The Bluelighter's Guide to Moving Out of Home

[Wiretrippa]

So, having been out of the house for nearly six months now, it occured to me that now that I have Free Time (tm), I should try to give a little back to the great Aus Social community. Hence, this thread.
I'm sure that over the last couple of years a thread similar to this may have been created, so consider this and update. Or perhaps the mods would like to flex their merge feature muscles?

Any way, here we go...

ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS

Moving out is an expensive business. Here's the lowdown on the basic cash layout to have you happily standing in a house of your very own.
BOND: bond is your way of telling the people at the real estate agent that you wont trash the palce. It is usually equivalent to four weeks rent. For example, a $250/week unit will have a $1000 bond. However, it bears remembering that any real estate agent will also require a 'first and last week's rent' amount as well, hence the bond now rises to $1500.
ELECTRICITY: You can have your electricity bill sent to you monthly or quarterly. The 'throw the switch' fee is minimal, but unless you opt to pay by credit card they will also require a bond from you. Once they get the bond from you once, however, you are on their books and it will follow you around, so it's a once only thing. Let's assume you're going to pay them cash then, and it's about $95 for the first bill.
GAS: Is much cheaper. To get the gas going, again using cash, will cost you around $65. However, most gas companies will NOT do a monthly bill, so you're going to get hit with a larger quarterly bill. Some gas comapnies will issue you with a card that has a barcode on it. Take that card to the post office, they can scan it and if you owe them more than $10 you can pay it on the spot.
PHONE: Landlines are handier than you think. You really don't want to make every single call on your mobile, trust me. Telstra will fix you up with a working line and a number for about $100. Again, you have the monthly bill option, which is really a good idea if you want a better idea of who's calling the phone sex lines in Uzbekistan.

So, let's do the math:
BOND: $1500
SET-UP FOR GAS, ELECTRICITY AND PHONE: $260
TOTAL: $1760

That's to have you standing in an empty place of your own. Congratulations! Now, what the hell are you going to fill your house with?

I'd like to hand over the reigns to other BLer's at this point. I'll contribute more in a few days. Anyone's input is welcome!

Wire.

 

[wazza]

People whinging about moving
Your old thread about moving
Moving Overseas?

:>

Landline - well I only got one so I could get ADSL, haven't used landlines to make calls for about 3+ years. It costs 23c per call to call anyone *but* the only time I use the phone is to call pizza delivery and I get free landline calls on my phone anyway. I never use all my landline free calls so why pay 23c a call for when you can do it for free And I hardly know anyone who has a landline these days that they use.

Things to have. A bed, couch, fridge (usually anyway), draws/cupboard to put clothes if not supplied, seats,eating utensils ,tables is about the staple of most homes. There isn't much else you would *need* to have to live in a place. Everything else pretty much can be considered a luxury? tv (I don't own one), gaming stuff, PC (I own 3 PCs), posters, music, stereo, couches, musical instruments, washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, gym stuff etc etc.

 

[Strawberry_lovemuffin]

My tip: It's surprising what you can find at Op-Shops. My ex-boyfriend and I furnished our first flat soley on 2nd hand stuff, and it didn't look too bad if I do say so myself. Then again, it WAS the early 90's and the op-shop look was trendy. But beggars can't be choosers

Also beg and borrow whatever you can from your mum/grandma/rellies. They have heaps of linen, saucepans, dishes and crap they're probably dying to give away.

And Baked Beans are a complete meal.

 

[soularus]

Hey Wiretrippa, thankyou so much for this post! So very informative, as i'm moving out of home to live with (God help me) wHiTeBoY, in january 04, and the more help i can get the better!

Cheers!

PLUR

 

[stacyrox]

Just a bit of extra info on your rental amount.. when you look for a place to rent you will most often be given a weekly rental amount, say $250/week. Now one thing you need to know is that 1 month does not equal 4 weeks. Think about it. There are 30/31 days in each month.. 7days x 4weeks = 28days. Therefore there are a good 3 days extra that you have to pay for in the next week to make up that month. So dont call up and abuse your Real Estate Agent when they ask you for $1083 for your first month's rent, when you worked out that it was going to cost you only $1000 (using your 4 week rule). Believe me, it happens a lot.

Moving on from that.. Now that you've paid a good 2months worth of rent to your Agent for rent and bond you mightnt have a whole stack of money to throw around to buy large appliances, ie. fridge, washer, dryer. If you dont have rich parents to buy you new appliances or ones with old stuff they will give to you, one thing to look into is renting them instead. We are currently renting our fridge (410L) and dryer (5kg) for a measely $60/month, which isnt much between 3 people. Tho dont go through Radio Rentals.. coz we tried to get stuff from them and they were complete morons.

Theres a bit more info for now.

stace.

