[0:11]There's three generations living together in this house including my grandparents and at this point, I really can't imagine living without them. My favorite favorite part of the week is uh Sunday. We have a big dinner. Our family is extremely close. Every weekend it's a big group of people here. My cousins come and Sky, my other aunts and uncles will come. Decide to see. My grandparents have been married for 52 years, I believe, and they have six children. I'm the only one that is the single mother with two girls. We've always stayed pretty close to my parents. After Hurricane Sandy, we ended up moving in with our grandparents. It was five feet of water downstairs. I had to walk about three blocks with the water up to my chest. We thought it was going to be temporary, but we realized that there were so many financial benefits to living with them, that we decided to find a home that would fit us all and was more comfortable. Looking at what was out there and what I would need for myself and two girls, it was just a little overwhelming. You say, "Papi, I found a house that is perfect for us. Why don't we go see it?" We saw that it's big enough, so we figured, yeah, that's the right house. You don't have to share the same entrance, we have two kitchens, you just have your own living space. It works.
[1:37]I'm a retired bus driver, New York City bus driver. I make enough money with my social security and my pension. My credit has always been good. That's why I had to put the house on my name. My mortgage is about 2,000 and the expenses are like 1,000. Monica, she helped me out on the bills, gas bill, electric bill, cable bill, but I, I do pay the mortgage. One of the biggest financial surprises was um how high our heat bill is in the winter. The house is run on oil, so we can't have the heat on all the time, so sometimes you just have to put on a sweater and set the fireplace on and call it a day. My parents have always helped out with child care, picked up the girls from school, took them to doctor's appointments for me when I was stuck at work. Childcare is so expensive. I have worked in daycares, so I know how expensive they could be. My mom saved a ton of money with my grandparents being able to help out. They're also getting older, so I'm able to help them as well. Both my girls drive, so there's sometimes where my mom has to go to a doctor's appointment. We look out for each other. Technology is where we could help them out a lot more. If they were on their own, they would be struggling.
[2:54]We just shop in bulk because the house is so huge. We have the space to put everything away. It's all about sharing and that's how we save. We don't need to have double of everything. Sometimes I even share clothes with my grandpa. I'll walk in from work and he's like, "Are you wearing my flannel?" and I'm like, "Yeah." Even though we do have two kitchens, we eat together basically every single day for almost every single meal. One of the good benefits that having my daughter here, she loved to cook, and she's a good cook, so sometimes she cooked and we go downstairs and eat with them.
[3:31]One reason why I think it's coming back in style that people are starting to live with their extended family is the cost of living is just so high. Rent is very expensive. The majority of people my age are in school, so they have student loans that they have to pay off. They have their car payments and stuff like that. That's why I think it's beneficial to live with your parents or whoever as long as you can because the money that you would be putting towards rent could go towards a loan or go towards saving so that one day you could maybe buy an apartment. My grandpa is a great financial role model. He just teaches us how to spend our money more wisely and how to look into our purchases before we just buy things on a whim. They're very good kids. One day they're going to leave, but I'll be here for them until they're ready to go because I love them a lot. My grandparents have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. It's almost weird if I wasn't with them. I love being around them.
