<p>Just wondering---folks have told me to factor in the "savings" you will realize in your monthly household expenses while "junior" is living away at college.
Less food, less water, less energy used etc</p>
<p>Asking for your collective experience on what you saved when junior went away???</p>
<p>Mine is a strapping 6 foot, 190 lb athlete with a bottomless pit for an appetite.
He uses lots of water for at least 2 showers and 2 big loads of laundry per day</p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I don't know what the figures will be exactly as neither of mine are cheap to support OUT of the house but I have noticed:</p>
<p>Food bills aren't that much lower. I buy better stuff for H and me, organic etc. We eat out more. We go to the movies more. We entertain more. We spoil the boys when they visit with favorite meals etc.</p>
<p>Utility bills are slightly lower.</p>
<p>Laundry bill is only slightly lower which I can't figure out.</p>
<p>Housekeeper will be less expensive as we can cut down to once a week.</p>
<p>Airfare expensess have gone up. Phone expenses have gone up. Pocket money to boys has gone up.</p>
<p>Biggest savings of empty nest? Anxiety and stress are greatly reduced. It's almost sinful how much time one can spend in one's own thoughts. I must have been ready for it because it is a little piece of heaven for me.</p>
<p>Now that you mention it, I will have much less stress/anxiety with #1 son out of the house--no more waiting up till midnight for him to come home</p>
<h1>2 son is only 13, so he has to be home at 9 or 10</h1>
<p>I should have a year or 2 of more sleep until I have to start waiting up for #2!
LOL</p>
<p>If your son used to drive and now he won't, that is the biggest savings.</p>
<p>If you add the tuition, and the room, that will probably be your increase in costs. The board will be similar to what you pay now, maybe the board will be a little less, water might be $100 a year cheaper, electricity and heating might be slightly cheaper, flights will be more, he will probably need new clothes, maybe a new computer, books, etc.</p>
<p>You may not have to pay auto insurance when he is in school and the costs of gasoline and car repair will drop.</p>
<p>If he has a car in college, there won't be much savings. Sorry.</p>
<p>I don't do a monthly budget but do notice the difference. Some expenses go up to compensate- such as trips to and from campus instead of the daily running around, and food sent to/with child instead of consumed at home. We may spend more on prepared foods, but use only the microwave more often, half the dishwasher loads, less bathroom cleanup, far less computer and light energy, hot water use, laundry, sundries for schoolwork (had to chuckle at the lady exiting Office Max with the big piece of posterboard...). With e-mail and cell phones no extra charges there. I really noticed things when he was just home for a month.</p>
<p>Food bill has seen a drastic cut. Going out to eat has seen a drastic increase. Electric bill has seen a big increase...I'm thinking this is the new 52 inch behemoth in the living room.</p>
<p>It's hard to have time to analyze the budget because our two take turns calling for money almost everyday! Seriously! I miss the days when electronic funds transfers weren't possible ; )</p>
<p>You're kidding, right dreamer? </p>
<p>I've noticed the biggest difference in the electric bill with our older son gone. I have 2 kids in college and when they come home our food bill goes way up. Daughter is a vegetarian and likes to get all kinds of different food to cook. My problem is I still haven't adjusted to cooking for three and we end up with lots of leftovers. When our older son is home I have to buy a gallon of milk every 3 days, but when it's just the three of us, it will last more than a week.</p>
<p>let's see</p>
<p>gallons of milk a week 7, now 1
grocery bill $150, now $40
laundry every day, now twice a week</p>
<p>Whatever savings we experience as a result of slightly lower grocery and utility bills is more than spent on meals out when we visit him or he comes home. It's too difficult to take him off of the auto insurance, so no savings there. Tuition is like having two extra kids at the private HS he attended.</p>
<p>That's an optimistic way of looking at college tuition!</p>
<p>
I guess part of the savings depends on the arrangement the parent has with the kids. My kids are largely responsible for their own expenses, to be paid from what they earn over the summers and from their work study jobs. So yes -- my household expenses are down.</p>
<p>Here is what I have saved with my daughter in college:</p>
<ul>
<li>She's not driving, so no car insurance for her</li>
<li>No more paying for gas & maintenance incurred during her daily commute to the city for high school </li>
<li>I now have one car instead of 2, so there is insurance + maintenance saving for me as well</li>
<li>no more "allowance" paid to daughter</li>
<li>health insurance costs are down, because (surprisingly) her college offered a very inexpensive supplemental insurance policy (about $150 or so for a year's worth of coverage), so I bought the supplemental and switched her to a high-deductible plan at home with lower premiums. [I said "surprisingly" because my son's health insurance costs have NOT been less with student health plans -- in fact, he looked at the health plan at his current college and found he could do better buying a policy directly from Blue Cross]</li>
</ul>
<p>I didn't notice my grocery bill going down much when my daughter went off to college, but when my son is gone - vs. his being at home - it's $50/week. </p>
