College freshman allowance

We also have a college freshman. She pays for what she wants, we pay for what she needs. She has built up a fair amount of savings due to working in high school, so if she wants Starbucks, she can pay for it. If she needs a textbook, we will. We aren't giving her a monthly allowance. 

We wrestled with this same question as our first-born is a freshman at a residential college on the east coast. We agreed to venmo them $ as requested for the first 6 weeks, and they agreed to scan all receipts so we can see them. Then we looked it all over, the three of us, and settled on a monthly amount. The first month of the first year is not representative of the rest, what with textbooks and buying one-time things like laundry baskets and such, but this way we were able to look through the receipts and extract an idea of monthly recurring needs/wants. Our kid's a cautious spender so this worked for us.

I used the college’s estimate of personal expenses and divided by 9 to get the monthly estimate. Since our son was getting a weekly allowance in high school, I split up the monthly amount into 4 weekly transfers I send to his bank account.  The weekly estimate came out to $40/week, and I rounded down and am transferring $30/week. 

Hello! I'm very interested what others do as well. My kid just started college, and our decision was no more allowance. We provide room and board--so if they want to eat out/go out we figure--that's on them. We toyed with the idea of continuing allowance through Freshman year, but decided against. Due to pandemic, my kid has never had a job. I think that's a problem. Due to their allowance and pandemic, my kid has also never felt strapped for cash. Sure, they've saved up money to buy an expensive thing--but it was their allowance they were saving. And, we also had them put half their allowance in the bank so that they had a little nest egg for college. Well, now they have it and it makes them feel quite comfortable. I always worked part time while in college and think it was a great experience. I'm hoping my kid will too--but I am realizing they really don't need to work because they have some money in their bank account with how we set them up to save, so I have thwarted my own plan a bit. I am hoping deficit spending and common sense will win out in the end, but we will see! 

I expect you will get a wide variety of responses.  For us, all expenses above tuition, room and board and travel to and from home are our student's responsibility.  Summer time and part time jobs are enough to save up for discretionary spending.

5 yrs ago my daughter got $50 week. By half way thru sophomore year she got $100. My son is a current freshman & a D1 athlete. The cafeterias on campus close at 7:30. He has practice until 6:30 & study group 3x week 7-8:30. He’s eating dinner off campus almost every day (Uber eats, fast food, Whole Foods, homemade sandwiches- got him a $300 a frig for his dorm-) and costing us easily $100 week in food! It depends on you kid their circumstances & college!

We give zero unless there is a specific need. Our college student works full time each summer and part time during the school year. He is able to pay most of his own expenses that way (including rent), while getting good grades as a science major and being involved in many extracurricular activiies (not enough time to be on a sports team though.) Because of all his work experience, he feels self confident about what comes next after graduation this spring. He will be able to get a job in his field right out of college due to his work experience, and if he decides to apply to graduate school he has the pertinent experience and recommendations. You will be doing your young adult a favor by encouraging them to work during college. Campus jobs such as working at the dining hall are a great way to make friends too.

Goodness, I guess I'm a softy!  Our daughter just graduated in spring 2022.  While she was living in the dorms, we gave her $200/month.  That's the same amount my brother gave to his daughter 4 years earlier.  That covered the odd needed supply like pens, notebooks, laundry soap, etc, as well as allowing her to go out to dinner or to a movie with friends at least once a week.  We were fine with it, I didn't want her to feel like the Little Match Girl with the other kids (she got a scholarship to a rigorous but expensive East Coast private school).  But my niece went to a UC, and my brother also felt $200/month was a reasonable amount for a college kid.  

We pay the school bills (tuition, room, board) and medical expenses. Recreation, transportation (in state), etc is up to her, so there’s no allowance. Last year (as a freshman) she managed even without getting a term time job, just from HS job and summer savings. This year she intends to get a part-time job. 

I was surprised by how many parents were so harsh about giving their college students some extra funds for movies, restaurants, etc. doesn’t anyone remember how hard college is? They have a full-time job and that is being a student. I know not all parents can afford to subsidize their students beyond tuition and housing. I feel really bad for those kids that have to try to balance a job with an extensive amount of homework. If you can afford it, work out a reasonable budget with your child and give them some spending money. They can get a summer job next year to generate their own spending money.

