I’m going to NMH and the topic of how much money I should get comes up sometimes but it generally gets avoided. My dad just told me that he will get me a credit card but he expects me to have a limit for every week… (The credit card is in case I need to pay any large sum of money, like missing a flight)… So how much money should a international child get at a boarding school?
Here’s a good thread for you and your dad to read : http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-parents/1291390-unexpected-addl-bs-costs-besides-tuition-room-board-p1.html .
Have your dad call or email the NMH school business office and see what amount they recommend. Most parents start the year off by depositing $250.00- $500.00 in a student account and replenish it if needed . It’s up to your dad to set the weekly limit. If you need more cash for something special your dad can easily call/ email the business office and release more funds for that week. A student account is flexible and can be adjusted as you go.
The average BS student has a spending limit of $10.00- $20.00 a week . Most kids don’t even need that… and can get by easily with $5.00 or less. You won’t need a lot of cash at boarding school- especially if you’re allowed to charge your student account for items sold at the student bookstore or for snacks at the student café.
I think starting off with a $15.00 ( week ) limit is fair but do your dad a huge favor and manage it wisely. 
It completely depends on your habits and lifestyle. I know that many students at my DD’s school buy clothes for dances and events, workout or SWAG gear for their clubs and sports, gifts & snacks, pens & pencils, an apple occasionally at the Farmer’s Market, go to movies off campus, and go out for meals. They also will buy stuff to prepare meals for a group (ethnic, celebratory- like birthday), buy pizza for a study hour, go for weekend trips, and buy games and music online. Some spend virtually nothing, while some could not imagine having less than several hundred dollars a month/week to spend. Many have very little discretionary spending money, but have carte blanche to order what they like (or their parents order it for them after a phone call) in the way of clothes, sports or extracurricular gear, celebratory restaurant meal, fast food at a weekend competition, transportation to the airport, stuff from Amazon Prime, and other “necessities” that are justified and not considered by them as extra money for purposes of this discussion. There is no single answer. The child of a Sultan or a Prince will have different expectations and resources than a child of a single-parent administrative assistant. I do not know how close NMH is to a town, or how frequently one orders out. I think it would be difficult socially to have less than $10 - $20 a week if there are visits to town and going to movies; ice cream; pizza; etc. and you are responsible for every single thing you buy for events, dances, sports, etc.
Not a big fan of keeping up with the Joneses or handing over unlimited funds to a teenager just because you can.
You won’t go without or feel like a social outcast with a $15.00 weekly allowance. You’re there to study and you don’t need money to do that.
If an athletic team stops at a restaurant or an ice cream place after a game most coaches will have a school credit card to pay for it. They won’t tell kids to stay on the bus if they don’t have money. You won’t be expected to bring money for a meal or a treat after a game. If you travel with a team and stay at a hotel those expenses will be charged to your Student Account or paid for by your parent in advance. If it’s a competition like a Regatta with vendors selling T-shirts- that’s an example of when extra cash or a credit card will come in handy.
Most BSs don’t encourage kids to walk around with a lot of cash or keep cash in their room. If you need more than your weekly allowance ( for something special ) you can always have your parent release more funds. Not a big deal.
School provided transportation to the airport or EC / athletic team gear/ Swag can be charged to your Student Account. Gifts and school supplies sold at the school store can be charged to your student account. If they don’t sell your brand of toothpaste or shampoo at the school store have your parent ship it or go to the store and buy it. There’s always a bus leaving for a big box store or a mall every weekend. Have dad release more funds or get permission to use your credit card and climb aboard!
If you want to order a pizza - chip in. If you order an entire pizza for yourself… we need to talk.
Dorms usually have a Pizza Night or some other School- Funded Food Fest once or twice a term. They also serve refreshments ( purchased locally by the school or provided by the Dining Hall ) for special occasions like Christmas, Super Bowl, etc.
