For everyone, it will be a different amount. But before you stress about having some extra cash for spending, you need to first make sure you can pay for school.
Graduating with massive student loan debt is not a good plan at all, so regardless of your age now, make sure that anything you’re saving for college is going towards paying for school itself before you start saving for spending money.
That being said, there are several different factors that may determine how much money you should save to help with the expense of living on your own. Here are a few to consider…
- Housing – Are you living on campus or off? If you’re planning on living in the dorms, you will pay for the entire semester up front. If you’re living in an apartment, you will have to pay rent each month.
- Food – If you’re living on campus, you will have the option of a meal plan. You are basically pre-purchasing meals from the school cafeteria (which may or may not be a good deal depending on the price and the quality of the food!). For my first semester in school, I lived in the dorms but rarely used my meal plan because campus was 20 minutes from home, so I found myself eating there more than the cafeteria.
- Transportation – Will you have a car? If so, plan on gas, insurance, and parking fees on campus. If you’re not planning on having a car, factor in any possible public transportation costs you might run into (i.e. bus, subway, etc).
- Entertainment – If you want to go out with your friends every night, you’ll find that gets expensive really quickly. It’s okay to set aside some money for going out but don’t overdo it.
- Work – Will you have a job or any type of income during school? If you will, you can plan at least some cash flow coming in. But if you’re not planning on having a job, you’re going to have to save a lot more money up front to get through the semester.
YOUR 2 CENTS – Are you concerned about having enough money saved for your living expenses at college?
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If you live on campus, you may not have the option of getting a meal plan… or more accurately, the option of not getting one! Living in the dorms on my campus required carrying a meal plan, which ran about $1,200 per trimester (so $3,600/year)!
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