Anonymous wrote:None, they work during the summer for their spending money

Yup. We are determined that he won’t have student loans for undergrad but can’t give him money every week/month.

If you are paying room and board, I wasn’t as willing to pay for meals out. A pizza with friends on the weekends was fine. My kids didn’t drink coffee at that time, so there wasn’t a Starbucks habit. The best thing about their debit card is you can see where they are spending money. Are they picking up lunch everyday because they are bored with the dining hall. Watch their habits and you can figure out their wants vs needs. Of course if you have money to burn, disregard my thoughts.

Anonymous wrote:For kid living on campus, nothing beyond paying for housing/meal plan. She works summers for spending money.

Kid living off campus, we pay rent and give $300/month for food. He pays everything else and works 10 hrs/week as a TA + summers. First year, he didn't work and ran through his savings pretty quickly (much bigger spender than his sister) so that motivated him to get a campus job.

Mine is doing what yours did last year, spending all his money! He's very responsible with the cc (won't use it for anything "fun" like coffee out or dinner out, just groceries) but getting broke very quickly. I am completely torn as to how to handle it: His tuition is costing very little bc he got lots of merit aid, and he got all As first semester so I do consider that his main priority and job, but he is spending down too fast (the allowance is small, $25/week). His sister is entirely different in that she hates spending money, is much less social and has a very good PT job. He did say he was going to look for a job, but I wish he didn't spend so much of what he earned last summer already.

For kid living on campus, nothing beyond paying for housing/meal plan. She works summers for spending money.

Kid living off campus, we pay rent and give $300/month for food. He pays everything else and works 10 hrs/week as a TA + summers. First year, he didn't work and ran through his savings pretty quickly (much bigger spender than his sister) so that motivated him to get a campus job.

Anonymous wrote:None, they work during the summer for their spending money

+1 This. Our DC lives off campus with no meal plan so they are an authorized user on my credit card. They use it for groceries only. They are very good cook.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None, they work during the summer for their spending money

+1

This

Anonymous wrote:None, they work during the summer for their spending money

+1

$200 per month. But we only top it up.

Anonymous wrote:Nothing. They work on campus.

+1

And in the summers.

Nothing. They work on campus.

None, they work during the summer for their spending money

DD used her summer earnings for her first year. Then she took a job as a grader in her second year and made $60/week which was enough. She's got some library job lined up next semester and is looking for summer internships. She's saving 15% and investing 20% of her gross earnings and uses the rest for coffee, eating out, and non-essential makeup and clothing. Seems to be going well

He works about 20-25 hours a week.They feed him at work. He has my credit card, but hasn't used it yet.
$100 a week would be plenty.

I give $50 per week. We Pay for tuition and room and board and books and transportation to and from school on break. my DD is expected to pay for everything else.

Spouse thinks the amount should be $0-$25 (use summer job money- I think she should start saving for post college years - first and last months rent sort of thing) but I think spouse would agree to pay for activities instead of requiring her to budget. Spouse sees the value in requiring her to manage her money and think about future planning so spouse acquiesced.

One factor that influenced the amount is that due to sports, DD has to pay her living expenses on winter break. It’s not a big hardship but it is my way of trying to teach budgeting.

I think this is a tougher issue than just allowance. At some point we need to teach our kids to plan for the future. I picked now.

How much do you give your college dcs? Mine has a cc he uses just for groceries (has a kitchen), books, necessities and then I give some money here and there but wondering what amount is fair.