Our daughter is a freshman on the east coast. Like others here, we decided we'd pay for must-haves (e.g. school supplies, textbooks) and she'd be responsible for wants (e.g. clothes, food beyond her dorm plan). Of course she negotiates this - I don't mind, as working with her on the concept of must-have vs. want is important. And this is my point - we thought this was a great opportunity to have her manage a tight budget. 

She's had a Teen ATM for a few years now, attached to our account - that's how we've been transferring her allowance. As a result, we had a lot of data on how much she spent on what during high school. In August I sat down with her and went through her expenses as she sorted out categories and noted how things totaled out. Then we talked about what she anticipated needing in college that she didn't here - e.g., subway fare. Then she set her goals for spending-by-category going forward. Going into this I had a number in mind for a weekly transfer - it turned out to be pretty on-target. It's tight and forces her to track and save, but - that's the point. She is now acutely aware - want a pizza? Is it over the food budget? It means cutting back someplace. Or - she's about to take a little trip to visit friends in another city - so has had to sort out where to cut back so she saves extra for that weekend. She's not a rock star yet but it's going pretty well and I'm excited about her growing skills & knowledge.

She's using an app called Mint to do her budgeting & tracking, since it pulls data right off her card and makes it pretty darn easy. She's got some notifications set.

She had a job this summer but put that in a savings account for emergencies - something else I'm trying to teach her, that she needs to have a little bit tucked away that she doesn't touch.

Everyone's financial circumstances, kid, and school situation are so different - I think this is a great discussion to see the variety of solutions!

I suggest gifting whatever amount the student is able to earn. Then let them save their earnings. This encourages work and rewards saving. 

I don’t think it’s being harsh to ask a college freshman to budget. I just paid her quarterly bill to the tune of $17k. She can pay for her latte. Instead of Little Match Girl, I feel like we are raising her to be a responsible adult who needs to budget. I’m just simply not going to pay for everything she wants, including those butterfly sunglasses she bought at the Saturday market this weekend. 

I think there are lots of lessons to be had around finances that freebies don't address. We paid for her room, board, books and tuition. She covered the rest by working in the summer and knowing what her financial goal was for the school year. At the end of each semester we downloaded her bank records and made 2 columns, labeled parents and students. Then we went through all of her spending and tallied to determine any reimbursements. We also looked at the purchases by category (used a pivot table) so she could gauge what she was spending her money on. We used that as a basis for a budget and functional financial literacy. She's now a young adult with a job and she's kept this up and is doing well managing her money. 

My kids have had an allowance, sized appropriately to our family's resources and their needs, and have been responsible for their personal expenses for many years, so sending them off to college did not really change the nature of the deal, onIy the amount since it meant they had to independently pay for tuition, pricey books & supplies, housing, and all of their own food in addition to toiletries, clothing, gifts, local transportation and entertainment.  During the summer before each started college I worked with them to create a budget and we agreed on a monthly allowance that should cover their reasonable expenses, taking into account financial aid, the grandparental contribution we are fortunate to have, part-time/summer job income and savings, etc.  We discussed again when any adjustment might be needed, for example when the elder moved out of the dorms after freshman year.  They, not I, have the responsibility to pay their university bills, as well as rent, utilities, insurance that isn't part of our household coverage, etc.  (They do each have an 'authorized user' credit card on one of my accounts, which they can use for trips home and emergencies, and occasionally I'll agree to pay for something specific and tell them to put it on the card, but I don't make a habit of it.)  So, their monthly allowance covers part of their room and board and other basic living expenses as well as "spending money".  (Sending a set monthly allowance that was the parental contribution to ALL living expenses is the same way my parents handled it with me, and it was excellent preparation for developing "real life" budgeting around a paycheck, and good financial habits.  I'm still happy with it now that I'm on the other side of the coin.)  But, to more directly answer your question, depending on what you count as "spending money" (e.g., groceries to supplement college dining plan? 'household' items like laundry detergent and kleenex?), that share of the total works out to somewhere between $50 and $100 per month.