<p>Okay…new freshman to be. Has meal plan that covers 21 meals a week, living on campus. Does not have car on campus, but free public transportation is available to get to shopping, etc. Smallish town. Not thinking about clothing, etc…just walking around money – what’s reasonable for a kid to spend on incidentals on a weekly basis…assuming that meals are taken in the dining halls, but knowing there will be an occasional movie, coffee, snack, etc? Because the kid worked her tail off and earned some excellent scholarships, we want to help with the incidentals…but want to find a reasonable amount. She does have some savings for her own nonessentials. (And yes, I think an occasional pizza is an “essential” college student item…but note the word “occasional!”)</p>
<p>$50/week…</p>
<p>If incidentals include hair products, etc., $50/week unreasonable, but would also qualify that some locations are much more expensive than others. We started our D (smaller college town, unlimited meal plan, etc.) with $100/month…told her to keep records, and if she could justify, we’d up it. She found $100 was sufficient–is a frugal girl.</p>
<p>S, on the other hand, again in small college town, was not given option…we knew he’d spend every last cent in a week, and try to justify nightly pizzas, so had to get him to “budget” with amount we gave him.</p>
<p>Whatever you decide, it’s important to realize that you may need to adjust the amount upward if the student’s schedule prevents her from eating some of the meal plan meals.</p>
<p>Dining halls are not necessarily located near the academic buildings, and classes, extracurricular activities, and on-campus jobs are not necessarily scheduled in a way that allows enough time to get to the dining hall and eat a meal. It is not unusual for a student to have to miss prepaid meals and buy food somewhere else, such as a campus snack bar.</p>
<p>We didn’t give our kids “walk around money” at all. BUT we did ask them at some point how much they thought they spent of THEIR money. DS said about $30 a week AVERAGE. Some weeks he spent almost nothing. Other weeks he spent a lot more. DD said she spent about $50 a week average.</p>
<p>Re: dining halls…we told our kids that if they ate out, it was their issue. There was a dining hall open on their campus somewhere at ALL times. Plus their dining hall points were usable at a number of restaurants close to the campus. AND in both cases, if they really had a schedule conflict, their dining halls would provide a bag lunch (which was actually pretty good) for them. We did not subsidize meals off campus.</p>
<p>It is a very excellent experience for kids to provide their own “walking around money”, IMHO. My kids pay for spending money and books. It is pretty easy on most campuses for kids to get a job with flexible hours. Consider having your kid do this. If you feel it is kind of dumping this requirement on them with only a couple of months until freshman year starts, let her know it will be starting sophomore year. </p>
<p>I’m pretty sure my D spends less than $100 a month at her LAC in a small-ish town.</p>
<p>My son goes to school in a city. I finally was able to figure out what he spent for walking around money. He was on a 21 meal plan as well. He is involved in Greek life, and I am not counting Greek expenses. He spent on average $55 per week. He was comfortable enough with this money, but he did budget himself for the things he really wanted. He still had an ample amount of breaks from the dining hall with trips for ice cream, pastries, and take out foods, but certainly far from a daily thing. He did not have car expenses. He never had to buy much as I stocked him with a year’s supply of everything under the sun. BTW, we did not give this money to him. He earned it himself. He also has hefty fraternity expenses and he pays for those from his earnings.</p>
<p>Yeah, well. We kinda did it differently. My kid was on a big scholarship+ so we decided she didn’t have a budget. And she still went over it. ;)</p>
<p>It is pretty easy on most campuses for kids to get a job with flexible hours.</p>
<p>Some campuses, jobs are reserved for students on work/study.</p>
<p>And I didn’t say “all”. Definitely harder on large campuses to get a job if you do not have work study, I think. But smaller ones I think it is easier. My D is being lobbied to take a 2nd campus job from a campus office right now at her LAC (she does not have work study, and already works in the college writing center).</p>
<p>After 5Ds, my guess is that, in a smallish town, $50/week would be sufficient. There would probably be more weeks than not that the full amount wouldn’t be needed. Four of my five Ds were in large cities, but one was in a smallish town. $50 usually worked for her, although that was several years ago.</p>
<p>$200/month for us. If she wants to, she can save her money and go on a trip to a bigger city for fun. Money covers entertainment, clothes, sundries, etc.</p>
<p>It was simple. The money they earned over the summer was their “walking” fund. Both of them made it work.</p>
<p>i’m the same as curm…son has full ride scholarship and is paid as a TA…we give him about 200 per month to spend as he wishes…and ask him to save his TA money.</p>
<p>I gave DS1 $50/month, but he has a credit card that he used for gas & school expenses. The first semester he barely spent any money, but second semester he used a little more. He had some saved from summer job and he’s very careful with money.</p>
<p>This year he’ll be in an apartment and I haven’t figured out what to do yet.</p>
<p>We gave son $200 a month freshman year. It was fine until he took his car to school 2nd semester. His car cost $45 to fill up. He really didn’t use it all that much on campus but since we are only a little more than an hour away, he did come home at least once a month. That really ate into his money. We’re still debating about whether the gas money should come out of the $200. He’s doing some odd job type work this summer while taking two classes at the local technical college. We’ve come to realize the more we give him, the less likely he is to want to work and we do believe it’s important for college students to get some work experience, so we’re trying to make it a little uncomfortable for him but not so much he is struggling. We are strongly encouraging him to get a PT job next year. </p>
<p>I think between $150-200 a month is plenty for most kids. Greek life does require some extra expense because they do a lot of activities. Some son paid for out of his allowance and for some, we chipped in.</p>