Living on your own.

Post Reply New Topic

For those of you who are in the process of moving out, or already live on your own please share your experience. What kind of budget do you live on, how is the money spent. Are you able to do chores and function in everyday life and how? I'd like to know, as I'm about to move out (found an appartment) and change my destination to another city. After first year of medical school, I decided to transfer to another university to motivate myself into becoming more independent. I'm having my doubts, surely it's much cheaper (and easier) to live with my parents, but it won't do me any good. Finding an appartment is hard as you have to compete with 10-50 guys who all want the same appartment, plus it's all about the impression you leave as they talk with you.

I am soon moving out to live in another country (France) with a foreign language and I still don't know if I have a flatmate or not, thus don't know for sure which city I'm going to. I don't have any leads for work in the city of the flatmate.

If finance is a big issue, I would stay at home. I saved a lot of money staying at home, and you will too. But if independence is more important, move out. I am, of course, worried about struggling to look after myself. In particular, buying and eating food. But you just have to go out there and do your best. You will, no doubt, become more independent and grow up.

i get about 500€/month currently and most of it is going for rent witch is 450€/month electric bills and others add about 80€ food is about other 80-90€/month so i leave with roughly 100€/month because im not working i also get housing support because im not working yeat for 300€/month it god damn expensive living on your own

and for housing task..u will learn em and do em or it will be a mess

In France, to rent, you have to earn 3 times your rent cost.

I'd be great on making a budget.

It's fun living on my own. I can do what I want, and I don't have to answer to anybody. The trade off, is the chores and the budgeting. The chores need to get done, and everything costs money. I get $990 from the government. $350 is taken off for rent, so I actually have $640 to pay for my other expenses. $250 of that money goes towards bills and $200 goes for groceries, throughout the month. I work three to five days a week, 2 hours a day, cleaning parking lots, as part of a litter crew. I get payed at least $220 a month, doing that. $400 a month at the most. There's also my special interest, which $75 a month goes towards.

This is what I end up with, at the end of each month, where it says Surplus.

Cheque = $950
Paycheques = $240
Rent = $350
Groceries = $200
Bills = $250
Drinks = $100
Special Interest = $75
Surplus = $215

I collect 2000$ from scholarships and disability money, then I do freelance artwork and programming which brings in anything from 400-600 usd (been as high as 2700 one month, but not reliable as a source of income). Books are founded by the gouvernment (1000$/year). Rent is expensive as **** here, about 1000$ a month. I think it would be a good idea to make a list of 14 meals so I have a 2 week rotation. I estimated that I can spend about 15-20 $ a day on food, but I can easily bring that down to 10-15. I need to learn how to do laundry but that should take less than 5 minutes. I've done some of the required paperwork, but I probably won't get the appartment that I'm looking at. I respond to about 1-5 ads (appartments) a day hoping to find a place to live. Heres my temporary budget:

in: 2000-2400$
rent: 1000$
food: with 12$ a day = 30*12 usd = 360 usd, so 350-450$.
entertainment: piracy ftw.
electricity: included.
clothes: 100-200usd.
internet: included.
phone: 20 usd month.
travel expenses: 50 usd/month.
social events: me social? this must be a joke.
medication: 30$/month.
sketchbooks/pens/drawing equipment: 30-70$.
Savings/others : whatever is left.

My husband works full time and I work part time.

Rent: $650
Electric: varies, it can cost anywhere from $50 to $100 depending on how much electricity we use.
Comcast (internet and cable): $168.00
Phone (two cell phones) about $80 total
Food: about $200 (it will be about $300 this month because we go every other weekend and this is the month where we have to do it three times since it falls every other weekend)
Gamefly: 22.95
Children International: $22 that includes sending $25 when they are asking for me to make a donation to help this little girl but I only do it when we have the money
Bus fare (two bus passes): $50 total
Husband's credit card bill: about $20 a month
Gas: varies. I can fill it up once a month or every other two months depending on how often I use my car.
Laundry: $10 (we get quaters to do laundry since it costs us to wash and dry a load and we do it every weekend)

I think that is everything for monthly stuff.

My husband has been putting $25 into a envelope for Christmas so he has money to buy presents for his family and mine. I use my first paycheck of every month for savings too.

Every few months my husband has to get more medication which costs him $10 each.

Then I go to IHOP every month for the autism gathering up in Washington and that can cost me money if I wish to buy food there which is about $7.99 average and that includes a tip. Then I go to another autism gathering and it takes donations to keep the group running and I occasionally donate when I have the money. I can put in a few dollars or coins or five bucks depending on what I have in my purse. I've been wanting to donate here too for the past five months but never had it in my budget yet because of other things.

wow.. that sucks. Where I live you pay 1-2 month deposit and the houseowner might do a credit check, no regulations. Privat market however is really expensive ranging from about 800-2000$.

