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My hs senior was appalled tonight that we're not going to give him a gas card for college, but instead give him a set allowance and force him to budget his money. He said the parents of "all" of his friends pay their sons' gas credit card bills. Well, too bad.

At this point, we are planning to give him $200/mo and his grandparents will give him an additional $100/mo. We will give him additional money for occasional trips home (a 5-hour drive) and for wardrobe items necessitated by growing taller or (hopefully) growing bigger! He will live on campus and will have a full meal plan, so he will have just a few mandatory expenses for laundry, toiletries, school supplies (not books), etc. All the rest is gravy for gas, eating out, shopping, etc.

Are we way off base on this? I'm curious to know what some of the college parents give to their kids who live on campus. I'm sure there is a range, but would love it hear from all angles. I am already planning our budget.
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We are giving our freshman son $0 for expenses - he is paying for those himself from the money he made in the summers as a golf cart attendant, lifeguard, and graduation money. We pay tutition, dorm & meal plan, car insurance, and gas money to and from school. It is amazing how much of a tight wad he has become now that he is spending his own money.

I talked to one college mom (not a baseball player) this weekend whose sophomore son got a lump sum for the fall for apartment, food, etc.- as they were looking at his finances in December - turned out he spent $800 on living expenses in November! They were freaking out. He is now on an extremely tight lease this semester!
We did it pretty much the same way. NO credit cards allowed! I didn't use a set ammount but sounds like a good idea. He did use the ATM and I did set up a joint bank account that he and I could both access online. We were both active in the account. I did the deposits and he did the withdrawals. I think the biggest surprise me was the meal expenses. Seems as if the baseball players never ate at the fast food joints or the cafeteria but preferred the steakhouses and other more expensive restaurants. I knew I had messed up and was too liberal with the expenses when he came back and declared his favorite food was sushi.
Fungo
I think the allowance sounds like a better way than how we have done it! Our younger son has lived on campus with the meal plan, and we've deposited money as needed into his checking account for expenses. When expenses seemed to be too high, I checked the monthly statement and saw lots of restaurant/coffee shop charges for $8 to $10 at a time. That doesn't sound like too much, until you realize we were still paying something like $8 for that meal that he didn't eat in the dorm cafeteria. This semester he will have a budget, and $200 per month sounds about right to me.

Older son has never wanted to accept money from us...he would usually turn it down when offered. His summer earnings would run out before the end of spring semester though, so he found some unusual ways of earning spending money, such as modeling tuxes at bridal shows in the spring (hey, a tall lanky pitcher's body makes a pretty good tux hanger, and it's good money for a couple hours of "work"). We still ended up giving him some spending money, but I would estimate under $100 per month.
quote:
Originally posted by Fungo:
I knew I had messed up and was too liberal with the expenses when he came back and declared his favorite food was sushi.
Fungo


I can relate. Roll Eyes

I think putting them on a budget is a great idea, regardless of what other parents do for their kids. College is expensive and even more when they live off campus. I do not beleive in the lump sum, month by month works better but we pretty much did as Fungo did, which sounds like an as needed basis. Most important he always called to ask before he had a major expense.

Parents, most schools have a system where you can put money on their student card. This comes in handy in the laundry room, bookstore and student center and son was able to use it around campus at certain places. When we purchased the meal plan (which goes onto their student card) points were awarded and those points are just like cash to be used on campus. Actually those points took my son through many extra meals in the cafeteria after he moved off campus.

In the spring, it seemed like a lighter load. Usually not spending all of his weekend travel money and money for dinner after a home game, he made out pretty well. If we came for the weekend while he was on the road, he considered it a good profit for the weekend as he didn't have to spend his meal money. Big Grin

One thing, my son got a credit card (small credit line) in his own name that he used for expenses and we paid every month. He now has established his own credit, not something he had to start after college.
quote:
He said the parents of "all" of his friends pay their sons' gas credit card bills.....


My son would be advised that he could petition to be adopted by one of those kind families. Having put myself through college with no outside help I don't have much sympathy.

A set monthly budget is an excellent idea, the dollar amount of course depends on the individual family. It's amazing how much money a kid can blow through if given the chance, and it's also amazing on how little they can live on if forced to learn how to budget.
My son is in his second year of college. He lives in an apartment with 2 other baseball players and there is no meal plan on campus, so they have the added expense of buying groceries.

The first year, he had an account and used the debit card for expenses, but it was too time consuming and frustrating monitoring the activity so that he didnt go over his limit. Those fees are not good!

