But since I love thinking about the future and crunching numbers, here they are:
Old/Projected
Rent - 725/400
Utilities - 80/0
Of course by then my overdue utilities (around $180) and my overdue water ($300) will be paid off so I can ditch those additional expenses. At the very least I will have an additional $400 a month towards saving/debt.
If I get laid off, however, this plan will be put into effect in April, cuz losing your job is a really legitimate reason to break your lease. But for reasons that will be discussed later, I am pretty sure I'll be starting a new job within the next month or so.
Where will my extra $400 go? Definitely towards the Emergency Fund at first. I want this sucker to be big enough to pay for a deposit on a new place if I decide I no longer want to live with Boyfriend (not likely, but hey, gotta plan for every contingency). After I reach $2000 in this fund, I will move onto my other goals outlined in my 2009 resolutions.
I'm feeling very optimistic about this change. It helps to be in love so that whenever things get rough you know someone has your back. And Boyfriend and I are very copacetic when it comes to finances. He is a frequent (if silent) reader of the blog and ha himself become pretty obsessed with personal finance, tracking every little thing on Quicken. Hey, who urged him to buy a condo in the first place?
A new expense I will have to budget for is securing a storage facility for my stuff. I have an expensive mattress, a very nice kitchen table, two t.v.s and other stuff that will ultimately be used if Boyfriend and I decide to upgrade to a bigger place in the years to come.
Stay tuned for tales of cohabitation.
10 comments:
I'm all for cohabitation before marriage. Afterall, it's too late to discover you can't stand living with a person after you've walked down the aisle with him. But in your case, it sounds like you already know you're compatible with BF. In that case, I'm all for cohabiting to save moolah too. :-D
Think hard about the storage idea...it's too easy to put it there, pay the bill and ignore it. My aunt did this for her mother's dining room table - $5K and 6 years later, she finally had her adult son drive it 2000 miles to her doorstep. So throw in another $1K in truck rental, one-way airfare, gas, etc.
I'm a big fan of living in sin - just make sure some of your stuff (more than just a bathroom trash can and 2 coffee mugs!) makes it into the condo, or else it will always feel like you're living with him rather than that you're living together. Been there - twice - it's not ideal.
Be careful that you don't end up paying more for storage in the long run than the stuff you are storing in there is worth. It's easy to forget and just keep paying that bill each month.
I've gotta say that living together is so much fun. It's such an exciting time in the relationship. It's like having your best pal around all the time!
Money Mate Kate and FruGal have great comments, think long and hard about a storage unit. I had one I thought I would use temporarily when I moved back north. I kept it for 6 years. When I finally got around to moving all the boxed back to my house on hot sticky mid July day-, what did I have-not a heck of a lot and I paid almost $4000 in storage fees. Most of the stuff (and it was stuff, less two rubbermaid bins and one file box of personal papers) ended up at goodwill, on freecycle, or at the dump.
Good point, I'll have to think on it for a while. Part of me gets so stressed out at the idea of abandoning all of my stuff. If we break up I'll have nothing, yikes!
How exciting to see your plan moving ahead!
Nice! I lived in sin just as I turned 21. I think my parents nearly died. I had already finished college though.
Also I married my fellow cohabitator years later.
And throw out all the storage crap. You can always replace if necessary and storage fees are a pain.
i say hear, hear! to the storage haters. if your stuff is nice, swap it for what's already at boyfriend's or sell it and stash the cash in your emergency fund so that, heaven forbid, if you un-co-habitate at some point, you can pick up some stuff to tide you over. also remember, if that ever DID happen sometime down the road, chances are you'd have different preferences for furniture and all by then anyway. best to get it to people who will use it and save yourself the storage fees and eventual headache of moving it all again!
I shared an apartment with my SO since my senior year of college. My parents didn't care for it but her parents encouraged us to live together. They worry about their daughter living so far away from them, but they trust me so I guess that's a good thing. We never really had a plan when it came to the stuff in the place. Both of us bought the bed, furniture, etc. I'm not a huge fan of storage but I understand your concern should things not work out. Hope it all works out for you guys though.
I totally agree with all of this storage hating - take your stuff and sell it, stick in a "stuff" fund and let it earn you some interest. Then if you need to, you can access it for emergencies. Since your BF just bought the condo you guys should probably be there for several years so imagine pulling out of storage a 5 year old TV, table and bed when I'm sure you will want some new stuff for a new place. Save the $ (from not having the storage fees and selling your stuff now) and get rid of it! Mentally, it might seem hard to part ways with that much stuff but I think you will find it very liberating. Besides, the more you get rid of now the less you will have to move later.
And congrats on co-habitating. I also moved in with my BF about 6 months ago and it was a great move. It sounds like you guys will be great "roomies". :)
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