<p>Just want to thank all of you for making me realize we’re not the only family making sacrifices. I was just lamenting to my husband that with a child entering college this year and two more to go, we won’t be taking any “wow” vacations for at least 9 years! That got me down until I read this thread, and now I realize we’re all in this together – for a really long time!</p>
<p>No sacrifice on “wow” vacations. But we have only one in college, no other dependents, and “wow” vacations kind of routine. No other expenses, like mortgage, car lons, whatever bought is paid for right away. If this is not the case, then we do not buy it, college or not.</p>
<p>I think someone already mentioned this but if your credit is good and you still have some equity in your home despite the housing slump, now can be a great time to refinance your mortgage. We did about 6 months ago at 4.75% (our bank is now down to 4.5% and if goes down another quarter point we might refinance again) and we’ve been plowing the $400/month we saved right back into D1’s 529. Pretty painless as that’s money we’d have been sending out the door anyway. </p>
<p>We might also borrow a little from my MIL. She’s got some cash sitting around and is frustrated that her savings account is paying something like 0.2% and CDs aren’t much better, around 0.5% for a 1-year CD. If we borrow from her at, say, 4.0%, she’ll feel like she’s found an attractive (and socially responsible) investment given the current market, and we’ll be borrowing at roughly half the PLUS loan rate & about 60% of the unsubsidized Stafford loan rate. Seems like a good deal all around. I’d count that as a savings as we’d planned do to some borrowing (not much) for college anyway. This way it’s cheaper for us, and Grandma actually feels like D1 is doing her a favor.</p>
<p>We also bought a new, energy-efficient furnace last year & were able to take a $1500 tax credit toward the purchase price. We’re seeing pretty substantial savings on energy costs, which again we’re plowing back into college savings. The furnace had to be replaced anyway; turns out it was a really timely & smart investment.</p>
<p>Savings:</p>
<ol>
<li> The water and electricity bill will be less.</li>
<li> Food bill will be a lot less.</li>
<li> No teenage driver on the insurance bill and the old car we were keeping going so D could drive herself around will be sold.</li>
</ol>
<p>But other than that there’s no silver lining. We’ve already cut back to the bone. We never eat out, take only cheap vacations, have older cars, spend almost nothing on clothes or home furnishings.</p>
<p>Have never been on a “wow” vacation. Have lived in the same state all my life. Have flown exactly twice.Have never been more than three states away fr. where I was born. I was a sahm for fifteen years, have worked part-time for last eight years.
All DH’s bonuses went to college savings. We also just put new windows and hvac in our house and will get a $1500 tax credit and also lower utility bills.</p>
<p>We have just finished building our future retirement home though. It’s pretty “wow”
for us,lol.</p>
<p>I just want to congratulate anyone reading this who is the parent of a rising sophomore or junior - you are thinking ahead and that is so critical. I really did not comprehend how much college would cost or how it would affect our budget until towards the end of the process - kind of ridiculous, I know - but it seemed like such an abstract concept. I think a lot of people are like us - they kind of have their heads in the sand and figure it will all work out. I do have to say - when it is July - and you are contemplating making that semester payment - it is very real - and unfortunately - for some of us - this is when we start wishing we had saved more, researched more, planned ahead better, etc. So - again - congrats to those of you who are being more proactive.</p>
<p>On a funny note - using my new-found wisdom - I have tried to educate a few friends who have rising juniors. I have spoken with them about it not being too early to start thinking about paying for college - I have sent them links for EFC calculators, and so forth. So far - they are all doing exactly what I did - they just don’t want to deal with it. Too stressful/confusing. Oh well, I tried.</p>
<p>^^^right. I work with a young mother whose kids are 4 and 7. Her DH apparantly does very well. They live in a country club neighborhood,drive fancy cars, have their kids invovled in every activity, are always taking trips/renovating their just ten yr. old house completely. Every bonus seems to go for an instant gratifiction item.</p>
<p>I have mentioned to her a couple of times about how we had been saving money for college since our kids were younger than hers are now and that in ten years her 7 yr. old would be applying to college…not that long to save many thousands of dollars.
Her reply is always…“yeah, I know we need to start thinking about that but we really have plenty of time”.</p>
<p>Our college fund tanked in 2009. We refinanced the house (lower % ) and took out enough cash for 2 years of college, hoping that the fund would recover enough to pay for last 2 years. Took the tax credit, skimped on vacations. We’ve had some appliance emergencies this year, but replaced dryer and oven with used models found on craigslist for less than $250 total. We use coupons from restaurant.com, but dont go out much. I think the last movie I saw in a theater was the Hulk. Aaack.</p>
<p>– went back to work after five years on medical leave (every dollar I make goes to college)
– drive cars til they are dead
– have not pulled equity out of the house/upgraded/renovated
– no cars for the kids in HS or college (they knew this in middle school)
– no debt except the mortgage
– bought less house than we could afford (still in our starter house)
– have lived on less than we make for 26 years
– pay with credit cards to get frequent flyer miles, pay off every month in full, record EVERYTHING on Quicken. Fabulous discipline!
