I didn’t see a reduction in household expenses. Our grocery bill didn’t change enough that I noticed it, there was no change in our utility bills, any savings in costs for extra-curricular activities went to college extra-curricular activities, and we still had the car, insurance and cell phone expenses, as my daughter took both her car and her phone to school with her. We still had kids in the house when D left for school - maybe when they’re ALL gone the expenses will go down. One can hope.
@zoosermom Same thing happened at our house when our son went off to college. Could not believe the difference in our grocery bill! We saw a slight lowering of our utility bill. He, in turn, was thrilled with the all you can eat cafeteria food that included big, hot breakfasts and freshly baked cookies at snack time at his university every day and he & his buddies all gained the freshman fifteen.
My kids used to go away for 6 weeks or so in the summer while they were in high school. I noticed the grocery savings, the entertainment savings. There were two loads of wash instead of six. I ran the dishwasher once a week.
No one is saying you don’t spend those savings for college living, just that you do notice a difference in the household expenses.
There is probably a huge variation from one family to another, and one student to another, in terms of what expenses are associated with the student living at home (e.g. food, utilities).
Some colleges publish a different cost of attendance for commuters living with parents, where the “room and board” shown is nonzero, but much less than for living in the dorm or off campus housing.
^^^Exactly. When the first child in a household of six people goes away, the change may not be so noticeable (my brothers were always bringing home stray friends for dinner so the number of people at the dinner table on a given night was still anywhere from 5 to 8 even after I went off to college).
When the only child in a single parent family goes away, the food and daily living expenses can easily drop by more than 50%. My son inherited his uncles tendencies, so even though it was just the two of us, I was feeding 2 or 3 teenage boys several nights a week when kiddo was in high school. Needless to say, besides being way too quiet around here, my grocery bill has fallen immensely.
with two in college, and two at home, we’ve noticed that monthly costs for small things have dropped, and are adding up to savings. Eg: money for eating out, lessons, ECs, booster club dues, clothing, and groceries at home. Our car insurance is the same 
In all i feel like we have extra wiggle room each month.
I like this thread. So positive. I do expect some savings that will help offset other things. As often mentioned, food will be a big one. I have a boy! Years of dual careers led us to a bad habit of never packing lunch. That adds up. He has a 30-40 minute commute to high school, and drives to activities and volunteer service, so our gas cost will go down. We already pay for some books and will eliminate uniform costs.
Not seen much other than the water bill. We did get a 7500 NYS deduction for tuition tho! Woohoo!
We have a well, so we don’t pay for water, but when D left the house, she stopped taking long showers and we had a lot less laundry, so we burned less oil for the water heater. Since her first year away was a relatively mild winter - compared to the year before when it was much colder, we noticed we burned 300 gallons less than the year before. It is hard to tell how much was hot water utilization vs. general temp, but I figured probably 2/3 of it was temp related, so if we burned 100 gallons less, @2.30 per gallon (vs. $3.50 the year before!), was $230.
We also noticed a lot less trash in the bin every week. We rarely spend anything on entertainment, and never eat out, so we didn’t save there.
Some families notice they can insure their child through the school plan, cheaper than putting him/her on the family coverage through the employer. For others, it is cheaper to keep them on the family coverage. This is definitely a YMMV.
HS tuition bill. We had scholarship, prepaid college plan, and a separate stock account for college for DDs, while we cash flowed HS tuition.
Since DDs were in-state but more than 100 miles away from home, could have them be less on car insurance (unless they had a car). One had a car for 3 years, the other has a car for her final 2 years - so we had those extra expenses. However they appreciated the convenience, and for the one was able to commute to ROTC (and get gas money from riders), live cheaper/farther from campus, and also for hospital training various locations in nursing. When they come home, I give them gas money; when they had a ride with someone, I gave gas money.
We paid for car insurance and phone - but data charges were theirs, until college graduation when it was all theirs. Whatever was left in their stock account was theirs.
If you are in a high water/sewer cost area, if child was an athlete - especially, you would see savings from showers and laundry.
Some boys, I understand a bigger drop in food/groceries. However if you have others you are feeding dinner and snacks to, probably the others are eating up your savings.
H and I do eat differently w/o DDs here. Sometimes when they are home, I will buy food items for them to take back that they want but don’t usually buy out of their budgets. I had been buying cleaning supplies for house and two apts, but am stopping that.
Key for us is that they have made a very big step to independence. They had the 4 years to figure out how to finish their degrees, how to have their money last, how to keep their scholarships, etc.
