<p>We count scholarship $$$ as “skin in the game”. That is their portion of school costs. We pay for everything but fun money and eating out of the cafeteria.D1 works at school for that. Has worked well for both sides. D2 has full ride so we make out on that one. Still trying to figure out how to make that work out between siblings as D1 goes to private LAC with 50% scholarship and D2 will be OOS public.</p>
<p>We looked at the total COA and backed out S’s Stafford loan ($3500 last year), scholarships and the school’s budgeted amount for personal expenses and books, which he pays for out of summer earnings and on-campus job. We pay the difference, plus transportation home for breaks. He does not drive; public transit is included in his student fees. He wound up paying a little over 50% of COA last year, and will be paying ~40% this year. No allowance from us.</p>
<p>He is working in Boston this summer and is paying for rent and food, through we stocked him up w/groceries when we dropped him off in June. Since it’s full time, he should have a decent amount left for pocket money and books. It helps that he has some very marketable job skills.</p>
<p>He put $900 on a pre-paid debit card at the beginning of the year and it lasted all year, including books.</p>
<p>We’ll be doing the same thing with S2 – not sure how scholarship $$ will pan out, if at all, though. He’d better start looking for a job early. He has a more expensive lifestyle than his older brother. ;)</p>
<p>I also consider scholarship $$ as my S’s contribution. S’s now a rising junior. He and I negotiated the financial issues prior to the freshman year. S works to fill the gap and to take care of any cost increases in the stuff he does.</p>
<p>I started by using the exact dollar figures that his college posted as “averages” on their website. Gasoline vs. airfaires came into play in his soph year because he decided to take his old car to campus. He had to pay the gasoline and campus parking.</p>
<p>My suggestion is to make sure that the student is getting some experience with bugeting so don’t be a parental (never over-drawn) ATM.</p>
<p>What is reasonable for food for a D living off campus? I was thinking $100/week to cover groceries and eating at school or out occasionally. Is this sufficient? I want her to eat reasonably healthfully, not fast food all the time.</p>
<p>RE52 I would start with the same amount you would pay for her meal plan if she was eating all meals on campus. </p>
<p>BTW–eating all fast foods can be much more expensive than cooking if the student will eat a variety of things and will actaully shop and cook so the grocery store stuff doesn’t go bad. It can be that giving the student a really generous food allowance enables fast food dependency.</p>
<p>That’s $13/day.</p>
<p>More than enough to eat healthy food frugally. You can make an egg sandwich for about 50 cents with whole wheat bread. PB and J is cheap. Some costs for drinks if your kid wants something besides water and that leaves a decent amount of money for something bigger for dinner. I don’t see any fancy eating out on $13/day though. There is enough money in there for fruits and veggies and meat.</p>
<p>We gave our kids $200 a month for food. They didn’t have ANY trouble keeping within that budget…or if they did, they never complained or asked for more. Both are fairly healthy eaters, but neither buys a lot of “prepared foods”…both like to cook, and both eat lots of veggies, fruits, and things like chicken. Both packed their lunches and snacks. </p>
<p>Any “eating out” they did was on their dime, unless our $200 covered more than we thought it did!! And yes, I know that is under $7 a day for food…but they did it.</p>
<p>I will add that my husband and I don’t spend a lot more than that for the two of us ($14 a day…there are two of us) about $400 a month or less on food.</p>
<p>Wow, Thumper, I’m impressed. We paid for the middle meal plan which also included campus bucks but it came more than double what you gave your kids.</p>
<p>College meal plans are expensive. You’re not only paying for the food, but you are also paying for the preparation, cleanup, serving and other cafe overhead. That’s not the case when you cook yourself. That is why we did NOT just divide the board plan by 8 and give it to our kids. We asked THEM to come up with a reasonable budget based on their spending for food/other things from the grocery store. We GAVE them $200 the first month and asked THEM to keep track of what they bought and needed. Then if that wasn’t enough, we wanted to see what they were buying and would adjust. DS, for example, was shopping at expensive grocery stores (think one step down from Whole Foods). We suggested he shop around and lo and behold, he found the same quality and brands at the less expensive and tony grocery stores. He learned the value of comparison shopping. DD frequents farmers markets and the like (she is in CA). Both have learned to be very economical shoppers…and they also do NOT waste leftovers…have them the next day or for lunch the next day.</p>