<p>Outside of tuition, room & board, books, etc… How much do you give your living away from home kid for spending money? </p>
<p>some families send nothing at all, expecting the student to come up with their own spending money from a combination of summer work savings and some work on or off campus during the academic year.</p>
<p>some families give generous allowances to their students, either monthly or per semester.</p>
<p>Personally speaking, we gave each of our sons about $200-250/month. All 3 chose to go to schools in large cities, and things in such locations (everything from shampoo to haircuts to umbrellas) tend to be more expensive than in college towns. It was our personal family decision that we didn’t want a lack of money to preclude our sons from engaging in the opportunities afforded in the locations they had chosen.However, it was a choice that we were able to make, and our boys completely appreciated their good fortune.</p>
<p>Also, our sons did not choose the all-meals-on-campus meal plan, so we also funded them with the expectation that they would eat some meals not in the cafeteria–sometimes just a breakfast bar or oatmeal in their rooms, sometimes a meal at an inexpensive ethnic restaurant out and about in the city.</p>
<p>Each of them supplemented our largesse by also working during the school year and during summers. They variously reffed soccer games (both on campus and in leagues in the city), tutored bar mitzvah students off campus, and staffed youth group conventions. A good number of their internships were paid (and that is one of the reasons they each preferred urban college locations–the ability to do quality internships during the academic year and during vacation periods).</p>
<p>We gave our kids almost no money. I would buy certain clothing items for my daughters but that was about it. They all lived at home. We gave some money for eating on campus (campus ‘credit card’), but they also often brought food from home to eat (much healthier) so their food expenses weren’t that large. We did pay for their gas (we viewed it as a school expense) and tuition. So far, all of my kids have had side jobs for pocket money. And summer jobs. </p>
<p>One day my oldest mentioned that most of his friends had parents give them money for expenses. I asked him if these friends had student loans. He nodded yes. I asked him if he’d rather have student loans and parents who gave pocket money or no loans (parent-apid tuition) and parents who expected him to work for his pocket money. He quickly opted for the second choice. Smart boy. 
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<p>This is what worked for us. Each situation is different. Not every student can handle working while studying. And if a child has not had any experience in budgeting before college, well, they might be in for a rude awakening. </p>
<p>This is an annual thread.</p>
<p>The Thumper Family paid for no discretionary spending. The kids worked during the summers and on vacations, and 10-15 hours a week during the school year. They earned all discretionary spending money. We also asked them to pay for their books.</p>
<p>The only money we sent them was the money we would put in holiday or birthday cards. We didn’t send them any spending money each month.</p>
<p>But every family needs to make this decision for how it works for their family. </p>
<p>Doing exactly the same as Thumper. S works summers, during most breaks and has a on campus job. However, at the end of short term each year (which runs from mid-april for 5 weeks) S has run low on cash - so I give him $100 or so to tide him over the last few weeks. </p>
<p>S pays for all his discretionary spending (entertainment, gas, parking tickets, eating out (everyone at his college has an unlimited meal plan so I feel no need to give him any extra $ for eating out) and he pays for all his books. </p>
<p>My college kids also are responsible for all of their spending money. Been working summers since they were 14. Now they are very glad to have several thousand dollars saved because they now know how quickly it goes. </p>
<p>DD used work-study and summer earnings for random spending and books. Now and then I slip her some more for something special but no allowance.</p>
<p>Very frugal parents here on cc! LOL. I’m the allowance “type” I guess…</p>
<p>I gave kid #1 no allowance money, so she worked part-time on/off campus. For kid #2, she has a really time consuming major so I gave her a credit card with $1000 limit with specific instruction not to spend more than $200. Well I don’t think that was what she spent. I’m trying to reign in her spending(not successful) but part of her spending including paying for zip car which she rented several days a week. Why I don’t know? Couldn’t she combine several trips into one trip. But at least I save money not paying for parking permit which is like $800/year.</p>
<p>I give my kid a couple hundred bucks at drop off each semester. He has a low number of meals plan, and he uses a charge card to buy extra meals (cheaper than meal plan, usually around 7.00). I have never set an allowance amount, but he has never spent enough on extras that I haven’t paid the entire credit card bill. He doesn’t need much and isn’t the Starbucks every day on mom’s dime kind of kid. </p>
