College student budget question, how much $$?

[StitchBuddy]

My DD will be living off campus next year and will not be on a meal plan. How much money did you budget for groceries for your college student. Trying to get an idea of what is reasonable, not paying for steak! Lol!! A little more information, she will be living in a studio apartment by herself and she likes to cook, and she goes to school in Arkansas.

 

[mamasuf]

My DD will be living off campus next year and will not be on a meal plan. How much money did you budget for groceries for your college student. Trying to get an idea of what is reasonable, not paying for steak! Lol!!

 

[mamasuf]

My DD will be living off campus next year and will not be on a meal plan. How much money did you budget for groceries for your college student. Trying to get an idea of what is reasonable, not paying for steak! Lol!!

Sorry, for some reason my tablet isn't working.

My daughter lives off campus in Back Bay, Boston, a very expensive area. I give her $300 a month and her grandmother gives her $50. It seems to be plenty. I offered $500 in the beginning of the year and she said it would be too much. She cooks at home for most meals and occasionally pays the $11 to swipe into the cafeteria. She's not a big partier, though. She even pays her $65.00 Comcast bill from that.

My son on the other hand lived in Pittsburgh and blew through every penny I sent. MOstly on beer I suspect.

 

[afan]

It really depends on how she plans to eat and where she plans to shop. It's hard to cook for one so will she make less or eat leftovers etc. I would imagine she's already familiar with the stores and prices in the area, I cooked some in my dorm room because the cafeteria was awful. I would talk with her to see what she's thinking.

 

[jen73]

University near Austin tx, we gave daughter $300 monthly but that also included eating out money. She always seemed to hv leftover money at the end. This included toiletries, cleaning supplies too

 

[QueenIsabella]

Our DD lives in an on-campus apartment and tries to make do with her work-study money (maybe $40/week?). I've put $600 on her campus card (like Disney Dollars, only for college), we send her money and gift cards occasionally, and her summer earnings (maybe $1500?) go towards food. Plus, her grandmother gave her $1000 at Christmas. I know that probably doesn't help much. My point is, we didn't set a budget, per se. She's fiercely independent and wants to take care of it herself, so I stay out of it. But, she'd come to me if she were starving. We also have a joint credit card, she and I--she's very careful about using it.

My suggestion would be, agree on an amount--maybe $200/mo?, with the understanding to revisit after a couple of months. It would also be really nice if, when she first gets there, you could stock her pantry. Some canned goods, spices, basics--if you can't do this in person, I would leave her money and give her a shopping list. She may not think about needing salt or flour until she's actually cooking.

Another thing my DD did was, over last summer, she cooked at home a lot, to get a feel for it (she was never much of a cook before that). She also stole a lot of my spices!

 

[Bebella]

It really depends on the area she lives....but in college, I probably spent about $50 a week on groceries. This was usually for a conservative breakfast and lunch, and then my roommates and I would often cook dinners together. So if you're strictly talking groceries, I'd say $200-250/month is enough. But I also probably spent $50/week on eating out and, after I turned 21, on drinking (let's be real!) ...so if you're also planning on giving "fun" money, I'd factor in that too.

 

[amylevan]

I think a lot depends on what you expect to be paying for. Does she have any income or money saved that she would use to supplement what you send? Are you covering "fun" money as well? Are there roommates whom will share cooking/groceries? As the pp suggested, if you can do an initial pantry stockpile, that will be a good starting point.

Also, something to factor in is what do you think your DD will actually cook? I will be the first to admit that I hated cooking for 1 and my roommate was never on the same schedule as me, so we rarely ate together. So, I ate very crappy food the years I lived in an off campus apartment. It was just easier to throw something in the microwave than bother with cooking (and cleaning!).

 

[LovesTimone]

When living off campus is she going to be sharing a apartment or alone. That will make a difference in how she will spend, shop, and eat. Where she is going to school and the cost of living in that area.