We are in our second month of a prepaid Visa. A certain amount is deposited on this card every Friday...and he has one week to stretch it out.
The great thing about this card is he gets a text message every day showing his balance...and I get emails regarding his transactions.

Working out pretty good so far.
My son get no allowance. He works on campus and has a free meal plan. He has his own Visa which is only for emergencies. he has to pay for his cell phone and we pay his apt which is about $320/mth. If he needs to spend money he has to clear it with his Mom. No car so he legs it alot or his girl friend drives him. He pays for gas. She also works while attending college. So far so good but he hates being tight. Told him that is why you are in college so you won't be after you find a good job.
The following is the best plan that I have heard of: The tuition, room and books were paid for by the scholarship and parents. The player took a job in the cafeteria 1 hour per day and received 3 meals per day for his work. The parents gave the student/athlete $50.00 per week for personal expenses including gas and the money was deposited at the start of the semester. Any money not spent was matched and the student/athlete could spend it as he wished. It forced the student/athlete to be responsible.
We have three in college right now-same place. Sr. son, Jr. son, Soph. daughter. This year they are all living together in a 3br condo. Their combined scholarships are paying the mortgage. Their scholarship money is all combined in one seperate bank account and I transfer $200/mo into each one of their accounts for food. They have Sam's Club/BJ's cards and buy food in bulk and also buy their gas there. All three worked over the winter break and earned $300-$500 each for "personal use" this spring.

The boys' "job" is playing baseball(trust me, it takes up a lot of time) and my daughter
works in the baseball office for the head coach 3-5 days a week as needed. She also works
as a hostess at Carrabas' in the evenings on the weekends.(Her choice because she's a shopaholic and Mom and Dad refuse to buy her "designer" clothes Big Grin.

We pay for 3 cars, gas, and insurance. They make 3.5GPA's or better. We think that's a pretty good deal. Thank ya Lord!!
My D is a college sophomore. Her first year, we gave her $200 a month (prorated for those months where she was home some length of time). That had to cover all her fun stuff, and some of her food when food was not covered by her college meal plan. We also made her earn 10% or her tuition (she did this through scholarships the first year). We paid all else - books, clothing necessaries (not clothing extras), and transporation home (her college is east coast, we live west coast). At the end of her first year, she got a summer job. So, for her sophomore year, she has to pay 10% or her tuition PLUS we do not give her any allowance any more - that is all on her. What she earns she can spend or save, but we are hoping she is saving some. She has actually earned enough so that she is now paying most of her necessities (other than room and meal plan and 90% tuition). Haven't decided how to modify this for next year. Obviously the idea is to make her more and more responsible for herself. Any ideas for junior year are welcome.
Great information, everyone. Thanks for sharing.

eaglefan, I especially like the idea of a prepaid Visa. My son used to have his own checking account with an ATM card, but he never balanced his checkbook and relied on occasional "account balance" information at the bottom of his ATM receipts to figure out how much money he had in his account. When he went below zero for the third time, we yanked the account and the card. He is now on a cash-only basis. That's the frustrating thing about ATM cards these days. Banks allow users to withdraw more money than they have in the account and then charge them a hefty fee for the "privilege." With this prepaid Visa card, is the user allowed to over-withdraw on funds? Also, how do you deposit money for the card? Can it be done automatically through a transfer from the parents' checking account? Where did you go to get this prepaid Visa? I especially like the idea of text message and email updates.
Good stuff, while my kids are not in college yet I am liking eaglefan's visa plan to implement with my HS age kids. It's scary how much money is passed out on a weekly basis to do their "stuff".

I'm thinking it might help them better understand the value of budgeting their money while still enjoying the safety net of living with mom and dad.

Eaglefan, I too would appreciate it if you could pass on the type of Visa account that has the features you mentioned.
Last edited by jerseydad
The prepaid visa card is similar to a gift card. If they are given $100 on Friday for the week, and decide to spend $80 of it before Monday, then he has to figure out how to live on $20 for remainder of week.

The one I got online is called Vision Prepaid Visa. www.visionprepaid.com There are ways to get around paying a fee to "load" the card with cash. One is by having direct deposit from employment--which I declined. The way that I found is to use a "paypal" account to get them loaded onto his card. Kind of tricky. The great thing is he can not spend more than is available. Not that Im aware of...but he hasnt even tried it yet. I texted him last night that he only has $26 until Friday, and if he goes to the grocery counter with $40 of food, will have to put some back! Could be embarrassing.

There are some small .95 fees for certain things like getting cash back, etc. but it beats a $39 overdraft for each item.

Let me know if you want more info. So far so good.

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