What Happen if My Family Moves Out of State When I Am in College

For six years, my husband and I lived in Washington, D.C. — ane of the almost expensive cities in the U.S. We had moved there so my husband could attend graduate school at Georgetown University. Still, when he was finishing his Ph.D., we knew we couldn't beget to stay.

We wanted to get-go a family and realized it would've been a financial stretch to do that in Washington. So, my husband took a pedagogy task at Western Kentucky University in my hometown of Bowling Green, Kentucky. At present that nosotros take three children, I'm glad we decided to motion to one of the least expensive states to enhance kids.

A study by GOBankingRates establish that the average cost of raising a kid in Kentucky is the fourth everyman in the U.S. Washington, D.C., wasn't included in the report, but neighboring Maryland was ranked No. 15 among the nigh expensive states to enhance a kid . If we had stayed in the Washington area, there'southward a skilful chance we would have settled in Maryland to go admission to practiced public schools — as one of my best friends from college did.

She lives with her husband and three children in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, which is a suburb of both Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. I know from talking to her that the results of GOBankingRates' study are correct: Raising kids in Maryland is more expensive than in Kentucky.

The difference in toll of living between my home state and New York is fifty-fifty greater. My best friend from childhood currently lives in New York, and my husband and I have considered moving there for our careers. New York ranked as the fifth-most expensive identify to raise a kid in the GOBankingRates study.  Every time I talk with my friend about how much it costs for her family of iv to alive in Manhattan, I question why I'd even consider leaving Kentucky to live there.

Yes, New York has a lot to offering — as does the Washington, D.C., surface area — and median incomes are much higher in those places than in my dwelling land. But, financially, my family is much better off in Kentucky — here's why.

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The Biggest Benefit of Moving: Affordable Housing

Before my husband and I left our Washington, D.C., apartment in 2003, houses in the neighborhood were $500,000 and upwardly. We bought our outset home in Kentucky that year for less than $200,000.

We're now in our third home — a 5-bedroom, three,000-square-foot house on 5 acres with a river running through the back of our property. We bought it for $390,000, and our monthly mortgage payment — which includes property taxes and homeowners insurance — is about $1,700.

As you can probably estimate, we paid more than for our house than the median habitation value in Kentucky, which is $145,100, co-ordinate to Zillow's habitation value index . But our monthly mortgage payment pales in comparison with what my friends pay in the Washington, D.C., suburbs and New York.

My friend in Maryland has a monthly mortgage payment of $4,860 for her 3,000-foursquare-foot business firm. My friend in New York pays $4,000 in rent for her two-chamber, one,000-square-foot apartment. The latter said she recently shopped around for cheaper rent. However, my friend realized she had a good deal when she discovered that the median hire for similar apartments was $five,500 a month.

Likewise Run across: Washington Is I of the Most Gentrified Cities in the Land — and It'due south Getting Worse

Child Care Is a Lot Cheaper

When my daughters were younger, I paid infant sitters about $8 an hour to watch them while my husband and I worked. I put my son in day care earlier placing him in a Montessori preschool, which cost $650 a calendar month. All of my children are at present in public schools.

Compare this to my friend in Maryland, who paid $1,100 a month for total-twenty-four hours preschool. My friend in New York pays nearly $i,600 a calendar month for her daughter to attend a half-24-hour interval preschool. She then pays an additional $500 to $600 a week for a baby sitter  to lookout man her daughter and her son — who is in kindergarten at a public school — in the afternoons.

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We Spend Less Feeding Our Family

In that location isn't a big difference between what I spend to feed my family of 5 each week versus what my friends spend. They both spend about $200 a week on groceries, they said. I spend about $125 to $150 a week to feed my family unit well. However, that can add together upward to a big deviation in grocery spending over a year. My $150-a-calendar week grocery trips total $7,800 a year compared with the $10,400 that my friends spend annually in the big cities where they live.

Some of my savings, though, might be from the cost-cutting strategies I apply. I stockpile items when they're on sale, buy cheap seasonal produce, take advantage of digital coupons and utilise meal planning to keep grocery costs low.

Bank check Out: The Simple Trick That Helps My Family Spend Less on Food

Extracurricular Activities Don't Suspension Our Budget

Regardless of where you alive, extracurricular activities for kids can break the family budget . Only living in Kentucky helps keep my kids' activities more than affordable. For example, we paid about $75 per flavour for my son to play recreational soccer. My friend in Maryland pays about $120, plus another $l for the uniform. My friend in New York paid $45 for a 45-infinitesimal soccer lesson.

I take other steps, though, to proceed down the cost of extracurricular activities. Considering I'thou paying for my kids to be involved in some school-sponsored activities, I only let them participate in one afterwards-schoolhouse activity at a fourth dimension. Not just does this save me money, just it besides helps cut down on the amount of time I have to spend driving them to activities.

Because we live in a pocket-size metropolis, it takes about 15 minutes to go our kids to school and to their preferred activities. Honestly, avoiding traffic and hours spent shuttling my kids effectually every day is one of the biggest reasons why I don't ever desire to move back to a big city. For at present, we'll stay where nosotros are and go on saving time and money.

Keep reading to encounter the best states for families to live a richer life.

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Source: https://www.gobankingrates.com/saving-money/family/why-move-states-start-family/

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