In our family, it has been very important for them to have a 4 year degree that they can get a fairly good paying job at graduation. One is going to apply to a leadership program with her employer now that she is in FT professional job.
Time savings is a big deal for us too - our life is no longer arranged around the student(s) at home and their ECs.
We had real savings from those instrument lessons. Two instrument lessons per week…plus youth orchestra and wind ensemble. Costs for all of those Instrument lessons were $50 an hour…per week…for each instrument. So for each kid…that was $400 savings a month. Year round…so $4800 per kid. Add to that costs for precollege orchestra and wind ensemble…about $800 a year. So…$5600. And that doesn’t include the driving back and forth…we live about 35 miles away. Drove to,the place twice a week for years!
And that doesn’t include a few trips these kids took with their ensembles…at bout $1000 a trip…or so.
I know…it’s a first world problem!!
We had almost as high of lesson costs as @thumper1 - but their musical achievements/abilities to me were part of what was a good education for DDs. Had some music involvement throughout college, but not a major or minor.
@SOSConcern totally agree. Both of our kids were number one in lirmstate on their instrument at some time during HS. Both played in college…one as a music performance major, and one for fun. Both took private lessons all,the way through college too. This was “inclided” in their cost of attendance.
The music major works as a professional freelance musician, and continues to play…every day.
The other kid still plays as a hobby…for fun.
But I sure don’t miss those bills!!
And I forgot…both went to music camp for three summers as well. At $3000 for four weeks. Totally worth it.
The music major then went to some summer music festivals…Tanglewood, Eastern Music Festival, Aspen.
I almost never eat out or get takeout food (“almost never” meaning perhaps once every six months and then only if I’m forced to). But my daughters love both. So I saved some money on food when they were in college. And I eat plainly even at home, whereas they like a bit more variety. So my grocery bills dropped, too. Let’s just say that if you are frugal for yourself but generous to others, you’ll likely have some reduced expenses when a child is no longer at home.
When our son went off to college, we noticed a HUGE drop in our grocery bill - $250/week dropped to ~$100/week. Private music lessons for multiple instruments/voice savings of over $200/month - though we are now paying for piano lessons at college in his sophomore year. There was also a big savings in gasoline costs. there was no bus service to his charter school 12 miles away, so we racked up a lot of miles with two 24 mile round trips per day. I haven’t really noticed a drop in utility bills, but there may have been one.
Wow… your son eats a LOT. I remember a definite $50 drop in groceries when my kiddo left (about 15 years ago, so with inflation it might be more like $75 in today’s grocery dollars) .
I think family dynamics probably plays a part in the grocery bills - I’m a single mom, so when son was home as a high school senior, it was me, my then-12-year-old daughter, and son. I’d assume that if there had been another male in the house the difference wouldn’t have been so apparent.
Our sons were both football players and BIG. We saved a lot of copays for PT because both played in college and got PT mostly through school trainers.The grocery bills went way down, just having them on a meal plan. Further grocery savings came from not regularly feeding large portions of the football team hanging out at our house! We also saved on car insurance until both eventually needed cars at college. Water bills dropped drastically, utility bills not appreciably.
D totally off car insurance, but she could still drive, like any guest, when she was home for short periods. I think first year summer was the only time she was home for more than 30 days, and I might have added her back but I don’t recall. That was a pretty big savings. Water bill as well, since she liked long showers (thank goodness it was pre-drought California). Not having to pay for debate tournament travel expenses easily took care of her college travel expenses so that was at least a wash and probably in the plus column. Medical insurance unchanged since it was cheaper to keep her on my health plan and waive the college plan.
I do wonder about this variation in car insurance. Is it about the information you give the company because ours, like most, requires all cars to be insured for all drivers and being away at college had no meaningful savings at all and in no way could we remove him from the insurance intermittently. A young driver is not insured like a guest on our car insurance, and my teens cannot drive anyone else’s car as a guest. I wonder if these are insurance policies with a much higher premium in teh first place? We cannot even remove the kids from being insured on my DHs performance car that they ain’t driving LOL.
It depends on the insurance company’s practice and also may depend on state insurance regulations.
My company was very flexible about removing/adding drivers – no issues there. I was told that if my kid was home more for more than 30 continuous then they would need to be added back to the policy. But each company is different.
My kids were insured as guests when they visited.
I live in California and my kids originally went to college in New York, so there could have been a distance / different state issue.