Cut the Cost of Your Kid’s College
29 July 2006There’s a good article by Vickie Elmer in Kiplinger’s magazine here pointing out that if you are a parent paying for your child’s college expenses, there’s no reason to let your kids run wild. She points to the example of a college student who works for everything as ideal:
Julie Davis is one college student who knows the value of a dollar. Davis is working three part-time jobs this summer to pay for her fall semester at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She estimates it will cost her almost $7,000 in tuition, apartment rent and miscellaneous expenses. To save money last year, Davis rarely ate meals on campus (too pricey) and sometimes borrowed textbooks from friends rather than shelling out $125 or more for new ones. “I buy stuff, but I make sure it’s what I really want,” says Davis, 19, a health-administration major who saved the money to buy her 1999 Pontiac Sunfire.
But because not everybody can do that, especially at a private college with tuition running up to 30,000 a year, parents may still want to contribute to their kid’s college expenses. However, it’s the little extra expenses that add up:
1) Cell phones - Talkers can really burn through the minutes, and she recommends forcing your kids to pay for any extra they use. Personally, I would look into those disposable cell phones. Many parents won’t win that fight if the kids can use and then refuse to pay. If it’s impossible for them to keep using the phone after a certain number of minutes, they’re not going to go over.
2) Textbooks - She suggests to buy online, but often I found you could get better deals buying directly from people at your school who had taken the class before you.
3) Don’t get them a car - I think she’s dead on here. Their job freshman year should be to make friends with the kid in the dorm with a car.
I would add:
4) Entertainment - Put your kids on a strict budget. It will be easy for them to spend a ton on clothes, movies, video games, etc. if you let them. They’ll try to keep up with the other kids in the dorm - you have to be firm and put your foot down.
5) Don’t let them get credit cards. If they run up a debt there, they’ll come running back to you to pay it off. That should be an absolute, non-negotiable principle - especially with how credit card companies target college students. Use your kid’s free annual credit report for them to make sure.
If you want to build credit for your college student children using a credit card, then YOU should have the credit card, not them. Have them sign up for it, list your home address, and then take the card from them. Then YOU spend the money each month and YOU pay off the balance.
Discuss this on the Free the Drones Forums here.
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