Re: Living alone.. how do you afford it?
05/28/04 04:15 PM
|
|
|
|
|
AstroChick
Reged: 12/30/03
Posts: 1023
Loc: Chicago, IL, USA
|
|
|
Hi Ashley--
Here's what I did:
First two years of grad school: Lived with the boyfriend, who shall hereafter be called The Dreaded Ex. We were far from campus, so I didn't really hang out with my fellow students (bad). He spent all our joint money on CDs and pianos (bad). Well, I could go on, but you get the point. 
Last three years of grad school: rented out one bedroom in a two bedroom apartment. Yeah, it was in the grad student ghetto of Ann Arbor, so the landlords did nutty things like renting out partial apartments. I ended up with one bad apartmentmate, but the others were great. Since we weren't friends or sharing any finances, we just had to negotiate how to keep the common bathroom and kitchen clean. It felt like having my own place, but it was a lot closer to affordable. I was also walking distance from campus and from Zingermans (other Ann Arbor vets know what I mean!).
Postdoc in Boston: I shared an apartment with one roommate. We had our moments, but it was the only way to make it affordable. Being the lazy and low-energy person I am, I preferred dealing with her occasional dirty dish rather than getting a part-time job that actually paid a decent wage.
I guess the point of my ramblings is that there's a lot of different ways to share housing, and it doesn't need to involve being in your roomies hair all the time or at all. And you'll be busy enough in grad school that you can skip cable and get your internet access at school. All your friends will be poor, too, so the temptations will be fewer!
--AC
Print
Remind Me
Notify Moderator
|
|
Posts
