Did your bills drop a lot once the kids moved out?

[mommyoffive]

I was just thinking about this yesterday, do your bills drop a ton once all the kids move out?   Is this a hopeless dream that I am having?  

I am thinking once the kids move out we won't need to spend $800 a month at the grocery store.  

[Heatherwith4]

Oh, man, I sure hope they will!  ??

[Spryte]

Ha!

We’ve only had one move out so far, and yes, the grocery bill went down.  Also the electric went down a bit.  

But those bills just shifted and became other bills - there was college, of course, but after that there are still gifts and any financial help you choose to give.  ?

[KungFuPanda]

No because of room, board, and tuition. I’m looking forward to the salary boost we’ll get when DD graduates college. 

[AK_Mom4]

Hmmmmm... our went way down when they went off to college and we were not paying car insurance for them.  That’s was the most noticeable change.  

Now we are down to just one kid at home and the drop in grocery bills is very noticeable compared to when there were four.   

[mommyoffive]

I am not including college, because we have that saved already.   And they may end up living at home at that time anyhow.  But after that.  

[cave canem]

The change in water costs is apparent even during summer travel.

[teachermom2834]

Grocery and gas dropped dramatically. First ds is a junior in college and has needed very little help. Second ds is a freshman and will need more financial support in college so not a money making proposition. 

It depends on your situation. Some kids have extracurricular activities that cost a lot and giving those up in college is a relief. 

I’ve seen it compared to your grocery bill dropping if you eat out a lot. Grocery bill goes down but you aren’t saving money ? 

If you aren’t paying for anything for college or a young adult than you will see a savings for sure. For it is just rare for young people and college kids to need zero help.

[mommyoffive]

Just now, teachermom2834 said:

Grocery and gas dropped dramatically. First ds is a junior in college and has needed very little help. Second ds is a freshman and will need more financial support in college so not a money making proposition. 

It depends on your situation. Some kids have extracurricular activities that cost a lot and giving those up in college is a relief. 

I’ve seen it compared to your grocery bill dropping if you eat out a lot. Grocery bill goes down but you aren’t saving money ? 

If you aren’t paying for anything for college or a young adult than you will see a savings for sure. For it is just rare for young people and college kids to need zero help.

 

We don't eat out a lot at all, so fingers crossed. 

Right now the kids do have an very expensive extracurricular activity, which will only go even higher the higher up they go.   So when they are all grown and we are not paying for that I hope we save tons. 

[Ann.without.an.e]

I am really hopeful that once they are all through college we can start actually putting a significant amount towards retirement.  I am hopeful expenses will decrease!

[Kassia]

Yes, but not until after they graduated from college.  Food, health insurance, medical and dental expenses, living expenses, and car insurance were the biggest savings.  

[MysteryJen]

Grocery and water bills went down definitely. However, tuition and plane tickets home make up for the $ for extracurricular things. I think it will be noticeable when ALL of them are gone and graduated, but for now- we still have pricey extracurriculars, travel for sports and travel home for the older kids as well as the occasional gift/help for young adults.

 

 

[G5052]

My oldest is a commuter college student and pays for his own school and an all-you-can eat meal plan at one of the cafeterias so that he can have a good lunch. No way could he carry enough food. One day he sent me a picture of his tray, and he had spaghetti and meatballs, two chicken wraps, a salad, fruit, milk, apple juice, and two cookies. I paid for the meal plan the first semester, and it still saved me money because he ate less at home and really loaded up there. He's always been a big lunch eater.

[EKS]

Actually, sort of.  The electricity bill is a bit lower, which I think is because there are fewer showers.  The septic tank hasn't needed to be pumped as often.  Food isn't as much.  Of course, we're hemorrhaging money in a different way with him in college!

[mommyoffive]

24 minutes ago, G5052 said:

My oldest is a commuter college student and pays for his own school and an all-you-can eat meal plan at one of the cafeterias so that he can have a good lunch. No way could he carry enough food. One day he sent me a picture of his tray, and he had spaghetti and meatballs, two chicken wraps, a salad, fruit, milk, apple juice, and two cookies. I paid for the meal plan the first semester, and it still saved me money because he ate less at home and really loaded up there. He's always been a big lunch eater.

 

OH my gosh I hope the college they goes to offers this kind of meal plan.  My kids eat so much. 

[SKL]

Let's just say that before I had kids, my siblings used to call me Mother Teresa because I was so frugal.  I could see that happening again once my kids are fully launched.  My needs might be a little more expensive due to ageing issues, but really the vast majority of my spending is on my kids.

[Pawz4me]

1 hour ago, mommyoffive said:

I am not including college, because we have that saved already.   And they may end up living at home at that time anyhow.  But after that.  

I assumed that was what you meant. And the answer for us is definitely yes. Food, electricity, water and gas costs have all dropped noticeably.

