<p>Hi,</p>
<p>We’re trying to help our son figure out a reasonable food budget. He’s a sophomore and totally off the meal plan. He’s eating healthier and likes cooking for himself. So far he’s been covering the cost himself but his money isn’t going to last much longer. He’s a big guy - 6’4" and over 200 lbs which makes it hard for me to figure out how much he can eat.</p>
<p>Any suggestions - how did you figure out a budget to replace the meal plan?
Thanks</p>
<p>S is off campus this year. Last year, his meal plan at school was about $13 a day for two meals. We started giving him $15 a day - but usually round up to $500 a month. I know it’s a lot of money, but he doesn’t cook a lot and I wanted him to be able to buy a quick meal if he had to - Ann Arbor has the most amazing, affordable places to get food to go. Hopefully he will learn to cook soon, but considering he can barely butter a bagel, I’m not too hopeful.</p>
<p>We usually matched the cost of the full meal plan.</p>
<p>We agreed to match the cost of the lowest priced required freshman meal plan. It’s about $500 a month and he has said it is more than he needs. He hasn’t figured out how much less would be enough though. He makes his own breakfast and late night snacks, but eats lunch and dinner out. For a while he made lunch, but he got lazy. He doesn’t eat much compared to most teens.</p>
<p>We also matched the cost of the meal plan S1 had freshman year. I have a feeling that it’s more than adequate and that he’s banking the extra money. But I also know that he buys lunch meat and makes sandwiches for his lunch and uses the crockpot that his grandmother sent him for dinners. Likewise I think the cost of his housing (house rental, utilities, etc.) is less than the dorm cost last year.</p>
<p>We also matched the cost of the lowest price meal plan. Our kid is also frugal and might end up with some $ left, but that’s okay. He does do a limited amount of “cooking.” It’s not $500 a month, more like $1000 ($1200?) for the semester as I recall.</p>
<p>When our kids went off the meal plan, we chose to send them food money each month that is equivalent to the full meal plan we would have paid for had they been on one. While my kids are willing to cook for themselves, both of them have very intense schedules where they are at school ALL day and ALL night and ALL weekend and are NEVER in their apartments other than to sleep and have breakfast and so they have to get pick me up food in their cities the majority of the time (or would cook if at home). I don’t know if this amount is adequate or not or what they truly spend as they also have spending money. But this is what we feel combortable spending for food as this is what we’d pay to the school if they were eating there. In months when they are not in school the whole month, such as this month, they are paid food money just for the weeks they are in classes. If they opt to not be home (they are not home) during their many weeks off, they pay for that food themselves. We took the cost of the meal plan and divided by the number of weeks they are in school and send them the amount per month depending on the number of weeks that month school is in session. We don’t pay for food over breaks (unless they are at HOME with us…but they opt to be other places usually for a lot of their breaks).</p>
<p>We just gave my D a grocery store debit card that could be refilled. She used it at her local grocery store and she’d let us know when it was getting low and we’d refill it. Meals at restaurants were on her own. She’s a vegetarian and doesn’t eat much though. It cost us less than the meal plan.</p>
<p>When S was in college, we gave him the amount that we would have paid for the meal plan. Younger D has not been on a meal plan for two years. We give her $50 a week and put $200 on an account that she can use for meals on campus when she chooses. She counted up 18 weeks for this semester, so we gave her $900 + the $200. I also took her grocery shopping the day she moved in this semester, so the first week is on me. This is much less than her meal plan would cost, but she would never eat that much for the semester.</p>
<p>We give our kiddos $250 per month for all groceries and apartment utilities…includes all toiletries, and paper products. Neither of them has said this isn’t enough. If they can include meals at restaurants in their budgets, that’s fine…but we don’t give any extra for that.</p>
<p>I am doing the same thing with my son that Soozievt is. My son is getting what we would have been paying for the meal plan. Actually, in his case, he has a reserve of $100 of college cash on his card that he can also use for food on and around campus. I’m not getting any complaints about not having enough food money. </p>
<p>I did the same thing with his room money. He is living off campus in a house. I give him what I was paying last year for him to be in university housing, except on a monthly basis. </p>
<p>He was supposed to be having great savings moving off campus since his rent is very low. This has not happened due to utilities, house products needed, etc. Though he is meeting budget, he is not getting any great windfalls either. </p>
<p>We talked about this during Christmas break. The food allowance is fine; the house allowance is close. Something he did not expect since the numbers showed that he was going to be saving all kind of money not paying the exhorbitant campus meal prices. Did not work out that way. Though he has enough,he does have to be careful and cannot go out to restaurants nearly as much as he did on the meal plan as he is very exposed now if he runs out of money which he did a lot when he was on room and board. It has caused him to be more careful.</p>
<p>My son’s off the meal plan that would have been just under 4000 for the year at 19 meals per week. Even when he was on the meal plan he still needed more food. I’m sending him $150 a week. He lives next to a Trader Joes and I don’t think he should starve in NYC on that amount of money</p>
<p>Suephilly, 19 meals a week for $4k a year is a pretty good deal in my opinion. My kids plans have been more expensive than that. The problem we had with the way meal plans work these days is that you basically pay for the food a la carte and the the number of meals per week only held true if your kid at what the school considered an equivalence to a meal. A problem for my hungry boys who can easily eat two sandwiches at lunch when only one is permitted. It was soooo much easier when there was just that all you can eat cafeteria. I have trouble figuring out how these mealplans work these days.</p>
<p>I figured living off-campus was a way to save me money, and teach my kids how to manage with less. I gave DD $50 a week for food and she did just fine. She doesn’t drink much, likes rice and beans, and is fairly frugal. Now she’s in a country that has a much cheaper COL, and she has a grant to pay for her expenses, and she’s also doing just fine. I guess it’s a parenting thing… I want my kids to have to really scheme and budget and figure out what they can afford with the small amount of money I give them. I don’t want them to just be able to buy whatever they want without a thought to the cost! DH and I used to feed our family of 4 on $50 a week, including paper products. (I don’t know what that is in today’s figures, though). We made our own bread, used powdered milk, baked a lot, etc. I want my kids to have practice trying to stretch a dollar. :)</p>
<p>Wow. Am I ever glad I reached the bottom of this thread! I was feeling very lonely until I read anxiousmom’s post.</p>
<p>Our kids do a budget that includes their rent and associated costs, an entertainment budget (including meals out), food, clothing/supplies, and what they can earn from working. (We pay 100% of transportation, travel and books, and big-ticket clothing.) The basic food component is about $60/week, plus maybe $20/week in the entertainment line for meals out/coffee, etc. That’s about half of the college meal plan (less, since they still ate out periodically when they were on the meal plan). Anyway, that’s what we fund. (They both cook, though.)</p>
<p>S is off campus and we give him the equivalent of the meal plan. However, he’s going through his own savings at an alarming rate - stopping for fast food two or three times a day, buying smoothies, etc. It’s his own money earned during the summer, but he’s spending all that on top of what we give him. We’re a little shocked at his total lack of budgeting. He was pretty frugal throughout high school, especially when it came to his own money. Now, he’s on a spending spree. What to do? What to do?</p>