I lived at my future in-law’s house for over 8 months. At first I was a little hesitant to make it a long-term commitment, but when I ran down the list of amazing amenities they had, it was hard not to agree. In addition to free rent, I didn’t have to cook my own meals, there was a washer and dryer in the house, and my daily commute was cut down by over 60%. And of course, I didn’t mind my fellow house members.

After 8 months, I decided it was time to move out. I am getting married in June and I thought it was time. I was settled, my job was stable, and I wanted to prepare and have everything set up before the wedding day.

So was it worth it? Heck yes. There were very few downsides, but how much did I really save? I’m not going to go into every detail of how much I saved on groceries and laundry costs, instead I’ll stick to the big items (surprised?) and do a lot of estimating.

Rent

This is obviously the big one. Two months ago, I moved into a 2 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom apartment for $1,800. It’s far from cheap, but by not paying that each of the last 8 months, you could argue that I saved $14,400 on rent!

However, I probably would have moved into a 1 bedroom apartment (since it would have been just me for nearly a year, part of the reason I got a 2 bedroom now is because we’ll want more space once we get married).

Let’s say I would have moved into a slightly more reasonable 1 bedroom apartment for those 8 months, costing me $1,300/month. That’s $10,400.

Still, I would have been committed to a 12 month lease, so over the course of the first year (July 2011-July 2012) I would have paid $15,600, while under my current arrangement, I will end up paying just $7,200 in rent over the same 12 month time frame.

The final number? About $8,400. Thanks Mark and Rachelle!

Utilities

This one is pretty easy to calculate, our costs for tv, electricity, and gas is about $130, so that’s another $1,040 in savings during those 8 months.

Groceries, Gas, Laundry, etc.

My commute was much shorter, I was buying fewer groceries, and with a laundry machine in the house, I never needed quarters. I’ll guess this came out to $150/month, for an additional $1,200.

There are other costs I saved on, but there were a few other higher costs (I was going out to dinner more often because I had fewer expenses, but I was driving farther on weekends), so I’m assuming they just about cancelled each other out.

In all, it comes out to over $10,500. I have $10,500 more in my bank account that wouldn’t have otherwise been there. That’s awesome! Let’s just pretend I invest that right now and don’t touch it until I’m 65 years old. As a 7% interest rate, that’s about $170,000 that I wouldn’t have otherwise have had. Score!

Readers, did any of you think I was crazy for living with my future in-laws? Now that you read the numbers, do you think it was worth it?

When I quit my job for the greener pastures of California, I had a very vague plan: I would stay with my fiancee at her parents’ house for a little bit, until I got a car, a job, and an apartment. I was making a major move and getting a little help definitely wouldn’t hurt while I got settled.

The Plan That Wasn’t

I didn’t have much of a timeline, but after about 3 weeks I realized that getting a job wasn’t going to be as simple as wanting one. Also, after “crunching” one number, I found out that by temporarily staying with the future in-laws, I was saving about $1,300 a month. There were very few incentives to look for a job.

But, I had a future to consider and people were starting to tell me that ‘chilling’ was not a long-term plan. It sounded like a good life to me, I don’t know what all the concern was about. I had blog income coming in and basically no expenses. Still, I was able to find myself a job, probably based on lucky timing more than anything else.

I’m Moving Out…Not!

Well, I got a car and a job, so it was time to move out, right? Not so fast. There were a few reasons why moving out didn’t make sense:

1. Staying where I was meant $1,300 could go towards our wedding this coming June or possibly a future house.
2. My fiancee’s brother just went abroad for a year, so I was no longer an extra body. I was the replacement son.
3. My job was about 15 minutes from home as opposed to an hour drive from my proposed new apartment in the city. And my office was moving to somewhere with a little bit more reasonable of a commute in about 3-4 months, so maybe that would be a better time to move.

Why You Should Live With Your Parents

After some very gentle prodding, I agreed to stay for a few more months. While I try and pitch in any way I can, I feel a lot like a freeloader. Still, any way I cut it, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

At my disposal I have a pool, a jaccuzi, my own room, my own bathroom, a fully stocked refrigerator, a personal chef (my fiancee who is a much better cook than I), a 46 inch HDTV, free laundry, free parking, and a bunch of hand-me-down shirts from her brother that are just my size. Basically, I am living the dream.

Readers, what would you do if you were in my position? Would you move out as soon as possible? Or enjoy the nice features of a house while you could?