<p>Obviously, the cost of college tuition & room and board is more than the savings -- but the first year my son was in college I borrowed more than I had to in a PLUS loan because I failed to account for those home savings -- so it's valuable for each parent to look at their own situations to evaluate where there might be savings. For example, you also need to look at what is being spent for your kid's EC's & activities.</p>
<p>Much lower food bill (didn't notice for D, but definitely for S). Water bill is about half of when both were home. Insurance doesn't change--NJ doesn't let us take him off the bill. Electric plummets--no house full of lights left burning. Much less laundry, much less dishes. All very noticeable.</p>
<p>We also save about 50/week on groceries - and probably eat out less (even including visiting.) Transportation on breaks is not a problem due to Megabus. Insurance is down about 400/year because he does not have his car at school.</p>
<p>We basically paid COA for our first son at college. On the home front, we saved on gas for the car that he had to use and for our trips to watch him in games,etc, fees for his sports and music, allowance, groceries (milk particularly), all of those checks I had to write for high school (senior year was particularly demanding), one less mouth to feed when eating out, eating out less since many times we would eat out when we attended some function of his. Though we incurred additional costs in visiting him, they were offset by other savings in terms of college visits, applications, tests, etc that we were spending in the last year and a half. Oldest son spent less than COA, so it worked out fine.</p>
<p>With the second one, we are experiencing even more savings because he was a particularly expensive highschooler with many trips, activities, workshops, etc. And we would participate and go to all of his activities. His highschool tuition was also high along with all of the private lessons he took. He was heavily involved in so many activities that we heavily subsidized.Plus his senior year was horrendously expensive with allof the auditions and college trips, and tapings and shows. At college, nearly everything is included in the program tuition. When he is home for breaks and summer, my cash flow rushes like an overflowing river. We do MUCH better with him off in college. We visit him twice a year but that is within our reduced household budget. This third one is not costing as much as his brothers did in highschool, at least not at this point, so we will not see much change in cash flow with him in school. </p>
<p>One thing we did not do with our kids is load up with expensive new stuff for college. We just bought a few things that were needed, and scavenged what we had around the house and from those we knew. I figured that once they got to college they would have a better idea as to what they wanted to buy in terms of their rooms, clothes, stuff. They did not want much so that was no big deal. But several friends of mine spent small and not so small fortunes at local Bed Bath & Beyond, Walmart, Target, etc. Wanted all new stuff. I already had the XLong bottom sheets, and extra comforters so we just took what I had. This year when my brother moved to much smaller dwellings, I took a lot of stuff that the kids will need at some time and have it all in my basement. By squirreling away this sort of stuff, I don't spend that much when they go off to school. But then we don't spend that much on clothes or "stuff" anyways.</p>
<p>Lately I've been feeding many dinners to my youngest son's friends in their senior year of h.s.
He so misses his older siblings that he fills up his life by inviting friends over here. I must admit I'm happier with a fuller dinner table anyway. It gets dull just "us 3." So when he goes off next year, I hope I'll notice a big foodbill difference. With that, maybe H and I will go out more or buy some gourmet-ish food to eat at home by candlelight. That'd be nice! (maybe)
But once youngest leaves home, I'll STILL have to feed the 90-lb. dog and 2 guinea pigs that he got to deal with the departure of his older sibs.
I a real sucker.</p>
<p>To those of you saying car insurance doesn't change...there are some insurance companies that reduce rates if your child is X miles away for Y months of the year, and doesn't have a car. The child isn't taken off of the insurance, but the rate is reduced.</p>
<p>Contact your insurance company!</p>
<p>^I believe that depends on the state.</p>
<p>I did contact our insurance company, but like most things in Massachusetts, it's cumbersome. Our only option is to take S off the policy for a month at a time, and put him back on when he's home. So, he was home for most of September (quarter system), came home for a weekend in October, home for Thanksgiving, Christmas ..... You get the picture. I probably could have taken him off for February this year, but if he decides to come home for a weekend in Boston, I don't want to worry about whether or not he's on the policy -- so we've just left him on.</p>
<p>garland You may want to check with your insurance company once again, because it's more likely to depend on how far away from home your student is living. I know that in NJ if your kid is >200 miles from home, the insurance company will switch them over to a different coverage for "occasional" driving, like the Thanksgiving visit, Christmas, and summer too!! Sometimes one needs to be pushy and insistent with the questions.</p>