<p>I know this has been discussed here before, but I could not find the thread: how much money do you save when your son or daughter goes to college. Sounds a little crass. But my point is the tuition + expenses we pay is offset somewhat by the money saved from lower food budgets and piano tuition etc. What is your best estimate? Also, what is the taxes that we save when we fork over 15-20K in college expenses?</p>
<p>I saved very little money on everyday expenses when my son went to college. His last year home, he ate very few meals at home. If you think you will save money by your child being out of the house, think again! All other expenses are the same in our house - electric, heat, phone, etc.</p>
<p>Everyone's costs/savings will vary. You can add up the travel, entertainment, food, laundry, water, electricity, etc. expenses for your child. I know our water usage and gas/electricity usage plummeted without the long showers and computer time. Travel became once in a while trips instead of daily short ones. Look at your week and analyze activities.</p>
<p>We saved very little. That which we did save was offset by travel to/from college both for her and for us, the fact that we can't make the trip there and back in one day so spent on hotels and food, the "extras" necessary for her room in college, etc. And there's no way that she ate at home enough to offset the cost of the dining plan!</p>
<p>I will be saving $50/month for dance lessons, $80/month for riding lessons, $150/mo for music lessons, lots of money for food for weekly band competitions in the fall. We will be taking our extra car off the road, so we will save insurance (the gas will even out - more running after kids with existing cars). This is all on D2. On D1, I didn't save much because she didn't take as many lessons, and she took her car to school for an off-campus job.</p>
<p>I think this year on D1, we got a $1600 College credit - Hope, I think.</p>
<p>We didn't save anything either, and totally failed to take into account how much it would cost for her visits home.</p>
<p>I second Chedva (though we don't have to stay in a hotel when visiting DD1). Except for possible nickels and dimes, the only place you might realize savings is if you can take a car off the road for insurance while your child is away.</p>
<p>My weekly grocery bill went down by about $40 per week (one son a freshman, away; one son in high school still home). And I know I'm doing less laundry, but electricity costs are rising, so that's probably been off-set. Then we sold his car...so our insurance costs have gone down by about $500/year.</p>
<p>We definitely saved money on food. When my son leaves for school this summer, we will be saving a LOT on food. He's a 6ft football player and can definitely eat. Now college and the football team can feed him. Also, because it's "Sports" related; I probably spent close to $500+ a year on my son on Football shoes, soccer, shoes, registration, practice clothes, etc.... I know it's "Sport" related, but the college will pay for all of that now. Also, my son won't be driving that much in school. Currently, he drives about 30 miles a day to school, sports, home, girlfriend's house, etc.... At college, everything is right there on campus. That's about 7800 miles a year; divided by 15mpg is 520 gallon; times $3 a gallon is about $1560 a year in gas. His 2nd year and on he will be driving, but no where near the miles he's doing now. Also, I checked with our car insurance company and our insurance will go down because he will be driving so infrequently.</p>
<p>We've already crunched the numbers. We will be giving him a monthly stipend to spend as he wants, but even after everything else, we will save about $300 a month. That includes new expenditures. </p>
<p>Each family is different. There are a lot of kids who don't really cost their parents that much money. Their extra curricular activities were free or very cheap. They didn't drive much and use a lot of gas and such. Many parents didn't send their kids to numerous summer camps and such throughout the year. When they are in college, chances are when they are home for summer, they will get a part time job. There is a lot of money to be saved. Unfortunately, a lot of parents don't recognize the savings and they don't take advantage of it. Plus, there's a lot of parents who can't manage their money at all and therefor any savings will be spent directly anyway. Fortunately, most who visit websites and forums like this are a bit more motivated and responsible.</p>
