<p>As our kids are making their choices for college, I was wondering how their parent's lifestyle is changing as a result of their college choice.</p>
<p>Specifically, what things are you trimming from your budget to make college happen for your child?</p>
<p>I 've cut my alcohol consumption from several glasses of wine each night to 2 fingers of JW Black. ;)</p>
<p>I wish I knew. I redid the budget, moving all d1 related expenses into a line called “college.” I’ve got the first two years covered with the college account, so what I sock away is for years 3 and 4. Year 3 will be a snap; year 4 could get tricky. D2 will start college in d1’s year 4. My goal is to get 'em all through without loans. We’ll see. </p>
<p>I’m looking for more places to trim, but my I’ve always done quite a bit with the little I have, so there’s not a lot of fat in the budget. That’s how we managed the college accounts we have. I do own all 3 volumes of the Tightwad Gazette. We do have some items others would consider discretionary. I know, it’s not like God’s going to come down and repo our souls or anything, but for us, tithing is no less an obligation than any other loan. </p>
<p>People tend to say no vacations, no new cars, no new clothes, no dinners out, no gifts, but I’m not sure that’s realistic. Dh puts tons of miles on a car for work. We buy cheap and run em into the ground, but they still need replacing. I keep getting fatter, and I’ve always shopped the 70% off rack. The house is already at 67 degrees in the winter and down to 61 at night (makes it in the 50s upstairs). Not sure how much lower we want to go.</p>
<p>D2 chose the school with the best merit aid, so we actually had enough already saved up, so our lives shouldn’t change too much, unless D1 grad-school plans get too high-end. </p>
<p>Other than missing her (which will be hard), we will have some happy lifestyle changes-- especially me. I’m not a morning person but have gotten up early every day in high school to fix breakfast and pack a lunch and see her off. Next year, I’m never getting out of bed before 7:30 a.m.!</p>
<p>ah, not to discourage you guys, but D just got acceptane from her second choice transfer. Excellent school. Really excellent. She could not have got in as Freshman. Problem - location. On a good day you can bike there from my house.</p>
<p>I’m with researchingfor4emb!</p>
<p>With S2 going to Mizzou, his merit aid (meager compared to other state schools but still free $$), combined with NM and our Coverdell and UTMA accounts, will make his four years affordable for us. And it might only be three years if he does well on AP/IB tests next month. </p>
<p>S1, now married and a dad, still has $$ in his Coverdell if he decides to return to school and he gets “custody” of his UTMA in May.</p>
<p>I too will sleep later; I live in the Central time zone but telecommute to Eastern, so maybe I will get up at 6:30 rather than 5:30. No one to see off to school. Just typing that gave me goosebumps.</p>
<p>What are we trimming? Not much–we have been saving all along so the saving then is like our trimming now! </p>
<p>Won’t be eating out as much. Won’t be buying big ticket items like fridge (I hope) for 4 years. No vacations but nothing new there (we fix & paint the house on days off).</p>
<p>I went back to work, against dr’s orders. Everything I make goes to college. We have always lived cheaply and this has really been a blessing as the mortgage is a fairly small % of income and we did not pull equity out of the house over the years.</p>
<p>Vacations have been cheaper, as we can never get everyone together at the same time to go on one. :(</p>
<p>We’ve always been busy with the kids’ activities–neither drove in high school, so we were driving them to practices, performances, friends’ houses, etc. We always had a concert or a banquet to attend and lots of friends among the parents we’d met because of sports, or band, or whatever. </p>
<p>Now, H and I look at each other on Saturday night and we don’t know what to do…We’ve taken to going out to eat at restaurants or going to an occasional movie. Haven’t gotten the empty nest thing down yet…</p>
<p>Two more years of college for D2, but with the money put away from previous decades living cheaply, we’re not worried. Our problem seems to be in trying to “live it up a little” after becoming so used to being frugal.</p>
<p>DH is working so many hours and traveling so much that most nights, it’s just the dog and me. Not how I expected the empty nest to work. Am taking some quilting classes, have taken up jewelry making and watching sports on TV with impunity. Also am doing a lot more Torah reading at synagogue since I now have time to prepare. Am working on taking better care of myself.</p>
<p>If DH comes home I will be glad to spend time with him, but someone whose idea of “cutting back” his work hours means leaving the office at 9 pm is clearly married to his job, not me.</p>
<p>I recently changed careers and am looking for work. Depending on my best prospects we may be relocating and downsizing our living quarters. We’d likely use some of the equity from our current home to pay down consumer debt and towards college costs (2 more kids to go after oldest S starts college this Fall).</p>
<p>I purchased prepaid plans (529 plans) for each kid when they were really young. I’m still paying on them monthly but it is only $77/month for the 16 year old and $60/month for the 13 year old so no big deal. </p>
<p>The PP plans don’t cover everything so I also funded Education IRA’s for each kid although I don’t have a large amount in either plan thanks to weak returns in the stock market. </p>
<p>So, to answer your question, we aren’t going to have to change much in our budget. Under our current plan A both will go to a community college for years 1 and 2 if, and only if, they qualify for the honors program which is shockingly good. Then it is off to a state public for the 4-year degree under no rush or pressure. They will study abroad for at least one session and can double major if they want and can take 12 hours instead of 15 if classes get tough. The costs of an in-state public are affordable where we are and we have the PP plans anyway. </p>
