New Budget Phase

[PollyannaMom]

We've been through lots of phases of budgeting over the years - from very tight times to much more relaxed ones. And now we're entering a new one - "The College Years".

Obviously, the tuition bills are a big addition to the expense side! And I'm even anticipating some small subtractions like a lower grocery bill. But I'm curious about the surprises - if you've been through sending kids off to college, what were the hidden expenses and unexpected savings you encountered?

And if you're at this point now, what changes are you making to save money?

 

[tvguy]

Depended on the kid. Our oldest, DS, the surprise was when he moved from the dorm into an apartment how much he spent on food. Not that he had to, he just made expensive food choices. The dorm with a meal plan was cheaper.

Our youngest, DD, she wanted to do study abroad for a year. Didn't cost anything more than her tuition and room and board here. And some things were much cheaper. She bought a pay as you go phone and even with 10 months of data and calls, it cost less than $100 today. Much cheaper than her phone at home which was $40 a month.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Hidden expenses: clubs, organizations and “activity” classes. My school tacked on extra $100 for “activity classes” like Karate- always irked me. Clubs and organizations have dues that can be anywhere from free to $$$. You can negotiate with your kid about how to cover the costs but be ready for some of that, those organizations can turn out to be very important to their college experience (or completely useless).

Greek life- this is a whole other ball game. Social Greek life dues can be $$$$- at least they were at my college. If you think your kid might want that be ready for some sticker shock.

My most unexpected expense was my Model UN class. We were supposed to go to a conference at the end of the semester in a city an hour away as the Junior Team. Not enough people signed up so on the first day we were told everyone was to DC! Oh, and the school doesn’t cover expenses. I called the parents after class and explained I’d have to pay for a cross-country air ticket and hotel and food costs but I had the chance to drop the class if that was gonna be too much. They approved and wanted me to do what I could to cover some of the costs without affecting my school performance and I did. They probably ended up paying $400 in total, about half the cost I think. That one came out of left field to all of us- I am so grateful they said do it. Money was tight at the time but I learned so much and made good connections through it.

As opposed to someone up above when I moved off campus my food costs plummeted. My parents covered my grocery expenses but I covered extra type stuff (eating out). I used sales and coupons like a smart shopper to cut costs but ultimately my school’s meal plan was absurdly expensive. To cut their costs for my groceries my Mom would send me back from break with Safeway and Walmart gift cards bought through my sibling’s school script program. I was an authorized user on my parent’s Costco Amex for gas (and some groceries too after I got out of the dorms), they should have also made me an authorized user on their Target card in retrospect even while I was in the dorms because I did end up at Target often as it was so close to campus.

 

[Pucks104]

When DD went off to college the water bill dropped significantly!

 

[trenty]

We've been through lots of phases of budgeting over the years - from very tight times to much more relaxed ones. And now we're entering a new one - "The College Years".

Obviously, the tuition bills are a big addition to the expense side! And I'm even anticipating some small subtractions like a lower grocery bill. But I'm curious about the surprises - if you've been through sending kids off to college, what were the hidden expenses and unexpected savings you encountered?

And if you're at this point now, what changes are you making to save money?

Not hidden or unexpected - but travel to and from school several times a year is an expense if living at school. Renters insurance if living off campus may be another down the road. Books and supplies is another. Maybe even extra money for food if meal plan is not sufficient.

 

[dznyacct]

We were EXTREMELY lucky that our son wanted to attend a very good university (Purdue) in our hometown and also was fine with living at home. I had saved enough for tuition and books, so he graduated with his BS in Physics with no debt. He then decided that he wanted to get a Masters and PhD (in Physics) and got in to Kent State which fully funded him with a tuition waiver and a teaching stipend. Sooooo he got a BS, MS and PhD and graduated with zero debt.......a major parent win in my books!

 

[barkley]

when dd moved out (commuted first year) we saw our utilities and food costs decrease, i also went through much less detergent and other household goods. we didn't experience it b/c dd took the car with her but i've known others whose kids did not so they would arrange to drop the kid's from auto insurance coverage the months they were away at school/call to put them back on during breaks/summer for a nice savings.

unexpected expenses-those ever increasing mandatory fees the colleges add on top of tuition as well as most of the classes having special fees (it was a minimum of $500 a semester more than tuition).

cost savings-did as many text books via amazon rental as possible (MUCH lower than any other company i found and free delivery/return w/prime-you can also save on prime by having the student get a student prime membership). those books we bought that no one was looking to buy back i set on a shelf and checked again near the beginning of a new term b/c some would seem best suited to toss only to being resellable a semester or year down the line. instead of getting a costco membership for dd-bought her costco giftcards with my membership (non members can use them for gas/warehouse items).

