Spending Money at Seminary / Yeshiva in Israel

amother

Peach

Mon, Mar 23 2015, 7:25 pm

Anon because of personal details.

My daughter spent $3500 of hers/our money. She has been raised appreciating the value of a dollar.
This included $500 of her money, which we all deemed to be for extras. This included seforim not required for classes, restaurant meals, clothes, any cabs (I think she took less than a handful) gifts other than hostess gifts.
The $3000 of necessities included any seforim for classes that we did not own and therefore could not bring from home,school supplies she could have brought from home but the price difference was not enough to justify the luggage weight, laundry tokens (definitely added up), all busses, and grocery money. Her sem served the main meal of the day only. Unlike many of her friends, who would buy filets of fish for dinner etc, breakfast and dinner were eaten like Israelis--chumus, bread, salads, eggs, fruits, milk. She did not travel to far flung places for Shabbos, but even going to a Jerusalem suburb or Bet Shemesh adds up.

Twenty five years ago, I spent about $100 a month at the same sem, and was extremely frugal. In those days of 3 70 lb suitcases, I brought everything I could from home. Now you get 2 50 lb suitcases. I think an average of $350 a month over the year was reasonable. But the first month she spent $700, others much less to reach that average. There were a lot of startup costs with seforim, laying in all basic housekeeping supplies etc.

Hope this helps.

Since you are amother, if you are more specific if laundry is included, how often one stays in for Shabbos, whether s/he is going somewhere where you must vacate for Sukkot and Pesach, etc., imamothers will be able to give information tailored to your child's situation.

amother

Maroon

Mon, Mar 23 2015, 7:35 pm

I was in sem about 7 yrs ago. I spent about $4000 over the year. My sem only served lunch so I had to buy food for breakfast and dinner. In the beginning of the year I only took taxis but I eventually switched to busses. I brought all my clothes and linens from home. I had friends who spent a lot more than me- it's really easy to spend a lot without realizing it.

amother

Violet

Mon, Mar 23 2015, 7:51 pm

amother wrote:

As far as I know:

Meals are provided at seminary / yeshiva as far as I can tell. No cooking is allowed in the dorm, but there is a microwave in the student lounge. Teen is a whiz at microwave eggs.

Students must vacate for Succot. This worries me in the extreme. Teen does have a friend whose parents will be in Israel for Succot, but I doubt Teen will feel comfortable staying with them for that long. Teen also has a friend whose parents made aliyah last year, but that Teen will be in the Army, so I can't see Teen going there. We do not have family in Israel whom Teen knows.

Laundry is coin operated.

It looks like Teen will be at seminary / yeshiva one to two Shabbats per month, and out for the others.

Teen will come home for Pesach. I'm not including that as part of Teen's spending money. Teen will also have a phone, that we will pay for. And we will probably pay for one overweight suitcase, as that will likely be less expensive than buying things in Israel. Again, I'm not counting that.

amother

Violet

Mon, Mar 23 2015, 7:52 pm

If I haven't expressed it yet, thanks to all who are responding. It is very helpful and very much appreciated.

amother

Peach

Mon, Mar 23 2015, 8:06 pm

This is the amother of the $3500/yr.
Good news that dc will get all basic meals.
Bad news about Sukkos (Migdal Oz/ Gush anyone?-you really need to do a separate posting to specifically target those schools and whichever other ones have that policy to know how people deal with that.)

One question I also forgot to ask is-how close to "town" will s/he is. My next daughter is looking at a sem located a bit too conveniently near a mall and lots of fun food places. She will need to earn a lot to cover those luxuries.

I know you do not want to go into who is paying for what but ultimately that will be the difference between $3000 (or less, who knows) and $7000. If parents don't mind if the kids goes to restaurants every day/week whatever, they will always find friends to go with. Real conversations about the level of luxury you expect your child to live with will be the key. Takeout, cabs because of poor time management (last bus before Shabbat has left and no other way to get to host's house), all add up very quickly.

naturalmom5

Mon, Mar 23 2015, 8:22 pm

Wowee kazowee

My husband was in yeshiva in 84
He rented cars, restaurants, ice cream in diezengiff
Went to beach a lot
Did all sorts of fun things on 200 a month

LiLIsraeli

Mon, Mar 23 2015, 8:22 pm

I am the poster who said I spent $500 per month. I realize now that I remembered incorrectly - it was 500 shekel per month... makes a big difference!

rachelbg

Mon, Mar 23 2015, 10:21 pm

I was there about 10 years ago and lived on about $100 a month. Sem gave us lunch, I ate corn schnitzel almost every night (or something else that's easy to prepare,) went out for food/ice cream every-so-often, but not so much, and took buses. Certain seasons cost more, like Pesach when you buy your own matzah, wine, etc. I bought gifts for hosts regularly, sforim occasionally, and brought my toiletries from home.

sequoia

Mon, Mar 23 2015, 10:54 pm

LiLIsraeli wrote:

I am the poster who said I spent $500 per month. I realize now that I remembered incorrectly - it was 500 shekel per month... makes a big difference!

Yes, it is. 500NIS is $125!

LiLIsraeli

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 12:38 am

sequoia wrote:

Yes, it is. 500NIS is $125!

I think it wasn't at the time, maybe the exchange rate was closer to 3.2 than 4 at that point. It ended up being something like $150-200.

amother

Linen

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 10:43 am

I didn't go to seminary but I did live in Israel. It's going to also depend where in Israel the seminary is. Tzfat is a lot cheaper in general than, say Yerushalayim, so going out for ice cream once a week in Tzfat versus Yerushalayim changes the equation also.

Chayalle

Tue, Mar 24 2015, 12:59 pm

LiLIsraeli wrote:

I am the poster who said I spent $500 per month. I realize now that I remembered incorrectly - it was 500 shekel per month... makes a big difference!

I tell you, LiLIsraeli, I was like what? This sounds more like you. Smile

Tirza

Tue, Apr 07 2015, 9:12 am

Just wanted to insert a note of caution here. When my son spent his year in Israel, he said that some of the boys would spend their parents' money on beer and alcohol or marijuana and then call home asking for more money, saying either that they had lost the money, or it had been stolen, or that "things are more expensive here than I expected". The boys whose parents sent them a lot more money continued to drink because they could afford to. The boys whose parents got angry that their son had lost or squandered their money did not continue to drink, because they were scared of their parents' reactions.
Of course I'm not implying that your child will do such a thing. I just think that parents should be aware that it does happen sometimes, even to kids who had never experimented with drugs and alcohol before. These are 18 year olds who are tasting freedom for the first time, and we shouldn't close our eyes to the fact that some of us are unwittingly financing these habits.