Back in the day.. I lived with some roommates, and one of them spent her money on clothes, shoes, purses, and partying then did not have any money left for food, and her part of the rent & lights etc... One of the other roommates called her parents, so they starting sending the money directly to our landlord for her rent and to my other roommate when the light bill came due as it was in her name. She was always helping herself to everyone's stuff she felt that if it was in the kitchen it was fair game. I ended up buying a mini frig for my room, and a storage tote to keep my dry goods in and a lock for my door. Both roommate would just come in a help themselves to whatever that they needed and never ask would ask to borrow and never offered to pay back anything thing. Once my year with them was up, I moved into a small studio alone. I ended up saving money. The thing is I knew both of my roommates very well... At least I though I did... you really never know someone until you live with them.

My parents did a stock the pantry kinda of thing when I moved into my studio, can goods, soup, spices, cereal, breakfast bars, paper products, laundry detergent, some stuff for my medicine cabinet etc... I worked in a restaurant so I ate at work a lot, most of the time it was for free, or other servers would get together and spilt a few of the premium entrée's, so only a few bucks. My parents would come visit and when they would leave, my pantry would be magically full.. a bit of pixie dust so to speak. At Christmas and other holidays, I would get gift cards for Wal-mart, grocery stores, Walgreens, Starbucks, and some fast food places around where I lived.

I tried to budget 40 to 50 dollars a week for groceries, even with all the stuff my parents would stock. It would still take that much to keep everything rolling.

 

[pjlla]

I already told my DD that I would budget $70/week for her this summer (she is living on campus to do her Senior Thesis research). I am pretty sure that will be PLENTY. I know she likes to eat a lot of fresh fruits and veggies, so I allowed a little extra for that. And the most convenient market to her school is also an expensive market, so I expect her to occasionally drive a bit more to the more affordable market to stock up.

Two summers ago when she stayed on campus for the entire summer, I spent part of April cooking up individual meals for her freezer. I was able to find a bunch of Corning Ware individual size casserole dishes (microwave-freezer-oven safe) at a yard sale and used those. I made up main dishes (such as low fat chicken parm) and included a note that that had cooking directions plus "suggested" sides (brown rice, pasta, etc). I think she found this VERY HELPFUL on the days when she had been in the lab for hours. Plus she knew she was eating a HEALTHY meal and I knew that it was affordable! And it was a time saver on days when she was crazy busy.

I also made sure she started off the summer with a bit of the basics..... a jar of baking soda (both for cooking and for kitchen grease fires), a small container of cinnamon (for yogurt and oatmeal), salt and pepper, garlic powder, white sugar/brown sugar, dish detergent, paper towels, and TP. That stuff didn't have to come out of her grocery budget.

Depending on the area and your student's eating habits, I would think that $50-70 might be enough, especially if you start her/him off with a fairly well stocked pantry...................P

 

[Nebraska_Disney]

When living off campus is she going to be sharing a apartment or alone. That will make a difference in how she will spend, shop, and eat. Where she is going to school and the cost of living in that area.

Back in the day.. I lived with some roommates, and one of them spent her money on clothes, shoes, purses, and partying then did not have any money left for food, and her part of the rent & lights etc... One of the other roommates called her parents, so they starting sending the money directly to our landlord for her rent and to my other roommate when the light bill came due as it was in her name. She was always helping herself to everyone's stuff she felt that if it was in the kitchen it was fair game. I ended up buying a mini frig for my room, and a storage tote to keep my dry goods in and a lock for my door. Both roommate would just come in a help themselves to whatever that they needed and never ask would ask to borrow and never offered to pay back anything thing. Once my year with them was up, I moved into a small studio alone. I ended up saving money. The thing is I knew both of my roommates very well... At least I though I did... you really never know someone until you live with them.

