It was the $40 laptop lock that threw Curt Bauer for a loop. Hidden Costs of College
After years of making deposits into the college fund, consulting budgeting books and scouring the Internet for obscure scholarships, the Waukesha dad finally sent his oldest daughter off to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee last fall.
He was ready for the cost of tuition, room and board. It was the little unexpected expenses like the laptop lock – “all those nickels and dimes,” he said – that added up.