<p>I wish… <em>the rushing sound coming from cheers’ wallet drowns out all other coherent statements</em></p>
<p>Food definitely down … the rest, not much changed. </p>
<p>A break on his car insurance since his car is in our garage and not at school. Also no gas expense for that vehicle. No gym fees for him – but this summer training will more than make up for that. No handouts or allowances out of pocket – and he is working summers which means that the handouts are pretty much done even when he’s home.</p>
<p>The only thing I saw decrease was – the mess she often (usually) left behind.</p>
<p>My parents have commented on how long food lasts now, too.</p>
<p>Honestly, the 2 areas I’ve seen decreased are food expenses and water/electricity. My daughter takes 20 minute showers, somedays it seems like 3 a day. I’ve tried a flow restrictor, and setting the water heater at the lowest possible setting. The only thing that seems to work (banging on the ceiling sure doesn’t) is flushing 2 toilets and opening 2 sinks droppimg the water pressure to the point where she gets the hint. </p>
<p>When they’re home, food disappears. Literally. It vanishes. Fridge is full in the morning, and there’s nothing left come supper. They’re like a plague of locusts. Don’t even plan on that spoonful of ham salad as a snack before bed… it was gone by noon. I could feed a regiment on what they eat in a day. And bottled water… what’s wrong with water from the tap? It’s good enough for me and the dog…</p>
<p>Well, I’ll offer a different point of view.</p>
<p>Of course the tuition/room/board exceeds anything you’ve ever spent ever before.</p>
<p>But there’s no more weekly allowance, no more “lunch money,” no more “Sally’s having a surprise party and I need to buy a gift.” Instead, I just give them a lump sum at the beginning of each semester and tell them everthing’s on them. So maybe it just FEELS better, because it’s not Mommy-As-ATM.</p>
<p>Except when they come home, we seem to go to the drug store a lot, for deodorant, razor blades, toothpaste, etc.,etc., etc. And guess who winds up paying for that . . .</p>
<p>I haven’t experienced this myself yet, but I did tell Jr that his June allowance is the last he’s ever seeing. We’ll cover tuition, room, board, books and mandatory fees, but if he wants pocket money he better figure out how to earn it – starting June 7, the day after his last high school final.</p>
<p>I already psychologically factored the music lessons/other music expenses (which other music families know are LARGE) into the tuition…so I can’t even feel good about a “savings” there…</p>
<p>I haven’t given my kids spending money in years — BUT eldest just hit me up $50 for a shared storage locker for his stuff (he’s staying there this summer, but there’s some gap between housing) as apparently he is TOTALLY out of money. LOL</p>
<p>I think you can count on saving at least $300 a month; that adds up over the course of the year. $200 on food, $100 on water, toiletries, energy consumption. Add in more if you used to pay for lessons, school trips, prom dresses, clothes - once they are in college all expenses except school tuition, room and basic board, fees are their responsibility in my book. We do pay cell phone - but it is a family plan and costs between all phones by that carrier are free.</p>
<p>I’ve never been so poor.</p>
<p>Food expenses went down except during wrestling season. During wrestling season they were the same as if he were at home because he never ate during those months anyway :)</p>
<p>There have been no expenses for clothes since all his clothes are furnished at school and the kahkis and polo shirts that fit him in HS still fit him fine. If he needs to get really dressed up, he just wears his SDBs or his Choker</p>
<p>We were constantly being nickled and dimed to death when he was in HS and now there is none of that.</p>
<p>Tuition bill, etc will come out of another account—I’m primarily concerned about my household budget. Just wanted to check on other’s experiences.I am sure my grocery bill and electricity will decrease—but he may make up for it when he comes home!! Thanks to all!</p>
<p>decreases noticed in the water and electric bills when D went off to college;
decrease in gasoline bill
decrease in car insurance (we took D off but will put her back on for the summer)
decrease in grocery bill (though not as much as if it were S…)
decrease in “sundries” like shampoo, etc…
phone stayed the same since we use a family plan for the cell phone;
no payments for voice lessons, dance lessons
no costs associated with “Booster Clubs” at school</p>
<ul>
<li>Food bill down a lot when son is gone, not so much with daughter</li>
<li>Utilities (water/gas/electric) down slightly</li>
<li>I dropped the Netflix subscription down to $5/month for 1 movie at a time</li>
<li>Big savings on car insurance – kids off entirely</li>
<li>Modest savings on daughter’s health insurance, due to inexpensive college health plan - I kept the regular plan, but shifted to a very high deductable, figuring the college plan will be adequate to fill the gap</li>
<li>Big savings with daughter because I quit giving her a weekly allowance or supplying spending money<br></li>
<li>No more dance-performance related expenses</li>
</ul>
<p>So overall I think that home expenses are down by about $3K per year with the empty nest.</p>
<p>When I called my insurance company regarding my daughter not needing car insurance in the fall, they said she needed to stay on the policy, as she is going to school instate. Though she’ll only be driving on holiday breaks, as my out of state son did, somehow the company looks at this differently. </p>
<p>Have any of the rest of you experienced anything similar? </p>
<p>So much for one major expense reduction!</p>
<p>Hmm…my stepson is at college only 7 miles away (he’s residential there though). We take him off the car insurance during the semester and then put him back on for long breaks. We’re in Mass and the key is for he and we to sign an exclusion form, saying that he will NOT be driving the car(s) in question. It’s a CYA for the insurance company…IF he were to drive our cars while excluded, they wouldn’t have to pay anything for a claim. We can’t just remove him from the policy, but we can specifically exclude him from it.</p>
<p>My kids all went out of state (far!) and our insurance company would not let us take them off and put them back on. They have a discount for kids more than a certain number of miles from home, so we did get a substantial cost reduction. But to take them off and put them back on would mean putting them back on at a significantly higher rate because they would then be considered “new”. They would also not be allowed to drive during any breaks.</p>
<p>The same thing happened when we went to Germany. We were not allowed to discontinue our car insurance (we kept a car here) because our premiums would increase significantly when we returned.</p>
<p>USAA Insurance has a deal where if the parents have USAA car insurance they will insure their kids who are at the Academy for free while they are at the Academy even when they are home on break.</p>
<p>I would save money on the food bill if only I would cook smaller amounts. I tend to cook enough for 5 (son ate enough for two) and then we have leftovers. My daughter wasn’t a big eater so I didn’t notice as much difference when she was gone. I think her brother started eating her share… I didn’t realize how many bananas my older son ate until mid September when I was throwing out my second bunch that had turned dark brown because no one else ate them. A gallon of milk will last a week with the three of us and two days when both college kids are home.</p>
<p>Re: auto insurance…it is called “away at college/school” and should reduce cost of insurance significantly. If D/S owns the car and are leaving it home, change the primary driver to one of the parents. D/S remain insured to drive when home from school.</p>