<p>Also count in some money for occasional toiletries (an extra bottle of shampoo, deodorant, a box of band-aids, etc.) – although you’ll probably stock up at home, there are occasions where you might run out or need something.</p>
<p>And count in a little bit of money for office supplies - pens, paper, notebooks.</p>
<p>Yup, those are definitely all things to keep in mind. Haircuts too, haha. </p>
<p>Haircuts can actually be a big expense if you are used to paying a certain price at home and everything near your school is more expensive.</p>
<p>@jibler
Ask your parents if they’ll stock you up with basic toiletries for each semester…toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, razors, bath gel, etc. </p>
<p>If your parents shop at any of the club stores, they can get this stuff for cheap and it can last at least a semester…and then restock at Winter Break. </p>
<p>@mom2collegekids
Yup, we already started on that actually, so my parents have definitely been helping me out in that department. </p>
<p>My kids don’t shop at Gap or Banana Republic, ucb. Not in our price range. We are barely in the full-pay realm for one kid, qualified for FA for two in school (but neither were at Stanford). However, the killer for us is the out-of-pocket medical expenses that run in the five figures.</p>
<p>PG…Valley Fair is not all that upscale. But the shops in Santana Row…and the restaurants…are pricey! </p>
<p>And really…for a college student, Valley Fair is expensive enough. </p>
<p>My kid spent a lot of time at Target.</p>
<p>I’m always bemused when I see the prices for clothes in high-end stores. Who buys this stuff at full price? Is it really rich people, or mainly people spending more money than they should? We were at Nordstrom Rack yesterday, and I was laughing at the high prices on the clearance rack, such as a man’s dress shirt for a hundred bucks. This is clearance? I think many of us are conditioned not to spend this kind of money on a shirt, even if we can afford it.</p>
<p>We live well, considering the budget. But we taught ours that it’s a matter of choices, thinking and planning, not unlimited free spending or indulgences. On breaks, ours stocked up on toiletries, etc, on our dime (again, a limited budget- you may not want to now how low.) You can get that haircut when home, at the place you know and love. We paid for that and some other things we considered routine expenses. </p>
<p>First year, we paid for books, the new bedding, those college sweatshirts, etc. They split the cost of new laptops with us, out of summer earnings (I get that some parents don’t ask for this, but one was insisting on a Mac, more power than she needed.) And we gave them about $200 for until their campus earnings came through. They were paid roughly every two months (special service program,) so we sometimes sent an addl 50 or 100 to tide them over. Always paid for transpo home, that was a given. In other years, summer earnings and the campus work paid for books and discretionary expenses. By the end, i think we sent each maybe $200, in bits, the little love dollars, in senior year.</p>
<p>The difference between our own adult home spending and theirs at college is that they just don’t have many needed expenses. What’s their share of pizza or Chinese take-out cost? Their lives should be mostly based on campus, with the activities there, concerts, sports games, clubs, etc. There’s coffee on campus. These aren’t kids starting a career, needing to build a serious wardrobe or wanting the perks of, say, nice dining out or opera tickets, now that they are earning bigger bucks.</p>
<p>It’s not a vacation trip. On 1200/month, a kid could fly from Austin to NYC, Chicago or SF every month. All that said, I went to a college with girls from many very wealthy families. Their wise daddies put them on a budget that taught them life skills. Maybe this one is a sultan.</p>
<p>You know, if your family is rich enough, learning to shop at Walmart isn’t really a necessary life skill. It still might be useful for character-building, of course.</p>
<p>Speaking of paying too much for clothes…We have a Coldwater Creek store in our city. They are closing all their stores due to bankruptcy. I had never been in it before but they have people standing on the side of the road holding big signs 60-80% off… So I thought I’d check it out. OMG even with the huge discounts the clothes are too expensive!</p>
<p>I think one of the largest “extra expense” has been my son’s college recreational sports club. Entry fees, travel expenses (he went from CA to AZ with a group to compete in the nationals; another times riding there bikes 100 miles, having dinner, then taking a train back to campus), attire, dinners, etc. All worth it, but I do believe the largest expense category. </p>
<p>I’m not saying all WalMart, all the time, though it occasionally fits a need. How many cashmeres do you need for college? Even if you go for the over $200 jeans, how many do you have to have? How many ultra-expensive purses? One of mine is very into clothes and make-up. I do know the urges.</p>
<p>My oldest works in design and in the arts. They all spend a lot of money on clothes because they can all tell the difference the way some of us find unfortunate grammar to be like nails on a chalk board. She was like that from the day she was born. She would rather shop high quality at a consignment store than low quality new. But…she’s not alone. And she’s not making it up. </p>
<p>As a young girl she would find the antique in the worst garage sale, the one gem. It’s just a gift she has. But, she says, it’s a gift like in German, where the word means poison. hahaha. As in “pick your poison.”</p>
<p>She always budgeted for clothes, and I’m sure a part of why she worked all through college was that clothing budget. Everyone has their thing.</p>