My parents did a stock the pantry kinda of thing when I moved into my studio, can goods, soup, spices, cereal, breakfast bars, paper products, laundry detergent, some stuff for my medicine cabinet etc... I worked in a restaurant so I ate at work a lot, most of the time it was for free, or other servers would get together and spilt a few of the premium entrée's, so only a few bucks. My parents would come visit and when they would leave, my pantry would be magically full.. a bit of pixie dust so to speak. At Christmas and other holidays, I would get gift cards for Wal-mart, grocery stores, Walgreens, Starbucks, and some fast food places around where I lived.

I tried to budget 40 to 50 dollars a week for groceries, even with all the stuff my parents would stock. It would still take that much to keep everything rolling.

It sounds like you had my roommates ! I told them if they wanted to share food, that is fine, but don't include me and don't eat my stuff. I had my own cabinet and space in the fridge, and it kinda worked, until they needed something. I locked stuff in my room too. One roommate decided to move out 8 months into the lease, we told him he had to keep paying rent. The other roommate decided gambling was more fun than paying rent and it turned into a mess. Yes, these were people I knew, but did not really know until after I lived with them.

In college, I ate most meals at home and learned how to make things for 1, and/or freeze items for later. I "brown bagged" lunch to college most days and ate it in the union food court. Had a lot of pasta back then and ham sandwiches, which was not fun, but it got me by. Like others said, start with an amount and adjust from there.

 

[Mickeyluver37]

Good thread! DD is a freshman, so I've started thinking about this as well. Next year she still has to live in campus housing, but it will be apartment style in a community across from campus. Then Junior and Senior year she can live off campus, but most of the housing the juniors and seniors choose is fully furnished and within walking distance to campus. I'm figuring that if her rent plus food money cost us less than room and board do right now, we should be ahead. It looks to me like most of the off campus housing, even though it's a 12 month lease, would be about the same or cheaper as to what we are paying for 2 semesters of her dorm room right now, and her meal plan is costing about $100/week, which I think would be more than enough for a food budget for one person. I like the idea of stocking the pantry, and maybe $50 a week, plus a smaller commuter meal plan. I don't want her to starve, but we're making sacrifices to put her through college, so there does have to be a bit of budgeting on her part. We give her very little extra money, but she blows through way more than I ever expected on fast food/Starbucks and gas. She has to rely on part time jobs and grandparents gifts for that. I think the graduation gift money was gone before Thanksgiving!

 

[barkley]

My DD will be living off campus next year and will not be on a meal plan. How much money did you budget for groceries for your college student. Trying to get an idea of what is reasonable, not paying for steak! Lol!!

as others have said-it really depends on your dd's shopping, cooking and eating habits. if she's going to buy convenience/prepared foods then she will see her costs much higher. if she's going to cook for herself then it may go down, but if she's only into organic items and lots of fresh produce, depending on the grocery prices near her school she may find that she's spending quite a bit as well. is she a 3 meal a day eater w/snacks or does she eat less frequently? it seems like 'snackish' items tend to run up food budgets as well.

our dd lives off campus-she spends roughly $300-$350 for her monthly food budget (this includes eating out). it didn't stretch far when she was initially buying prepared stuff or eating out allot but she learned from that, decided to try more cooking on her own, and now does some good bargain shopping and meal planning.

for our dd 2 appliances have made a tremendous difference-a crockpot and a george foreman grill. once she figured out that she could do a chicken breast on the foreman easily w/little clean up AND spend less than $1 on that part of her meal (boneless/skinless can be gotten for less than $2 a pound here) she saved a good deal of money. same with the crockpot-she has gotten into the habit of making a big batch of something on the weekend (or set it up in the morning w/items she prepped the night before to cook while she's at school) to put into small containers for lunches (if she gets tired of it she makes another type of food, freezing the remaining containers so her freezer has a variety). she's recently learned to make meatloaf so she can make sandwiches to take to school and she told me recently she wants to watch the ads for deals on corned beef so she can cook one for sandwiches as well.

if a college student doesn't know the basics about cooking they are going to waste money on groceries/make bad choices. I can't tell you how many times I'm in one of our local grocery stores and overhear one of the students calling their mom whining about how they bought something like hamburger helper but didn't realize it called for meat/milk, mac and cheese-butter/milk, baking mix-oil/eggs......they need to learn to read a box or jar and see what additional ingredients it calls for-and figure those into the cost to determine a 'good deal' (I hear these conversations and 9 out of 10 times the student puts the box back and opts for the overpriced/no nutrition 'bargain' prepared foods).

