Guidance for Living Expenses
College Board's nine-month and twelve-month living expense budgets for the years of 2025-26 and 2026-27 show living expense costs by region and metropolitan area. Both a moderate and a low budget are provided. The budgets reflect increases in the Consumer Price Index (calculated by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) of 3.4 percent for 2023 and 2.9 percent for 2024.