(NAPSA)—College can be a great money management experience for both students and parents. It may be the first time kids are on their own and handling money without parental supervision. How can they develop a spendingstyle that keeps them worry free? College costs fall into two basic categories: fixed and flexible. Try to prepay the fixed expenses and manage what’sflexible. If you’re a student, take 20 minutes to mentally walk through your day. Will you use the meal plan? Will you buy snacks? Will free periods involve any expenses? What are your typical weekend plans? What might they cost? There are a few non-tuition expenses parents and students should keep in mind: Travel expenses to home, friends’ housesor for vacation. Entertainment * * Food Clothes Sports equipment Phonecalls Postage Haircuts * Magazines and newspapers * Internet access * Medical and dentalfees Insurance * Miscellaneous needs In addition, consider these financial exercises: Keep a journal. Record your moneyhabits for three days. Write down every penny you spend. See how much goes to food you never eat or cigarettes you shouldn’t smoke. How much for meals out when you have a prepaid student meal plan? How much for cab rides, dry cleaners, take-out food? Note what gave you satisfaction and what was a waste of money. Create a chart. Write a budget in percentages, not dollars. If you have $150 a week to spend and $50 is spent on food, that’s 33 percent of your pie chart. Visualizing spending can have a profound psychologicaleffect. Spendingis discretionary. It’s up to you to allocate and to do without if you are unrealistic. These 10 tips mayhelp: 1. Instead of a credit card, establish a debit card for the student. This way, students can’t overextend their budgets. 2. Use a phone card that covers what you expect to be reasonable Students can learn to deal with both fixed and flexible expenses. costs over a given time. 3. Don’t make a final budget until after the first two months of college. Estimate and stayflexible. 4. Be realistic about meal plans. Many students under-use them.Seeif the college will let you sign up a few weeksafter school starts, instead ofearlier. 5. Put advertisements in school papers for sharing everything: microwave, computer, car, garage space, apartment. 6. Don’t buy new clothes for your college-bound student. Have him or her take the essentials and ship anything missing, after you know what’s needed. 7. Consider online banking, such as MSN Bill Pay, in which you, as the parent, have equal access to the account. This means faster money transfers and lets you monitor cash outflow. 8. E-mail or fax a written recount of monthly expenses. 9. Don’t expect freshman budgets to look like senior budgets. Things change with inflation, needs and schedules. 10. If at all possible, your student should take a job that will enhancehisor her future career. A volunteer summerjob at the state aquarium will get the budding oceanographer further in the long run than four weeksof asking, “Do you wantfries with that?” For more helpful budgeting tips and tools that help you and your college student, visit the banking center at MSN Money (http://money.msn.com), or use the planning tools offered in the Microsoft Moneysoftware.
