How much $$$ for miscellaneous expense at college ?

[TexasHusker]

Assuming that you have a kid away at college, and assuming that room, board, tuition, transportation, and books are covered already...

What is a reasonable monthly budget for a student for movies, eating out occasionally, gas, a new shirt and pair of jeans every now and then, etc.

("mad money")

[creditcardfree]

I give our daughter $100 a month, yes even in the summer. I figure she can work on budgeting some of that money for other times during the year She does have a very part time job that pays $10 an hour. She is pretty frugal and doesn't really go out all that much, but I do hear about going to Starbucks on occasion.

[Jluke]

I was going to say $100/month as well.


when I was in college, one of the parents gave their kid $2000 for each semester... not bad.

[disneysteve]

My daughter just finished her junior year. I'll ask her what she thinks she spends but I'm sure it isn't over $100/month. I don't think she's ever bought clothes, though, except the occasional school t-shirt or frat shirt. Any regular clothing shopping gets done when she's home.

[NicolasR]

I'm pretty sure a kid can do well with $100. If not - a good motivation to try earning money himself/herself.

[pflyers85]

My parents never gave me a monetary allowance while I was in college (2008 grad). If I came home they would stock me up with some food and supplies to take back but they never gave me cash/check. I'd visit my grandmother and she would give me $20 but I typically spent that right away for gas back to school. I had some part time jobs while I was in school full time. If I didn't one semester I got a summer job where I was working 35-40 hours a week. If my parents would have offered me an extra $100 a month I wouldn't have turned it down but I was making plenty on my own.

[bjl584]

I got by on very little from what I remember. Room and board were paid for as was my meal plan.

I had a beater car that I would put gas in once a month, usually only when I would make the 2 hour drive home. Back then, gas was only 99 cents a gallon.

I probably got by on less than $50 a month. Most of that went toward alcohol.

[Singuy]

My parents gave me the full ride without the need to work during my attendance. I was also on an accelerated track which got me a doctorate degree after 6 years.

My allowance was $600/month

[TexasHusker]

My parents gave me the full ride without the need to work during my attendance. I was also on an accelerated track which got me a doctorate degree after 6 years.

My allowance was $600/month

I think a big part of the question is whether or not housing and meals are already included.

We are planning on paying for dorm room and a meal plan. Therefore I would think an allowance wouldn't need to be that much since food and shelter is provided?

[phantom]

What is a reasonable monthly budget for a student for movies, eating out occasionally, gas, a new shirt and pair of jeans every now and then, etc.

Are you asking how much you should give the student or how much the student might spend?

I wouldn't expect parents to have to give college students any spending money for use during college. Even if you don't want the student to need to work while school is in session, I would expect savings from a summer job to be able to last a whole school year pretty easily. If that isn't enough, I'd ask for a lower contribution towards tuition before I'd give a student spending money.

The gas budget is going to depend on the campus. I went to school in a city, and I didn't even need a car. I walked most places and used public transit to get other places a few times.

As for everything else, I think it's possible to enjoy college without spending a dime on entertainment or shopping. When I was at school in the early 2000s, there were many months I didn't spend more than $20. There were free movies and activities on campus, I could get plenty of food from my meal plan, and I came to school with all the clothes and personal possessions I needed. Some months I went to concerts, ate off campus, or did some shopping and spent closer to $100, but that was less common.

It's probably worth noting that I've never cared much for drinking. I certainly would have spend significantly more money had I been visiting bars or throwing keggers on a regular basis.

[~bs]

$0. Work a part time job on/off campus to pay their own food and going out expenses. Important life lesson.

[Singuy]

I think a big part of the question is whether or not housing and meals are already included.

We are planning on paying for dorm room and a meal plan. Therefore I would think an allowance wouldn't need to be that much since food and shelter is provided?

When I had the meal plan, I was not sure how much my allowance were..it was more or less as needed.

When I was off the meal plan, my allowance was 600/month (which was for food and misc stuff)

[bjl584]

I think a big part of the question is whether or not housing and meals are already included.

We are planning on paying for dorm room and a meal plan. Therefore I would think an allowance wouldn't need to be that much since food and shelter is provided?

The answer to your question is yes in my case as I posted above.

On a side note,
I worked the summer and winter breaks all 4 years of school, so the money I made helped me get through the non-working months while I was in class.

[TexasHusker]

I think our strategy will be, whatever mad money he needs during the school year, he will need to earn it during the summer months. He can stash away $2K pretty easily - that should fund the fun for 9 months.

[TexasHusker]

Also we are not going to have him work during the school year. Our cost is $35K a year, and we want him to focus solely on getting his diploma -we don't want to be paying for extra semesters because he had to drop a class here and there.