 

[wazza]

I think rent is worked by this formula. (week) X 52 / 12 (52 weeks / 12) so 200 a wk = 200 X 52 / 12 = 866.67 per month, not 800 (200X4).

The exception to this rule is Geelong, they used to charge rent by week (rock!) and you used to pay after you stayed there whereas melbourne you pay for the next month of rent.

 

[Mezzanine]

hi everyone!
this is my first post but i have been reading bluelight for a while now.

i moved out of home when i was only 15 and it was very hard to get by!

one of the most expensive things is bond, one way you can get around this is to go to the housing trust. tell them that you cant afford to pay your bond and they can give you a cheque to give to your landlord.

furniture and appliances cost big $$$. intead of wasting your money renting them, get interest free deals, just make sure you can afford the repayments!

 

[anna!]

Now one thing you need to know is that 1 month does not equal 4 weeks.

haha, don't we know it

Another thing.. moving expenses. The first time I moved, we hired removalists to do it all and it cost $350 for 2 1/2 hours, and they didn't even pack everything, AND they broke our TV. On the other hand, a Budget 3-tonne truck cost us $117 for the whole day, including insurance, and my Dad and brother just helped out with all the moving.

Depending on your place and your landlord, you might occasionally need to pay for garden upkeep from time to time (even just to hire a lawnmower for the day).

 

[doofqueen]

You can look in the paper for smaller moving companies if you don't have access to a ute/van etc for cheaper prices...the last time i moved i found a company that used a 1 tonne truck with 2 guys for only $50 an hour + $20 for petrol costs and they moved all my stuff (full 3 bedroom house) in three hours...only was $170

 

[thinks2much]

Even though you may be escaping you parents when moving out don’t be tempted to tell them how much they have been pissing you off, because you will need to borrow money off them at some stage, I can guarantee it!

 

[ozbreaker]

In NSW i only paid $20 to connect up to gas.. and i'm fairly sure another friend told me that's all it was for him too..

 

[SupaDiscoBreaka]

In superior supermarket delis you can buy bacon offcuts for about $5/k instead of about $11/k-12/k. It's exactly the same as normal bacon but not in whole strips.

Think about it.

 

[Miss Peks]

This may seem irrelevant to some people, but if you've got it good at home, don't move out!

With looking for a place, start looking at least a month before hand, if not 2 months beforehand. Sometimes that place on the internet that looks like a little dump, can actually be quite a bargain place, that isn't too bad.

 

[Tabernacle]

Move just far enough away from home so your parents can't bug you whenever they feel like it but close enough to return to a home cooked meal with VEGETABLES and place that doesn't reek of sour mayonaise because your stupid stoner housemate broke the new jar and put it in the inside bin instead of the outside one....... not happy Ned! Do it again and your dead!

 

[miss slingshot]

Never lend housemates money to pay bills and try not to live with close friends. Avoid having your name on the bills at all costs and factor the cost of a slab, bottle or two of vodka and champane into the monthly rent. Alcohol in fridge most of the time = happy house.

 

[Wiretrippa]

Stacy> thank you so much for mentioning the rent thing. My sister had that problem when she moved out!
I am paying my rent week-to-week, so it doesn't apply, but it's a REALLY good idea to check what the go is with your real estate agent before you sign anything.

THE CASH CUSHION
Shit happens. More than you'd like to think. A bigger than average bill, a sudden need to hit the dentist or physiotherapist (I've had both in the last six months) can all add to some serious financial crisis.
The solutions are multiple, but here's a few I've been using.
The first is to figure out how many of your working week equates to what essential finance. For example, 10 hours of work equals my rent. Thus my Wednesday and Thursday nights at work is 'rent money night', and if I give up either shift I have to figure out where the cash is going to come from.
The second is to factor emergency money into your weekly budget. Setting aside $30-odd bucks a week religiously is a hard habit to get into, but having that little stash can be the difference between not sweating at all or eating 2-minute noodles every night for the next week.
Finally, consider working a little extra for a week or two, setting all that money aside, and getting the rent ahead by a fortnight. You can keep paying rent as per usual and no one will mind, but should all hell break loose you've got a solid two weeks where Rent Money Nights don't have to mean a damn thing.

Wire.

