Do you have a conversation up front and budget out the semester? Do you agree to a certain amount that you will transfer to your child and send once? monthly? weekly? Is anything frustrating about this?
Hey - college freshman here - about two years ago, my parents had me keep an excel file of all of my expenses. They were clear that they would pay for food/groceries, clothes, etc, and had me place everything into categories.
Now it’s a little more relaxed - they budget for $200/month, which they transfer into a local account in my name. So far, that’s been more than enough - (social outings, coffee, that cool gadget that I don’t really need, all come out of money I made over the summer). If I need more, they make it clear that I just call them and explain why.
It seems to me like most parents will try to calculate it a little too much - even though I’m in school pretty far away from my parents, it is very easy to call them and talk about money. The monthly amount is basically just for their budgeting purposes
I didn’t get an allowance when I went to college. If I wanted money, I worked. And I did work, full or near full time, all 4 years.
I think it’s weird that parents give students money for extras when they can work, but to each their own.
What we did (and what I did) was when they went off to college, we gave them their childhood savings account proceeds (birthday money and the like). So they had seed money, and after that they are on their own. We pay for Tuition, Room/Board, books, transport home, medical…but anything else is on them. I expect them to get a summer job to replenish and suggested that they set themselves a monthly budget.
Not a parent, but my mother set up a shared debit account (her account which she controlled, but I had a debit card for) and kept money in that from which I could draw funds. Separately, I set up my own bank account which is where I deposited my work/study earnings. The Mom account was for things like clothing, my T-pass and emergencies. If I hadn’t had my work/study job, my mom would have also covered eating out, buying toiletries, etc. But since I did have some income of my own, I used my own money for books, social outings and basic toiletries. It enabled me to budget for myself and make my own judgments/decisions, re: how much I wanted to spend on eating out, movies, etc. My mom of course had more oversight on the debit account she put money into, but I was fairly independent and responsible, so she trusted me not to be stupid. I didn’t shop for clothing that frequently, and would talk to her before making big purchases (like a winter coat). There was $200-$300 in the account at any given time, but I didn’t spend that much a month or anything. For the year, the budget was probably between $1,500 and $2,000. (mom separately paid for all my travel to/from home, plus moving expenses on her credit card)
So you have to budget/make decisions relative to your child’s maturity/how good they are with money, the cost of living where they are attending college (Boston is expensive), and whether or not they will have a job during school.
@romanigypsyeyes I personally get an allowance of $100/month. My meal plan doesn’t cover weekends so essentially it is what I use the money for. I am in ROTC so I don’t have much time to work unless I want to overhaul myself and get 2-4 hours of sleep every week. But if you can work and have time to do so, then yes it would be great but there’s cases where allowances would be nice to have.