| posted on September 7, 2017
Ash update: currently sitting in my ugg boots, pondering why I am still living at home at the ripe old age of 20 (something).
Seriously, I feel old.
People say that family is forever and that you should always cherish your family (which is all true and I am not disagreeing with this), but there gets a point where you need to just break free and get away.
Can you imagine? No more arguing over who gets the shower first, or debating a curfew time despite your friends never getting one.
No more constant whining about how much money you waste on skinny lattes with extra caramel syrup.
You could have peace and quiet and enjoy late night Gossip Girl re-runs without anyone nagging that you are up too late and waking up the household.
You could literally eat cupcakes for breakfast if you wanted to.
Easiest solution? Move out!
Move out… right, should be easy enough.
Get online, choose a house, send in an application and BOOM.
Done.
Yeah, right.
Moving out is actually super tricky when you don’t know what you are doing.
(Prime example is me).
How often do you pay a water bill?
How do you open a tin can that doesn’t have one of those ring-pull lid things?
How long do you cook two-minute noodles for?
How do you boil an egg?!
Honestly, after watching my parents live for 20 years and watching them teach myself and my siblings how to live, you would think I would have everything sussed out by now.
Nope.
Where to even start…
The first thing I did was ask my parents.
After hearing woeful tales of how it was harder back then and ignoring their advice, I spoke to my friends.
They too were useless.
Seriously though, start by deciding how much you can honestly afford to pay per week.
Have a look on Gumtree for people advertising for housemates, or check out realestate.com.au.
Put your dreams of the Taj Mahal aside until you become an anaesthetist.
But remember, you need to be able to afford more than just rent per week.
Take into consideration the different living costs, such as food and utilities.
Assuming you want to have a recognisable social life, consider putting away some money each pay for drinks or a trip to the cinema.
Remember, do one thing at a time.
Don’t try and do step 10 when you haven’t finished step two.
One thing at a time, tiger.
An idea:
Step 1: Choose a rental boundary (location of house and realistic cost per week).
Step 2: Decide whether you will live solo, with your partner, or in a share house.
Step 3: Mock up a weekly budget, to see how much money you would need to allocate to each aspect of your lifestyle.
Step 4: Seek advice from a real estate agency on how to apply for a place and where to find a place that best suits you.
Step 5: Save money while you can before you move out! Big things such as moving out can become really overwhelming if you try to do everything at once.
So, when considering moving out, have a reality check first.
Can you afford to move out?
Do you know how to live independently?
Would it make you happy?
As all advice forums say (I have checked on many late nights while fretting), only you know if you are ready to move out.
Figure out what is best for you first, rather than basing decisions off what other people are doing (literally me everyday).
You need to be perfectly honest with yourself and figure out what is best for you and only you.
Give that a try and let me know how it goes.