 

[Marionnette]

Let’s see...

• Activity fee, charged every semester whether your kid takes advantage of campus activities or not.
• Lab fees, including breakage of expensive glassware.
• Summer classes, including paying for enrollment during a summer internship even though they never set foot on campus (oh, and you will pay the semester’s activity fee, too)
• Extra semesters due to scheduling conflicts preventing the completion of requirements in 8 semesters, or changing of majors midstream.
• Increased tuition costs for the IT degree student because the school charges more per semester for juniors, and then even more for seniors. Also holds true for engineering and pretty much all STEM majors.
• Extra money for food because even though you bought the dining plan, your kid either eats more than you anticipated or they hate the cafeteria food so much that they are on a first name basis with the UberEats driver.
• Overdraft fees. They assume that if the bank says they have $50 then they can withdraw $50 from an ATM even though there’s a fee charged by both the ATM’s bank and their own bank.
• Professional certification exams.
• Graduation fees. (Cap and gown rental, yearbook, diploma, frame for diploma, graduation photos, etc)

 

[tzolkin]

When DD went off to college the water bill dropped significantly!

We experienced a drop when DD went to college too but the amount depends on the kid.

It was nothing near what we experienced when we hosted an foreign exchange student. You would think adding a 6th person to the household would increase the expenses accordingly but some things doubled with the one extra person

 

[1st*toright]

I find it interesting that it seems most of the parents here continued to pay specific expenses for their kids in college. When I went away to college, my parents gave me a set amount per semester for tuition/room/board/living expenses. It was up to me to make that check pay for everything I needed - it was enough to cover room/board and leave a little left over for discretionary spending. I researched meal plan options, became a Resident Adviser and figured out how to control my costs as much as I could, because every penny I saved was a penny in my own pocket. When I wanted more discretionary spending, I found a job. Partly it was a logistical decision because my parents were living in another country, but it also was good practice in managing my own finances. My parents would have had no idea whether I was spending money on pizza or textbooks - it all came from my own account.

I come from a big family - we all got the same amount per semester. Some of us made money on the deal (living in an apartment with many roommates and going to an inexpensive state school), some of us had to take out loans (switching schools/majors a couple of times and going to a private college). I would have ended up with zero debt (thanks to working a lot in my last couple of years of school), but I did borrow some extra money from my parents so that I could buy a beater of a car, and I had to pay that back (plus the cost of having me on their insurance) once I was out of school.

My plan is to do something similar - figure out what we are willing to contribute for each semester and leave it to my kids to manage their own budget. The dorm/dining plan thing is a nice transition because they may run out of money for extras by the end of the semester, but they will still have a roof and basic food, even if they aren't working.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

instead of sending my son money I would buy what he needs at Walmart for him to pick up in store.
he would tell me he needs money for shampoo etc I also would throw in bathroom cleaner and stuff he didnt think about.
If I gave him the money he would spend most of it and still not have what I sent it for. overall our bills at home went down. it really evened out Highschool was expensive I just didnt realize it.

 

[barkley]

I find it interesting that it seems most of the parents here continued to pay specific expenses for their kids in college.

we didn't pay for anything other than their share of the cost to keep them on our medical insurance after their 1st year of college. year 1 we paid for dd's cell phone/share of car insurance then she was responsible for it.

dd graduated in 2018. the only financial help she was getting at that point/now from us is that we (1) let her stay on our cell phone plan and auto insurance b/c it's less expensive for her-but she pays for it, and (2) we pay for her spotify monthly fee ($10) but that's only b/c direct tv here dropped all the fox stations, we have lousy internet for streaming and she lives close enough that dh could go watch gotham and some other shows at her place.

other than that........she comes over once a week to visit and during the winter i make a big batch of homemade soup-dh and i keep half, she takes half home. now that it's summer and she's on a healthier eating path i nearly died when i found out how much she was spending to buy simple salads so twice a month i get the big packages of mixed salad greens, cherry tomatoes and white mushrooms at costco for about $15 and she goes home with a weeks worth of premade salads-but this actually works out to save me money b/c it's less expensive than buying the smaller packs i was getting at the grocery store for us (couldn't bring myself to buy the bigger ones for just dh and myself-too much of it went bad before we could eat it). so it's a win-win all around.

