By Madeline Kerins
If you’ve ever sat dumbfounded, attempting to recount your expenses of the past month, you’re definitely not alone.
“This is making me think way too much,” Danielle Einav, a junior Psychology major, said when asked about how frequently she fills up her gas tank.
Einav is not likely to be in the minority either. As a young demographic living in the high-cost area of Long Island, University students are subject to shell out lots of cash weekly so that they are able to do basic errands such as filling up their cars with gas and having something to eat off-campus. When other expenses such as shopping, trips home, personal maintenance and social activities are factored in, the overall spending of a University student on a monthly basis really adds up.
As for anyone living on their own, University students in particular spend a great amount of their money on food. Despite consistent complaints of not spending all of their meal points, many students still choose to get a meal plan after their mandatory freshman year plan because they find it easier.
“I eat off-campus very rarely… I have a meal plan and I use it,” Michael Haviland, a sophomore communications major, said.
Haviland’s attitude towards eating off campus seems to be one that other students share.
“I have the lowest meal plan [$495] and if I need more money I just add it on. I have a car so I do eat off campus, but not that often,” Brandon Weissler, a senior broadcast journalism major, said.
Monica Johnson, a sophomore film/TV major, also sticks to her allotted meal points when it comes to buying food.
“I have the $1,195 meal plan, so it usually covers me, but when I have some extra money I go out and eat off campus for change from the Hofstra food,” Johnson said.
Johnson said that while she doesn’t spend much on food, she does spend about $250 a month on clothes alone. That doesn’t include her hair, which she says she spends “about $25, $30 with a tip… and that’s almost once a week,” making Johnson’s total for clothing and hair maintenance about $370 a month or about $4,440 a year.
“In a week I’d say [I spend] $20 to $30 on alcohol, $20 for bars, $12 for two packs of cigarettes and about $5 for gas,” Haviland said, when asked where his money goes besides food. That adds up to about $87 a week, multiply that by the four weeks in an average month, and that’s $348 a month or $4,176 a year for alcohol, cigarettes and social life.
Einav says she only spends “about $20” on eating off campus a week and “somewhere between $50 to $100 on clothes a month.” Einav, who lives 20 minutes away in Hewlett, resides on campus and has a car, which she says she puts about $30 worth of gas into each week.
“Over the summer, I filled up about once a week for $30, now that I’m at school it’s a little less, but about once a week,” Einav said.
When combined, her food, gas and clothing total an expense of around $3,600 a year.
Alexis Crespo, 21, a senior film major, commutes to the University from Mineola, saying she spends most of her money on things one would expect of most 20-somethings-“food, gas, clothes, my hair… things like that.”
Because she commutes, one expense Crespo doesn’t have to allot money for is traveling home, which for some residing students, is a weekly expenditure.
For Johnson, traveling home to New Jersey isn’t a hassle because she only needs to spend $10.50 each way; she takes the Long Island Railroad to Penn Station where she connects with a New Jersey Transit train home. Haviland, whose hometown is Boston, also takes the train when he visits home.
“I go home for a weekend every month or two, and it costs about $40 each way,” Haviland said.
So though every student has individual needs and costs, one thing is for certain-everyone is spending their way through college, and it isn’t cheap.