Cheap Living: He's Staying For How Long?

My wife and I will have a houseguest for most of this summer.  My little brother Lee, (pictured on the left) who during the school year attends the University of Miami, will be staying with us from Memorial Day Weekend through the end of July. He’s a great kid and nothing like the menace to society I was when I was his age. He has earned an internship at the prestigious National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Headquarters in Sterling, Virginia.

Here’s the plan: Lee, whom I refer to as “The Boy,” will be staying in the first guest room upstairs. He’s taking the auto train up from Florida on Friday, May 27 and will be arriving at the house around lunch time on Saturday. He will dive right in to his internship on Monday even though it’s a holiday.

I am very excited to have the boy stay with us. I don’t get to see him nearly as much as I used to since he’s been in school, and even when he’s out of school for the summer or on break, he stays with my parents in Florida. This is a great chance to spend some extended time with him. I know he’s looking forward to it, and believe me, I am too.

But… the cheapskate in me sees many dollar signs. The boy eats like, well, a 20 year old boy. Like most guys, he likes the AC cranking in the summer. He takes long showers; REALLY long showers. He leaves lights on. When he doesn’t feel like folding a shirt, he throws it in the laundry. He cooks something and leaves the dishes in the sink. He doesn’t clean his room. Man I’m old.
In other words, our pristine, meticulously clean house with everything in its place and vacuum marks on the floor is about to be invaded by a 20 year old tornado. And our grocery, electric, water, and sanity bills are about to go through the roof.

I’m figuring that it will cost at least an extra $50-$75 per week in groceries alone. He’ll only be working part-time, so the days he isn’t working I won’t be able to program the AC at 80 degrees during the day. And then there are his long showers. So we’re looking at escalated electric and water bills as well. And on the days he’s home all day I can expect to return home to an empty fridge and possibly dishes in the sink.

Sure, he’ll do his part… at first. He likes to cook, so I expect him to offer to whip up a few meals here and there. And he’ll probably offer to do the dishes once or twice. I’ll have to crack down and lay down the law once or twice as well, but in the end he’ll do what he wants and I’ll probably let him. He’s my little bro and I want him to enjoy staying with us. Plus I remember what it’s like to be that age: I just wanted to have fun all the time. He’s lucky because I’ll probably just let him.

I’ll be keeping a log of our expenses while he’s here so I can compare them to our regular expenses. At the end of his stay I’ll compile the data and share it with my readers.

I’ll try not to get bent out of shape when I wake up in the morning and all the lights are on in the basement. I’ll try to stay cool when I open the fridge and hear an echo. I’ll try to bite my tongue when I get home from work and the thermostat is set at 65. I’ll try to hold it together when I’m still hungry and there’s no more dinner left.

And I’ll try to spend every minute I can possibly spend with my (not so) little brother while he’s here.