Are you a college parent who is wondering how the cash flow will settle out during the next few weeks with loans, tuition payments and back-to-school expenses?

I’ve been there, done that. My daughter is getting ready to start her sophomore year in college.

Michael J. Lopata, a CPA and certified college planning specialist in Atlanta, Ga., sent a press release to The Monroe Evening News today with some of his tips. He’s also got the two articles from his press release posted on his web site, Smart College Money.

We get a lot of publicity pitches at The Monroe Evening News, and we don’t use them all. But I liked what Mr. Lopata had to say in the article, “College loans – Ready, Set – Think Twice. If you can, just say ‘No.’” Mr. Lopata explains that by analyzing your cash flow and adding some frugal living concepts to your financial routine, you may find that you’ll be borrowing less money than expected.

A snippet:

Some of the easiest things to consider are costs that can actually be eliminated when your student goes off to college. Won’t it be nice to see your grocery expenses nearly cut in half? Did you pitch in on your student’s car insurance and gas fill-ups? Those days of awarding allowance money and paying for high school activities, outings, sports and clubs, as well as books, supplies, and lunches are gone. How much money will that save you every month?

The next step is to determine your excess or discretionary cash flow. First take a look at your fixed expense categories, like mortgage, utilities, car payments, home and car insurance, health insurance, and credit card payments.

Next, figure out how much you are spending for discretionary activities like dining out, sports events, hair and nail appointments, clothing, and specialty coffee every morning. Once you take the opportunity to see where your money is going and decide if it’s worth it, you will probably find some obvious ways that you can cut back or at least readjust your spending.

I cracked up when I read that paragraph about eliminating expenses!

Yes, I did notice a drop in grocery and utility expenses when the daughter left … and she is reasonable about her food, laundry and electric use. If you have a student who is not as frugal, I imagine the difference would be bigger.

Trust me, there will be the day when you put a bag of potato chips or box of cereal in the grocery cart and it dawns on you, “Why am I buying that product? Son or daughter is the only one who eats it.”

There will finally be a school year when there’s no rush to buy storage boxes, a laptop computer, a book bag, a futon and all the other dorm life equipment that students need to get settled in for their first “home away from home”. I’ve bought paper, pens, folders and such that were on steep discount the past two weeks; but I can’t think of much else the daughter will need. Her major acquisitions from last year are still holding up.

And, he’s right about other expenses no longer being necessary. The college cost of attendance formula is meant to cover tuition, room, board and textbooks. We even found on our college’s formula a line item for “transportation” expenses to get the kid back and forth to campus.

So you can pretty much move any student-related line items out of Mom and Dad’s household budget into the kids’ college budget — at least for the school year.

But, it does take some time for all that to settle out.

My husband and I also had a drop in income during the past year for unrelated reasons. That’s unfortunately becoming a common situation for southeast Michigan families right now. So any “savings” we had by rearranging who paid for what were part of that adjustment.

The more frugal steps you can put into your family’s routine, the better. And you’ll find a lot of tips and information aimed at southeast Michigan families on the Monroe on a Budget blog.

If you want to look up information specifically about college expenses, here is my college financing sidebar.