<p>Both of the public schools I’ve attended have free health centers (I think my first school limited it to x number of free visits per year but current school is unlimited.)</p>
<p>When I was in school the health center was free at the public u’s I attended — though I remember going to the free clinic in my college town as an undergrad because I had a rather dim view of the quality of services I got from the health center on campus. </p>
<p>But I can see how in this era of funding cutbacks, some states might be cutting back on what they provide without extra charge. </p>
<p>Our state doesnt cover much of the costs of higher ed & Ds monthly clinic visits run about $100 ( inc blood testing to monitor meds)
Her visits to s local counselor are on a sliding scale however, so $40 week.</p>
<p>Our public universities have student health services included in the cost of attending…nominal fee.</p>
<p>My kids went to private universities, and their schools had health centers included.</p>
<p>But the kids were on my insurance. We have a small copay for office visits. I paid that if needed.</p>
<p>I do NOT view health care as “discretionary” spending. Discretionary is dinners out, pizza, shopping trips, vacations, unnecessary clothing, toiletries other than essentials, etc. </p>
<p>And we asked our kids to pay for their own books. Both became very savvy book shoppers. DD bought used from amazon, and resold back to amazon. She just had a running account. </p>
<p>Incidentals seem to be bought with groceries.
Medical (thank goodness mostly minor) - they have a debit card attached to our Health Saving Plan, same for Rx. That is the kind of “money we give but they don’t see it” category I was talking about (along with the cell phone plan).
Dentist, dental insurance and dentist bills us for what the insurance doesn’t cover.
Eye Dr, bills us if DS forgets to give HSA card for exam and or contacts. We paid 1/2 for Lasix for DD the summer after graduation (not a grad gift, but felt like it was, timing wise anyway). </p>
<p>You’re lucky your Ds eyes aren’t changing anymore.
Both my kids prescriptions are still changing I think.</p>
<p>Our situation is strange. I think both DS and we really do not know how much “allowance” money we “give” him each month or each semester. He and we have shared credit cards and even some shared account. What is ours is his. This does not mean that he is a big spender. He knows we do not have a lot of financial resources and he is very reluctant to spend the money which comes from either our income/asset or his future income.</p>
<p>Essentially, we still do not treat his money differently than our money. He does the same. His is ours and ours is his. He still does not have any income now; he only has student loans if he needs to have the source of money besides ours. I would imagine that when he does have his own real income and especially when he has SO, this has to be changed. We do not want him to run the risk of being laneled as “momma’s boy” when that time comes. (He could become “wife’s boy” if she is interested in managing this aspect of his life. LOL. We will be more than happy to hand over this “job” to him or her or both and let them handle their own financial affairs.)</p>
<p>Actually, it is likely that he is more frugal than us. We often need to spend a lot of time on convincing him why he should spend money on something but he does not agree with us. He occasionally said to us he is very poor - likely he meant to say “we as a family is poor” or “he is piling up the student loan debt.” The FA office of his college back them unfortunately did not think so, comsidering the fact that they thought we should be full pay till we basically used up all of our saved 529 money in the first two years of college.) We constantly need to assure him , a worrier, that we are not starving.</p>
<p>He still mostly relies the public transportation (occasionally rental car or zipcar) in a city where it is not that convenient to do so, in order to save money.</p>
<p>D is pretty frugal. Eats a lot of ramen, cuts her own hair.
But when we take her out to breakfast, who do you think is ordering the crab benedict?
;)</p>
<p>^^ Smart young lady. </p>
<p>All children in this household receive an allowance. An allowance we’re all grateful for. </p>
<p>BUT my mother is a smart woman. She knows the amount she gives is not the amount we really would desire. We get jobs (if we want) to fill in for the truly trivial expenses. </p>
<p>D does use the student health service for the basics but she has a few specialists she has to see several times a year and they aren’t cheap. She has the mandatory student insurance because it was more economical than mine was. With that plan, she has a $250 deductible and then a 20% co-pay for everything after that. I consider the $140 I send her a month to cover the ‘non-discretionary’ expenses. Her prescriptions are $80 a month alone. She works three jobs to cover the discretionary income. She buys all of her own clothes unless she gets things (or gift cards) for holidays and birthdays. If I didn’t send her money, I’d probably buy things like winter coats, gloves, scarves, underwear and boots. It’s hard to stock her up on things at the beginning of a term because she has to take it on a plane and her luggage is already near the weight limit when she travels! I expect I’ll stock my son up because he’ll be closer and I’ll be driving him, which is why I don’t plan on giving him an allowance in the same way. </p>
<p>These threads happen multiple times a year, and I hate them. They inevitably turn into “I give my kid less money than you do–your kids are spoiled brats, not at all like my perfect frugal kid” “Oh, yeah? My kid has expenses due to their impressive internship, so they need the money!” “Well, my kid has an equally impressive internship, and isn’t a pennypincher like yours!” and so on and so forth.</p>
<p>Actually you could probably make the same sort of observation about a lot of threads. Some kids have “better” stats, “better” scholarships, go to “better” colleges or get “better” jobs when they graduate…this is CC after all.;)</p>
<p>However I’d like to think most people generally are trying to be helpful. </p>
<p>Since I’ll be sending my eldest off to college in another year, I find these threads pretty helpful as my husband and I start thinking about what we’ll do. We haven’t come to any firm decisions (and don’t need to yet), but everyone’s responses have given us a lot to consider, which is a good thing.</p>
<p>I replied up thread that we never set a limit on,y son because herding spend much money. Well, last month of 2nd year "discovered"Ben and Jerry’s, and had a couple of expensive dinner charges (total over 100 or so for 2 dinners). I told him I’d pay the bill since it was the last month, but that I didn’t go to Starbucks often and I’m not supporting his ice cream habit long term. I think he’s becoming more social as he gets older, which in his case is a really good thing, but he needs a JOB to help pay for things. We are working on that. Live and learn, and adjust as you go</p>
<p>I’d just add that when kids ask parents for money, they often will say things like, “all my friends get at least $X”.</p>
<p>I’m not posting my personal non-contributor experience as an effort to take sides or to make any sort of judgment-- but I do want parents who may be faced with pressure to contribute more than they had planned or expected to hear different perspectives and experiences. </p>
<p>I remember when my son first enrolled in college, I was shocked and stunned at an orientation session when parents were encouraged to register their credit cards with the on-campus bookstore to create an open account for their kids… My son had his own credit and debit cards…and now the school was telling me that I was supposed to give him carte blanche at their overpriced campus store? Fortunately when I talked to my son, he just laughed and told me not to worry about it.</p>
<p>Question for those of you that have answered… would you say what you send your kid lines up with what the college estimates for “personal expenses?”</p>
<p>I have no idea. I never looked and have no idea what they consider “reasonable personal expenses.” I just figured out what made sense to us. </p>
<p>"remember when my son first enrolled in college, I was shocked and stunned at an orientation session when parents were encouraged to register their credit cards with the on-campus bookstore to create an open account for their kids… My son had his own credit and debit cards…and now the school was telling me that I was supposed to give him carte blanche at their overpriced campus store? "</p>
<p>I don’t blame them for trying. My kids knew they could buy whatever they wanted at the campus bookstore. They’re the ones who are naturally frugal and therefore shopped around for books, toiletries, etc. </p>
<p>$2000 a year and he usually matches it with summer savings. But what to do when he has an unpaid internship? I am disinclined to up the allowance.</p>