 

[atomica]

a lil guide to money management for the broke and clueless

make a budget.

you would be amazed how much easier it is to know if you can afford that big weekend out or plan for future expenses if you budget. the more broke you are, the more you need it.

at least then you KNOW what your lifestyle is costing you, and how much of a cushion you actually have.

a quick guide to making a budget

what i do is make a spreadsheet where i annualize all of my bills and essential things (this includes things like lunch at work, petrol and train tickets, clothes, even annual expenses like xmas pressies, rego, insurance etc). so estimate the cost of each, then multiply by how many times that happens in a year. eg, my electric is about 180 each 3months (4X per year) therefore my annualized bill is 180x4 = $720p.yr.

then work out how much that is per pay, so divide by 52, 12 or whatever. eg, if i'm paid weekly, my electric bill costs me 720/52 = $13.85 per week, i'd round to 15 to give myself a margin of error.

that gives you how much money you need to live on, including all necessary expenses. i cant emphasise enough how important it is to put EVERYTHING in that budget, cuz you're gonna spend that money, sooner or later! set that money aside each payday (into an envelope, transfer to another account, just seperate it from your leftover play money)

make sure you budget some "living money" as well (things like magazines, take out etc), and if you dont plan to give up your bad habits, make sure you budget for it! eg, if you smoke weed every day, work out how much you smoke a week, and enter that amount into your budget - cuz unless you plan on quitting immediately, that money is getting spent.

now you know how much you have to play with - if you can afford it, save some for a big expense or to show you're reliable when you want a loan - even if its only $5 a week.

if you're too lazy to make a budget spreadsheet, email me or message me w/ yr email addy and i'll send you a pre-made one!

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how to make sure you've always got money for direct debits

i hate it when direct debits bounce cuz you accidentally eftpos'd a couple of dollars over what you need for the debit. here's what to do:

get two bank accounts at the same bank. link the accounts on to ONE key card. that way you cant eftpos from the second account. transfer all direct debits to the second account. from your budget, figure out how much per pay needs to be sidetracked for your debits. set up an automatic transfer to that account every day after your payday. make sure you have enough in there for the first round of debits when you start this.

i actually have all my bills come out of my "bills" account, i have budgeted that i need $250 per week for all bills except rent. whatever is left in my main eftpos account after i take out the rent money is my play money for the week.

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monthly paid - how to still have money the week before payday, even if you're paid peanuts

this will only work if you can trust the people around your house, neighbourhood etc.

get some big envelopes and mark them "gas", "electric" etc, or just "bills" if you have annualized your bills and know how much you need per pay. take out this amount from the bank and put it the envelope. hide the envelope and DO NOT TOUCH IT until you have to pay a bill. this is where you need willpower.

now count how many weekends there are till the next pay day, it might be either 4 or 5. divide how much money is left in your account by either 4 or 5. take out the amount for one week, and then bury your eftpos card somewhere and ignore it till next week. what you have in your hand is everything you've got till next week.

i used to do this, and would even make a "party" envelope. we could afford one party per month, and $200 thereabouts went in the party envelope on payday. that had to cover everything party related, unless we were a bit ahead that week.

 

[atomica]

furniture: if you're a bit more flush, or you can wait before moving out, look around for package deals. i think fantastic furniture in melb have one atm. i got one at harvey norman.

i got: a 2-seater couch, 3-seater couch, coffee table, lamp table, and dining table w/ 4 chairs all for $999.

plus, you can either get it interest free or lay-by if you're not moving out quite yet. we got ours on lay-by and had them hold it at the warehouse until we were ready to move out, about 6 months later!

other stuff: if you know you're moving out soon, start asking for essential stuff for bday/xmas presents. things like cutlery sets.

if you want cheap plateware, go to Kmart. you can get 4x dinner plates, bowls, teaplates, mugs for around $20. it's solid stonewear so it's almost impossible to break.

op shops are a good place for lots of cheap glasses. you can never have enough glasses, they get broken easily and you need lots when you have a houseparty.

also, start saving all those jam jars and cheese-spread jars etc. a lot of them come in a shape that can be used as a drinking glass when you're done. con yr folks into your new "favourite" brand and grab the glass when it's finished.

 

[onetwothreefour]

Never lend housemates money to pay bills and try not to live with close friends. Avoid having your name on the bills at all costs

these are not *always* true. i've been living with my best mate for a year now, and we've had zero problems. of course, it's not always gonna work like this, but if you can talk things over before you move (basically, just make sure you bring up anything that you think could be a problem) shit should be fine. re: the bills, that depends how much you trust the person you live with. my name's on our bills, it's cool with me.

furniture: op-shops, 'nuff said.

money: get a bunch of envelopes and label them (mine are gas, electricity, rent, phone/internet, mobile, water, savings) and put money in them every week or two. keep them as full as you can, and try not to "borrow" from them. remember also that if you're putting enough rent in each week, every so often you'll double-up so that you have a week extra to spend at your leisure. this *should* go in your savings envelope, but drugs are far more appealing

ps: someone should make this into a faq...

 

[pubeman]

I've only got 3 words for you. George Foreman Grill, i used to think it was just another gimmick on tv, but goddamn, his thring rocks, i can cook everything in about 5 mins, no fat, and it tastes unreal. Best thing is, it only takes about 2 minutes to clean