Some of my daughters' friends ran up huge debts at university. Their parents had said "We will pay your college bills". This sounds practical, but the students had carelessly charged everything to their college accounts, thinking that it did not matter, parents would pay. Sometimes there was a minimum amount of money that could be charged to account, for example on a meal, and the students deliberately spent more, so that mum and dad would pay.
It is cheaper to tell your student that you are willing to give them a set amount of money. If he or she manages to underspend then, they deserve to keep the surplus. But do not make the mistake of putting in place a system that rewards your son or daughter for being extravagant.
By Julia in UK from UK
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Great suggestion! Our oldest son worked for a couple of years after high school in order to pay his own tuition at secondary school. This allowed him time to be sure of what he wanted to enroll in.
Most colleges have unlimited or regular meal plans you can purchase online for the students with extra (bucks) they call them where they don't have to eat all the time in the cafeteria, and parents should be monitoring the bill online my son just started. I know how quick they can go through your money!
Yes, this is an area that young people do not think until you wake them up to costs we before they got to middle school had to work every summer for half of the school supplies and quarter of the clothing to start the new year in. This way they learned the cost of things and the little difference in good clothing and brand names, so they picked a few brand named but most of the clothing was sales that was made to last, and food we told them junk food was an extra so bake or buy your own.
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