@Tgirlfriend – ED is early decision, EA is early action, and I will skip the SCEA & REA as it sounds as though you are in the clear.
Ugh I need to look at the cable/internet thing again. We are in the low $200’s as well and everytime I’ve looked into it recently I’ve not been able to get it down but it is worth revisiting. Limited options for switching around here, currently our service is split direct tv/Comcast and those are basically my only options. We’ve toyed with streaming but can’t get all we want at enough of a savings to deal with the headache and commercials. The cell phone bill kills me. $300 for 5 lines.
@itsgettingreal17 That amt is about 10x what our kids get. 
@2muchquan Thanks for sharing the link on UPenn. Hadn’t seen that. @CT1417, you are correct Duke doesn’t have an EA option.
Last 10 emails: Dartmouth, BU, Pitt, Wake Forest, U of MN, Presbyterian College, Bowdoin, Yale, U of Chicago and Duke.
Funny thing is if I keep going down the list, about 6 of these are in the next group of 10.
We created a college email account which my son and I both have access to. I no longer have access to his personal email account because he changed accounts and I told him I didn’t need the password (back when he was around 13). He doesn’t hesitate to hand me his phone a couple of times a week to share a funny email or text message from a friend and because he is very open we’ve just gone with the flow and here we are at almost 18. His calm nature coupled with the fact that he has had a school email account since middle school made it very easy. The kids learned quickly that email accounts are not just for communicating with friends should be handled professionally and you should not be writing anything you wouldn’t share with your grandma. 
QOTD: I’ve been thinking about this too. D17 has money from babysitting and from her grandparents that she has saved. This goes first. $300 per month sounds like way too much to me! Her clothes we’ll deal with during breaks to see what she needs, but honestly how many t-shirts and sweatpants can 1 kid use?? I’m hoping she can handle personal expenses by herself…she should be good for freshman year…and we’ll re-evaluate. If anything special comes up, like travel abroad, we’ll deal with it. I would expect to pay for that if there is no scholarship support.
I would LOVE her to get a job, but I’m not going to push that for freshman year.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek @itsgettingreal17 …I was planning on giving my S $600 a month. That is what I gave my daughter 8 years ago when she went to college and I thought that may not be enough. I will have to check in on all this now. lol
QOTD: I have not given an allowance to my older son and do not plan to give on to younger son either. Having said that, I do pay for laundry, bus tickets or gas money home, books, and any school fees. He does not shop unless he is with me, so no clothing allowance. He has a CC of mine on which he can charge any of the above or Dr/RX copays. He is responsible for casual dining, concert tickets, concert tee shirts, vinyl albums…He still managed to open a Roth IRA with last year’s earnings.
Younger son will need to find a job next summer. He has a bank account with unused birthday/Christmas money, and it could carry him for quite a while given his very low rate of spending. I do not pay for his socializing now, and will not in the future.
Neither boy pays for gas, car insurance, cell phone charges, etc, so I do not see the need to provide an allowance. Older one will be living off-campus this year so will need to figure out grocery allowance. And how to cook!
@tgirlfriend All I can say is that your children must live a very different lifestyle than ours. Even providing all of their own food for cooking for a month wouldn’t require $600/month. (Our 24 yr old has a maximum budget of $300 for all of his monthly expenses beyond rent, utilities, etc. That $300 includes all food and his cellphone.
QOTD: D15 ended up at a small LAC in a small town where there really isn’t much to spend money on. Between laundry, the occasional pizza, and school supplies, etc, she spends about $50 per month. Not a latte to be seen in walking distance.
D is home for her first summer after college and is working. First paycheck was a real eye opener for her. 
We cancelled cable about a year and a half ago. It took a while to adjust but it was doable. We started watching tv much less because with Netflix and Amazon Prime, we had to actively seek what we want … and it’s an effort. We had more quiet night or just music in the house.
However, it was painful not to have cable when Seahawks went to Super Bowl. I also missed Academy Award. This year, we signed up for the very basic cable again because I must watch Olympic! No contract, so we can cancel anytime after that.
QOTD: I put all the money she got as a graduation gift (about $2,000) in her account and told her this is the money you get for the entire school year. Use them wisely. Also she had work study from freshman year, so she was accumulating throughout the year. I never gave her monthly allowance.
I have no idea how we’ll work out the expenses when they’re at school. Probably figure it out as we go along. There are so many variables.