 

[MomToOne]

Savings:
- Books/supplies for DD19 (entering her sophomore year) haven't been nearly as expensive as the school estimates. So far, I have found it's generally cheaper to buy used books through eBay, Amazon or other places like Abebooks than to rent. And that's even with DD wanting her books be actual books - not electronic copies - and not have any highlighting or underlining so the books generally have to be "Very Good" or "Like New" condition. (FYI: Rental is also a crap shoot that way, you can get books with lots of highlighting unless you pay a whole lot more for a new textbook rental.) I'm sure book costs will go up significantly as she gets into more of her major courses, but I still don't think they will get anywhere near the school estimates.
- Tuition isn't increasing this year, although fees did slightly. That was a welcome surprise - I had budgeted an average 7% annual increase, and was afraid that might not be enough!

Costs:
-DD lives at home, so I haven't seen any significant unexpected change in costs.

 

[MomToOne]

I find it interesting that it seems most of the parents here continued to pay specific expenses for their kids in college.

Why? Every family runs differently. Honestly, no one should "find it interesting" that other families don't do things the exact same way they do - that should be the normal expectation.

Sorry to take it out on your post, but I get a bit frustrated when these college discussions come up and it always turns into a debate of what the kids should have to manage on their own vs. the parents take care of. There is no right and wrong here, only different approaches. Do what works for YOUR family!

 

[barkley]

I'm sure book costs will go up significantly as she gets into more of her major courses

i'll give the students in dd's major credit for the system they worked out to save $ on this. the university bookstore would post on-line the textbooks required for the upcoming semester a month or so before they did buyback so the students enrolling in a new class would work it out with those who would be completing it to compare how much the book would cost to buy vs. how much the seller would get from the bookstore-then work out a price. it saved the buyer's at least 50% of the lowest selling/rental price and earned the sellers at least 100% more. of course they couldn't do this with books that required electronic codes for on-line stuff but traditional textbooks within her major were largely exchanged this way.

 

[Marionnette]

Why? Every family runs differently. Honestly, no one should "find it interesting" that other families don't do things the exact same way they do - that should be the normal expectation.

Sorry to take it out on your post, but I get a bit frustrated when these college discussions come up and it always turns into a debate of what the kids should have to manage on their own vs. the parents take care of. There is no right and wrong here, only different approaches. Do what works for YOUR family!

I wish that I could like your post three times - once for the doctor, once for the safety engineer and once for the IT specialist. All of them finished their undergrad work in 4 years and without debt because Mom and Dad supported them thru college. None of them are living in our basement. This was our choice, which was made long before any of them were born.

 

[1st*toright]

we didn't pay for anything other than their share of the cost to keep them on our medical insurance after their 1st year of college. year 1 we paid for dd's cell phone/share of car insurance then she was responsible for it.

dd graduated in 2018. the only financial help she was getting at that point/now from us is that we (1) let her stay on our cell phone plan and auto insurance b/c it's less expensive for her-but she pays for it, and (2) we pay for her spotify monthly fee ($10) but that's only b/c direct tv here dropped all the fox stations, we have lousy internet for streaming and she lives close enough that dh could go watch gotham and some other shows at her place.

other than that........she comes over once a week to visit and during the winter i make a big batch of homemade soup-dh and i keep half, she takes half home. now that it's summer and she's on a healthier eating path i nearly died when i found out how much she was spending to buy simple salads so twice a month i get the big packages of mixed salad greens, cherry tomatoes and white mushrooms at costco for about $15 and she goes home with a weeks worth of premade salads-but this actually works out to save me money b/c it's less expensive than buying the smaller packs i was getting at the grocery store for us (couldn't bring myself to buy the bigger ones for just dh and myself-too much of it went bad before we could eat it). so it's a win-win all around.

My mom and I still split abundant groceries - even with a family of 4 its hard to get through costco sized bags without help!

Why? Every family runs differently. Honestly, no one should "find it interesting" that other families don't do things the exact same way they do - that should be the normal expectation.

Sorry to take it out on your post, but I get a bit frustrated when these college discussions come up and it always turns into a debate of what the kids should have to manage on their own vs. the parents take care of. There is no right and wrong here, only different approaches. Do what works for YOUR family!