<p>I give my daughter money a number of ways - I usually give her $200 in cash when I see her (at drop-off and maybe once or twice a semester) - she uses cash for fast food - I give her money on her school card which she uses for laundry, groceries, toiletries, paper goods and on-campus eateries (I usually add to this account $200 at at time and do it every 3-4 months ) - I then pay her credit card bill which she uses for lunch some days (sandwich shops mostly) - which is under $100 a month - and I put money on her train pass (via an on-line account)</p>
<p>Considering that most of the above are all necessities (really extension of room and board), I have no problem with paying for these things. I also pay for books (which usually get ordered on-line).</p>
<p>When calculating the allowance, do you include your student/s in your cell phone plan expenses or other technology expenses? </p>
<p>Slymlady, I want to clarify that I gave D2 to spend $200/ per month(I didn’t specify in my first post), however, I think on average she may spend between $350 to $400 per month.</p>
<p>something I did forget to mention in my post above–the monthly money I gave my sons also reflected the fact that they took public transportation to/from their internships(and so needed to pay for Metro cards) and also sometimes needed to eat meals while away from campus. Often they would bring a lunch with them, but sometimes they would also go out for a bite with co-workers–and learn a lot with the experience. There was also the cost of dry cleaning the professional attire–a lot of DC internships require professional dress and wearing suits in the high humidity and pouring rain meant dry cleaning was a necessity.</p>
<p>After the first year, my sons generally worked 15-20 hrs/week while maintaining a full course load / good grades and participating in ECs. Some internships paid and some did not; generally, earlier internships did not pay, but set the student up to get those great paid internships later on, which then lead to jobs at graduation.</p>
<p>As others have said, it varies by family. If my sons had been the type to be ungrateful, or loose spenders, their well would have dried up very quickly. Our family chose to subsidize the boys because we wanted them to be able to take full advantage of the right opportunities as they came along; for example, I preferred my son to do his unpaid internship for a DC non-profit where he learned certain skills, rather than checking IDs at the campus gym (which he had begun to do until he obtained that first internship, during second semester of first year of college). But we also realize that we were fortunate to be able to do this.</p>
<p>For my older son at UCD, we pay for everything related to his school including transportation (fly home 3x year). Personal necessities/meals out etc… his pays for from his savings. I send him care packages, if he needs any specific items or will bring them up when we visit. He is not a big spender, so it has not been a problem. I want him to concentrate on his academics and not worry about juggling work and school.
For my younger son whom will be attending SDSU this fall, it will probably be a different story when it comes to his discretionary spending. He never has any money now so I will put him on an allowance and when he runs out of money oh well. We will of course pay for any school related expenses…</p>
<p>We paid for our kid’s cell phones…but there was a catch. We asked that they call us once a week, at a time convenient for them, and that was the contingency of us paying. If they didn’t call, we asked them to pay for,that week. Each one missed calling one time, and yes, we did ask them to pay (they were on our family plan, and neither had an iPhone until after college graduation, so their weekly cost was pretty low). </p>
<p>Honestly, my opinion…these two kids were very responsible and careful with the money they earned. If they wanted something extra, they either had to save, or work more hours. Honesty, I don’t know how much they spent each mint. It was their money to earn and spend, and manage. But they never asked us for any money for discretionary spending…not once. </p>
<p>I think this was a good way for them to learn to manage their own money.</p>
<p>Cell phone is on our family plan and will be until she is truly independent</p>
<p>Our kids got a small monthly allowance which we adjusted for inflation for each kid. S2 gets $80/month for discretionary spending. Rather than giving the allowance to each kid on a monthly basis they get a check at the beginning of the term and need to manage their own budget. S2 also has had an on-campus job for at least 3 years. Kids will probably stay on the family cell phone plan until they get real jobs - older 2 are in grad school (on their own dime) now.</p>
<p>But this does vary quite a bit by family. I’ve hear/read of many families where there was no allowance at all, expecting the kid to earn money for all discretionary purchases. Other families give allowances of $200+/month. YMMV.</p>
<p>$300 a semester. Needs to use it to also pay for laundry, HBA stuff and other minor school stuff like copy and printing. So far no problems with that amount. I give it to him at the beginning of the semester. He had about $56 dollars left at the end of spring semester which I rolled into the summer with another $300.</p>
<p>S got cell phone for the first time when he went away to college, and it was on our plan. We bought clothes for him. Other than that, he was on his own for spending money.</p>
<p>This was not because we were “frugal”–although we are–but because we couldn’t afford it.</p>