– created an EFC account with deposits made automatically every pay period. Didn’t start this til January of senior year, but when that money is taken out before you see it, you miss it less
– we are funding as much as possible through current income vs. debt
– kids knew from middle school on that they would have Staffords and be expected to work to help pay for expenses</p>
<p>Some interesting posts.</p>
<p>We are contemplating selling the family house and moving to something smaller in a nearby cheaper town after D graduates high school in a couple years, as we will have two in college at the same time. This would get rid of about 6 years of mortgage payments and cut the RE tax bill by 60%. No one is too excited about this, though - we like our house! It took a lot of work to get it the way we want. Total savings in the first 5 years would come close to 2 full-pay years at an expensive school. So it is very tempting. It may hinge on where D winds up going to school.</p>
<p>Getting rid of the cleaning lady would be a false economy for us - the resulting marriage counseling would cost way more than she does. She only comes every other week.</p>
<p>Had to laugh, and wonder if the cleaning lady takes care of everybodys needs :)</p>
<p>
We never fought over money or kid issues or anything big like that. We fought over scrubbing toilets and countertops and vacuuming and what-not.</p>
<p>Eventually we figured out we could keep the peace by getting a cleaning lady. She does a much better job, too.</p>
<p>I got that-- I was being a little silly-- the line about marriage counseling and cleaning lady coming every other week — sounded like she might make wife and hubby happy-- for different reasons. Sorry -its late and I am punchy. And its been a terrible day (neighbor’s 16 yr old son was found dead- by his father, when he woke him up to go to his SAT tutoring class)- so I am trying to maintain levity to keep from getting upset again. Sorry for being silly.</p>
<p>
Wow, totally went over my head. 
Oh my gosh, that is horrible!</p>
<p>I should have said when the dad tried to wake his son for his SAT tutoring class. Needless to say he couldn’t wake him. I cannot even begin to imagine what that must have been like. Totally horrible.
Sorry to digress-- It just puts all this in perspective. This thread is about the sacrifices we make for our kids, and why it should be, in the big scheme of things, an honor and a blessing to take care of our kids.</p>
<p>As soon as I came home from dropping off the oldest last fall at college, I called our auto insurance people and got the huge drop in rates. </p>
<p>This year, he also has decided to be more frugal in his living expenses. He has learned that peanut butter and jelly make good sandwiches for lunches. The meal plan at school is way overpriced so he and his friends plan to shop weekly for their groceries. They save money, but they also gain life skills needed when they have jobs, homes and families of their own.</p>
<p>When he does leave, the food bill will drop slightly. So does the electric bill. Since we teach, we are not home as much during the day. Oh, and this Christmas, a lot more people will be getting things that are homemade. I do a lot of cross stitch.</p>
<p>We have always lived below our means.Stayed in our starter house, just got cable this past year, don’t wear designer clothes, pay credit cards off monthly etc. Have been investing in a 529 for a long time. So we will have saved enough to put D through a SUNY school with no debt and if she gets enough merit aid, a private school. We have always told her we would pay for her to go to SUNY or private (if she gets enough aid), but we won’t take out loans. She should be able to get enough merit aid at second tier type schools for us to manage private. Fortunately we only have one child, so that is why we can manage to do this.</p>
<p>Evaluate your insurance. We took up our deductibles on everything- you really want to be insured for catastrophic losses (i.e. the house burns down) and not for every lost camera or whatnot. It brought the premiums way down on the cars, (they’re old anyway), house, etc.</p>
<p>Look at your life insurance. First we stopped paying premiums on our paid up whole life policies. They had been purchased when the kids were small and we were faced with the prospect of one of us having to go it alone- pay for childcare plus replace the dead spouse’s income plus pay for college. Once the kids start college the financial risk of dying changes dramatically so you don’t need to keep increasing the policy value. Then we dropped a small term policy and only kept the “free” policy from work.</p>
<p>If you are getting a tax refund in April you are lending the government money at zero percent.</p>
<p>Read your property tax bill and invest half an hour in finding the assessment that’s on record at your city hall. We were being assessed for a finished basement which we don’t have and a full bath which is just a toilet and sink. The neighbors on all sides of us indeed have those things- but our house doesn’t, and we knocked down the property tax very quickly once the assessor saw the inside of the house. Not a huge savings in one year but it makes a difference over a lifetime of living in a house that’s over-assessed.</p>
<p>Re-visit bartering. I have an unemployed neighbor and I offered to redo his resume and write him a few sample cover letters. (I work in HR). It took me two hours and he was inordinately grateful, wanted to pay me, “how can I thank you” etc. So I refused… and he cut down a dead tree in our back yard (took him four hours but he’s unemployed so he’s got less to do!) and stacked the logs. Saved us $1500. So now I owe him!!! But it made me more aggressive about helping out in the neighborhood on a no-cash basis.</p>
<p>Make downscale friends. We declined our annual “nice dinner out with friends on New Years Eve” the first year our kid left for college- it was hard to justify the expense. But we did potluck with one of the younger couples with babies that we know at their house- they were thrilled to have a grown up evening without having to pay a babysitter. When we couldn’t keep up with our old lifestyle we shifted down to a younger lifestyle- and it was fine.</p>
<p>$15.00 haircuts, coupons at grocery store, no eating out, do all cleaning & yard work ourselves, 10 year old mini-van, 12 year old pick up truck, 2007 Toyota Matrix commuter vehicle, budget plan on heating oil (using a lot less these days) & removing one child from car insurance as a driver. (she is relocating to the West Coast) </p>
<p>Sometimes I sell things on Ebay (items we no longer want or need, usually yard sale/flea market posessions). Our towels & sheets are absolutely ancient, but still good. </p>
<p>Car insurance & life insurance has been re-evaluated & changed carriers. Satellite TV & phone/internet services are also re-evaluated from time to time. We expect our electric, heat, groceries to go down soon as youngest child of four will be college freshman in a few weeks. We use “ChoicePrivileges” and try to stay in their chain of hotels/motels whenever we need a hotel/motel. Recently used a free night to pick up child at college over Mother’s Day Weekend.</p>
<p>Slumom: Remember with your Choice Privileges, too, you can use those points earned for gift cards. Just got one that I plan to give to a family member for the holidays.</p>