First Apartment

[Amy05]

So, i am getting my first apartment soon and wanted to get some advice from you all. With all new things, other people have done it before you and can give you some handy advice.


Thanks all for any tips

[lillyorchid]

I know when I first moved out, my boyfriend and I were very gun-ho to get new everything. Then our parents talked sense in to us and told us to wait till he actually bought a house (if we were still together) to do that. So when we got our first apartment, they helped us out with giving us their old house supplies and I know we got a lot of free used stuff from craigslist, local paper, etc. Glad we did that now because things got stolen from the complex people doing checks, etc and things got stolen and broken from having parties and having people over.

We bounced around from apartments every 6 months when our lease was up since apartment living sucks around here. I ended up dumping him last year and figuring out who got what was a pain in the you know what!

We are /sorta/ back together now after being apart a year and so far so good. Doubt getting an apartment again will happen since that was the root of our money problems. We threw away soooo much money on a stinking apartment that we couldn't even call "ours" and that gave us some big problems. If we ever get serious again, it will be for real and no more playing around thinking we know what we are doing to just get away to live together and away from our parents. If everything goes as we hope it does... we will be looking into getting an actually house together.... but that will be years down the road.

Good luck!

[jglass38]

Congrats!!

Check out http://www.whitefence.com/index.html?mrc=Gutilities to shop for utlities.

[frankykeno]

Oh this takes me back (I'm not say how far back either LOL), to my first night alone in my first apartment...it's a wonderful memory of finally feeling "grown up".


Now on a practical note....

- buy a good security chain and peephole if they aren't provided by the landlord, use them, EVERY time, EVERY day - the world is sadly full of creeps

- learn to budget, living on your own is far more expensive than anyone realizes the first time out of the nest

- call your mother!

- all your friends that still live at home will want to hang out, remind them garbage day is Wednesday and if their butts are at your place, they get that chore!

- invest in good pots and pans and a decent vaccuum

- buy good used furniture, your friends will spill stuff on it anyways so why waste good cash

- make sure there's room for your snakes and lizards

- call your mother!

[Amy05]

LOL. I am pretty good at budgeting, unfortunately, the people I'm moving in with are not, so I'm going to have some work cut out for me. lol.

[JLC]

Aren't you a bit young to be moving out on your own?


That said...when I got my first apartment (I was going solo) I cruised garage sales for all the basics like dishes, pots n' pans, silverware, wall hangings, etc....and hit up the Goodwill stores for great deals on furniture that I never worried much about. It was a lot of fun shopping that way...got great stuff at unreal prices.

[Sausage]

Congrats! Getting out of your parents' house is the first major step to adulthood!

A quick tip: buy furniture that is well-made and practical. What's funky and modern now might look ridiculous in a year or two. You can't go wrong with wood! Goodwill does have a lot of stuff that can be reupholstered quickly and will still be cheaper than something from, say, Pottery Barn.

Good luck!!

[Amy05]

i love garage sales...and what my friends and i call hippy shopping...go out the night before garbage day and collect all the cool stuff you can find.

i am a bit young, but i have been supporting myself for a while, and i am going to community college and it is a 30 minute drive, so me and some friends are getting an apartment (of course with my father's permission) closer to campus so we don't have to spend so much money on gas.

[lillyorchid]

Amy... you will be spending A LOT more money each month on rent, then you would be doing so on gas. You do know this right?

[Sausage]

i am a bit young, but i have been supporting myself for a while, and i am going to community college

So you're at least 18, right?... that's not that young to be out.