Reasonable allowance for college freshman?

[Anonymous]

DD starts college in a month and we are wondering how much money to give her for the semester. We don't want her to get a job first semester, because we want her to be able to focus on settling in and classes. We do want her to have some experience trying to stick to a budget, however.

She will live in a dorm and be on a full meal plan and we will pay for her books, but we assume she will need some spending money for clothes, toiletries, occasional meals out, that kind of thing. What would you consider a reasonable budget or allowance for a college student? She does not have a car, but is in an expensive city and her college is in a part of the city with crappy public transportation, so going anywhere off campus will likely require Ubers, etc.

[Anonymous]

I did not give my kid an allowance. Rather, she is responsible, so I made sure she had a debit card (for cash withdrawals--though they rarely use cash) and a credit card (on my account).

She would use them for buying rare things for her room or if she ran out of toiletries or "emergency food" (for her room. Mostly she ate from the dining hall). Oh yeah, and an occasional trip to Sheets with her friends.

The point is she never abused these resources. If she was buying a "want" (vs a need), she would reimburse me for the cost (from her savings when she came home). She attended a rural school, lived in a dorm all 4 years, and did little off campus. It worked out for us.

[Anonymous]

We started with $50 a month and talked about what they needed more money for. Sometimes they did, sometimes they didn't. Also consider whether your kid has access to your Amazon account - we had our kids getting toiletries through that.

[Anonymous]

OP here. DD has a credit card on my account that she can use for "needs" (books, emergencies). She also has a debit card that links to her own checking account.

We want her to get some practice living within a budget, though, so we don't want to just say, "charge everything to us and just be reasonable"— she has been doing that throughout high school. We want her to have the experience of thinking, "Okay, I have $X and I need to make that last all semester for discretionary expenses, how will I do that?"

In other words: we want to put some money in her checking account for her discretionary expenses, and we are trying to decide how much (and whether we should provide a lump sum at the beginning of the semester, or an allowance each week or month). Has anyone done it this way?

[Anonymous]

I gave my DD $200 per month for her freshman year. That paid for the occasional dinner out or pizza delivery and some basic groceries.

[Anonymous]

$200/mth

You want her to be able to socialize

[Anonymous]

To echo pps, $200/mo sounds about right from what we provided DS last year (in cash if home for a weekend or break) or added into his banking acct.

[Anonymous]

What was her allowance when she was in high school?

[Anonymous]

We've struggled with the logistics of this, as well.

We're transferring from a brokerage account, so we've decided to move a lump sum for the semester to DC's savings account, and DC will transfer from that to checking once a month. We're starting out assuming it will be about $250 per month (more when buying books, etc).

DC has a credit card that is billed to my account, and most of his expenses get billed there, so I'm going add up his expenditures when I pay the bill and transfer that amount from his account to mine (this is what we did when he was in HS).

We'll see how it goes. DC has never been a big spender, so I'm not too worried about it.

[Anonymous]

You will see a giant range if you look at the parent facebook group for your kids college. There are people who give a small amount for the semester and people who give thousands. Others who just give their kid their credit card and let them do whatever.

The fact is that students can learn to budget. Set an amount that works for your financial situation knowing that there your kid has classmates getting much more and much less.

[Anonymous]

My kids' uber accounts are tied to my credit card because I want to be certain the card will not be denied for any reason or limit, etc. That got rather pricey for the kid in a NYC college and not so much for the one in Indiana. They're also tied to Amazon (which so far has not been abused but can add up) and all our steaming services. Plus allowance.

[Anonymous]

We stopped offering an allowance when she turned 18. She makes her own money. She gets a small stipend for gas as we didn’t want her paying to go to school and sports and that extended to when she went off to college. This will end when she graduates. We also pay for her car insurance. She handles maintenance.

She had a debit card linked to her account. She added a credit card this year in her own name. Small limit she just uses it for gas and pays it off monthly.

She handles all her payments freshman year using loans and this year is handling the same and living in an apartment and no longer on a food plan.

We will fill her groceries from time to time and buy a tank of gas when she comes home, otherwise it is all on her.

[Anonymous]

OP, we looked at the Big Futures website of the College Board. They have a section on costs. They have a category you're looking for. We found it spot on.

[Anonymous]

I will probably give mine $100 on her account for laundry, vending & occasional school cafe and another $100 for off-campus groceries for the semester.
She is on a full meal plan and has some flex dollars as a part of that account. I will make sure she is stocked to begin with.
Bus transit is free w/ student ID, no need for Uber unless she wants to
If she wants to dine out or buy clothes, she can pay for that with summer earnings. She already does. I will make sure she has some base wardrobe on me.
If her account is low, I can always help out.
If there is something she needs that is a necessity (health stuff, cleaning, toiletries, groceries), I can always transfer to her account, or she can order on my Amazon/Target if needed.
Books are covered by her FA.

I just don't get the $200/$250/mo allowances if the kid has a full meal plan. Though, I suppose if you have the money....

[Anonymous]

Mine is a rising sophomore. No allowance. She has money in her checking and savings from summer jobs and she has budgeted with that. There were a couple of slightly larger expenses during her freshman year associated with school activities that she and I talked about and split the cost on. I can see how much money she spends from her own account because it’s still linked to mine and I would say her own expenses (outside of college costs) were probably about $100 a month.