[Annie G]

After college, yes! Groceries, utilities, gas, entertainment, etc. all went down a lot.  Also, gift costs went down. Our policy is once kids move out we no longer buy gifts and send checks instead. So birthday and Christmas are usually set amounts and it’s way cheaper than buying gifts and paying to wrap and mail them.  

While ours were in college we had tons of expenses- even without adding tuition those were the most expensive years. 

[Starfish]

Most of our household bills have gone down considerably.  So far all of the kids have gotten full scholarships including books and fees.  That helped tremendously.  We do find ourselves spending more on home maintenance.  We used to tackle most all of our projects ourselves, but we've gotten older and the kids aren't here to help anymore.  It also helped that they all went to college within a few hours drive of home so there weren't any large travel expenses. 

Edited October 23, 2018 by Starfish

[Carol in Cal.]

Not really.  

But our sleep increased a great deal, which was super nice.

[Faith-manor]

Our have. Our electric bill went down considerably. We suspect this is because all three boys had their own laptops for doing high school work but also for some gaming and what not, and they had those running so much of the day, and they showered every day so went through a lot of hot water. Dh and I have dry skin now that we've aged and tend to do quick wash ups as well as wash our hair in the sink so we only shower twice a week. So we noted that.

Food is much lower. Dh and I simply don't eat the quantity that our thin boys need to eat - medically underweight due to a genetic thing. I can make a couple of quarts of soup or stew, and with salads, we get several meals out of it. That half gallon of soup would be gone in a single meal with the boys here and would mean we also went through something like mashed potatoes and fresh fruit in addition to soup and salad.

We don't have their activities to pay for either, and our insurance did drop some because they didn't take any cars to campus with them. We also do not worry about fighting with out car insurance to pay for ds's ongoing physical therapy needs because since his campus runs a full medical school, sports medicine, physical therapy program, they work with him for free in exchange for students being able to be involved. That has been really nice, not having to pay up front and then fight to get paid back.

We decided to take the budget savings and put it away in our emergency fund/savings instead of spending it. Oh, I'd like to put it towards a trip to Scotland and Ireland right now, but until they get out of college, it seems better to hang on to it because we never know very far in advance about tuition and fee hikes.

[Faith-manor]

Heigh Ho reminded me, laundry. Two of them have laundry included in their dorm fees, one has to pay. But all three have a few hours per week tutoring jobs for pizza/laundry money. So with just the two of us, it is amazing how far a box of dryer sheets, and a small jug of laundry detergent will go. They have print services included in their tuition too so I buy paper and toner far less often than when all of them were homeschooling for high school, and taking DE classes which didn't cover printing. Eldest ds gets his classical guitar lessons on campus through tuition cheaper than we were paying out of pocket. He can get up to 18 credit hours for the same price, so he takes 15 or 16 and then adds his guitar lessons onto that.

Lots of little things like that, but it does add up.

Thankfully none of the boys ended up so far away that we have to budget for plane tickets.

[G5052]

2 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

 

OH my gosh I hope the college they goes to offers this kind of meal plan.  My kids eat so much. 

 

Yes, he gets all-he-can-eat for about $7/meal with their commuter plan. He also gets to eat things I don't make. Dd and I have to eat low fat gluten free, and so he has to eat low fat gluten free at home too. So he gets his baked good, hamburgers, french fries, etc. etc. at the college. It's a win-win.

I paid for a gym membership there his first semester, but he was sorely disappointed with the facilities for regular students. Apparently they invest in a separate gym for the student athletes. But he gets a free membership at the gym where he works near home, so he just goes there now.

[frogger]

I hope so!

 

Reminders of things like weddings were not needed. Lol

We were planning to sell our home and buy a little condo or something to help things along. 

[Kassia]

57 minutes ago, frogger said:

 

 

Reminders of things like weddings were not needed. Lol

 

I thought the same thing!  Forgot all about weddings!  

[Pawz4me]

3 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

 

OH my gosh I hope the college they goes to offers this kind of meal plan.  My kids eat so much. 

When oldest DS was a freshman in college his all-you-can-eat meal plan seemed very expensive when we first saw the price. But I'm positive that it saved us money. He's a very health conscious eater, lots of protein, fruit and veggies. Plus he exercises a lot. Feeding him at home was very expensive!

[dirty ethel rackham]

For my older kids, it was the food bill that went down.  For one kid, it was the water bill (those darn long showers!!)  For dd, it is gas and wear and tear on the car (not commuting 60 miles round trip 3x a week for her sport.)  

<sniff, sniff>  DD was home for a long weekend due to fall break after midterms.  She just left an hour ago and I miss her already. 

[stephanier.1765]

My last one moved out this summer and our electric bill and grocery bill dropped dramatically. Our water bill dropped as well but not as much as the other two. Frankly, I was surprised. If someone had told me that he was having that much of an effect on our bills I would have thought they were exaggerating.

