Reasonable allowance for college freshman?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of y’all’s children are going to have very hard first year working a real job and juggling house, car, kids, food, health.., unless you’re going to extend their allowance until they are 50?

If my DC graduates from college and doesn't have a job that allows them $200 a month in spending money, then something has gone very, very wrong. And I doubt it will be because they had an allowance in college.

[Anonymous]

mine is in LA… 500/month and sometimes DC needed more. Everything is 2x more expensive there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of y’all’s children are going to have very hard first year working a real job and juggling house, car, kids, food, health.., unless you’re going to extend their allowance until they are 50?

Your child is making you a grandparent at 21/22. Eek!

[Anonymous]

My high achieving UMC kid is going on tons of merit scholarships to a state flagship, 30 minutes away. His tuition is free. His room is paid off. We will only be paying for his meals. So everything else he needs for leisure, entertainment, semester abroad, travel, necessities...will be paid by us. He also have access to our Amazon, paypal, uber, starbucks, macys, kohls, costco accounts. He will continue to be covered by our insurance.

We also presented him a new Prius and pay for all associated costs. Going forward we will pay for grad school, contribute to his wedding, and help down payment to first house. We would give him more but we are basic UMC in DMV.

He will only start paying for himself 100% when he can afford an ok standard of living. We do not expect him to live off Ramen noodles like we did when we were starting off.

My kids are pretty cost conscious and frugal to begin with. Since they are reasonable, they are trusted with a credit card and a debit card. No need for a "reasonable allowance". Yes, it comes with stings attached. They know my expectation regarding their grades, behavior, habits and health.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of y’all’s children are going to have very hard first year working a real job and juggling house, car, kids, food, health.., unless you’re going to extend their allowance until they are 50?

If my DC graduates from college and doesn't have a job that allows them $200 a month in spending money, then something has gone very, very wrong. And I doubt it will be because they had an allowance in college.

NP If my DC entered college and doesn't have enough saved up for $200/month in spending money, or cannot work 5 hours/a week at a campus job to earn said spending money, and instead must rely on mommy to fund their Uber Eats and nights out with friends...something went very, very wrong.

[Anonymous]

No allowance for my kid. If he needs toiletries etc he can order from Amazon using my account. His books and anything else are on him. He’s worked for a full summer and an entire school year so he has his own money.

[Anonymous]

We don’t provide an allowance for social activities or other discretionary expenses. They have savings from summer jobs for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We don’t provide an allowance for social activities or other discretionary expenses. They have savings from summer jobs for that. [/quote

Same here. My kid worked at least 45 hours/week this summer and has plenty of spending money saved up. On top of that, DC will be working about 10 hours/week on campus this academic year.

[Anonymous]

$200/month. We travel too much during the summer for him to have a summer job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of y’all’s children are going to have very hard first year working a real job and juggling house, car, kids, food, health.., unless you’re going to extend their allowance until they are 50?

Nice of you to be concerned, but their trust funds kick in after age 21+college graduation (thanks dad).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of y’all’s children are going to have very hard first year working a real job and juggling house, car, kids, food, health.., unless you’re going to extend their allowance until they are 50?

If my DC graduates from college and doesn't have a job that allows them $200 a month in spending money, then something has gone very, very wrong. And I doubt it will be because they had an allowance in college.

NP If my DC entered college and doesn't have enough saved up for $200/month in spending money, or cannot work 5 hours/a week at a campus job to earn said spending money, and instead must rely on mommy to fund their Uber Eats and nights out with friends...something went very, very wrong.

If my DC went to college without merit scholarship and was doing a major that did not get them a high paying job right out of college...something went very wrong. Oh, and yes, they will have the monetary legup from us. I would rather they did an internship over a summer job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of y’all’s children are going to have very hard first year working a real job and juggling house, car, kids, food, health.., unless you’re going to extend their allowance until they are 50?

Sweetie, may be true for your kid but this is certainly not how UMC kids roll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of y’all’s children are going to have very hard first year working a real job and juggling house, car, kids, food, health.., unless you’re going to extend their allowance until they are 50?

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of y’all’s children are going to have very hard first year working a real job and juggling house, car, kids, food, health.., unless you’re going to extend their allowance until they are 50?

Nice of you to be concerned, but their trust funds kick in after age 21+college graduation (thanks dad).

Yep.

[Anonymous]

It really depends on the kid. My two teens were raised the same, but have opposite attitudes about money. DD is a spender and I fully admit I haven't done the best job at teaching her to budget. So she will be getting $100/week to start and once she's handling that well, I'll switch to giving her a monthly allowance. It will have to cover her many "wants" (extra clothes, going to movies, eating out) and I will continue to cover needs like books, essential clothing, etc.

My younger child rarely spends any money and will probably be fine with $200/semester (and have some left over). You have to parent the child you have.