@eandesmom No problem. I am overly sensitive about the topic as well. That is why certain posters on CC drive me nuts, b/c they come across like “let them eat cake.”
@Mom2aphysicsgeek I have to agree with @eandesmom our EFC is over $60K, there is no way in heck that we can afford that times 4 kids. We would totally have to sell our house, not put away as much for retirement and really cut out a ton of stuff. We live in a very high tax area. Our real estate alone are over $16K. I will say that thank god my step son is out of school, but it was’t easy. We are total full pay.
QOTD- my DD has been working since last summer and has been saving her money for her spending money in college and a nice little bit for after college. She has budgeted $100 a week for spending in college. We totally plan to pay for everything else. Her money is her fun money.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek I just read your latest post and totally took what you said the other way, sorry:)
Cable: My cable (Dish Network) bill is $28 per month with a DVR. We initially took premium channels to get free installation and then downgraded to just basic service (broadcast channels and few other channels like Food TV, HGTV etc…) It’s supposedly higher with new DVR, but my DS bargained with them and they kept it at our old price. DS is my service guy as well as handyman. He makes all service calls and tries to fix things around home.
Chip and Joanna Gaines=life goals 
Those two are adorable and I really approve of how kind they are to each other.
D18 does not have strep (good!) but is miserably sick and in the quarantine dorm until her fever breaks, poor kid. Sucky way to be at camp.
Glad she doesn’t have strep,hope the fever breaks soon. @MotherOfDragons Money wise- over on the 2016 forum, awhile back we pretty much declared all families are different in this respect. Personally, my mom said she will give us the necessary money. Not a ton, but we’ve never gotten a ton.
Principal sent out an email saying schedules are out and here are the XYZ reasons you can email your counselor for schedule changes before school starts. So I emailed S’s counselor. Got autoreply from the counselor saying XYZ aren’t reasons for schedule changes before school starts.
Meanwhile, I’ve decided the school registrar is a unicorn. People don’t see her right now, but swear they’ve seen her, but nobody can tell you when she will reappear, and there is no evidence that she’s been there.
RE: cable bill. Our service is package for phone (what some think of as land line but it is VOIP), cable TV and internet. Having just opened the bill today (online, so no one ever notices), I realize that the cable TV portion is $88 (before taxes) just for the TV service and two basic (non-DVR) boxes. That is a LOT of money for a house where little TV is watched. Must ponder. Of course, my phone and internet prices would probably increase if I cancelled TV…
Re: cable bill. I’m doomed because the one person who watches the most TV here is DH. The kids dont watch it at all. Luckily we have Google now so its pretty cheap.
Cable: We have uVerse that includes the internet and it was getting more and more expensive each year. We have the max package with HD and 4 TVs/DVRs but we use the TV a lot and DVR a lot of shows. I’d call every year to get it back down to what it was the prior year and never had any problems (it still crept up a bit but far less than what they were trying to charge). This past year they just would NOT do it so they wanted me to switch to DirectTV and it was going to be waaaaay less. So the tech comes out to install it and basically says she can’t get up the ladder due to our yard being sloped and do I just want to keep uVerse if she can get it down to the same price? Ummmm YES that’s what I wanted in the first place. So now I have uVerse for over $100 cheaper for at least a year. I hope it isn’t a huge issue next year when I call again after they raise the price.
QOTD: We really need to figure out a budget. My DD is away at UPenn for a 3 week summer program and has been spending money like crazy (they don’t like the food on campus and are eating out a lot). She just can’t do that in college when I’ll be paying out of pocket. It will probably depend on where she ends up as some schools I will be paying a lot less out of pocket due to better financial aid. She will most likely be working next summer before college and have an on campus job to help with her own spending. I will continue to cover cel phone, clothes, etc.
