So, while there is a lot of info on CC about the costs of college, does anyone consider what you won’t be spending by not having your kid around? Is there a good rule of thumb? No more private music lessons, no club sports, slightly smaller grocery bills. Is this insignificant in the scheme of things, since the college costs and travel, etc are usually so high? I wonder. I understand that is is going to vary quite a bit.
My best estimate is about ten dollars a day for food, minimum, and about 200-500 a month for activities.
It adds up!
The water bill goes down, so do the oil expenses (for heat and cooling) and the gas for the car, since they are not using them when away at school. The electric bill goes down but not by much. The food bill goes down a bit but H and I will eat out more when there are no kids around.
Old thread…but might be a starting point. In the last, this has been discussed in the Parents Forum.
Old thread, but we didn’t really see a big drop in monthly expenses.
Water and groceries were the biggest changes. And I had flexibility to take a higher-paying and more satisfying job that I couldn’t have met the demands of when there were still kids who needed me at home. Their Catholic school tuition transferred towards paying college costs, which made college less painful.
We have the usual savings (groceries, activities, water, etc.) mentioned about, but also a pretty significant change in auto insurance rates. D is across the county now without a car; if they are close to home you might not get the discount.
Forgot about the car insurance. S did not take a car to school, and we were able to list him as an “occasional” driver rather than having him as a primary driver on a car. Saved us a good bit each month, but how that works depends on the insurance regulations for your state.
Things like going to the movies as a family costs less (notice the difference when the college kids are home on break). Eating out costs less for 2 than for 4.
Our kids went to a private HS. So we traded one tuition bill for another (larger one). But it was something we did my have to pay any more.
YMMV in terms of auto insurance reductions. Ours was an “away at school” discount…$100 per year…per kid. No they didn’t have cars at college.
Both of our kids were musicians who took lessons on two instruments, and played in precollege orchestras. Not paying for those was a reduction we really saw.
WE didn’t notice any savings. Maybe because we spent more on other stuff for them?
Really, all I noticed was that I had some leftovers left over LOL, Insurance stayed the same, didn’t notice anything in bills, groceries might have been a little cheaper. The posts that extolled the idea of any costs savings for an OOS kid made me LOL.
I was able to drop my daughter entirely from the car insurance – it helped that she wasn’t living at home during the summers, as she had internships in other cities. My agent told me as long as she wasn’t back home for more than 30 days she didn’t need to be on the policy… and she honestly has never been home for more than a week since she went off to college.
When my son went off to college it was a huge reduction in grocery bills – I never realized how much the kid ate until he was gone. I hadn’t factored in those cost savings and borrowed more than I needed for a PLUS loan the first year… which meant that I didn’t have take out any loan for myself the following year.
It’s not a net savings – obviously it costs more to be supporting a kid who is away at college, unless you are fortunate enough to be the parent of a kid with a full-ride scholarship – but it is something to factor in when looking at costs and financial aid awards. Part of the college’s COA includes expenses for out-of-pocket and incidental expenses, and probably that’s pretty much a wash – what isn’t being spent a home is being spent at the school —but in my case the responsibility shifted as well. At home I was giving my d. an allowance, away at school she was responsible for all of her own out-of-pocket costs - so in that situation, the money I saved with no more allowance and reduced car insurance rates was helpful as far as making payments toward tuition and housing.
I wonder if the savings people see for water/heat/electricity depend on how many kids they have. If you’ve only got one kid, when they go away, in theory, you can see up to a 1/3 decrease in water usage. But if you’ve got 4 kids, and one goes away, then you’re only losing 1/6th of your household. The only thing we are counting on for decreased expenditures when our oldest goes away next year is the extra curricular activities. We’ve counted that as money available to spend towards college.
We were also able to drop our daughters from car insurance - saved $130 per month. Our food bill went down by a solid $60 per week when my son went to college. That boy really, really eats. Utility bills weren’t noticeably smaller for us. One small perk that we hadn’t expected was that we could go out to a restaurant very cheaply for light and inexpensive food after my son went to college because that boy really, really eats.
Most parents are paying way too much for college tuition and living to notice those savings. Those are only good for parents of kids getting huge financial aid or full ride plus merit money.
Most noticeable (and largest) was the reduction in car insurance. My son has a car at college but only drives it occasionally and is carried as an occasional driver. Initially the food bill was less, but over the past nearly 4 years it’s back to what it was when he was living here I assume just by normal increases in food costs. Parents who have their kids currently on their health plan should look at the plan offered by their college. It might be less.
All college costs for my kids are covered by the college fund, not out of pocket.
Our college costs are coming out of one account while living expenses are drawn from another so the changes to daily cost of living is very noticeable.
Car insurance was the big one. Food costs and incidentals like laundry and dish detergent added up though. It was especially noticeable when kiddo was home for 6 weeks at winter break. Some college expenses like music lessons and health insurance (needed a new provider) are coming out of the household account this year but I’ll be moving those to the college account next year so that will make the drop in living expenses appear greater.
The big change is that I’m able to bill many more hours of work when kiddo is away.
Our biggest single saving is from private music lessons. Her scholarship covers those at school. Also she was given lifetime memberships in her local and national music association and Girl Scouts so we/she will never have to pay year dues again:-) This is also the first year of her being an adult Girl Scout so no more cookie selling and obligatory parental cookie buying!!! Oh and no more testing fees (SAT, AP, CLEP) for her at least.