Site Administration The College of William and Mary

Budget

Where does the money go?

  1. Students living on campus and from in state can expect to pay $10,626 for food, housing, and tuition, while students from out of state will pay $21,290.
  2. The other big costs are books, about a $1,000 a year, plus entertainment and clothing, the cost of which will depend on the taste of the student.
To take how much you will be spending on housing into account, besides the amount of money listed on your lease, it is also important to consider other factors as well.

Here are budgetary factors to consider in making a housing decision:
  1. Cost of utilities (if not included on lease)
  2. Phone bill (if not included on lease)
  3. Internet Access Costs (AOL, MSN, etc)
  4. Furniture (if apartment does not come furnished)
  5. Any other additional costs that you see coming with renting an apartment.
  6. For additional contact information regarding phone, internet and cable, click here.


Generally people spend about 1/4 of their income on housing, but if your income is not very large it may be as much as 1/3 or 1/2 of your budget. A good way to estimate how much you should be spending on rent is to add up all your other expenses and see what you have left.

These other expenses can generally be divided into the following categories:
  1. Groceries
  2. Medicine
  3. Leisure
  4. School
  5. Clothes
  6. Transportation
  7. Miscellaneous/Other
If you add up these expenses and subtract them from your monthly income, then you will get a good estimate of the maximum that you should be spending on your housing. If you have little to no money left after you add them up, however, you will probably need to find some way of cutting down the costs of some of the above.

Sample Budget
This link contains a sample budget as compiled through surveys of a number of students that attend the college and their experiences with off-campus housing.

Student Budget Calculator
This link will take you to a student budget calculator that can greatly reduce the amount of time you spend attempting to calculate your budget for housing this coming year.

 
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