At nearly 21 years old I am finding myself less and less welcome at home and more and more eager to move out. Phil (significant other) and I are going apartment shopping this weekend. We would have gotten on this sooner but we are just now financially stable enough to be able to move out and not have to worry about starving to death.
Any advice for someone moving out on their own for the first time?

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Those who say it can't be done should get out of the way of those who are doing it.

~*~Lacey~*~

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try to go for a simple place that you know you will be able to afford and have plenty of money left over. It REALLY surprised me how much money I would have to spend each time I moved. Also ask about pet polices. There are places that put restrictions on what kind of pet you can have and also how large of tanks you can put in your place if you aren't on the bottom floor.

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good luck!!!

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budgets and talking about money are very important. Work out everything you will need to spend money on. Phone, cable, internet, food, gas/electric. If you call the gas company you can find out what the bills ran for the past year to help give you an idea. A place where utilities are included would be great.

I found that renting from an individual is much cheaper than a big complex but the complexes are more reliable and give much less headaches when something is broken.

An apartment should only take 1/4 to 1/3 of your income.

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

It's nice around here, most places have very good pet policies because they don't encounter many weirdos who carry a 4-1/2 foot green monster everywhere they go.
A lot of the apartment managers i've talked to don't care for snakes, mainly because they eat rodents, but they don't see anything wrong with lizards as long as the cages are secure and they are not able to reproduce. Another nice thing about that is that many landlords don't consider caged pets to be pets and don't require a non-refundable pet deposit.

Liz- I've been going by the whole rent should be no more than 1/4 to 1/3 of my income, but so has my boyfriend while he's been looking and he makes twice as much as me. (Woe is me, the starving artist) so I have to keep shooting him down because he SAYS he'll pay 2/3 or the rent and I can pay 1/3 but in the event that he gets laid off (not uncommon in the winter) or that he runs off to Hollywood to chase his dreams of becoming a professional drummer or something i'd like to still be able to scrape by if faced with paying the whole rent.

Any surprise costs that you guys found once you moved out?

I have a rainy day fund, but I want to make sure i'm not jumping the gun in order to try to get out of here before I turn 21.

Wow, i'm long winded today.

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Those who say it can't be done should get out of the way of those who are doing it.

~*~Lacey~*~

My Photos

also remember you will need 2 months rent when you move in for your security deposit.

Surprise cost was how much I spend on house hold stuff, like cleaning supplies, food, laundry stuff. Also save up an extra few hundred for stuff like shower curtain, toothbrush holder, pots, pans, dishes, silverware, and other kitchen stuff. The kitchen is the most expensive part for a first timer.

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

We've almost got the kitchen taken care of, Phil is very particular about his kitchen stuff, and since he's the cook I don't argue.
We've got pots, pans, dishes, and silverware already...

I'm not looking forward to having to buy a vacuum, they are ridiculously expensive and I never even realized it!

And we need to buy a bed...a double just isn't big enough, I love hi but I rally don't want to be smothered by him while I sleep.

Those are the two big expenses that are fresh in my mind.

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Those who say it can't be done should get out of the way of those who are doing it.

~*~Lacey~*~

My Photos

You can get cheap vacuums at places like walmart which will pull you through until you can afford something better. Personally because I have such severe allergies, a good vacuum that will get out much more dirt and not throw as much back in my face is worth it, but that doesn't mean everyone needs that. Your bed is going to be the most expensive, probably.

You can actually buy a used frame or build a frame yourself for really cheap. The big expense is actually the matresses. Definitely spend the money on that. It's more than worth it.

I have one big suggestion that's helped me. (I'm only about three years older than you, so I'm pretty recent to all this too.) Between the both of you, plan out a really strict budget. Put all your bills in a pile and decide who will pay what. Add whatever saving you can do into you budget - then try to budget really low. What I mean by that is if you make $1000 a month, plan your budget around $700 a month - or as low as you can go. That way you have "forgotten money" that you can use to put away for emergencies or just play with. Tricking myself like that seems to work for me, anyway.

My biggest surprise bills are the ones I can't exactly plan for. My car breaks down, my ig gets sick, I get sick, etc. It's good to have a small emergency slush fund. Even if you can only afford to put $10 a paycheck in it, having something available to fix a situation is so much better than trying to figure out which bill you are going to have to skip this month to pay it.

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"Let's eat, Grandpa!"
"Let's eat Grandpa!"

Punctuation. It saves lives.

**Garage sales and yard sales** rock for stuff like that. Also look in the classifieds in the newspaper or craigslist.

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MARSHA
A man without a woman is a bachelor, A woman without a man is a genius!.

We have enough youth, how about a fountain of smart!

No cheap vacuums....or anything else for that matter! I'm so tired of buying cheap things and having them break and then being angry at myself for going cheap to begin with.

We don;t even shop at walmart anymore and I think it is saving us money because we aren't replacing things nearly as frequently. Target and Shopko cost a few bucks more but it seems to be worth it in the end.

This is the first time moving out for both of us so I appreciate all of the tips, I really don't like going into this witho knowing what to expect!

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Those who say it can't be done should get out of the way of those who are doing it.

~*~Lacey~*~

My Photos