It's hard to cook for one so will she make less or eat leftovers etc

yummly is a great site for this issue-find a recipe you like, plug in how many servings, and the website adjusts the ingredients. dd will often do it for 2 so she has 2 nites dinners or dinner/lunch the next day.

And the most convenient market to her school is also an expensive market, so I expect her to occasionally drive a bit more to the more affordable market to stock up.

ABSOLUTLY.

we live in a college town-the market right next to the college is OUTRAGEOUS while down the street are a couple more that charge normal prices. if a Costco is nearby it can be a great savings-we pay for dd's membership. even w/a small apartment freezer it's a great savings to buy and package up your own meat (cheap food scale works fine), get larger bags of frozen veggies, some convenience foods (I like their frozen salmon patties and black bean patties-inexpensive/quick to prepare). check to see if stores have memberships that qualify for discounts (like safeway/albertsons...) then they can go on-line to clip the electronic coupons (or clip as they shop on their phone).

especially if you start her/him off with a fairly well stocked pantry...................P

SO IMPORTANT. all that 'start up' stuff is EXPENSIVE. think of what it costs when you have to replace a couple of spices, then figure it out by what you just consider the basics-it really adds up.

one of dd's favorite Christmas gifts this year was a spice rack prefilled. got it at Costco for less than $30 (much less than the cost of the 16 spices it came with). when she moves from her shared to her own place in a few months I know i'll do a housewarming gift of what I consider her basic needs-flour, sugar, oil, cooking spray, salt, pepper, baking powder, bouillon cubes, soy sauce, condiments, foil, saran wrap, baggies, garbage bags, Clorox wipes, dish soap, dishwasher tabs....all the stuff that having to buy at once would blow her budget-but replacing a bit at a time is manageable. the 'goodies' she likes she can get on her own (though we do her easter basket w/food items she likes but hesitates to buy-largely condiments and such from trader joes, and for Christmas and birthdays we include smallish gift cards to both her local grocery stores as well as trader joes and Costco).


btw-for all of those w/students who have meal plans. are you able to access on-line the history of their usage/purchases? if so and you haven't you might want to...and may be surprised. from mid may to the end of school in mid june our local stores have a huge drop in sales b/c the kids with meal plans are at 'use it or lose it' with their plan points. the majority do not eat the 3 meals per day they/their parents paid for so they have large amounts of credits to use up-so what do they do? they invite all their friends to use these (entirely allowable at our colleges)-if you see multiple meals per days or large point usage at the campus food store then it's likely being spent for another student/students benefit (and here there's no financial break between meal plans-a lower level can be purchased w/ additional points added on later if needed-that's why no one does the commuter meal plans, there's no saving incentive). a few years ago the university set up a program where students with meal credits left over can donate them to the local food pantry -the amount that is donated is STAGGERING (the university kitchen has a formula that converts meal credits into foods they donate to the pantry).

 

[QueenIsabella]

I discussed getting a small meal plan with my DD, but she opted not to go that route. Getting the "college points" gives her more flexibility--she could pay for laundry, or grab a bottle of water at the minimart, that kind of thing. She goes to a big, urban school, and a lot of the businesses in the area will take her college points.

When I was in college, another common technique was cooking a big pot of something on the weekend, then eating it all week. The technique we used in our apartment was, we shopped for the week, and you had one night/week that you cooked for all 4 girls. This worked out nicely, because we worked around everyone's class schedules, and had a variety of dinners. But, you have to have roommates who are agreeable to this (and can cook).