<p>I thought the title of this thread might be some kind of joke. Sure, maybe we're saving $40/week at the grocery store -- not that I can really tell, since prices have spiked so much -- if you don't count the almost $200/week we're paying for the kids to eat elsewhere. Less laundry detergent and utlity usage at home, vs. room fees and coin laundry (with really expensive detergent) at school. We're saving about $500 on car insurance since they are more than 100 miles away (and don't have a car with them). They generally paid for their own gas, but I chipped in a tank now and then -- so that's maybe $50/month. Which doesn't begin to pay for visiting them once a year, or letting them come home for important events, etc.</p>
<p>I buy fewer CDs, since there is no one with whom to share them and to talk about them. We go to fewer movies, and rent fewer DVDs (a LOT fewer).</p>
<p>We don't have to pay for standardized tests for a few years. Yippee.</p>
<p>Then there are the hidden costs: No one to walk the dog if I am late, or have to go away on business. Moving the patio furniture in and out of winter storage cannot be done completely alone. Dinner sometimes gets purchased to go because there's no one home to get something started. Life is generally a little less interesting.</p>
<p>We save about 200/month on food, and 50/month on car insurance (our insurance offers a discount if student isn't driving car during the school year). Travel between quarters is via MegaBus, so that is cheap. We drop off / pick up at the beginning/end of year, but we make that a mini-vacation (with visiting musuems and so on).</p>
<p>A lot will depend. Saved daughter's 20 minute showers, and corresponding water/electricy usage. Offset by having her 3 aquariums still at home and operational. Saved a bit on her car expenses, as she had no vehicle at school.</p>
<p>Son was no bargain. He always came home with full laundry loads, and machine ran a full day. He had vehicle at school, and we paid all costs. He was a music performance/ed major and needed the car for teaching activities and gigs.</p>
<p>Both were within 90 minutes of home via car, and we made periodic trips, 5-10 annually, often three day weekends combining son's performance concerts and daughter's starting varsity soccer games that meshed with our schedules.</p>
<p>These trips would include resupply of foodstuff/staples purchased on sale or in bulk. Add in gas costs, dinners out, and hotel stays.</p>
<p>Only bargain was the dog boarded at her place of employment for free when we went, a nice perk. </p>
<p>Net/net, we saved nothing out of pocket.</p>
<p>Tax savings should include Hope and Lifetime learning credits based on your costs and tax bracket, potentially educational loan interest deductions if you have a Parents Plus or private loan. These will vary... consult the appropriate IRS pubs and or your tax advisor.</p>
<p>The main benefit was the ability to sit at home nekkid. :D</p>
<p>Your results will vary, as there are too many specifics to generalize.</p>
<p>JHS -
"Life is generally a little less interesting."</p>
<p>Yes, that's the major problem.</p>
<p>Taxes saved will depend on which tax benefit you take, whether there are any scholarships/grants involved, what expenses you are paying and what your income is. Generally the only expenses you can use for the education tax benefits are tuition and fees. You cannot generally use room and board etc. There are some exceptions such as for 529 account withdrawals. Each tax benefit has it's own definition of what constitutes a 'qualified education expense'. IRS publication 970 details all the education related tax benefits here.
<a href="http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf</a></p>
<p>Brief summary of some of the benefits
A.Grants/scholarships over the amount of tuition/fees/books are taxable income.
B. Hope tax credit. First 2 years of school only. Qualified expenses are tuition/fees only. Maximum credit $1650 based on 100% of the first $1100 and 50% of the 2nd $1100 tuition/fees. Starts to phase out for adjusted incomes of $47k up to a max of $57k or $94k to $114k for joint returns. Is a tax credit - ie you can reduce your tax by up to $1650.
C. Lifetime Learning Credit. Maximum $2000. Any school year. Based on 20% of the first $10,000 of tuition/fees. Same income phase out as Hope. Is a credit like hope so you can reduce your tax by up to $2000. Cannot take hope and LLC in the same year for the same student.
