Associated Press

When I was in high school, I visited France on an exchange program and stayed with a well-to-do family. When I returned home, I marveled that the household employed a maid who washed my clothes. My mother rolled her eyes. “You have a maid here who does your laundry,” she said. “Me!”

So it was with great amusement that I tried out the “living with your parents” calculator, provided by the real estate blog Movoto (covering the “lighter side” of real estate, it says). The calculator shows big savings from living at home, including the perk of having your mother do your laundry.

The calculator lets you plug in your monthly rent, and other expenses if you choose. It then shows how much you would save if, after college graduation, you live with your parents for four years.

The calculator was created by the blog’s marketing director, Chris Kolmar, who laments that if he had just lived at home for a few years, he would have enough for a down payment on a home.

I plugged in rent of $1,000, and the calculator used his default settings to report that in that case, you would save more than $89,000 by moving in with your parents — and that nearly 2 percent of that amount was savings on laundry.

That raised some questions. Does it mean that your mother is actually doing the laundry for you — or just that you are using her washing machine and detergent?

Sally Olsson, the blog’s spokeswoman, confirmed that the calculator assumes that your mother is doing the laundry — and a lot more. In effect, the savings shown by the calculator come from completely freeloading. (Mr. Kolmar also explains in the blog that he spends $35 a month on a laundry service, because he hates to do it.)

There is no doubt living with your parents can save you money, but shouldn’t you be contributing something? Or at least doing your own laundry?

Do you live with your parents? What do you contribute toward household expenses? Or if you’re a parent, what do you expect from your grown-up children?

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/having-mom-do-your-laundry-to-save-money/?partner=rss&emc=rss