 

[barkley]

I discussed getting a small meal plan with my DD, but she opted not to go that route. Getting the "college points" gives her more flexibility--she could pay for laundry, or grab a bottle of water at the minimart, that kind of thing. She goes to a big, urban school, and a lot of the businesses in the area will take her college points.

When I was in college, another common technique was cooking a big pot of something on the weekend, then eating it all week. The technique we used in our apartment was, we shopped for the week, and you had one night/week that you cooked for all 4 girls. This worked out nicely, because we worked around everyone's class schedules, and had a variety of dinners. But, you have to have roommates who are agreeable to this (and can cook).

dd is making plans w/friends to start doing something akin to a 'cookie exchange' next academic year. there are several of her friends who like her, enjoy cooking so the plan is maybe once or twice a month the group gets together w/each bringing either something already done in a crockpot or quickly finished off in the host's oven (enough for a small sample for each, 1-2 small meal sized to go servings each)-all items must be freezer friendly. the idea is each will come over w/their prepared item, all will have a small tasting meal of the samples and leave w/a variety of to-go containers (which they must provide themselves). each participant will also provide the recipe for their item. one time it might be soups, another casseroles, another crockpot favorites (and they are already talking about what stuff they want others to bring b/c of trying stuff at previous parties and all-nighters).

sounds kind of nice-figure it's a way for her to try new recipes PLUS she and her friends end up cooking just one item but having a variety of meals for future use.

 

[unrequited23]

I think it is awesome that you are going to contribute anything to a food budget when it sounds like you are helping with housing and possibly tuition costs as well. When I was in school, my mom would take me shopping before the school year for toiletries, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, paper products and some snacks. But after that was gone I was on my own--tuition, books, utilities, rent and food all came out of my money I earned at my work study job. I had about $20/week for food.

 

[Albort]

Single guy living alone and going to college, i spend around $200 a month on groceries. I do have a foodsaver that i use here and now when buying meats at Wholesale markets(ie Costco & Sams Club).

 

[TwoMisfits]

My DD will be living off campus next year and will not be on a meal plan. How much money did you budget for groceries for your college student. Trying to get an idea of what is reasonable, not paying for steak! Lol!!

I would contribute the "board" money that students who live on campus pay for the meal plan, although I'd base it on the 15 meal plan (not the 21 meal one). That way, your daughter should have enough money to eat without eating badly. Right now, local schools cost about $2K for this plan/semester or $4K for the year, so I'd divide that money by the months your dd is there and plan accordingly...

I will add, that my senior year, when I was eating a lot with my future spouse, my mom got me a 50 meal plan with "plus" dollars that let me get 50 meals on campus and $350 in restaurant food when I wanted to treat myself...and that plan was wonderful. That would be about $800-$900 per semester now, and I might consider getting your DD something like that (if the school offers it) and then kicking in the rest of what I mentioned for groceries (to include what you pack her off with - if you give her $200 in groceries every time she visits, you'd obviously way decrease your monthly "give")...

 

[kadrachb]

During my first year in my apartment I did have a meal plan, because my labs were so close together I wouldn't be able to get back to eat, and I would receive $300 per month for groceries, electric (split between 3 people), and internet/cable (also split between three people). I found that really reasonable, and normally had money leftover.

Currently I still get $300 per month for all the same things (still electric, internet/cable is split), but I find that having to pay out of pocket for some food on campus (two meals a week) and then making sure I have food for lunch on days where I do come back at eat. The $300 still does the job for everything but tends to be a little left over. I use my own money from tutoring for things that I want (but don't need).

Also, like a PP said, the first trip is expensive. I think each semester back, I tend to buy about $115 worth of groceries (this also includes some paper products and cleaning supplies), because when I go home for breaks I take any food that I may want/will spoil with me.