You don’t really know how much a house costs until you’re the one paying for the lights.

Cost is invisible until it is yours. From inside a household that works, the heating simply happens, the fridge is simply full, and none of it announces the hours behind it. The moment the bills have your name on them, the same normal life turns out to have been a long list of payments somebody was quietly making. That is not a lesson in guilt, it is a lesson in what upkeep actually is.

You could ask, without making it a big thing, what running the place actually costs. Most adults will tell you. Knowing the number early makes your own decisions less of a shock later.