Pretty sure that I spoke to my own experience and my plans for my own kids. It had not occurred to me to approach it differently, so I said that I found it interesting to hear what other people do. Apologies if you read "interesting" as some kind of judgement, none was intended.

 

[MickeyMouseCD524]

Unexpected expenses for college included supplies for different classes that they didn't know they needed extra books, a special type of calculator. Trips to the ER for broken bones and then later to specialists to help heal those broken bones. Cell phone service. We didn't realize that certain providers don't work in some areas and we never wanted them on campus without service in case God forbid they needed to call for help so one was on T-mobile while the other was on AT&T and we were on Verizon. Very messy!

Savings. We saved on groceries a little, they still got a grocery allowance for snacks at school. Going out to eat or to the movies. Gas! Only 2 people driving as opposed to 4. Clothes, they get so many free t-shirts at college.

 

[yeahdisney]

DD will be junior this year. Not unexpected expense-books she waits to see what professors request -buys online and sells back if she can. Prob less than $600.

She wanted to remain in dorm, it has a meal plan. She dislikes Wednesday fried chicken so she goes to Wendy’s for 4 for four. Sunday night she eats out or has to go to another dorm to eat- which she does not. Breakfast if she eats it, it is in her room on her $.

She followed how much she spent for a couple of months for me because DS goes to same college this year. She spent about $100 a month for stuff. So DS is to work now to have $100 month to spend.

I was spending about $30 a month for her so I added her as a line in my budget; I did not tell her. So if she does not spend it I save it for her to use. Lamp for room, desk lamp. Fan. Curtains. Flannel sheets. This will continue and DS will also be $30.

Unexpected - $100 long winter coat - it was minus 25 degrees. She bought long sleeve shirts for the first time in her life, I did kohl’s veteran day sale spend $25 get $10 off. Prob less than 8 shirts.

Unexpected-After freshman year- 2 summer classes, at out of our community college-whoa expensive.

This year car will go there-$1000 for dorm parking spot. But DS 18 will come off our insurance and DD will turn 21 so it could be close in insurance saving. She/he will pay for gas.

They are close enough for home I buy a lot of personal needs on sale and hand it off during visit. Prior for DD to get to Target 40 minute bus ride, one way.

Entertainment $ on themselves.

I will send them both with DH to buy, folders, pens, highlights and that kind of stuff. And personal products shampoo etc. planning $100 for each.
They enjoy this! (Target and staples).

Budget if you are going to help decorate room. DD keeps same theme each year . DS doesn’t care I got him clearance bed bath and beyond bedding last year. Planned expense 3” bed topper over $100. Planned fridge and microwave.

I do not think DS will take summer class at non community college, if he does ok with grades; he went in with more credits than DD.
Unknown $ if study abroad.

 

[kymom99]

Here are some things we experienced. My son is starting his 3rd year in school.

The first year he had 2 small scholarships which were not renewable. Total was $2000. So the next year we had to make up the difference for those. He applied for his university’s foundation scholarships but didn’t get picked for any of those. People tell you there are all kinds of scholarships that are not awarded each year but I don’t believe it. The application and accompanying letters took so much time to complete and he got nothing. He does, however, receive $6000 a year from his university based on his high school GPA and ACT scores. He also gets KEES scholarship money from the state in the amount of $2300 pre year.

His first year he was required to have one of two food plans. He took the lesser plan and it was $1800 a semester. Once he was a sophomore we just got him a smaller plan for $950 a semester. It worked out good for him this past year because he likes the food there and he didn’t have to worry about carrying cash or using his debit card to pay for his meals. My friend’s son had his debit card hacked and I was glad to not have that worry.

This year he is in a more expensive dorm. We decided the dorm was still the best way to go but the building he was in is being renovated this year. So to get a room with the same amenities as he has been used to meant moving to a newer building. The cost is $600 more per semester. That includes the overall increases in prices across the board. So we decided to go without the meal plan which will save $600+ per semester. That’s because they require all students to take a $300 cash plan per semester (refundable). So he will still have the $300 on his allcard to safely use for meals. Plus he only has 12 hours this semester so I suspect he may eat off campus more.

The other surprise, a summer class. He had to do an internship which made more sense to do in the summer. Scholarships don’t cover summer classes. It was only 2 credits though so not as bad as it could have been.

So those are the things we have had to make adjustments for. Hope this helps!