QOTD: I haven’t given a budget much thought for D who heads off to college this year. We’ll cover insurance and cell phone (like we do now). D has paid her own entertainment, restaurants and incidentals in HS and I assumed she’d do the same in college. She worked summers in HS, though this summer has been mostly taking art classes for fun. She’s pretty frugal. Mom: ‘You know, you could take more babysitting jobs and have more money to spend.’ D: ‘Hmm, or I could buy less stuff and have more free time.’
@Mom2aphysicsgeek yeah, I get pretty riled up with the attitude of “well if your EFC says THAT you MUST be rich” followed by the “you are clearly a loser who squanders all their money on frivolous things and a poor excuse for a parent/human being for not having saved enough if your EFC says THAT and I feel sorry for your child who has been robbed as a result”.
FYI just read that the June SAT scores may be on Naviance if your school has input them. Unfortunately my school doesn’t even have Naviance so I have to wait until tomorrow.
@eandesmom. Exactly.
@MSHopeful, I would have expected a place like Penn to have good food. Maybe the other girls don’t want to eat there and your D doesn’t want to feel left out?
S’s school has the kids input their own scores to Naviance 
@mommdc She said it’s not very good. She and the three other kids that went from her school district have all complained about the food on their blogs. But I definitely think some of it is just wanting to hang out with her new friends too. She ordered cookies one night from Insomnia (they deliver until 3 am) and that was almost $20! I don’t think all of the food options are open during the summer, so maybe during the regular school year there are more (and better) choices?
** Cable ** We hooked up an HD antenna and get one each of ABC, NBC, CBS, CW, Fox, and PBS. This is amazing considering that we’re in a valley and how hilly it is here. But we’re in a river valley which equals highway which equals a string of cities up and down the valley that we can reach. The setup is great until things like the college football games which all seem to be on ESPN or somesuch cable channel . But the internet… it just keeps creeping up. We’re running about $100/month for 15Mbps download, and we have no leverage because Time Warner is the only game in town.
** Saving money when kids are away at school **
Our food bill is half what it was before DS and DD went away. Our propane bill is also 40% lower, probably because of so much less use of the clothes dryer. No school pictures, no required sports or school musical t-shirts, many fewer sets of trainers since they’re not running track or XC anymore. But for us that’s more than offset by higher taxes because of no more child earned income credits. Ah well, it’s good to finally pay our way (or part of our way, at least). 
Our phone bill is actually higher now too, bc they didn’t have smart phones until they went away to college and they’re on our plan.
** Allowance **
No allowances for the kids at college; they work there for both spending money and necessities like laundry and books. DS’17 while he’s at home gets $20/month which he seems to spend on food and t-shirts at meets. Well, not t-shirts so much anymore, since they usually give a meet t-shirt to the top 3 finishers in each event . I’m not sure what to do about allowance when he goes to school; if he makes the track team he won’t have time for a job, but he’s not likely to offset that with much scholarship money either, unless he takes a couple more seconds off his current PR. Something else we need to work out still X_X .
**Saving money while kids are at school **
I actually calculated out what I spent on things like school pictures, music lessons, groceries that I will not be paying for once in college, etc on a per kid for the school year and factor that into what I can pay towards the college bill. It is a sunk cost now so am viewing it as simply rolling over to a different line item.
To that point, I pulled out things like insurance, clothing and cell phone bill from the “other” line item on total COA as I see those as sunk costs as well. To me “other” is travel to and from the college and any additional fees I am willing to cover (not entertainment, extra non meal plan food etc). I am ignoring each schools “other” estimated amount and instead have my own based on travel costs/distance.
Hi everyone . Just dropping in from the Parents of the Class of 2016 to offer my support and any assistance as you embark on what will prove to be one of the most stressful and emotional times of your life. I remember being in your shoes a year ago. If anyone has any questions about Wofford, Furman, College of Charleston including Honors or Clemson including Calhoun Honors applications, please feel free to PM me. Good luck over the next few months .
Cable: We ditched it. we have comcast for internet(they now have a 1TB data limit before you pay any extra $) and sling TV for $20. Sling has HGTV and ESPN. It also has AMC which I need in order to watch walking dead. So much cheaper than the cable rates.