posted
I need some advice. As the TMO collective will probably know, I’m 23 and I still live with my parents. This is, of course, a fairly shocking state of affairs but in recent years I’ve been somewhat crippled by debt repayments. I’ve sorted out my finances and I’m now a lot more comfortable than I used to be.
Now a mate of mine has been renting a bungalow for a few years now and has asked me if I want to move in with him. It’s a gorgeous bungalow, good facilities, in a nice area, close to my friends and close to where I work. The rent though, combined with the general cost of living (I’ve worked this out as best I can) wont leave me with much money to myself though. In fact, it wont really leave me with anything to myself. But I’ll be away from my parents and I’ll finally have the freedom I think I’ve been needing for a long time now.
It’s a big decision, and there are drawbacks either way. Staying with my parents I’m bound by their rules, but living with my mate I’ll have virtually no disposable cash. It’s a tough choice, one which needs some careful thought. I wonder if anyone here is able to give their opinion, and maybe share some experiences with me?
Posts: 12211
| IP: Logged
posted
It depends. Living without cash is no fun, especially if you’ve already shown that you’re apt to try to solve this through credit. On the other hand, presumably the fact that you’ve been budgeting and paying off your debts means you now know what it is to be careful with money. What’s the rent like on the property? Is it in line with other rents in your area, or higher? You don’t have to jump at the first thing you see just because it’s there – often if you shop around you can get really nice bargainous places. Like I’m currently paying almost £100 less per month than I used to for a much nicer place – you just have to look.
This message has been bought to you by the spirit of BORING FUCKERS.
posted
I agree with Benway. After i graduated and wound up back in my parents' house, moving out became my number one priority, and I'm absolutely confident that it was one of the few times I've made a right decision in my life. It meant living in a bedsit in Redhill, but it was still better than living with my parents. I mean, I like my parents and stuff but... ick. I was just so miserable living in the house I grew up in. It started to drive me mad. The first year after moving out was just like a blistering, brilliant 12 months, like coming up for air.
Posts: 13758
| IP: Logged
posted
disposable cash is enormously overrated. so you have to listen to your mum telling you to pick up after yourself at the age of 23, but hey! you can buy a new top 10 music ceedee and a shiny copy of HUBCAPS AND SOAPY BAPS every week! big whoop. move out already.
(please bear in mind i was still at home at the age of 29, so i know of what i speak and am not being mean at you ringers, just tough- love and empathetic.)
-------------------- evil is boring: cheerful power Posts: 1655
| IP: Logged
posted
Also - London. I don't want to be dis-spiriting but I've heard that having a baby (or rather looking after it properly) is even more effort than organising Secret Santa. Once you've got this baby you can't just play with it for a week and then sling it at the bottom of the wardrobe when something else grabs your attention. People won't like that. You'll find yourself on the front page of the tabloids described as "EVIL!" and you'll find yourself trying to justify letting your child starve after something smaller and more shiny distracted you.
Posts: 13758
| IP: Logged
posted
like thorn, I moved out at 18, and I've spent probably around three months in total at my parents' house since then. I freak out after a day or so of having to listen/talk to these people whose primarily goal for the last twenty years has been to impose their will on me. They're okay and everything, but really, they do my fucking nut in.
H1ppychick
We all prisoners, chickee-baby. We all locked in.
posted
It's even worse when they come round to your place (after you've owned your own property for like 15 fuckin' years) and impose their own rules and routines on you there. No I don't want to watch Holby effing City/Casualty/Coronation Street/a cooking programme/Gardeners' World/the cricket, I want to go out with my friends and roll in from the club at 3 and fall asleep on the sofa till I wake bleary-eyed at 8 and stagger upstairs. Grrr.
-------------------- i'm expressing my inner anguish through the majesty of song Posts: 4243
| IP: Logged
posted
Ringo - did you see that programme full of fully grown men still living at home at 39, making their crippled mothers bring tea up the stairs for after their nap, or cutting their repellent claw-like toenails?
ALSO, using the money argument - ie plenty of disposable for computer components - you'll never get out, as there will always be ESSENTIAL things you simply must have. Like a third car. Or another holiday in the Maldives.
So - run! Though the word 'bungalow' is a worry. Is this friend Thora Hird?
Posts: 4537
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by Dr. Benway: my mum had a heart attack when she saw the state of my curtains.
My mum's not mad keen on the fact that I use garden furniture as a desk, although I think that's just because she wants her veranda table back.
H1ppy's right though. It's kind of hard to complain when someone's supported you for so long, but my parents are heavy going when they come round and say thing's like "Maybe this should go over here?" and start trying to move things about, even when you like it the way it is. Mind you, Octavia also does this to my house. As does George the Robot's wife. Maybe it's a chick thing.
Posts: 13758
| IP: Logged
posted
I suffered the indignity of living with my parents post-uni until I was 25, in order to save up and buy a flat. It was pretty miserable at the time, but it's good now.
I like being able to slip phrases like "proper T laddah" and "brixun mortuh" into everyday conversation.
quote:Originally posted by herbs: Ringo - did you see that programme full of fully grown men still living at home at 39, making their crippled mothers bring tea up the stairs for after their nap, or cutting their repellent claw-like toenails?
Yeah, if you're not careful ringers in 16 years time you'll be a serial killer
posted
both of the lads that I lived with at University are still living with their parents, at 28 and 32. Proof positive that winners don't use drugs.
posted
Well it's really a question of whether or not to rent this bungalow (forget the grannified implications, this place is thoroughly modern and frankly massive) with my mate. The price is pretty reasonable for the area, so I don't think there's much cheaper out there, and most of what's tempting me towards this is the idea of living with a mate, and all the kerrazy times we'll have.
I suppose, when you look at it like that, disposable cash is pretty useless when I just spunk it on wanky electronics and bits for my car, none of which I really need particularly.
quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: I like being able to slip phrases like "proper T laddah" and "brixun mortuh" into everyday conversation.
quote:Originally posted by dance margarita: oh no ringo dont go thinking you have to buy a flat! just move into someone else's first!
Oh I forgot the best homo-ner phrase ever... "I mean, renting is just, like, throwing your money down the drain..."Posts: 14015
| IP: Logged
posted
You should cut the cord, Ringo. Detach from the apron strings. You'll never be a REAL MAN till you have made your first pyramid of beer cans in the front room, you know.
Posts: 6175
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by jonesy999: You don't want Vikram's seed. He's the kind of father who would leave your baby in a brothel in Goa. Or in Argos.
![[Mad]](mad.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic