<p>Trying to benefit from the experiences of others with this one~. It makes sense to me that household expenses decrease when your kid goes off to school. Electricity, gasoline, food, etc. bills should go down. Just curious how much of a savings in my household budget to expect. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>But then you have to add in the price of college!</p>
<p>Not really. You have to add cost of communications, visits to college (or home), care packages. Not to mention all the movies and concerts, etc… you go to now that you’ve got the time!</p>
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<p>Certainly not so you’d notice. ;)</p>
<p>The only notable difference in household expenses was in the water bill! Son #1 was really bad about losing track of time in the shower. I pulled out water bills and showed him the difference, before and after, and he’s been much better during vacations at home. Younger children stepped up and filled “the void” (food, gas and the general “stuff” of high school life).</p>
<p>Care packages to school (no, not necessary but they do this mom’s heart good) also take up any slack. I don’t expect to see any real decrease in household spending until the youngest heads off to college.</p>
<p>Extra-curricular expenses are the major decrease that I expect to see. Not having to pay for her dance classes & costumes should “save” enough to pay for books!</p>
<p>Well, we are sort of shopping for a house 70% the size of our current home. This might save a few bux. :)</p>
<p>The expenses that went down are weekly grocery shopping, gas (I used to drive a LOT of miles to my kids’ extracurriculars seven days a week), and fees for extracurricular activities/lessons/classes, along with summer programs. However, the “money saved” is not noticeable because new expenses have taken their place (though this is one area to “find” money to put toward these expenses) such as tuition/room/board, travel to and from school, books, our trips to visit them or see their events, etc.</p>
<p>well if you don’t spend money making excuses to go visit a few times a year, and or count in staying in hotels, going out to dinner, and buying new clothes for the trip- or even just sending their siblings to go visit.
then I suppose you might save money- but usually, I really don’t think there is a lot saved-</p>
<p>We already carpooled so didn’t save a lot there, and her ECs were volunteer positions, so that didn’t cost anything either.</p>
<p>But you are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and can visualize the day when you won’t be driving them someplace or buying their special shampoo so even as you are doing it, it is bittersweet.</p>
<p>“Do expenses decrease when they go?”</p>
<p>Hahahahahahahahaha…</p>
<p>Have to agree with others - most things go up - postage, travel to see student and the like but did notice we were saving on the e.c.s.</p>
<p>Well, of course there are the new expenses–but I read the question of “do other expenses go down” as regards to somewhat mitigating the obvious new ones (room, board, tuition, travel, etc).</p>
<p>And i think yes, they do. Water bill was halved, electricity went down (we are demons for turning lights off; S, not so much), food bill plummets, less gas for cars (H and I walk most of the time), and of course all those nickel ad dime school and EC related fees.</p>
<p>In my mind, if you replace all that with increased restaurant and movie going, then paying for school must not be taxing you too much!</p>
<p>Our car insurance went way down when my son went off to college. Don’t forget to check about this.</p>
<p>Well, the cookies last a lot longer, the laundry pile is smaller. . .</p>
<p>But there’s that whopping tuition bill every month. </p>
<p>Hmmm. After I do the math, I think I’ll have to agree with digmedia.</p>
<p>For us, ONE way of putting some money toward college and college loans during the year is the “found” money of no longer paying for ECs and summer programs. That money now goes toward college expenses. It isn’t enough, but it is one way of finding funds at present to pay a portion of the college bill/loans. So, while expenses are “up” due to having to pay for college, some other expenses went down (like food, gas, lessons) to help but it isn’t nearly enough…of course.</p>
<p>The expenses go WAY up, because, you have to buy them things like care packages full of yummies like cookies, you have to increase the cell phone bill because you’re on the phone with them more and they’re talking more too, plus, all those trips to see them or for them to see you, and they seem to eat more, and the dining hall food gets old after a few weeks so they need groceries, etc. But you won’t mind, because they’re so cute :)</p>
<p>*But you won’t mind, because they’re so cute *</p>
<p>aren’t they though?</p>
<p>which brings to mind the new camera 
or at least a larger storage card</p>
<p>Only expense I noticed dropping significantly was food.</p>
<p>I believe our expenses have gone down. Hard to tell, since I am quite capable of increasing my spending to compensate. But my first two were boys, so our grocery budget changed. All my kids are also heavily into music, so when they leave, I don’t have to pay for music lessons anymore. D’s violin lesson is $60 per week, plus an hour drive each way (she doesn’t drive, so I take her). That’s a nice chunk of change - and time - I’m looking forward to having back.</p>
<p>A lot of the costs are fixed. Also some costs don’t scale linearly by people. If you have an average-sized family and only one member leaves, I doubt the decrease in cost will be significant --certainly not enough to offset the cost of accommodations at the university.</p>