the timing of the hours and lack of flexibility that was the problem.
FWIW, I worked a 40 hours a week my freshman year of college while taking a full load. The hours worked with my schedule, I was sometimes able to study while on the job, and it was no problem - in fact I got my best GPA that year. So it depends on things other than just number of hours.