OT: How much $ does a freshman with a meal plan need in AA?
Son will be a freshman at UM this fall. We're having a debate about how much money we should give him every month for eating out, since he obviously has a meal plan. South Quad, if that matters for your analysis. The literal answer is obviously $0. He could eat only at the dining facility. But we wouldn't do that. We want him to be able to eat out around campus from time to time. I'd be particularly interested in the opinions of current students, recent alums, and parents of same. Thanks MgGoBoard.
$Texas
ok cool hook 'em
I know this will sound like I'm being a jerk, but you could have him get a job if he wants extra money beyond what is necessary.
100% agreed. it will do him a lot more good to earn a few bucks for spending $$.
I worked at a restaurant two nights a week for my spending money. Made about $80 a night waiting tables during dinner. Still got mostly As. It can be done.
I agree with this long term, first semester freshman year I wouldn't recommend finding and holding down a job as something else to throw into the pot.
It could also be pretty difficult to eat all meals at campus facilities, South quad is a good one for hours but its still not 24 hours and closed saturday nights (or was when I was there).
I feel like $100 per month should be about the right amount.
I was told thats what my savings from my HS job were for. My parents got me the meal plan which covered everything but Sunday dinner for which I was on my own.
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Not a jerk.
I worked three fucking jobs to pay my way through Michigan. Lived in Ypsi, rode my bike to campus, ate ramen and apples, and didn't sleep for five years.
"give him money"?
How about being a parent and making him earn it?
I had a very similar experience. Can confirm that its not the optimal way to go.
Yeah. I didn't necessarily enjoy that but I did it.
It was hell. Adjusting to campus life, weird roommates, worrying about whether I could pay next semester's tuition, up for the breakfast shift at the dorm cafeteria, refereeing IM sports, and pulling doubles on weekends split between Charlies and a restaurant I worked at in high school. Needless to say, my grades suffered early on.
$200?
I'd go with $0. I graduated not all that long ago and my mom didn't give me any extra money for food. I got along just fine. It wouldn't be hard for him to pick up a few hours of work for some spending money. He's an adult now, he'll figure it out.
What could go wrong.
Tell him to get a job if the meal plan isn’t enough.
Why get a job when he could just hunt Bigfoot?
none - he should get a job, even if just a few hours a week to cover pizza and beer
$0 is impractical. Some dining halls at UM are not all open at 100% of meal times, and there may be a situation where there are no easily/quickly accessible options open on the weekends etc. South Quad has the most (or close to it) choices for meal plan dining so he is lucky in that sense. The campus area has many excellent dining options from quick to sit-down, cheap to expensive so IMO he should plan on roughly ~4 meals per week outside of the dining hall.
When I was a student, I had every intent of eating meals in the dining hall, but when you have half an hour between classes at Mason Hall, sometimes a $5 sub at Jimmy Johns that will fill you up until dinner is the best route. If his tastes tend towards the simple, there are no shortage of pizza slices available for around $2.
It is very easy for students to get on-campus jobs that fit with their class schedules, and if he chooses to work in a dining hall (greeter, card swiper, dish room, food prep etc.) those sometimes include a free meal at the end of your shift.
Additionally, the MCard student ID can be loaded with dining dollars (or whatever they call them now) that can be used at the Union, dining halls and select on-campus locations.
agree mostly, and that the dinning dollars are probably the way to go.
As far as dinning halls being closed, there is a dorm in the area that will be open in all there major locations. I remember everyone coming from cousins to markley for a lot of meals back in the day
Update on Michigan Dining's digital currencies:
- A set amount of "Dining Dollars" come with a meal plan, there are 3 options and are bought when the meal plan is selected, and
- You can add "Blue Bucks" to your "Natalie Emcard" and these can be added / reloaded any time during the term.
20 years ago, the meal plan didn't cover Sunday nights. I used to walk to backroom to get 2 slices for $2. Not ideal, but I'm a cheap person and was only able to get a few thousand saved up over my senior year and summer. If he can get a job for 10 hours a week, that could give him $50 / week for spending money and can be fun to meet people at a job who you might not meet otherwise.
There are a lot of kids with money so there will be pressure to go out and get coffees and eat and go to the movies. Don't let him rack up money on a credit card and free t-shirt. Too many kids fall for that.
"If he can get a job for 10 hours a week, that could give him $50 / week for spending money and can be fun to meet people at a job who you might not meet otherwise."
