look at craigs list for lots of things as well. great for couches!

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

I do love craigslist....we've got a couch already. We're stock piling things so we are ready to go once we find a place. I have a friend who moved 5 months ago and she is still using her camping chairs as furniture, which reminds me I will need to get a kitchen table and chairs...maybe i'll make Phil make us one. He's going through a "Bob Vila" sort of phase.

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"If you're not falling, you're not trying." - Sonni Trotter

~*~Lacey~*~

My Photos

we did the camping chair thing for a few months. its not fun! I was lucky. I got a ton of hand me downs from my parents when I finally moved out. I got their old kitchen table and chairs (still have it), silverware, dishes and a bunch of other things. The dishes and silverware have been passed on to my brother.

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My name is Liz
Do what's best for the animal, not what's best for you.

Other things to think about:
coin-op laundry... that gets pricey. Finding a unit with withd hookups inside and buying a withd saves $ in the long run.

If you rent a house, will you be responsible for mowing the lawn? Does the LL provide a mower?

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~~Steph

"This I believe: That the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world." John Steinbeck

look for a shop vac. You don't really need much and they're generally cheaper. When you later have the money for a better vac you can move the shop vac to the basement or garage. Then borrow a household vac when you need to clean the place to get your deposit back.

Or find a place like my last apartment -- wood and tile floors. A broom is about $6.

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~ Mark

Other advice put some money away as an emergency fund, call it $1000 to $1500. Put it in a bank account where you can access it without penalties but can't grab it instantly. I use an online bank with a "high" rate return where I call the bank and they wire the money into, or out of my checking account as I need. I happen to use ING-Direct for this but there are several others.

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~ Mark

in addition to Craigslist I would check out Ikea. They actually have some high quality but low priced items. And if you put them together right they will last a long time. My sister has an entertainment center that has lasted through 4-5 moves... I also found that when shopping for beds, the sleep number beds are relatively less expensive than other mattresses and you are each able to customize it to how hard or soft you want it. And if you combine that with getting an ikea bed (most of which don't require box springs) it makes it even less expensive. However if you do get the ikea bed and the sleep number mattress don't buy the slats for the bed, rather go to the hardware store and pick up a couple of sheets of plywood. The SN bed needs a solid base...

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Lucky for us most places around here come with fullsize withd. That's on our definite got to have list because I couldn't see myself packing up all of my laundry and driving somewhere and paying and then waiting when I could pay and extra few bucks a month for a unit with a withd so that I can eat icecream in my PJs while doing a load of laundry. That or having a laundry facility on site works too.

This is a definite possibility, one o the places we are looking at today has hardwood floors, I really like the place, but its in a bad neighborhood...I'm also worried about parking there, but I just HAVE TO look at it.

The one i'm liking the most:
The Westminter

The next choice, little closer to work, right next to my favorite place around town to rock climb. (Plus who can argue with free cable)
Beau Rivage

Third Choice, right by work, but on the high end of the spectrum.
Second Story Apartments

Another nice thing around here is all of the places i've talked to have a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy on reptiles. They aren't "real" pets so they don't want a deposit as long as you promise you aren't breeding or feeding them rodents and show them your padlocks on the cages.

Despite that i'm still narrowing down the collection a bit. My blue tongues, my frogs and my special needs gecko are kinda looking for other options.

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"If you're not falling, you're not trying." - Sonni Trotter

~*~Lacey~*~

My Photos

Be REALLY careful. When Brett and I moved into our first apartment we moved into this one that had just been refurbished and was so awesome! I loved the layout, the new kitchen, new bathroom, ect. It was known to not be in the best of areas (even nicknames cannibal grove (real name Hannibal)). The first apartment we moved into had some not so wonderful people above us and thanks to them our apartment was infested with roaches that we couldn't get rid of... So rather than kicking the disgusting people out they moved us. A month later I came home one night to walk into a robbery in progress... The guy waited for me to come in the door and then ambushed me and nearly killed me. This guy had been robbing other houses and apartments in the neighborhood for weeks, and even worked at the 7-11 across the street. 10 months later and we are about to find out just how long he gets to spend in jail. Point of the story is that even if the apartment itself looks awesome, it won't make the area safe and might even make you a more likely target... I would go for a nice neighborhood with a little more of a run down apartment now any day! (in fact I have!) = )

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oh and less than a month after we moved out of there a woman working at that 7-11 was shot and killed. a few weeks after that an 17yo boy was found dead in one of the apartments in that development shot by the same guy that killed the woman.

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