College kids - $$$$

[ClaytonN]

Just curious, for college posters out there. How much money did you spend per month on stuff that did not include room+board+food+books? ie the non-necessities.

Also please include how tightly you manage your money.

[Biloxi]

you want it to include bills and rent or just spending money?

[ClaytonN]

I thought about that right when I posted, so I changed my post: Yes, just spending money, the non-necessities.

[Biloxi]

you pretty much covered everything but going out/ alcohol

I spent most of my cash on food. Eating out can add up.
The rest just depends on how much you like to party and whether or not you follow the sports teams to away games

[Vote4Pedro]

I'd say somewhere around 100-200. Mainly booze and going out to eat, the occassional movie. I'm pretty bad at managing money. The only tip I have is buying keystone and naty as opposed to something like budlight or coors light

[Vote4Pedro]

Be thankful that your school has a sports program worth following to away games

[Macdaddy Warsaw]

I'd say $400-$500, I think I manage my money pretty well, but I have a fondness for clothes and video games, music, and DVDs. Media in general, actually...

Although I don't actually think $500 a month is a lot to spend on luxuries.

[augie00]

I spend money very liberally. I rarely check my bank account. I'd say I spend 500-600 every month. But I like to party.

[Tron]

I spend between $200-$300 per month and I keep it pretty tight. I would spend more if I had it. I should probably learn how to play poker [well].

[MrFeelNothin]

I came to school with 3 Gs, figuring that would be a safe amount to last a year.

Im now a junior and Ive averaged spending about 1G a month over the last two years not counting my large purchases.

I eat out close to every meal, drink a lot, and splurge on random crap whenever I feel like it.

So yeah.........Im not very tight with my money. /images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[squeek12]

You could probably have a pretty damn good time with four or five hundred dollars a month. About $100/week should go a very long way, and you could probably get by with $50. I worked though, and had no bills really, so I spent money like it was going out of style.

[Shilly]

If you avoid eating out (i.e. just eat at the cafeteria or whatever) you could probably get away with about $100-$150 a month.

I tended not to buy any video games or stuff like that, but figure about $5-$10 per night you plan on drinking. Three nights a week each month should come out to around $100, and probably add another $50 for random things.

EDIT: But I probably ended up spending about $300 a month.

[mmbt0ne]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">En réponse à:</font><hr />
I tended not to buy any video games or stuff like that, but figure about $5-$10 per night you plan on drinking.

[/ QUOTE ]

Have you ever gone to a bar?

[squeek12]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I tended not to buy any video games or stuff like that, but figure about $5-$10 per night you plan on drinking.

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Have you ever gone to a bar?

[/ QUOTE ]

Pregaming before going out can save lots of dough, also, if you are in a good college town, there are usually some pretty sexcellent drink specials every night.

[handsome]

This is what I used to pay:
Rent: $425
Internet: $35
Gas: ~20 per week
Food: ~50-100 per week (this is where most of my money goes)

The only times I've spent money on things I didn't really need were for shoes, car repair, or when there was something really fantastic on Slickdeals.

[Edge34]

Thus far, I've lived on campus my entire college life, but I'm moving into an apartment, so I figure a lot will change.

I didn't go out to eat a lot, but I spend WAY more money than I probably should on things like drinking and clothes...really funny since I used to be the cheapest person I knew. I'd say I've probably ended up spending something like 200-300 a month though. I don't need THAT many clothes. Plus, I just turned 21, so all my drinking was non-bar, so I'm sure that saved me lots too...

[SmileyEH]

I spent a lot of money on food because our dining services sucked and I started to make a lot of money. Freshman year I was very frugal though - maybe $100 a month tops discounting about $700 i had to spend replacing broken computer parts. I love play pokah.

-SmileyEH

[pokerdirty]

1000/month rent
450/month food (this is $15 a day)
80/month transportation

i live in new york, damn, i dont like to think about this

thank god for online poker

[Maulik]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd say $400-$500, I think I manage my money pretty well, but I have a fondness for clothes and video games, music, and DVDs. Media in general, actually...

Although I don't actually think $500 a month is a lot to spend on luxuries.

[/ QUOTE ]
I don't buy any video games, but cds &amp; vinyls add up.

[Yeti]

Hmm. Probably 800/month on alcohol before we begin to even think about food.

[bd8802]

unless you have a meal plan at the cafeteria, you will spend more money on food than you think you will. 10$/day is pretty much a bare minimum I think. If you go to places that you will need to tip a couple times a week then i would say 15$/day. You could just eat ramen and chef boyarde, but that stuff [censored] sucks after a while. Life is too short to put up with that bullshit.

Other than food, it really depends what hobbies you have. Video games, music, concerts, sporting games, drinking are going to be the main things a college aged kid will spend money on, and you can vary this depending on how much money you will have coming in.

If you do expensive hobbies like skiing or golfing, then you will need to adjust higher.

As an undergrad I spent money like it was going out of style, I was a tight ass during graduate work. Both are doable.

[Bradyams]

[ QUOTE ]
Just curious, for college posters out there. How much money did you spend per month on stuff that did not include room+board+food+books? ie the non-necessities.

Also please include how tightly you manage your money.

[/ QUOTE ]

The only non necessities I paid for was alcohol. So about $40/wk.