Hey! Good question. This one might be a little difficult to answer with actual figures but I'll try my best to give a good response.
When you are living on the campus itself, there are a few things you definitely DON'T have to worry about paying for. The most important thing is your meal plan. Fortunately, you get a student meal plan when living on campus that accounts for your primary meals in the cafe, and your snacks and late night cravings in the Cougars Den. Therefore, at least you don't have to worry about paying up front for food and drink expenses. Aside from that though, there are some things students do choose to spend money on on campus. Every winter the school comes out with new hoodies sweatpants and other forms of merchandise that we can buy in the bookstore. You'll need your own money to pay for this kind of thing (hoodies are usually around $25, sweatpants are around $20, and so on..). Every sports team, club, etc sells their own merchandise as well and that expense also comes from out of your own pockets. Additionally, the school brings in individuals who sell jewelry, baked goods, posters, and other products that can be purchased in the lobby of the Banks Student Life Center. These types of things require you to have your own money in order to purchase them, yet you aren't mandated to buy anything that you don't want to. The majority of the money I spend on campus goes to buying merchandise from the clubs I'm involed in... but that's just me.
Now, if you're wondering how much money the typical student spends outside of the MU campus, that varies as well. There are a lot of different places to eat or get takeout from in this area. You can go cheap and get an order from Dominos delivered to the dorms (around 10 bucks for a pie), or you can choose to go out the the Habachi grill down the road and spend a good chunk of change. We have a mall near by, different shopping strips, and more. Girls can typically be seen spending money on tanning at one of the many tanning salons near by, or getting their nails done as well. All in all, the area is set up pretty good for college students. There are a lot of cheaper places you can go to hang out, shop, eat, and more.
I hope this helps you out! If you have any other questions please feel free to let me know :-)
Erin Rossick (rossicke@misericordia.edu)