Echoing what was said earlier, I don't think it's reasonable to expect a college student to eat for the same price a frugal housewife can feed her family:
- We moms have spent years honing our cheapness-skills. I know that today I am a much smarter shopper than I was at 18, 19, 20.
- It's more expensive to cook for just one person. For example, you use half a bell pepper . . . and the remainder may go bad before you want it. A family would've gobbled up the whole thing. Multiply that times all your cooking, and it equals real money.
- Our kitchens are already stocked with cooking oils, spices, condiments, flour and sugar. Replenishing those things doesn't cost nearly as much as starting from scratch; after all, they don't all run out at the same time.
- Typical college students don't cook with the same skills we do; thus, they're likely to rely upon convenience foods.
- Many students don't have their own cars, and -- even if they do -- learning the best prices to shop isn't something they can pick up in a week or two. For example, I always buy peanut butter in the HUGE containers at
Walmart; they're much cheaper. But I buy my spices at the health food store. I buy my beef from a co-op. I'm always finding new places to buy food, but in college almost everything I bought came from the grocery store -- it was what I knew back then.
- I own crock pots, a pressure cooker, a stove and any number of other things that allow me great freedom in cooking whatever I want. These things let me cook lots of cheap foods as well. In contrast, my college daughter owns one frying pan, one cook pot with lid, one small casserole dish, and a pizza pan. She'll cook a bit on weekends, but she'll have to use a community kitchen in the dorm -- it's not reasonable to think she can regularly cook inexpensive meals in such a situation.
Yes, you can give examples of how to overcome these problems (freezing individual portions, etc.), but the typical college student isn't going to master those homemaking skills AT THE SAME TIME as learning to live independently, adjusting to college and a new environment, and while working and studying. Yes, I value homemaking skills, but as my daughter heads out to college in two weeks, those aren't the things I'm pushing her hard to learn in the next few years.
If I were going to give my daughter food money during college, I think I'd make it $100/week. That's enough that she'd have to scrimp a bit, but she'd be able to make it.
Other off-shoot topics:
Paying your student's way /not paying your student's way may have some influence on how seriously he takes his studies . . . but how you've raised him for the last 18 years has much, much more influence. This one factor isn't a one-shot proof-positive of whether a student will do well in college. I've talked to my daughter about searching for BALANCE. I don't expect her to sit in her room studying her Chemistry book every Saturday night -- but I do expect her to put in enough hours with that $366 book to pass the class. I expect she'll finish her four years having put in lots of time studying . . . but also plenty of time hanging out with friends, going skiing, going to movies, even drinking a bit -- but in safe circumstances.
We have one of those work-your-way-through schools in my state. Being a poor kid, I was very excited when I learned about it. It didn't take me long to figure out that it was not a well-respected school. I would never, ever recommend it to my kids.
nchulka, I am very conservative -- but you're just off-base in numerous ways. I'm definitely hearing anger, anti-social behavior, maybe even agoraphobia in your posts. Based on just this thread, you really don't come off sounding like a happy person. Following the crowd isn't
always the wrong choice, especially when it comes to things like bike helmets. Yeah, we grew up without such things . . . but my high school class was considered "exceptionally lucky" because only one of our classmates (out of 130 or so) died. In contrast, my brothers' classes each lost 4-5 kids. Our kids have to live in today's world; some pressures have increased, while other things are easier/better.
In my opinion, the best moms are the ones who spend plenty of time with the kids in the pool . . . but also carve out time for themselves (to read that book). Makes me think about how hard my husband and I worked to go on EVERY school field trip when our kids were young (and they went on one about every third week), then one day the time came when neither of us could go. Just couldn't happen. So our oldest went on an all-day field trip to our state capital by herself. She came home a little taller, declaring, "I went to Raleigh all by myself." We definitely took note that day and realized that we needed to balance involvement with chances to do things independently.
Can an 18-year old support himself? I say yes, but he probably can't do it well. If he's trying to attend college AND support himself, he's probably going to go into debt to do it. We intend to help our children through college so that they can start their professional lives without "being in the hole" already. If we help them, they're more likely to graduate on time, which means they can start working in a better-paying job sooner, start saving for retirement sooner. The totally on-his-own 18-year old will spin his wheels in dead-end, minimum wage jobs for years. My kid will work hard in college, spend some time in those minimum wage jobs, but in her early 20s will begin to work in a professional job. It looks remarkably like common sense to me.
sheesh. 600 is more than my rent for my apartment. And more than a 3 meal a week meal plan also at my school. 