A truly fortunate BS student doesn’t have a Platinum Amex in their back pocket. They have a dorm parent who loves to bake. THANK THEM because there are thousands of less fortunate BS kids hitting the pillow every night dreaming of the brownie you just ate. Maybe offer to wash the Dorm Parent’s car or something and show a little gratitude…
If your parent would like for you to have a special celebration on your Birthday… it’s easy to arrange for a cake by calling the school or Dorm Parent. Kids don’t need to do anything more than show up, look surprised ( or mortified ) and blowout the candles.
If you know your school is taking a bus to see a blockbuster movie (or any movie ) and you want to go and have a little extra cash for refreshments have your dad release extra funds to cover it. Not a big deal. Some schools will purchase the tickets in advance ( if it’s a “Weekend Activity” ) and charge your SA when you sign up . If you want popcorn and a soda… it will be up to you to pay for it. Plan ahead!
It’s simple: Before you sign up for something ask for details. Many times schools will take kids to places ( like museums) and cover the expense.
You’re on your own if you want to buy an apple at a farmer’s market but with a $15.00 weekly allowance I think you’ll be able to swing it.
Certainly you can use a credit card to purchase clothing, games and music online but I’d work that out with your dad first. 
If you’re watching QVC in the Common Room and ordering stuff … we have a problem.
I take that back. Your parent has a problem. 
FWIW, I went to a BS that is not located in the boonies and averaged spending much less than $20.00 a week with an active social life. As at most boarding schools, there are students whose families are better off than others. IME, although it might be different at other schools, students are not expected to keep up with the “haves,” and are not looked down upon if they are “have nots.”
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It is much easier to add more later than to cut back. Start of small and see what you can accomplish.
So much depends on the school (culture/location/etc.) and the kid.
Since SAS is 100% boarding with few people going home on weekends (so there are plenty of on-campus activities), and pretty much everything’s included in tuition, plus the fact far enough from a town/mall that trips (and hence opportunities to spend $) are not that frequent…7D1 was able to get through 4 years with very little cash burn. Probably $20/week or even less. Maybe $50/month?
7D2 is at Masters, with a smaller boarding percentage, a higher percentage of local boarders going home on weekends (so there’s less on-campus activity on weekends and more people going on mall trips, etc.), and a town center a very short walk away PLUS NYC a short train ride away…and she definitely went through money faster than her sister, at least during her frosh year. Probably about $100/month, not counting train tix.
Again, some of this is about the kid. I think if 7D1 had gone to Masters, she would have ended up spending less than her sister.
I have also found the amounts needed/used can be “seasonal”. Even though the school provides money for dinners on away game days (since they would be too late to eat dinner at school), there is often a need (want?) for more than the allowance covers - and certain seasons require further and longer travel so the incidences of eating out are more frequent. Some kids “order out” more in winter since the NE winters can be long and boring…
As @SevenDad says: it can depend on the school location and culture as well. I can’t imagine most kids needing any more than $100/month, but this is also dependent on what you are expecting them to “cover” with it. As @PhotographerMom said, a lot can be obtained at the school store!
You can see the difficulty. Where do you draw the control volume? Is “Student Account”, “credit card”, “student store” considered off-book, as some posters here imply; and only “mad money” being considered? Or are you all on your own for ALL expenses including the student store, airport transportation, train tickets, etc.? What must you purchase from your monthly allowance? Hopefully you get a feel from these posts that there is not a huge need for extra money.
Note that I have until now, not given either child a credit card (tied to my account). I think that’s not a good way to get them into the habit of staying on a budget. Over the summer, with 7D1 going to college in Sept we did get her a “real” bank account (well, a student account at least…you save on fees) with a debit card. Also got 7D1 a “real” (well, a custodial one) account with an ATM card.
I was thinking it depends on the school, like if there is a large town nearby or there are weekend excursions, so would anyone know how much of that can be related to NMH? All I know right now is that their not close to any big city and the town is rather small…
I’m sure an NMH person who knows much more than I will answer you as well, but I just want to say the town is small, but very close by. I know there must also be an NMH bus that goes on weekends into Greenfield (bigger town, with several restuarants and stores), because the Deerfield bus goes there on Fridays and Saturdays and my son often sees NMH kids there. At his school, we set up a student account that works in the student store and the grill and cage, so he doesn’t spend much cash (maybe spends $10 a week tops-- but very often less). However, his crowd goes to Greenfield for dinner almost every Friday night-- always to this cheap Thai place-- which costs $10 or $12, depending on what he gets.