D. Tuition/fees deduction. Is an income adjustment **not **a credit. Maximum deduction is $4000. Phase out starts at $65k or $130k for joint up to $160k up a max income of $80k or $160k.</p>
<p>There are lots of other rules - no double dipping - you cannot use the same expense for more than one tax benefit (ie you cannot use it to calculate the non tax part of grants/scholarships and for the Hope tax credit). Read the publication. I do a spread sheet to figure out the benefits and which will be the better one to take.</p>
<p>JHS,</p>
<p>So true - all of it, especially your DVD rental comment. In fact, our budget was blown out of the water last December, with D home for a month, mostly with DVD rentals....</p>
<p>D graduates in June, and actually passed up a high paying summer job in Chicago to come home for the summer (with no specific summer plans yet...) before heading off for grad school in the fall. Massmom and I are both looking forward to the summer....</p>
<p>Oh, we've saved a lot! We went from being a 4 person household to just 3 of us. The thing is, even though son was 1/4 of the household, he ate 1/3 of the food! As a result, we've cut our grocery bill by a third. He also ate a lot when we went out to eat, so we've saved that. Water bill is less (he liked long showers). I don't pay for a cell phone for him any more, that's $50 a month. I no longer buy school lunches, that was about $75.00. Toiletries, incidentals, occasional money for movies -- none of that is our problem any more. </p>
<p>All told, my recent estimate is between $300-500 per month gross savings. Even after spending maybe $100 a month on him -- mailing little gifts, stuff like that -- our household has probably saved about $2000 since he left home. </p>
<p>Our situation is different than other parents because he has a full ride, so I don't pay for much at school, and he does not visit frequently, and pays for part of that out of his grants. </p>
<p>I have been doing the math on this one because I'm trying to demonstrate to my partner that subsidizing my son's spending summer away is more cost effective than having him sleeping on the couch eating our food at home. :-)</p>
<p>Our yearly outlay for D's music EC is close to $10,000 (totalling up all activities: lessons, youth orchestra, summer festival, European concert tour, instrument maintenance and repair...).</p>
<p>But iIt's not going to be saved so much as redirected into college expenses!</p>
<p>Since D is the sole occupant of the third floor of our house, and it's on a separate heating circuit, I suppose we save a little there, in the winter. And I know I buy less laundry detergent, since the dirty practice gear or uniform she generated nearly every day of the year now gets washed at (or by, hooray!) the college, and the water bill is lower too thanks to fewer loads of laundry and fewer showers. I think we buy less orange juice too. Getting her home for one or two visits a year is a cheap train ticket (I pay for holidays); moving her at year's end/beginning is a tank of gas. </p>
<p>With two still at home I can't say life is actually less interesting. Of course we, like everybody else here, miss who our college kid is as a person. On top of that, for me, a piece of what's missing is (for lack of a better term) female companionship - it's just me in a sea of guys, here. Goodness knows I like guys :D but I miss my girl a lot.</p>
<p>A lot for me.</p>
<p>For both kids it was around ~$1800 savings to remove them from the car insurance, something I could do as they were out of state attending colleges without cars. </p>
<p>With my son it was $50 off the weekly food bill (something I am reminded of every time he comes home to visit & the grocery bill zooms right up again)!</p>
<p>My daughter had been driving her own car (which I owned), so when she went to college, I gave my car to my son and took her car - more savings for me to be down to 1 vehicle rather than 2. She commuted daily to school, probably paying at least $40-$50 for gas weekly - so those expenses were gone. Given the high commute expense I had been giving her a rather generous allowance when she was in high school -- I think I was giving her $100/week -- when she went off to college I dropped the allowance. (I pay for tuition & housing, the rest comes from her own earnings over the summer + work study or other jobs). </p>
<p>I also made changes to my kids' health insurance to cut down the premiums -- basically opting for a higher deductible as their routine expenses & visits would be covered at the college health clinic. </p>
<p>Plus there are all sorts of incidentals like restaurant meals or movies that are expenses I would pick up when the kids were home but don't have when they are gone, and I also dropped to the cheapest Netflix plan.</p>
<p>I doubt we save much. No more paying for APs and SATs! But Mathson wasn't a big eater, and earned his own spending money. I'm sure we use less electricity as his computer was always on. I thought flights to Pittsburgh would be less expensive, but prices are higher either because of vacation time, or because my husband wants him to arrive at times that are convenient for him, rather than ones that are easy on the checkbook!</p>