FFS - I know the minimum wage is not $15/hr everywhere, but I would hope he could do better than this
As someone who graduated recently and worked 30 hours a week while going to school full time, you and your son would probably be better served by just giving him $50-$100 week to spend. The 10-20 hours a week needed to make that at minimum wage would be better spent studying/socializing/literally anything else.
Unless he's a little twerp who needs to be taken down a few pegs. Then he can learn the horrors of working in the retail/service economy.
This is a good answer. I worked just under 30 hrs/week while attending U of M and kinda wish I hadn't, but I could see working a bit being helpful for some people. (Eg., while I think people overstate it, there are obviously a LOT of very entitled kids at Michigan.)
I completely agree with this. If you have the money to help your kids, let them focus on school. They have the rest of their lives to work. If you really want them to work, tell them they need to get summer internships. I had two internships during summers while I was in college, which both helped my resume and paid my parents back some cash.
This should of course be conditional with them studying hard and taking the opportunity of Michigan seriously. If you do well at Michigan it can open a lot of doors for you. If they are taking it for granted and spending all their time & money drunk & stoned or something then they probably should be cut off and figure out how to fund themselves.
just giving him $50-$100 week to spend. The 10-20 hours a week needed to make that
How long ago did you work on campus? $5/hour?!?!?
The kid should get a job and not just for the money.
A: $10-12/hour with flexible shifts are easy to come by. Pretty much every student job meets that description. Work two four-hour shifts a week and you're looking at $60-$80 or so a week. That's plenty to get by on unless you burn through money with Ubers.
B: Campus jobs are fun. I've met the best friends in my life from my campus job. I started working like 7 hours a week my freshmen year. By the time I was a senior I loved the job, had fun at work and was working 20/hours a week, not because I needed to but because I enjoyed working with my friends. And it's nice to have an extra $1k+ a month.
Obviously his studies are Priority #1, but a part-time job on-campus that fits with his class schedule works twofold - it helps teach responsibility and time management skills, as well as dissuades him from partying too much. It'll net him an extra couple hundred $ per month.
The added bonus of enrolling early for classes might also exist for an on-campus job and might allow him to shape his schedule better, not sure if UM does that or not (the college I attended did).
Back in the day (gulp, 30 years ago), if you snuck in through the exit door of the South Quad cafeteria, you could avoid swiping your card and would then have a meal credit on your card that could be used at the SQ snack bar. At least that's what a friend told me ;)
The SQ snack bar was awesome. Great for an evening snack. I'm guessing they gold plated it by now.
Ah yes, greasy burgers at the snack bar. I must have eaten at least two a week. That was also the days of the elevators only going to the odd numbered floors. Naturally I lived on the 6th floor. Another trick I remember was once you were in the elevator, if you messed with the doors as you came to each floor you could get the elevator to skip the floor and essentially make it an express.
My kid is going too, plan is $0 first month and then see what she needs. After that we'll adjust, but we are also telling her to get a job.
$10 a meal will get him squared at most of the take out type establishments.
Everyone's values, eating habits, and study habits are different, so it's difficult to give strangers advice about spending habits with attached conditions.
If it were my kid, I would encourage obtaining paid employment and/or volunteering for a variety of reasons. That said, I would encourage my soon-to-be-new-freshman child to focus on acclimating to the rigors of college coursework before taking on an additional 10-30 hrs./week commitment. My expectation, especially if I'm contributing towards tuition/room/board, is that my child is spending at least 40-60 hours on coursework.
I like the idea of work/volunteering throughout one's college career, but only after a student demonstrates that they can handle college. I concede this is an approach of privilege. The reality is that many college students have no choice but to work and study from day 1.
OP's son has the rest of his life to work. Making his son get a job just for the sake of working hard is such a dumb philosophy, IMO.
Since OP can obviously afford it (or else he wouldn't have posted this question), throwing his son some money so that he can use whatever time that would have spent at a meaningless minimum wage job instead on socializing, volunteering, student organizations, or research positions is a no-brainer in my mind. I'd only recommend working if he can find some paid part-time internship in a field he may actually be interested in.
To answer your question, $40-50 of spending money a weekend would go a long way towards being able to enjoy the various things that the campus and other parts of Ann Arbor have to offer.
I agree with this. Especially the first year, let him get his feet under him without the additional stress and time commitment of a job. It's easy to forget what a massive life change it is to live on your own for the first time and be responsible for the academics without parents hovering over you. It takes time to figure it out. Sophomore or Junior year, tell him you're cutting back on the allowance, or eliminating it entirely. He'll have to save up over the summer or work part-time, making his own decisions about tradeoffs.