I agree with what most have said about not needing too much money at school. Our DS requests Visa gift cards for his birthday as he can use them to get take out and the occasional trip to the movies. Our school has a student account from which kids can take out cash up to a reasonable limit. You can opt to have it automatically funded or add when necessary. We found that our son didn’t use much.
Another recommendation is an Amazon account. Our son has access to our account and we have prime membership. Even though we live reasonably close by it was very helpful for him to be able to,order things he needed. With a very cool spring he needed compression pants to keep warm during track practice. He just let us know what he was buying and it was delivered in two days. It was so much more convenient than driving up there whenever he needed something. He used it for toiletries as well, not to mention that his favorite ramen is even cheaper there than at the grocery store.
I went to Le Rosey and my allowance there was $1,000 to $2,000 a month. Some kids I knew got $5,000 a month, but that’s completely unnecessary.
I think a kid’s spending money should be their own money.
My kid’s spending account will be funded by her earnings from her summer job. I cover the textbooks and the “required” school items, but all discretionary spending money (including her cellphone bill) is money she has earned herself. This worked out pretty well last year, with one glitch: She was new to budgeting, her money ran out in April and she had to get by without any “fun extras” like takeout food, mall trips, etc. during the last month of school. (I admit that I was tempted to send her some extra cash for the end of Spring term, but decided to stick with the tough-love approach). She not only survived being “broke”, but learned a very valuable lesson in how to budget!
The deal I’ve had with soxboy is that he can charge things he really needs (school supplies, shampoo, etc) to his school account, plus he can charge things from the snack bar as long as I continue to fee that his snack bar expenses are reasonable (i.e. if I start to see that he’s buying food for all his friends, that’s a no go, but if he’s buying the occasional snack between meals because he’s a teenage boy and is hungry all the time, I’m fine with paying for that). But if he wants to buy something that he can’t charge to his school account – i.e., ordering pizza to be delivered, going into the local town for ice cream or a movie – then that comes out of his own money, from summer job savings and birthday gifts. I also let him order things from my Amazon Prime account, as long asks first and we decided who should pay for it (new squash sneakers? I pay. birthday present for his girlfriend? he pays me back). So far it’s worked great, but largely because he’s pretty responsible and trustworthy.
My parents and I made a deal at the beginning of the summer which benefits both of us: I get a job working at a sandwich shop and use the money I earned from the summer for my personal spending as well as things for my dorm while my parents pay for my clothes, books, school supplies, and sports equipment (We don’t need to worry about travel as Loomis is within driving distance) I’ve had friends say that internships are more impressive than making steak and cheeses all day, but it’s really enforced some good work habits in me that I will bring with me to Loomis and I’ve really enjoyed my time this summer.
Honestly, parents AND students alike, this has been a great gig so far; I get to earn money for myself, gain a sense of responsibility (and I get to flirt with the cute boy who I work with. :x ) while my parents get to rest easy knowing that they won’t have to worry about money for me throughout the school year should I need cash immediately.
I love my job and I’ve earned $1200 so far with two more weeks left of work before I start prepping for school, meaning I’m going to have about $1500! It may not seem like an incredible amount, but I will be able to afford everything I want for my dorm (I’ve budgeted like @cameo43’s daughter!) while still saving up money for the year.
Good for you, @HistoryGeek40! It sounds like you are off to a great start. My kid has been making lots of sandwiches too… Enjoy what’s left of summer, and best of luck at Loomis!
My daughter gets $30 a week deposited into her account. We got her a debit card and she can spend or save that money. She knows when to spend and what to save it for (she loves trips to the Asian market and stocks up on seaweed, pocki, etc). She also works as a babysitter for some teachers …and that has proven to be very lucrative for her. She will tell me that she doesn’t need me to deposit the $30 because she worked that weekend. Her school has lots of trips that she doesn’t spend money on but when they go to town…she hits up Starbucks and for a treat…land will order in pizza to the dorm.