Tell me about your first place...

[MdniteDrftr]

Im just looking for stories, experiences, and such about moving out on your own...

[Dan]

Tell ya in a couple months.

[EVIL5LITER]

How about this:  Don't. 

You will never realize how much money you don't have until you move out on your own. 

Unless you like sustaining yourself off of Ramen Noodles and red hot dogs, don't do it. 

[MdniteDrftr]

Well I cant stay home forever. And I never said Im moving out soon...

[01_blue]

I moved out from home into splitting an apt with my brother and cousin, but that's not "on my own".  First time i lived alone is when I moved out here and got a single bedroom apt.  I never realized how much I would miss just having someone else around until it was just me.  Example, every so often a bad thought goes thru my head on how I can get seriously injured or what not at home without my phone handy and no one would ever know cause it would take probably 3-4 days before someone from work came knocking on my door to see why I hadn't been in.

[01_blue]

Yes, I'm a bit pessimistic on occasion LOL

[Mr. White]

Red hot dogs are the bomb

[BadAndy]

My first apartment was small. Utilities were dirt cheap and rent wasn't bad either. It's been a little over 6 years since I moved out of my parents house, lived in two different apartments, one rented house and now I own my house.

[my92gt]

Red hot dogs are the bomb

Never heard of them before, what are they?

[Mr. White]

Apparently in SteAve's neck of the backwoods, they're low rent.

These, on the other hand, are fan-f***ing-tastic.

http://www.taylormeat.com/xcart/customer/product.php?productid=22&cat=11&page=1

[Robin]

I moved out from home into splitting an apt with my brother and cousin, but that's not "on my own".   ...

Well, if that is the criteria for being on my own, then I wasn't until I ws 42!       I never lived alone until after I was divorced.


The first place I lived that was not my parents' house was an apartment that I shared with a friend from HS. I only lived there for about three months before moving in with my now ex-husband.

[Chris Wilson]

Not too much to tell really.  The wife and I pooled our savings and basically put down every penny we had to our names when I was 18 and she was 19 to buy / build our first house.  We ended up putting about 15% down on it I believe.  It was a learning experience to say the least.  It was a nice little 3/2, about 1300 sqft with a two car garage.  We then spent the next 8 years or so basically ripping all the original stuff out and upgrading everything.  I finally got it the way I wanted it about the time we decided the neighborhood was going down the crapper and we stuck a sign in the yard.  I look back on it and think about how at the time we were really worried about the payment on the place which was a whopping $585 a month I think    That was a long time ago though, lots of good times in that place. 

[Christa]

Older woman, huh, Chris?     Steve and I moved out when I was 20, he was 22 or 23.  I was so worried about having enough money to pay rent, which was $385 for this little 2/1 duplex.  When we moved out about 6 months later to townhouses in a different city, they were $700+ and I remember being so worried about how we were going to make it.  Wouldn't I love to go back to that dollar amount!

[Chris Wilson]

Yeah, I always kid with her that she will always be older than me, but the actual difference is only a matter of a few months.  We were fortunate to both go from living at home to living at our home, never had to rent.

[floydwall888]

2 weeks after HS graduation moved in to an apt about 2 blocks away from school, got kicked out 1 month later for some bogus chit. moved in to an apt about 30 miles away from school in smaller town and loved it. switched apts 3-4 times just because  then about a year and half ago i became trailer trash..real story is I decided I didn't want to go in debt up to my $ss with a house in a town I didn't want to stay in. I'm only staying until the girl gets out of school. my mom works as a banker, they just repo'd a trailer that booked for 15.5 and i got it for 4.5 so i payed cash money and i live next to some real winners 

[1FastDoc]

How about this:  Don't. 

You will never realize how much money you don't have until you move out on your own. 

Unless you like sustaining yourself off of Ramen Noodles and red hot dogs, don't do it. 

Everyone has to go through it at some point.  I think the kid's ready to start life on his own.

[Dan]

Everyone has to go through it at some point.  I think the kid's ready to start life on his own.

That's how I feel. I'm finally going to be making enough money that I can afford rent, utilities and food, plus the location is 11ty times closer to school and I will have peace and quiet (no mom screaming at me to take the trash out, no crying baby at 4 AM, no grandma listening to the TV on 200 dB). It is worth paying money out of my pocket to be on my own.

Yes, I won't have money to buy many frivolous things like I would if I stayed at home, but I will have enough money before I move in to get some nice furniture and still have money left over at the end of every month so I'm not on the Ramen/hot dog diet.

[1FastDoc]

get used furniture.  I think we got stuff from the Salvation Army for my first place.  You won't care as much when beer gets poured all over it.