[DawnM]

Not really, no.  We have 2 gone right now but I haven't noticed a difference in our electric bill.  Our grocery bill hasn't really gone down that much either.  

I am NOT including college costs because if you want to include those, our bills have gone WAY UP!

And in NC there is no college away car insurance change.  So that stays at $400/month!  ARGH!

 

[lavender's green]

Earlier this year my SIL and her husband and child moved in with her parents while they got back on their feet. In-laws (without the SIL and her family) came to visit us one weekend and kept stepping in to pay for things. We said they didn't have to do that. They replied "Do you have ANY idea how much it costs to keep SIL & Family at our house? This is nothing." Apparently all their bills jumped way up. 

[Rosie_0801]

Yep. It's cheaper to feed one person than two and nowhere near as much petrol money.

[Bambam]

The water bill maybe a little? 

The garbage can isn't as full at the end of the week.

We rarely hit our data limit on the internet. 

OTOH, oldest was our leftover eater, and now she is gone, so I've probably wasted more food than normal adjusting to cooking for 3 vs. 4. 

 

[Kassia]

31 minutes ago, Bambam said:

I've probably wasted more food than normal adjusting to cooking for 3 vs. 4. 

 

 

This has been a problem for us - I still buy too much food even though my big eaters are all gone.  

[Starfish]

46 minutes ago, Bambam said:

The water bill maybe a little? 

The garbage can isn't as full at the end of the week.

We rarely hit our data limit on the internet. 

OTOH, oldest was our leftover eater, and now she is gone, so I've probably wasted more food than normal adjusting to cooking for 3 vs. 4. 

 

 

13 minutes ago, Kassia said:

 

This has been a problem for us - I still buy too much food even though my big eaters are all gone.  

 

Yep.  This was us when #3 went to college.  It took a bit to learn to cook and buy less food.  I love when all of the kids are home, and I can cook lots and lots of food!  It makes me so happy to feed them. 

Edited October 24, 2018 by Starfish

[Selkie]

24 minutes ago, Kassia said:

 

This has been a problem for us - I still buy too much food even though my big eaters are all gone.  

Me too! I was kind of stunned at how much less food we go through now that my boys are at college!?

[Kassia]

38 minutes ago, Starfish said:

 

 

 I love when all of the kids are home, and I can cook lots and lots of food!  It makes me so happy to feed them. 

 

LOL, I must be a terrible mom.  I love having all the kids home but I hate cooking and shopping for them.  Meals are so easy now and I've become spoiled.  When they are home it feels like I'm in the kitchen all the time and it's hard to please everyone (one is vegan, the other two are big meat eaters, and they all eat enormous amounts).  

 

 

[Starfish]

10 minutes ago, Kassia said:

 

LOL, I must be a terrible mom.  I love having all the kids home but I hate cooking and shopping for them.  Meals are so easy now and I've become spoiled.  When they are home it feels like I'm in the kitchen all the time and it's hard to please everyone (one is vegan, the other two are big meat eaters, and they all eat enormous amounts).  

 

 

No, not terrible!   I think I probably drive my kids a little batty with all of the mothering I do.  lol

[RootAnn]

I'm going to have to adjust next year to one of my two big leftover eaters not being home. Because I have growing boys still at home, I don't think the grocery or water bill will go down. They will just use more (food/water).

[Scarlett]

Surely our food bill will go down.  And then our cell phone bill and vehicle insurance.....Of course I think we will continue to pay for those for a bit even after they move out.

 

[KungFuPanda]

10 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

 

OH my gosh I hope the college they goes to offers this kind of meal plan.  My kids eat so much. 

My daughter got screwed on this deal. They used to deduct what you ate from the plan and she’d have enough credits for extra snacks, on campus chick-fil-a, and stuff like that. They switched to the plan that was an exact number of meals, but all you can eat. The kid eats like a bird, but could no longer had enough credits for the late 4th meal. Big eaters definitely come out ahead  

This year she has an apartment and cooks so it’s a lot cheaper. 

[May]

Yes, our food bill went down about a third. Also, one or both would come with us when we would eat out, so we notice a savings there too.

[QueenCat]

The money just shifted to other categories. 

[ThisIsTheDay]

Bills have dropped noticeably! The electric bill last month was the lowest ever. The water bill hasn't changed enough to make any difference, because so much of it seems to be basic fees. Grocery bills have dropped quite a bit, even though we're continuing to cook a lot and take food up to my kid at school every few weeks.

Of course, some of the expenses have just transferred over. But instead of the same XXX that we were, PLUS YYY for ds's expenses, the XXX expenses are have dropped. It's been a nice surprise, I don't remember noticing the difference when my dd left for college.