<p>My kids pay for their own books & incidentals. My deal with my daughter is that I pay for the bill that comes from the Bursar; she pays everything else.</p>
<p>We pay for tuition, room, board, books, computer & transportation to/from school. Also, now that I think of it, cellphone - but it’s part of a family plan and thus not expensive. Son pays for anything extra - pizza, sweatshirt, etc. Allowance stopped when he graduated high school and got a job.</p>
<p>We’re paying tuition, rooom & board and books for S1. S is responsible for spending money, gas, and any activities. We have his car insurance and medical insurance covered. We’ll fly him home for Christmas, but not the short holidays, those are his dime. That said, we required S to take Stafford loans and will require him to repay the loans. Also we set a budget for each of the 3 kids and adjusted for dollars it is identical. How they choose to use that budget eg. expensive school vs. less expensive in state public, geographical distance and transportation, etc. is up to the kids so the dollar allocation of what we pay for could be different for each kid.</p>
<p>Kids pay own books, fun, etc. Of course, if they get stuck we’ll help 'em out, but we want them to really want it. Parenthood can be so… mean spirited! ha!</p>
<p>We pay the bursar bill (tuition after FA, r & B, fees), his portion of our family cell phone plan, and one round trip plane ticket home. DS pays for books, spending money, further travel expenses, etc.</p>
<p>However, should he end up in some stupendous, unpaid internship one summer, we will readjust. For now, it works.</p>
<p>We’ll pay for the books. Our son is VERY frugal–thrift shops and second hand all the way. But what works is different for every family.</p>
<p>Kids pay own books, fun, etc. Of course, if they get stuck we’ll help 'em out, but we want them to really want it. Parenthood can be so… mean spirited! ha!</p>
<p>We offered to pay for books. S worked very hard to find online, used and so on to save us the worst money. D hardly bought any books but accessed all of her readings by ordering through the library the first week of class for the semester. She didn’t understand why more kids didn’t do it that way. We use ebay and amazon.com used book sites. There are some swaps and exchanges on campus. Going to the college bookstore should be a last resort. My kids did ALL their readings, as far as I know. We are very frugal people and bargain hunt everything (I’m driving a used Cadillac from l997 bought on Ebay.) In our house, “retail” is the “R” word and we try not to utter it.</p>
<p>Yupppppppp</p>
<p>I plan to pay for books – as well as computer, health insur, cell phone (only $15/mo), transport home and other necessary items. Ds will cover other expenses (laundry,toiletries, fun). </p>
<p>At least for the first year, I don’t want Ds, who are frugal, “wasting” time searching for bargains, instead of immed buying and hitting the books. Our only savings will be the purchase of used books from the bookstore. Once they’ve gotten the lay of the land, and have a better sense of what works best on their respective campuses, I will encourage them to do the swaps, etc.</p>
<p>Kids pay books at our house. Agreed that it is part of their education; it’s just that it’s a part they can cover. As said above, that’s what summer jobs are for. They also pay spending money. We pay everything else; no loans for first kid, and will repay second kid’s loans. So they got a pretty good deal.</p>
<p>Grad school is theirs; they have the foundation to make that happen, as did their parents.</p>
<p>We pay for books.</p>
<p>My son pays for his own books. If we paid for them, he’d buy full price books at the college bookstore. Since it’s coming out of his pocket, he has the incentive to look for used and/or lower priced books. He also covers his own spending money, and, like garland, he’ll be paying for grad school, too. We’ve paid for everything else as an undergrad.</p>
<p>My parents pay for plane tickets and 5k of my tuition. The rest of tuition, about 7k, books, fun, fraternity dues…is left to me.</p>
<p>^^^^How do you manage that, Mr. BJ?</p>
<p>I make around 7,500 over the summer. And I take 6k to college. That 6,000 usually covers my books and fraternity dues. I have a work-study job that takes care of fun money during the year…and I take out anywhere between 5-7k in perkins and stafford loans a year. </p>
<p>I realize I’ll be about 30k in debt after college (even more if I get into med school). But I find little things to make it seem better…like my best friend who attends UPenn, that has to take out 16k in loans each year.</p>
<p>We pay for books. I’ll pay for spring break in Florida too as long as she spends it at home.</p>
<p>Kriket,
Do you end up with carloads of students at your house over spring break?</p>
<p>I lived in Cocoa Beach, but went to school in NC. So our house was spring break central. My mom was an angel- she would fix up a huge breakfast and a huge dinner daily for all of us. There were times when we’d have 20 people at the house. One break, a girl that wasn’t even staying at our house but was from UNC broke her ankle playing tennis and my folks were sort of surrogate parents for her in the hospital until her own parents arrived- then they stayed at our house too!</p>
<p>I have very good memories of spring break, even tho it was at home!</p>
<p>We also pay the bursar’s bill and our daughter will be responsible for books and any spending money during the year. We’ve made it clear, though, that we don’t want her to not buy a book to save money (I will repeat this message when we get on campus). She’s on our cellphone plan.</p>
<p>She will be taking out Stafford loans. Like someone else above said, if she lands a fabulous unpaid internship for a summer, then we’ll rethink what she pays for. She’ll probably get a job second semester.</p>
<p>Both my husband and I paid for a large portion of our college costs, and worked on campus, and I think it’s important that my kid has a financial role. I don’t want her missing classes or losing books, and I think she’s more apt to take it seriously if she has paid out some money. She’s a frugal kid, and I want her to stay that way.</p>
<p>We did go shopping for dorm stuff this weekend, and it was on my credit card. Once she gets on campus, any purchasing she does is on her debit card.</p>
<p>We pay for books for both D (who has full scholarship) and S (who doesn’t).</p>
<p>As others have said, we see it as part of the cost of their education. However, we do insist they seek cheaper alternatives than the college bookstore, like the online options or buying used from friends, etc.</p>
<p>Books, especially for the sciences, seem to be a HUGE expense–upwards of $400-600 a semester. Neither of my two are making much money (D hasn’t had a PAID internship yet), so H & I cover this cost.</p>