Saying the above we have both kids graduated and living independently from us financially. So yeah bills way down and it’s a beautiful thing. We still have some 529 for my daughter post bac leading to graduate school but she’s instate herself at an affordable school.
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You would have to dramatically change the size of your house. The sizing just isn’t that precise.
Our expenses probably went down some, but what I found funny is I kept buying the same stuff I did when they (and their friends) hung out. For example, we don’t drink soda and our kids don’t drink soda, but one good friend did. When I wound up with several 12-packs it made me laugh… habits are hard to break.
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Ha! I was the opposite, I’d go through the grocery store and think “I don’t need that anyone. They’re gone!” And burst into tears 
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I can relate to that too!
Oh man I will watch this thread with interest. I’ve been budgeting like wildfire the last couple of weeks in preparation for college applications. We don’t track spending, but I’ve been doing a retrospective analysis of our spending since we’ll be on a super tight budget during college.
By my best estimate, we spend almost $2K per month on food with our 2 kids at home 
. That’s waaaaay above the national average for percent of take-home pay (average is 11%) and also way above the USDA recommended budget. It’s split up about half groceries and half dining out. I was surprised to find out that’s the national average as well. My spouse is the big food spender, and had a fresh new inspiration to curtail food spending when we had a conversation about this recently. That was nice.
If I divide the food bills by 4 and pro-rate for 9 months at college, that’s about $4K that my son shouldn’t be eating in our household each year. He’s mostly paying for his own college, so maybe that will be a savings for us? I’m not budgeting for the savings, but will be nice if it happens.
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I believe our food budget went down substantially when ShawSon went to college (6’4", more than 200 lbs). Not sure ShawD had that much of an impact. Also she went to a private school that provided breakfast and lunch and dinner if she wanted to stay.
Not sure if other expenditures went down for a while.
Our grocery bill went down but takeout and restaurant bill went up. Our electric and water bill went down but always goes up again when they visit as they’re on electronics 24/7. We save more but the travel to see them or them to see us or all travel together.
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I suppose our grocery bill probably went down when he went to college. But since his college dorm food bill was more than the family grocery bill, we didn’t pay much attention.
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I’m a small single mom with the type of teen boy who has two breakfasts, a snack, lunch, an afternoon snack, and then three to five helpings of dinner. I expect some radical adjustments to my grocery shopping, plus also trying to figure out how to go from cooking for 4-6 people a night, to just…one. 
But you’re right - the board charge is more than I spend on groceries so…different buckets I guess.
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I always tell H I can easily cut our grocery budget if we just eat out more… 
Now that we’re empty nesting and ours are totally done with schooling, we actually do that too. Eating out is also less expensive when the kids leave home.
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Water bill. Holy crap does this kid love his long showers!
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My D is home this week between work and going back to school. We go through twice the amount of food than when it’s just H and I.
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When my D was at college it went down a bit, but not by much because S was still home and he eats a lot. When S was at college, it went down more because D was out of the house too, so I was just buying for the two of us. That said, I wouldn’t say our expenses went down when our kids were in college, because we were paying tuition and room and board for them. And that wasn’t cheap!
As far as heating and water and power, really didn’t make much difference…
Just wondering if there is any utility bill saving on the electricity wasted while standing in front of an open fridge or freezer. With one of my kids, long minutes are often spent staring at shelves of food in fridge yet still somehow complaining that how come there is nothing good to eat here??? Rinse, lather, repeat every couple of hours or so.
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That was my biggest pet peeve…leaving the fridge open, leaving the tap running when you step away from the sink, going to bed and leaving all the lights on…When D lived with us briefly after college and chipped in a bit for utilities and a small amount for rent, she got a lot better about this sort of thing…funny when it comes from your money…