Where I live, to rent, you need to fill out an application and they charge you a application fee that is non refundable. They need the money to run a background check on you to see if you have any criminal records or something.

This is a really good question. For me personally, I was never excited about moving out. For years, I said I would live at home for college, because dorm life just seemed unthinkable. I changed my mind for various reasons, but was pretty nervous. Fortunately, I randomly ended up with a roommate who is shockingly similar to me in a lot of ways, and it turned out very well. But after college, I wasn't very excited about moving out on my own. I ended up going to a familiar place, which made moving to live alone much more tolerable.

Often, I sort of regret moving out so soon. It was never something I wanted very badly, though I guess I did it because that's what people do (not to mention I was really attracted to the job). I feel pretty lonely, and I don't get as much done as I used to. But if I can't accept this, I'll never grow up and move on.

I make roughly $25,000 a year. My rent is $750 a month, which is higher than it was when I moved in four years ago. Finances are not my specialty. You might even say it's an anti-special-interest. I don't think too hard about my bills when I pay them, and I barely look at my bank statement, though it stays roughly the same month to month. Without even trying, I spend about as much as I make, but it does help that my parents gave me a few thousand as a cushion. I'm just prudent enough with my money to mostly buy what I want and keep my bank account stable. My mom does help me with groceries... about a year after I came here, they moved nearby, actually.

The most interesting question in your original post is about whether you can get chores done. For me, the answer is a big fat NO. The dishwasher is my cupboard, basically. My dirty dishes go on the counter, and I get my clean out of the dishwasher. It's not too often that I'll properly empty it. I let the trash pile up before I take it out. I used to clean up my space at home, a bit less so in college, and much less so here. The thing is, I love a clean space, and I LOVE organization. But for some reason, on my own, I don't do it. I'd be happier if I did it, I know. I actually kinda have fun with that. But I can't bring myself to for some reason. Even something that might take less than a minute, I'll put it off for a week or two. Maybe longer. The only way I can motivate myself to clean up anymore is to get my mom to come over for the day and help me. I wish I wasn't this way. I need to invent a rigorous schedule and a "no-laziness" policy or something, because I'm getting a bit tired of living like this. I used to accomplish more with less time.

Really, this dissatisfaction with how I'm living alone is a pretty big part of why I started researching online to learn more about myself. If living alone is a challenge for others too, it seems likely that I do have AS.

hey, thanks for the response. Living with someone is unthinkable for me, theres no way I could trust someone to live with me (heck I barely trust my own father). That person would only be a source of annoyance and would interfer with my daily routine as I'm 3 times less productive in the company of others. Of course being selective when it comes to choosing an appartment (sound, privacy, price) makes it alot harder to actually find one, but some sacrifices just can't be made. Luckily my tuition is barely 150$ per semester (and paid by the gouvernment), yet everything else (rent,food etc.) is expensive even by american standards. I don't want help with chores because that would be awefully stigmatizing, I'd have to let a stranger into my appartment and most importantly i'd never learn to do it on my own. I agree, living on my own sure won't be a pleasant experience. The benefit of privacy isn't that great, because you rent your appartment from another person who could knock on your door any time, your neighbours are loud and noisy.

Do you live in the US? It's not clear to me from your post.

I'm asking because most of what I would say would probably not be relevant if you live in another country where the expenses are different.

I have found over the last 10 years or so that it costs roughly about $2000 US per month to live and now that I own my house, I have found the cost of living is basically the same. If you're working up a budget, talk to your parents, they should be able to give you an idea of how much it costs to house and feed you personally. My experience has been that food costs are about twice what you think they should be on a monthly basis. If you think it should only cost you $300 a month to eat, then budget $600. If it turns out to be way too much then you can adjust the budget and funnel the extra money elsewhere. It's better to budget more than you think you'll need, in any case.

Remember you'll have to buy clothes, cover your transportation (including visits home if you're moving far away), medical expenses, and that social or cultural things like festivals, museum trips, dinner out, etc. need to be included.

Last edited by happymusic on 29 Jul 2010, 11:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

No, I live in scandinavia. I wasn't really asking about the expenses, but it was mentioned so I thought I'd make a rough budget as well. This is more about the experience of living on your own, how you get to that point and how you cope with it.

Oh I see - well, Id recommend getting a place without a yard first. Getting used to cleaning the whole apartment, sorting the mail each day, etc. can be a lot, especially if you're a student. If you can afford to have someone come help you with cleaning especially it can really reduce some stress. i find keeping after the kitchen and bathrooms fairly stressful.