So what I did is cut a deal with her.  I invested in a new credit card, in my name, with what I thought was generous limit.  Luckily, scholarships would be covering the first semester of her tuition, so I guess I burn that bridge when I get there.  So I made it clear to her that there were two stipulations to this credit card:

1.) It was only to be used for NECESSITIES.  That means groceries, books and school supplies.  NO EXCEPTIONS!

2.) If she found she wanted extra money to go out and have fun, then she needed to sacrifice, reform her lifestyle, and get a part-time job to finance those activities herself.

She accepted the agreement and I felt good about sending her off, confident that she would be responsible and honor our pact.

Two months later...

My phone rings, I pick it up, and it's my daughter.  She's in a panic!  Apparently there is a book that she needs for her economics course that she didn't see on the syllabus and she doesn't have it.  Worse yet, she has a review on the first three chapters due tomorrow.

Nevermind, how she missed this on her syllabus or why she hadn't noticed sooner that she would have a review due.  There are just some things that will never make sense to any of us.  I decided to deal with the immediate problem.

After calming her down and giving her all the typical father reasons why everything would be okay, I told her to use the credit card to buy the book and get cracking on her review.  After all, that's what the credit card was for.

Then she dropped the bomb shell.  She couldn't use the card because not only was in maxed out, but she was $70 over the limit!!!  Naturally, I was furious.  After giving her a stern "I'm disappointed in you" fatherly speech, I wired her the money she needed for the book and said we would talk about the "issue" in the coming weekend (when I had planned to visit her anyways).

So I go up there, and we sit down to dinner and we begin to talk about the "credit card" issue.  My daughter, who just seconds ago was calm, immediately swings into a panic telling me how finances are so hard and she didn't think things would be so expensive, etc., etc.

Despite my genuine concern for how worried she is, I have to be stern because now we have a crisis on our hands.  Not only do we have to figure our how she's going to get through the rest of this semester, but we haven't even started talking about next semester when her scholarships run out.  But no need to glop all that on an already full plate, let's deal with the issue at hand.

I ask my daughter what her idea is to get her through the rest of the semester.  And to my shock, and great alarm as a parent, she suggests that I not only get another credit card, but that I get one with a higher spending limit!

I didn't have to say anything, my facial expression said it all for me.  But before I could tell my daughter how insane this idea was, she launches into the tirade of justifications about how hard things are, how expensive it is living on her own, how much books are.  She goes on and on and on.  So then, I pull out my trump card, the actual credit card statement.

My daughter was responsible enough to get all of her books (except that one she forgot about that made me aware of this whole mess), schools supplies and three trips to Meijer.  But the statement also included:

1.) Football Season Tickets
2.) An expensive television set
3.) Surround sound for the expensive television set.
4.) An iPod.  And...
5.) An XM radio.

My daughter didn't have to say anything, she was out of excuses and she knew the game was up.  So I asked her again, how she thought we should get her through the rest of the semester.

Recovering from being caught in her web of exaggerations, she starts to tell me about this parent-student loan that her roommate had gotten.  The way it works, she explained, was that I sign up for the loan that goes on my credit and then my daughter pays back the balance after graduation.  I didn't say anything but noted it, might be a good way to take care of tuition next semester.

I told her that I would think about it.  Then I reminded her that we're talking about only another two months left in the semester.  To get a loan for two months would just be kind of silly.  So I asked her again, how we were going to get her through her last semester.  At that point she looked across at me frustrated and said "what do you want from me Dad!?"

I smirked and simply asked "have you gotten a part-time job yet?"

"A job!?" she exclaimed with disgust.

"Yes" I said, reminding her that the initial agreement that we made with the credit card before she left for school was that for anything that wasn't a necessity would be paid for out of her own pocket.  A pact she had clearly violated.

Still she was flabbergasted.  The only thing that came out of her mouth was a rambling of excuses about how none of her friends had jobs, and she wanted to have fun like everybody else, etc. etc.

So I explained to her that she spent too much money she didn't have and that's what got her in this mess in the first place.  She was irresponsible, and now there were consequences to that.  She would have to reform her lifestyle by cutting down on buying things she didn't actually need.  She would have to drastically reform the way she had become accustomed to doing things and get a job to sustain herself.  Sure I could have just given her the money and bailed her out like she wanted, I could have enabled her wasteful spending habits, but what would she have learned?  What reassurance would I have that I wouldn't be dealing with this same problem every semester my daughter was in school?

Finally she caved in.  Kicking and screaming, she got a job as a cashier at Home Depot where she makes a really good wage for someone her age.

My daughter's name, let's just say you can call her Jennifer M. Granholm.