D18’s at the urgent care-they drove her over finally. Turns out the “nurse” on duty isn’t actually a nurse, but somebody who doles out the advil and says “hey, looks like you need to go to urgent care.”
We pay $125/month for 3 lines with 2 gb from T-mobile (it’s 90, but add in taxes and D18’s phone payment that she makes to us and it ends up at 125). I think if we added another line it’d be another 10 dollars. I’ve been with them a long time and like them. The people at their stores are great if you have a problem with your phone.
I haven’t thought of monthly allowance for DS in college. We will probably give him a credit card and monitor the spending, but no set limit… I may have to watch out food bills and Tech spending:-)
Glad I’m getting different perspectives on this. It will help me decide what is reasonable.
D likes dining out, concerts, and spirit wear, so I figure she needs enough to at least at cover 1-2 meals out each week, laundry, 1 tee or so, and maybe a concert a month. I don’t want her living lavishly, but I also want her to be comfortable and able to enjoy the things she’s used to and not have money limit her socially.
QOTD: We give D15 $100/month allowance plus a credit card for emergencies and clothes, although she tends to buy clothes with her money. She lives in on campus housing, which is required by the school through junior year. This year she will have a car so gas will be out of the $100/mo. Repairs/maintenance and insurance on us. Her housing this year is a campus house, so she will be able to cook some/many meals and the $100/mo will include food. We will see if she needs more as the year progresses. She also works during winter and spring breaks. She had an internship this summer, but it was part of a poverty studies program and her stipend was only $816 for 8 weeks. The program provided the housing (room in an on-campus apartment, wifi, free laundry). She had to pay for food, transportation (bus pass at $85/month), and entertainment (gym membership at the U for $25/month) on the stipend. She is very frugal and may even be coming home with some money! S17 will get the same $100/month. He barely spends any money now, so I doubt he will spend much of his allowance.
Other than college fees and housing/meal plan/books we paid for football tickets ($25), the occasional treat (bubble tea after finals), funds for fitness class, laundry (around $300), Uber rides. We cover all toiletries, contacts, cell phone plan, gas for trips home on breaks, haircuts.
All she has to cover is her own fun money, movies, concerts, meals out with friends. She spent about $50-$100 a month from her own work earnings.
QOTD: My son has stockpiled a sum of cash from 17 years of birthdays and xmas gifts that should last him a long time based on his spending habits. His spending habits are basically buy/spend nothing until it’s his birthday or holidays and then announce what he would like as a gift He never shops on his own, very rarely eats out, doesn’t go to the movies much. I don’t really spend much on him except food, and sports equipment and fees.
I’ll probably just get him some sort of pre-loaded credit card so he can start building up credit in his own name thru college years, although I have not really thought much about it. He has an atm card attached to his savings account, and he never uses it. He has a wad of cash in his wallet at all times and some gift cards, and he never spends it.
if anyone has advice on credit cards for college students please feel free to enlighten us all.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek …my D lived off campus and she used that $600 for everything. Food, clothes, sorority things and entertainment. My S will live on Campus so I will have to keep that in mind. He is way way less costly when it comes to monthly expenses even now. I am like @itsgettingreal17 I don’t want him not to be able to do things because of the money. He is very tight with his money unlike my D was. lol
@2muchquan – I wouldn’t let my experience with Richmond sour you on it. My S14 may have had terrible essays – I don’t know (I was never allowed to look at them 
) I really do think that leadership and community service are huge items for many schools giving out large awards (just my opinion). My S14 is at Grinnell. He received a generous merit award. @STEM2017 thanks for your kind words! @Mom2aphysicsgeek – I am sorry that illness hampered your daughter’s college options.
As far as spending money – we told S14 that he had to pay for all personal items while at school. We pay for books, transportation, tuition, etc. We buy clothes when he is at home for breaks, etc. He has to work over the summers. The same policy will be in effect for D17, however, she has had an illness to contend with and hasn’t been able to work this summer.
Re: Cable
I’d cut it from our house in one second but my wife would have a breakdown. She loves watching HGTV and movies.
I only watch the news and an occasional sporting event. I could easily live with just access to regular broadcast TV. I would find it harder to get rid of internet access than TV. I could also live without a cell phone with ease and would prefer not to have one.
@RightCoaster …I think we have the same S. I honestly think my S doesn’t have a girlfriend because he doesn’t want to spend his money on it. I think when the RIGHT girl comes around things will change but right now…no way. Tight as bark on a tree!!