<p>My oldest is on track for “Bright Futures” as well, that might help, I haven’t even factored it in to the budget to be honest. </p>
<p>After UG it is off to grad school and that is where I will really break the bank but at that point who cares? It is money well spent. I am hoping the economy and stock market can get back to positive returns but obviously that is taking wayyyyyy longer than anyone expected. This is a mere ten years after the tech bubble crash/correction so it really sucks for people in my age bracket. </p>
<p>Oh, well. </p>
<p>Just got to buck up and keep fighting.</p>
<p>Our lifestyle hasn’t changed much, even with 2 kids in college. We scrimped and saved since they were in elementary school, and had automatic monthly deductions going to a 529 plan for each kid. </p>
<p>For our older kid, we had saved enough for 5 1/2 semesters of his college. When that money ran out, we took out a home equity line of credit. Now the same amount of money that used to go monthly to the 529 is being sent to pay down the heloc. No change in cash flow.</p>
<p>Our younger child chose a cheaper college, we should be able to pay nearly 7 semesters of her expenses. When the money runs out, we will again draw on the home equity line and send the same amount we used to contribute monthly to her 529 to the heloc. Again, no change in cash flow.</p>
<p>In the meantime, when our youngest graduated hs I left my part-time job and took a full-time job. Between my higher salary and the much lower grocery bill, we actually have more cash on hand then we did before they started college! We eat out about twice a week - it’s not so expensive when there’s only 2 of us. We’re trying to get together with friends more often. We’ve also started some long-delayed home renovations - replaced the roof, new fridge, replacing some overgrown/half-dead bushes, etc. </p>
<p>Still not taking expensive vacations or putting any additions on the house - just reasonable updates to what we already have.</p>
<p>When kid #2 enters college in a year, we will probably move to a town with mediocre public schools (since we won’t need them any more), where the houses cost half what they do in my town, and the taxes are about 1/3.</p>
<p>If we can sell for what I hope to get, we will be able to buy another house for cash or at worst a small mortgage.</p>
<p>The difference in cash flow will be enormous - easily enough to fund 2/3 of a private college (although I will have two in college at once for a year).</p>
<p>We don’t really want to move, we have spent years and $$ getting this house the way we want, but the economics are unassailable. I’m already starting to stress about it.</p>
<p>Notrich- your situation sounds similar to ours. What “kills” us more than anything (financially) are the exorbitant property taxes in our town – they are nearly 2/3 of what we pay every month to the bank!! Our P&I is not so bad compared to how much equity we have in our home. The fact remains we need to cut our monthly overhead and selling the house is the easiest way to do it. Sort of sad to think of moving, as we’ve lived in this town for 20 yrs and 18 in this house, but I’m trying to think of how much easier it will be to maintain a smaller, more modest home.</p>
<p>Stop eating, live in the car, not buy health insurance when the current policy lapses. Only half kidding.</p>
<p>I just keep telling myself that every dollar I make is one less dollar we have to borrow against the HELOC… We have one more year of two in school. Then we’re down to two years of one kid’s tuition. Four years after that, the mortgage is paid off.</p>
<p>We have money direct deposited every payday to a bank account used just for EFC. It works a lot better than writing a check to savings every two weeks after we pay the other bills. If the $$$'s not in our checking account, we miss it a lot less.</p>
<p>It is not so much of personal life change…My career took a back seat while our girls were young. I always worked, but sometimes I worked part time, or from home, even when I was full time I always had to run out for school events. Now with D1 graduating from college, and D2 a year away from going to college, I am getting a second wind with my career. I have less worries at home, I am more mature, so I think I can be more focused at work. I am fortunate that my firm is able to accommendate my aspiration. In the last year, I have been given more responsibility outside of US. We will be able to stay put until D2 is off to college. After that, H and I will most likely move around the world per my firm´s request. This something I have always wanted to do when I was younger, but was hesitant to do because of our kids. We have more disposal income now because my company is paying for all of our expenses. D2´s college tuition has all been set aside, so we are putting most of income into retirement at this moment. I think if we were in this position in our 20s or 30s, we probably would have spent the extra disposal income. I am happy to be able to move around while I still have the energy and desire.</p>
<p>Our daughter has deferred beginning college to pursue her competitive figure skating career. (The college has agreed to take things one year at a time.) When she does begin college, it will actually be less expensive than what we are doing now! I think my husband and I will take a non-skating vacation and take care of some things around the house. On a more personal level, it will be a major transition for us, as our daughter is an only child, and we are a very close family.</p>
<p>The only real change (and it was really the long term plan) is to be working closer to full time now than I used to. I’m self-employed so I can take on as much work as I want. (Theoretically. In practice I rarely turn anything down, but my business has grown.) We are very lucky that college is being paid for by money that we inherited. Not the original plan, but it’s made things much easier.</p>