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Spring is in full bloom and that only means one thing - new beginnings! It's Erika and Margoe taking over for today's post, and we'd like to take you with us as we embark in this new journey of moving into our own apartment and offer you some tips and tricks as to how we saved up to move out, some budgeting tips, and most especially, some hacks to save on rent, decor, and overall living costs!
Tip #1 Research, research, research
Start your research about what kind of place you would like to get. Think about the location of your new place, the drive to and from work, safety, etc. It's as easy as googling places that are available to you.
Margoe: Erika and I started our research one whole year before actually moving in. We looked up every detail from the locations we wanted, proximity to the city, community amenities, access to major highways, and the whole works. We were constantly sending each other links to places that we liked and made a list of what we liked and didn't like about each place.
Tip #2 Plan your monthly budget
Once you have an idea of where you would like to reside, look up how much approximately those condos, apartments, or houses usually cost monthly. You need to consider how much your rent or mortgage costs monthly. On top of that, you also need to consider the cost of utilities, property or renter’s insurance, groceries and miscellaneous expenses (like furniture, decor and appliances). Make sure you choose a place that fits your budget. Never go outside of your budget. We agreed upon a price every month that was comfortable for both of us. We even looked at some places that are even lower than our monthly budget just so it leaves us more room to save.
Tip #3 Put your money together
We both agreed on starting a savings account that we can put our “house budget” contributions in. This way, we can put a certain amount of money in every two weeks so it can grow every month. This account is where we take money out for rent, groceries, monthly apartment bills, and other expenses. We also make sure to put in extra amounts for miscellaneous expenses such as a new couch or decor. If opening another account isn’t the best option for you, you can also consider having a physical envelope or cash box to keep your joint cash in.
Tip: having different envelopes for different bills and expenses can be a great budgeting method and will help you keep track of your monthly expenses well!
Whatever method of consolidating your money works for you will work just fine.
Tip#4 Consider what to splurge on and when to save
Although saving is the top priority, in some cases, it is more beneficial to invest in higher quality products even if that means you’d have to splurge a little bit. This mostly applies to appliances and gadgets around the house. For example, we chose to invest in brands that we know can be trusted when it came to our espresso machine, vacuum, stand mixer, and things alike because we know that these products would last us years - if not, decades.
Tip#5 Pinterest will be your best friend
Before we even found a place, we decided to make a joint Pinterest board and organized it into different categories for different spaces and purposes around the apartment. Now that we’ve moved in, whenever we’re stuck, and can’t decide on what to do with a certain space, we can easily refer back to our board and draw some inspiration from there
Erika: Pinterest is my best friend when it comes to DIYS and decor hacks! Recently, Tiktok has been providing me with these too. There are so many things that you can find at dollar stores or thrift stores and can easily turn into something chic and use as a statement piece in your home (no one needs to know that your vintage vase everyone loves only cost you $3!)
We hope you find these tips helpful. Our moving out journey has not been an easy one. It’s been a long one, for sure, but it was worth it! Just remember, these are just some tips that have helped us through our own journey, so it might be different from yours, but we’re hoping that this gives you an idea of what things you need to consider before moving out. If you want more posts like this, make sure to let us know in the comments down below or DM us @themeprj. We are so excited to share this journey with you!
xo,
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