Moving out of home

[Raw Toast Man]

So, most of you would know that I finished school last year and am going through the stage of wanting to move out of home. Mainly for the freedom, have more fun and my house at the moment isn't very nice...
A few of my good mates are also looking to move for uni etc Closer to the city/work for me.
What sort of advice can you give me/my mates regarding moving out. When did you move out of home and why?

Cheers.

 

[Smacks]

Pay for somewhere to put your stuff.
Put your stuff there.

 

[GravityGuru]

Had to get away from the Yakuza

 

[Baileys]

ill be your roomie

 

[addmin]

ill be your roomie

you live at greggs place, you don't need a roomie

 

[Regan of Gong]

Interested. Minimum leaving budget for a semi comfortable independent life pleeeeease?

 

[S.]

Advice: work out how much money you reckon you'll spend per week on petrol, food and booze, double it, and that's how much money you'll actually spend per week on said things (plus rent obviously). Make sure your income can actually support your lifestyle, being permanently broke and wondering if you can actually pay the bills this week sucks arse.

Also, see if you can find roomies to split furniture and stuff with... you probably have a bed or something already, but stuff like TVs, fridges (some houses include the fridge, some don't), stereos, couches and even really basic stuff like crockery and cutlery are helpful if you're not renting a furnished place.

 

[slip]

Get a nest egg. You'll be amazed at how much you need to spend in a week sometimes. Plus, just moving out itself can be rather damaging to the bank balance.

Be prepared - you don't want to return home grovelling.

 

[THISISTC]

MAke a Piss load of money to Afford Rent.

 

[smeck]

Interested. Minimum leaving budget for a semi comfortable independent life pleeeeease?

Define semi comfortable, but I reckon you want a minimum $500 to move and close to that per week if you're by yourself, less with roomies. What ever your rent is you need atleast that again, and generally twice as much. I think Real Estate agents won't rent you a place where the rent is higher than 40% of your net income because thats about what it costs to live. If you want to be semi comfortable and independant, you probably shouldn't go above 30% of your income for rent.

Try and move in with someone already established if you can. Its gets expensive very quickly moving into a new place. Telstra want money just to connect the phone, its the same with the power. And some bills come quarterly, others monthly, but a break down of mine is my power bill runs at $25 a week, the phone and internet costs me $25 a week, the mobile another $15 a week, food about $100 a week but that can vary with taste. Then the rego bill arrives for the car, it adds up pretty quickly.

And it will blow you away how much knives, forks, plates and stuff can cost when you have to buy it all. It all comes down to how you want to live

 

[Pete J]

Yes, the freedom of paying all your own bills is a great thing indeed.
Jokes aside, if your home life is bad enough to make you want to move then definitely go for it. However do your homework first and figure out what your expenses will be compared to your income. Managing money will be something that comes as a rude awakening if you are not already used to it before getting your own place. Budgetting isn't fun but it's part of being a 'grown up' unfortunately.
Your best bet is to jump into a share house with people you are familiar with but not necessarily best friends. That way the 'system' will already be set up and you should know well up front what your costs will be week to week. Plus you will learn the shared living thing alot quicker because the house rules will already be in place.
If you are a slob at home then you'll need to wise up quickly, that kind of behaviour is totally uncool in a share house and you WILL have to pull your own weight. Which means cleaning, washing dishes, paying bills on time and respecting other peoples space and stuff...
Try and pick a place that has public transport close by as well as shops within walking distance. You'll say money by not having to use a car all the time. However don't live too close to a pub, you don't need those kinds of distractions next door!

 

[slip]

Define semi comfortable, but I reckon you want a minimum $500 to move

Ah, what?

Removalists (maybe not if you can get a ute for free)
Bond - 4 weeks rent + 2 weeks rent in advance. Lets say $100/wk rent.
Cleaning/round the house products
Food
Stuff you need in kitchen

$750 minimum - and then you've got nothing left to your name. Nothing. Oh and that's without removalists, fuel used during the move, buying any furniture etc.

I'd want to be packing 1k absolute minimum.

 

[skivi]

don't move out with friends.
you will end up hatting them especially if money is tight and uni is demanding, you'd have to have some pretty special friends and very clear ground rules laid down at the beginning to avoid everyone wanting to kill each other.

moving out gives you new freedoms but in exchange you surrender old luxuries like the ability to save money easily and quickly.

 

[scblack]

A few questions:

Have you ever used a washing machine? Do you have one?

Do you have a vacuum?

Have you got a fridge?

How much cutlery/crockery/plates/cups/pots/pans etc have you got?

How much furniture do you have?

Do you have any savings for emergencies?

All the above is stuff you will need.

 

[slip]

In regards to the excellent points raised by scblack above - scab stuff. Unashamedly scab harder then you've every scabbed before.

Get that old fridge from out the back of your family friends place.
Guilt trip someone into giving your their old vacuum cleaner, they need to upgrade anyway.
Get a list of what kitchen stuff you need and see who can score what from the parents.
Even linen. Scabby, I know.

We even scored food when we moved out. Granted, it was over 1yr out of date (Thanks Dad) but we still ate it.*

*Don't do this. Hurts.

 

[GravityGuru]

time. However don't live too close to a pub, you don't need those kinds of distractions next door!

Hmmm.... I picked my current rental place specifically for it's proximity to my two favourite pubs... Maybe that's where things went so very wrong...

Also, if you're not moving into a pre-established place. ie Looking for emtpy rental places to move into with a bunch of friends, be ready for the most frustrating and depressing experience you've had to date. Nobody wants to rent to Young males. My Housemate and I spent three months trying to get any of our applications accepted, despite the fact we both had $1000pw+ incomes and a perfect rental history from our last unit. Trying to rent a place in Brisbane just sucks full stop...

 

[slip]

2 ways I used to deal with that issue.

1. Build rapport with the agent on phone before inspection. Can be hard to too, but anything as long as they remember you in a good light when you rock up to the inspection.

2. I used to include my bank statement with each application. When they see 10k+ sitting there, it helps. Don't do this if you are broke.

3. Ryan is right, renting in Brisbane sucks at the moment.

 

[Arete]

I'm in the process of moving out of a share house and in with my partner.

Share House: If you're moving into an established one, they'll probably see it as a good thing if you don't have much shit. Share houses are full of too much of the resident's crap, combined with former residents crap. If you don't bring much crap to the house, it's good.

If you're starting one, pick things for each of you to get rather than splitting things. Say the landlord hikes the rent up 40% when you renew your lease in 6 months, and you all have to find alternate accommodation... but you all own 1/3 of the fridge...

Start up: My bond was $420. You'll need that in cash.
Furniture: completely depenant on what you need/want. I just got a second hand washer and fridge off a guy moving overseas for $200. New the pair would've been $1500ish.
I'm not afraid or ashamed of hard rubbish furniture. Ebay is good for people who just want you to get rid of furniture, so if you have a means to ute it for free, you're laughing.
Bills: it depends on your expenses. Internet, phone, water, power, cable tv... decide what you want/need/can afford.
Naked DSL does away with the phone line if you predominately use your mobiles, and also does away with disputes over who made what call.

My current expenses are around $520 a month for rent and bills sharing with 2 people ($110 a week in rent - In Adelaide that gets me a room in a recently renovated place about 6km from the city - in Sydney for the same you'd be looking in and around $150-200). I make do on about $260 groceries a month. So, just to survive, I need an income in a share house of around $200 a week.

Then any fun money, and "in case shit" money goes on top of that. As a povo student I budgeted around $100 for those two but it depends on your spending habits.

I'd say realistically, you'll want around $1000 saved you can spend on stuff, and a reliable income of at least $300 a week.

 

[Joy]

I found it ridiculously hard to get a place this year. Found somewhere in Newmarket with less than a week to go till I got kicked out of my old place. Getting accepted by Real Estate companies with no rental experience on your part is going to be the hardest. You might have to accept that you're going to live in a shithole for your first year like I did.

 

[FoxRidersCo]

I moved out of home when I was 15 for various reasons I won't divulge, I spent years moving from youth hostels to government housing to privately rented flats then eventually into shared accommodation (merely a financial decision)

Alot of young people think that moving out of home is all glamour, freedom and fun but I can say from first hand experience that it involves alot of responsibility and money. If I had the option of staying under my parent's umbrella for a little while longer I know what I would have chosen.

If you are planning to move out and your sole source of income is Centrelink than you may be in for a big shock as you will find yourself not so much living but merely just existing, with the costs of living these days it is quite easy to find yourself with very little money for things that are considered "luxuries" when you are independant and self supporting. Even when I went into the workforce and started earning a wage the first years were still a struggle and required alot of self restraint on my behalf.

In summary, spend time to weigh up the pro's and con's of becoming independant and moving away from the family home and make a decision based on those.