Steal as much of your parent's small appliances as you can.  Get the dishes etc from Salv. or from one of the discount stores like Marshall's, TJMaxx, Ross, etc.  Furnishing a house or apt adds up extremely fast.

Bring the laundry back home and do it there every week or two.  No need to completely sever the attachment to the tit.

[Dan]

I'm not buying an entire leather set and a 50" plasma or anything.

I was looking at stuff at Value City Furniture and they have stuff for fairly decent prices for what you get. Who else is cheap for furniture?

I would imagine dishes and appliances would be cheap at places like Sam's Club, Costco or Ikea too.

[floydwall888]

Dishes?? Paper my man, it's the way to go. As for furniture, I was lucky enough to have some freinds that were upgrading so I got most from them. There are a few furniture consignment(er whatever) shops around here that are dirt cheap though. I got a couch and chair for my "computer room" that is comfy and looks new for $80, they had a nice layzboy there for like $50, but I turned around and it was gone.

[1FastDoc]

I'm not buying an entire leather set and a 50" plasma or anything.

I was looking at stuff at Value City Furniture and they have stuff for fairly decent prices for what you get. Who else is cheap for furniture?

I would imagine dishes and appliances would be cheap at places like Sam's Club, Costco or Ikea too.

Not cheap enough man.  Trust me, it will all add up faster than you can believe.  Besides, you take a lot of little things for granted until you have to start paying for them.  Steal towels from home too.  I recommend doing the acquisitions over a few weeks/months so the parents don't notice things missing.  They might notice when you boost the silverware but they probably needed some new stuff anyway.

I had one apt where heat/AC were payed for.  That was awesome in the mid winter and summer months when I could just crank the thermostat in either direction and not care about the impending bill. 

[Dan]

The heat and water are paid for in the place I'm looking at, which works out well because I blast the heat in winter and always take showers that last like a half hour. I just stand there and let the water pound my head to wake me up.

I got a killer deal on a set of dishes and silverware last year at my work. $12.50 for 5 sets of plates, bowls, knifes, forks, spoons, probably some other stuff. It was $49.99 before but they marked it down and I hopped on that because I knew I'd need it one day.

[doogz]

If I could describe moving out on my own in one sentence:

It's f***ing expensive.

/thread.

[Kevins89notch5.0]

Steal towels from home too.  I recommend doing the acquisitions over a few weeks/months so the parents don't notice things missing.  They might notice when you boost the silverware but they probably needed some new stuff anyway.

Towels are much easier to yank from a hotel.  Swing by a holiday inn about 11am when all the rooms are being cleaned.  Wait till the cleaning lady ducks into the room, and yank a couple from her kart.

Silverware, find a friend who works at a restaurant.  Then can find plenty of silverware pretty easily.

[1FastDoc]

Steal towels from home too.  I recommend doing the acquisitions over a few weeks/months so the parents don't notice things missing.  They might notice when you boost the silverware but they probably needed some new stuff anyway.

Towels are much easier to yank from a hotel.  Swing by a holiday inn about 11am when all the rooms are being cleaned.  Wait till the cleaning lady ducks into the room, and yank a couple from her kart.

Silverware, find a friend who works at a restaurant.  Then can find plenty of silverware pretty easily.

Geez man, you drop the standards all the way down.  Those hotel towels suck, I'd rather use sandpaper.  Restaurant silverware isn't a bad idea but I'd feel a little bad about stealing from a business.  I don't mind pillaging from my parent's house.

[BadAndy]

Steve, hotel towels are only tough because they use a lot of bleach to clean them. A regular wash with plenty of fabric softener and they're just fine

[Kevins89notch5.0]

Restaurant silverware isn't a bad idea but I'd feel a little bad about stealing from a business.  I don't mind pillaging from my parent's house.

Servers throw away silverware all the time.  Its like $.15 a piece.

Back at Chilis, I had some college kids straight up ask if they could steal stuff.  I found them a fresh bottle of ketchup, some full salt and pepper shakers, and told them about the silverware in a basket under the hosts stand.  They left me a nice tip.

[Chris Wilson]

Think about the s*** you are stealing.  This whole risk / reward thing needs to come to the forefront 

[Kevins89notch5.0]

My first place was tons of fun.  It was disney's houseing for my college program.  I had 7 other roommates, paid $75 a week for rent, but that covered everything from water, power, and even having dishes and furniture provided.  After 7 months there I moved into my first apt, and was then working at Chilis.  Rent was $535 plus $35 for cable  I don't remember what power and water were, but I don't remember paying more than $800 total a month for bills.  I was making alright money at chilis, so that was covered in about 6 nights work.

[EVIL5LITER]

The heat and water are paid for in the place I'm looking at, which works out well because I blast the heat in winter and always take showers that last like a half hour. I just stand there and pound the munchkin to wake me up.

Fixed.