This question is only half-serious since obviously there will be the whole college cost of attendance to worry about, but I am curious if anyone’s day-to-day household expenses decreased noticeably when their kids went to college.
My older kids have summer jobs and one has an after school job so they are responsible for their own personal spending as well as saving some, but still… I feel as if my teens and their friends are eating me out of house and home this summer. I am glad that they have healthy appetites and that they are physically active. And I am thrilled that they have good friends (who also seem to have healthy appetites), but the kids and their friends keep trooping through the kitchen and leaving an empty fridge behind. So I am assuming that at least food costs will go down when my daughter leaves for college. Also no more music lessons or instrumental rental. Maybe some utility bills will be a bit lower? For the next kid, no more dance tuition or sports fees. Anything else that I can look forward to NOT paying when they leave?
One kid in college. Female. Picky eater. One 16 year old at home. Male. He eats about 90% of our grocery bill. Needs no help from friends to empty pantry and fridge. Looks underfed to the point of me getting “in trouble” at the pediatrician’s. Is growing about an inch a night. So household expenses are still ballooning. I hope he can get a job at Trader Joe’s or an ice cream place with employee discounts because it’s getting ridiculous.
Ridiculous is right. Had the exact same pediatrician conversation about my son a few months ago. He eats a shocking amount and yet the ped suggested that I wasn’t feeding him. All I could think was apparently the pediatrician hasn’t seen my grocery bill. But even his sisters eat a lot --I think it is the sports or just their youthful metabolisms. They are burning the food off as quickly as they consume it.
well, with having kids in grad school and college for the seven years - and just one at home during the school year, we’ve noticed less monthly regular expenses (athletic fees, clothing, music fees, PTO fees, lessons, AP fees & everything school related) and less food costs and gas costs. But we are certainly paying more for them being in college than being home in high school; our lesser monthly costs do not offset the college costs by any means!
Mine did. My DD drove a lot at home but not at college, so my gas bill went down significantly. She also keeps the AC and fans on blast, so the electricity bill went way down when she was away. I also saved on groceries. If you’re also counting ECs, huge savings there as well.
Hopefully these docs were jesting! It is a well known peds fact—this is just how most teen boys grow, they stretch out fast then fill in, nothing underfed about it.
DD21 was well past her growing years when she left for college, but still the food bill and utilities were way down when she was away!
Don’t remember about electric, but water bill went down about $10/month. Also, car insurance went down first year because no cars for freshmen and I notified insurance company that car would be largely parked and used only for breaks.
Definitely on the food bill. I have two big athletic boys. But I probably notice it more when we eat out. Older S’ last 2 years of HS, we pretty much adopted his GF. So we went from having a party of 5 to 2 now. It’s weird when we have bills in the $30 range!
Water usage went down a little, but water is cheap. Our utility bills vary so widely month to month that it’s hard to notice a small difference. We noticed a bigger difference with the new AC and boiler.
Food bill is down w/daughter at college - but we are paying for her found while she’s at school so when she’s home the total ‘family food bill’ may actually be cheaper (I tend to discourage eating out, even though it occurs more frequently than is ideal!!)
Our son went to boarding school at 14. I can’t say we noticed much change in our routine home costs during the HS years although we took on a whopping tuition bill. By the time he went to free college, we were in a different house where he lived in the casita when he was home and liked to max the AC. After one crazy bill, we showed him what his freezer was costing us, set the Nest on “eco,” and told him not to touch it from that point on. DH’s company plan paid for our son’s phone in HS, but he took that over when he went to college. The Army also issued him an AMEX card and paid that fee. He was only on our car insurance until the end of his freshman year. That summer, he bought his first car and paid for the vehicle and all related costs himself, so we were spared that. He wasn’t home much during his college years (because Army), so we didn’t notice any significant change in food or utilities.
Apart from the boarding school tuition bill, I can’t say our son’s HS or college absence significantly affected our household expenses, but I’d give anything to have him back home cranking up the AC again. I wouldn’t complain this time.
Yeah, my total costs are probably not going to go down much if at all (though my expected parental contribution to D22’s college tuition is actually less than her private school tuition was). But I am hoping that it will all feel more predictable at least in part because in addition to our grocery bill, our takeout bill has skyrocketed this summer. If nothing else, maybe it will be one fewer pizza to order on pizza night.
More seriously. She will be responsible for all indirect and unbilled expenses at college (like books/supplies, eating anywhere besides her meal plan, any social life or entertainment, laundry, whatever). I do not plan to give her any spending money at all.
I’ve already set up a monthly payment plan with the college to cover my part of her billed expenses. So I know what that monthly tuition payment is, and that number is factored into the family budget. And I am hoping (perhaps naively) that with the exception of that monthly payment, I won’t have additional expenses for her and my daily household budget might drop a bit for food and utilities and the various random often unexpected stuff that has cropped up during her middle and high school years.
Alqabamine32 - we didn’t want D to work during her first year of college (though both H & I did!). Just had seen others struggle academically and wanted to allow the focus to be on school. That being said - I’d prefer at this point to have a predictable food-expense-bill at college so she could learn to live under budget. H doesn’t agree but hopefully that will change. It’s good for college students to have limits - even if their expenses are generally reasonable.
Don’t forget to close the door and vents if they have their own bedroom. No reason to fully heat/cool the extra space. Eating out is one of the most notable reductions in expense.
My HVAC guy told me to never close the door and vents if you have a central air/heating unit. His explanation was that the systems are designed for XX sq feet and if they are not able to freely distribute the air it will reduce their life. Not sure if true but that was his advice.
Just a comment about this. We told both kids they didn’t need to work. But both kids wanted to work. As busy as they both were involved with their schools activities etc they still had too much free time. They are 180 degrees different students in every way but both said the exact same thing. With working like 10 - 15 hours /week besides having their own spending money and independence it forced them to not procrastinate and get their work done since they didn’t have the time to. Have seen other kids not work and not do well in school due to not getting the time management down…
Just a different perspective and both kids surprised us with this.
