D’s school estimated 1100 for “books and supplies” and 1000 in “personal expenses.” 1100 is about what D paid for everything outside of travel… books, school supplies, personal supplies, entertainment. However, we spent about 1K on travel alone… 3 round trip flights across country and taxi/uber from airport, 50 dollar train trip to the nearest family member for Thanksgiving. So, for us, add the two school estimates together and it was about right but if D were more regional, it would have been quite a high estimate.
Lifestyle you are accustomed to can make a big difference. We’re on the low end of middle class and the 1500 dining dollars D got with her unlimited meal plan was just a ridiculous amount to her. That’s almost 50 dollars a week! She even challenged herself to spend it all near the end of 2nd semester (care packages for everyone lol) but she just couldn’t and several hundred expired. Her roommate who is below the poverty line was the same. However, her friends that come from wealthy families were blowing through them no problem. I don’t think they were irresponsible… I think they are just used to being able to do Starbucks a couple times a day and so the habit continued in college. My point in that is you should start keeping track of what you spend now and either factor that into your college budget or make a conscience effort to pull back.