I’m moving!
Argh, just when I’m getting back in control, when all my finances are being beat into submission, I up and decide to move! I’ll be moving into a new house Thanksgiving weekend, and having all those extra deposits to pay. That’ll mean putting off some debt payments and/or dipping into my EF savings for a little while.
My current living situation is a bit unique. I live (illegally) in an artist studio. More than half of everyone else in the building does too, and it’s not a big deal, but there are some related items that make it a challenge. The space is largely unheated (the heat is in one room, since a prior tenant built a wall around it to make a bedroom space, which resulted in 75% of the area being unheated (and it was in the upper 40s most of last winter). There are no laundry facilities, and I have to drive 15 minutes to get to a coin laundry (the washer/dryer got removed the week after I moved in). But the biggest detractor is the amount of homeless people that walk by the studio in front of our windows, every day. With the economic changes, the number of people that walk by has increased immeasurably. There is a big encampment up above that they all live in, in a large greenbelt to the side of the big interstate, which they access by walking by and then up a path just down the train tracks from the studio. There are a lot of men, and lately, a lot more younger men, latinos, white, you name it. It’s getting so that we’re worried to have the windows open. A girl in the building next door just told us that someone tried to break into her space, and one of the homeless people killed another within 1/4 mile of us. So we want out. I look at craigslist every so ofte, and when I did so last Wednesday evening, one place looked promising. J looked at it Thurs morning and it was great! Well, good enough anyway. We just got approved yesterday and I gave my current landlord notice.
The house we’ll be renting is the same price. It just has a lot less space. And it’s missing the 14′ ceilings. and the cool art neighbors. And the big open wide space for the cats to run around in. But it actually has a yard, a really really huge one, and we can have a ginormous garden (4’x75′) plus there is a basement for all of J’s stuff (which are quite volumous, he’s a bit of a packrat), a washer dryer, a larger kitchen, heat, and a really nice neighborhood in an area that I’ve been desperate to move back into.
So now I have to pony up:
First and Last month rent ($1800)
$250 damage deposit
$250 cleaning deposit ($175 is non-refundable for carpet cleaning, and it’s an ugly hunter-green carpet)
$250 pet deposit
My current place I had no deposit (after all, the walls are not structural and they don’t care what kind of build-out or demolition you do whatsoever). I only paid first and last month rent. SO the new first/last month rent is just like paying rent. I didn’t pay this month’s rent – that will become the new place’s “last” month rent. The triple $250 is what I have to figure out how to pay. That will probably mean no debt payments next month and some dipping into the EF. A temporary loss for a large gain.
One of the best things about the building I’m in now is that because it’s a commercial space, the utilities are very cheap. My $20/month in electric, my $60-$80 in gas heating (only in the winter), and my $15 garbage will be significantly increased I’m sure. Plus I’ll be getting internet. It’s been so many years since I’ve had to have it I’m not even sure who offers it and how expensive it is! It will definitely be nice to have access to it again. Again, since I’m in a commercial area, no dsl, no cable. Clearwire we tried, but the location we are in the building didn’t give us a good signal, so it was a waste of a year’s commitment (rarely useable).
J has agreed to pay more rent, which is nice. I hope he can afford it. He has no savings, he hasn’t paid off his credit card (it only has a small balance, under $1K), and he refuses to budget or talk about money. It’s his big trigger point. I’ve assumed that all the deposits will be paid by me, since he doesn’t have the money. I’ve also ensured that if he can’t pay rent, I can afford it. That’s why we’re in a tiny house. If I could count on him paying more, then I would have gone for the next step up in houses (larger, enough room, a second floor maybe), but I’d rather suffer a small space to continue keeping my rent manageable. I don’t want to overextend on housing and slow down my debt payments.
DebtMaven 