I always saved up enough each summer, and then I knew exactly how much I had to stretch. Definitely some lean times by the end of the year. I didn't work during the school year until my senior year (Hollywood Video on Packard, since you asked).
I guess this does beg the question: has the OP's son NOT saved anything up? Is he working this summer? If so, maybe I don't understand the necessity.
My first kid struggled academically and socially when he didn't have a job. I got tired of it and said no more money from me if you aren't going to study. He got a part time job. The added responsibility made him more organized, increased his study habits and his grades went way up. He still says the best thing for him was to have a job; otherwise, he would have left school and who knows what would have happened.
Different for everyone, but work isn't bad.
I totally respect that. My wording was more directed at a general frustration about how much we emphasize work culture in this country. To me, working hard for the sake of working hard can be a very toxic mindset. College is all about exploring yourself, gaining exposure to new ideas and people, and learning about things you've never dreamed before. The goal, in my mind, is to find your passion and start building the base that you need to pursue it. If you, as a parent, are in the position to provide for your kids while they stay focused on reaching that goal, then you have every reason to scoff at the people
It takes work and determination to do all that, no doubt. And some people need the structure of a job to develop a work ethic. But it also takes incredible work and determination to succeed in unpaid extracurriculars.
Sure, many kids would squander the opportunities, act entitled, and fail to grow. I just speak from my own experience. I'm incredibly fortunate that my parents paid my way through college. To me, there's no way I would have been better off trading my experiences with friends, the student groups, research, etc. for a meaningless part-time job.
i take your point, but personally, i had a lot of fun, met a lot of people, and really enjoyed my meaningless part-time jobs in undergrad. for me, working in a restaurant was a great way to meet girls, have more people to hang out with, etc.
Again, fair. I think it comes down to the individual person. But you read the majority of the responses here and it's clear that most people think "work = good, not work = bad/entitled/lazy/etc."
$50 a week for food
$300 a week for dope and sluts.
*hookers and blow
That's OSU. This is the #MichiganDifference.
So, I can't give you an exact dollar amount for a month, but here's a few things to maybe put on the budget and see what you come up with:
Even though all kids in dorms get the unlimited plan, my guess is that most of them still keep some snacks in their dorm, for when the dining hall is closed and they're a bit peckish, or just too lazy to walk all the way down for a granola bar or glass of milk, so maybe factor in a couples bucks for groceries.
Beyond that, a burger/entree, maybe a coke and tip at most decent places in town is probably going to be about $20 a pop, so decide how many "real" meals you think he deserves :-p
Fast food is fast food, maybe the occasional fancy coffee, milkshake, midnight pizza orders, going to the movies, buying a new shirt...
Remember, too, that eating out is often less of just having different food and usually more of a chance to socialize outside the dining hall, so that's really what you're paying for.
You might also factor in how likely he is to get a fake ID or find older friends and spend all his money on booze and decide how much you're willing to support that, if it's something he ends up doing.
Finally, you could consider starting it relatively higher and perhaps decreasing it as the semester's go on. It can be a tough transition and a little extra support can go a long ways at the beginning. Then once he's acclimated, you can decide whether you'll continue supporting everything or if you'll make him decide whether he wants to cut back a bit or find some of his own means now that he's a little more comfortable with the college life.
Has your son not had a job at this point in his life, or what? I was very fortunate to have my parents pay for my tuition, books, housing, etc. I had summer jobs that let me save up the money to pay for other things, up until I got an internship at the end of my Junior year.
Ah the good old "freshman 15."
My parents I think gave me $200 a month as a freshman, but it decreased by $50 each year I was there ($150 / month as a sophomore, $100 / month as a junior, $50 / month as a senior). I don't think there's anything wrong with doing something like that as long as you can handle it financially and your son isn't a snob who doesn't appreciate what he's being given, but decreasing it each year puts increasing pressure on him to go out and get a job if he wants more walking around money.
If he wants more, I'd just tell him this is what he's getting, and if he wants more, start filling out some applications at the dining halls or some restaurants around town. I worked in the food and service industry for three years when I was in high school. Had a lot of late nights, especially on Fridays and Saturdays (and especially before major holidays) when my other friends were going out and having fun. Made more sandwiches, washed more dishes, and wiped down more tables than I could ever care to count.
That job taught me everything I know about hard work, busting my ass and appreciating how to actually earn your keep. Fortunately for me, I didn't spend a lot of my money when I was in high school, so three and a half years of wages helped pay for a lot of my shenanigans at UM without having to ask for more on top of that.
Lunch $$ will probably end up being beer $$... just sayin...