<p>How much you’ll spend depends on where you’re going to school and what you like to do. Partying all the time will cost more than staying in to hang out; going to a movie will be a lot cheaper in rural wherever-the-hell than in a large city.</p>
<p>Personally, I work to pay for food, rent, books, and other incidental expenses. That usually leaves me enough to either go out to bars/clubs a couple of times a month or supply my apartment with enough alcohol for a couple of parties, go out to dinner with friends once a month or get a movie or concert ticket, and take my girlfriend out once… if I’m okay with not saving anything, which I’m not, so some things have to go. You work with what you have.</p>
<p>A job is always a good thing. More money = more freedom and more options, as long as you’re not working yourself to death so that you can’t enjoy your free time or don’t have any.</p>
<p>Working over the summer should be an obvious YES provided you can get a job and there isn’t any extraordinary life-changing wonderful opportunity available to you that would keep you from working.</p>
<p>You should talk this over with your parents to make sure you’re on the same page. What do they expect you to pay for? What will they be able to help with?</p>