<p>I haven’t read all these posts in depth, but as far as getting money to your daughter, our exchange student had a debit card from her home country that her parents replenished when it got low with their own currency. It would seem easier and less expensive to do this than wiring money. All the exchange students got their money in this way, they could charge at stores or go to a cash machine and get dollars.</p>
<p>Lost- </p>
<p>If your D has no earnings, then there’s no question that you’ll have to give her an allowance since the necessities and near necessities (laundry, haircuts, birth control, cellphone) can amount to a small fortune. What constitutes a reasonable expenditure for amenities (eating out? how often? Pizza? Fitzwilly’s? Spoletto?) is a personal decision. Noho is a great college town, but a bit pricey for most student budgets.</p>
<p>Many colleges estimate book costs of $1000/year. Of course this can vary a lot depending on individual courses and majors. Buying used can help, but the publishers revise texts frequently in order to maximize sales.</p>
<p>“Although this is true, it is hard to reconcile it with the need for students attending college far from home to have a slush fund for emergencies.”</p>
<p>Now you’re talking two different things. Cash on hand tends to get spent. Emergency funds can easily be placed in a CCard. So if the car needs fixing or something along those lines. It can be charged and paid off when the bill comes.</p>
<p>Both mine have emergency credit cards. When they’ve used them for non emergency situations, they pay me back for their purchases. They too are in another state. They have their own fun money and have emergency means separate. Both kids are honors type bio students with high GPAs.</p>
<p>The comment about having too much money on hand comes from observations of kids being able to go to the coffee shop for 2-3 hours on a weeknight several nights through the week and then gone all weekend. </p>
<p>My D had a roommate who spent everyweekend at the “coast” at another students beachhouse. Mine tended to study and go out for a few hours on Sat. Guess how grades went for each? </p>
<p>Having too much money in your pocket makes being tempted a bit too easy. </p>
<p>When faced with the prospect of O Chem studies and heading out for pizza becomes the two choices for the evening, with money in your pocket, pizza wins. That’s our nature, no matter how many tell me how exceptional their kid is, mine are too. They created their own self disipline by only taking out a small amount of funds each week. </p>
<p>The kids that were gone out alot, tended to struggle alot with grades. If you’re doing one, you really can’t do the other as much.</p>
<p>S could spend about 500-600 on books each semester. He saved during his second semester by trading a book with a classmate (they took the same 2 classes in reverse order during the year). I believe that a friend also lent a book to him during his second semester. He worked over the summer for his spending money, but he did not have enough, so we did send a couple of small checks. I would say that he spent about $50 on average. He did go away 2 weekends during his second semester (very much on a budget plan), and went on one day ski trip and I am factoring that in. This summer he should easily earn 3,000. BTW, I did send him with $40 in quarters for each semester for laundry. He also has a credit card for emergencies. When he used the card (sometimes did not have cash on hand, he always told us, and he paid the bill).</p>
<p>Mine has been spending very little for entertainment and extras. Probably about $20/week. She has also had some big expenses, like $75 for a week of camping and another $75 for camping equipment. This summer she is earning at a pretty good rate and spending very little. She is pretty frugal about the incidental expenses, but compared with the COA they hardly count. Next year she will be out of the dorm and off the food plan. The savings will be several times what she spent on incidentals and entertainment.</p>
<p>Costs of books vary greatly depending upon the major. </p>
<p>Food cost vary greatly depending upon the meal plan you choose. </p>
<p>Some schools charge for EC’s. Some don’t. Some cost much more than others.</p>
<p>But, if you are only wondering about spending money, I find children will spend what they are given. They will adjust their spending to what they have. I found Freshman year to be most costly, because there were so many other adjustments, there was less time for work. Not including travel, books, food - about $200/month.</p>
<p>I admit I was somewhat taken aback to discover that a single book for one of S’s courses cost nearly $250. Luckily, he took another course that used mostly paperbacks for the quarter. However, I don’t believe there has been a single quarter where the books were much under $500.</p>
<p>DD spent $900 on the books for her first quarter classes. The good news was that most of them were also used for two subsequent quarters (bio, chem, calculus). She now uses one of the online sources for used books…as did her brother. They can save hundreds of dollars. Just get the ISBN and you’re all set.</p>
<p>definitely second buying books online. just make sure that your student has the exact publication info. Plan ahead and don’t wait until the last minute to order or they may not arrive by the date needed. D saved at least 50% or more on books second semester as compared to first semester when she did not know about this. It is silly to buy new.</p>
<p>I’m the cheapskate of the bunch. D just finished freshman year at an LAC in Western Mass. I filled her school “one card” in Sept with $400. She earned approx. $45 work study monthly. That was it. I used frequent flyer mileage for one ticket home (end of school year) & paid for one r/t to PA for Thanksgiving. She was responsible for spring break to NY for a 3 day theater jaunt. I have raised her to be frugal and aware of what money “really” costs. She came home with $58 in her checking account.</p>
<p>Whoops, quick edit…she paid for books (purchased mostly online) via a joint Visa card, and I paid the bill out of her savings account, money earned over the previous life.</p>
<p>Another good piece of advice I saw here when I was sending my frosh off, you can always re-assess at Christmas. My daughter had a lot of one time expenses, she had no winter clothes at all, for example, but her spending had really settled itself toward the end of the 1st term.
Also, winter was expensive, the amount of pizza bought directly correlated with the amount of snow and the distance to the dining hall, and she learned to ski (quite affordable at her school vs learning at a resort, but still a good chunk of change for her)</p>
<p>My S attends a small LAC in southern New England. We give him $200-250per month plus pay for his books. First semester we put the money in his Bank of America account in two installments. Since he blew through that (and the money he earned over the summer), we made him get a 10 hr/week job second semester and started to put the money in his account monthly. He is doing a better job of budgeting. He took a car back second semester and pays for most of the gas himself – except a tank from home to school and school to home for vacation/s. He has a credit card for emergencies. He did charge some clothes second semester but he is definitely not into clothes. Plus we insist that he get prior approval from us for any credit card charges.</p>