My wife, three year old daughter and myself currently live with my wife's parents.
We had been living my the house my parents used to live in. The idea was that we would eventually take over the mortgage, but in our haste to move out of an apartment and into a house, we didn't realize the mortgage was upside down. But we really didn't see a way out.
Last July 5, I started reading MMM and realized why we were in such poor financial shape (within about two hours of reading posts). I saw it all. The long commutes, the high utilities, dining out too much and all the rest. The location was killing us, and it was punching me in the face. We knew that we HAD to get closer to work, however we weren't prepared to buy a house as we had debt to pay off, nor was renting an option.
In late July, my wife and I were in the garage painting some Adirondack chairs she and her dad had made (awesome) and she said something that stunned me: "What if we moved in with my parents?" It stunned me mostly because I never expected the idea to come from her. I had very briefly entertained the thought myself, but dismissed it as a possibility. But apparently during my time of unemployment, they had made that very offer to my wife shortly before I did get another job.
Well, we discussed it and I loved the idea. We talked to them and they were totally supportive and fine with it. They wanted to see us out of that house all along, understood our motives and agreed. We made a "no more than 2 year" plan. However long it would take to pay off the debts then save for a 20% downpayment on a home.
We moved in August 12. Consider that for a moment. MMM had such an impact on us that we were MOVED in just over one month from the day I read his first article.
We don't have separate living spaces, so we have definitely sacrificed privacy. They are very, VERY picky eaters, so we have sacrificed a lot of our normal diet (though sometimes we tell them they're on their own and make our vegetable curry, dammit). My MiL is a bit of a neat freak, so that gets a little irritating.
But other than those few gripes, things have been very good. It turns out that our presence in their home has helped them get through a few very difficult times, and they have been kind enough to care for our daughter a few days per week. My daughter loves that, of course. We do pay them "rent", but it's not much. We share chores, split groceries and my wife and I *definitely* do most of the cooking (which we love). Things have gone very well, though we're definitely looking forward to being in our own place again. The completely mismatched diets drives us nuts, not to mention that lack of privacy. OH, and they also have the TV on ALL. DAY. I don't even watch it, but sometimes I have to go out for a bike ride just to get away from the sound of that damnable TV. UGH.
The great news is that our debt was paid off in March and we're now in hardcore savings mode for the downpayment on the mortgage. We should have that by September, so we're perhaps looking at a move in the Fall.
We estimate that it will have saved us somewhere around $20k living there.
Now here's the great news. Even with a mortgage and utilities, because of other expenses we've cut and other items we will no longer be paying for, or paying as much (child care, for example), our expenses will still be about the same by the time we move. I KNOW we'll also save on groceries too.
Overall it has been a good experience. I'm glad we did it and not just for the financial reasons, even though those were huge. But I'm also glad we'll be done soon. :-)