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How to live on my own (for 4 months)
Reznik
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Next year in January I have to go on a 4 month unpaid (unless I get lucky) placement in order to graduate from college. My aim is to get on at a game studio in Canada, and after some research there are places in Vancouver, Edmonton, London, Toronto and Montreal that I'm interested in.
Currently I have around $7000 saved up and can probably get another $2000 or $3000 on a summer job assuming I manage to get one (still sending out apps). I do not have any real expenses as I live at home, don't pay rent, don't have a car (so no gas or insurance), don't drink or smoke, and don't buy the groceries. In september I will have to pay my half of the tuition which comes to about $2500, give or take. I do the fall semester, break for Christmas, and then have to be moved in and ready to start my placement in January. Shitty timing, but there's not much I can do about that.
I'm wondering how much money I should have to cover these 4 months. I don't want to have to borrow a lot from my parents because they already pay half my tuition each year, and they need to help out my brothers too, so I'd like to shoulder as much of the financial burden as possible. What is rent like, on average, for a small apartment in any one of the aforementioned cities? I don't know what the roommate situation will be like. Ideally at least one other person from my program would get on in the same city, but there's no guarantees on that. It's a very tight schedule and I probably won't find out who's ending up where until about a month before we have to leave.
As far as food goes, I'm a bit of a picky eater but I don't eat a lot and I'm fond of cheap staples like rice and potatoes. Not so big on typical 'college food' like Kraft Dinner, or fast food. But any advice on eating for cheap is appreciated.
Also, um, just any general moving out/living on your own life advice is very much welcome. I've lived at home all my life and my parents do a lot for me, so I don't really have a whole lot of experience with... anything. Like, I'd need to make notes on how to properly do laundry without shrinking everything and stuff. Cooking I'm ok with. I can make a decent stir fry at least without burning down the house. But I just feel really unprepared for this.
tl;dr Moving out for 4 months to somewhere in Vancouver, Edmonton, London, Toronto or Montreal. How do I live on my own?
Currently I have around $7000 saved up and can probably get another $2000 or $3000 on a summer job assuming I manage to get one (still sending out apps). I do not have any real expenses as I live at home, don't pay rent, don't have a car (so no gas or insurance), don't drink or smoke, and don't buy the groceries. In september I will have to pay my half of the tuition which comes to about $2500, give or take. I do the fall semester, break for Christmas, and then have to be moved in and ready to start my placement in January. Shitty timing, but there's not much I can do about that.
I'm wondering how much money I should have to cover these 4 months. I don't want to have to borrow a lot from my parents because they already pay half my tuition each year, and they need to help out my brothers too, so I'd like to shoulder as much of the financial burden as possible. What is rent like, on average, for a small apartment in any one of the aforementioned cities? I don't know what the roommate situation will be like. Ideally at least one other person from my program would get on in the same city, but there's no guarantees on that. It's a very tight schedule and I probably won't find out who's ending up where until about a month before we have to leave.
As far as food goes, I'm a bit of a picky eater but I don't eat a lot and I'm fond of cheap staples like rice and potatoes. Not so big on typical 'college food' like Kraft Dinner, or fast food. But any advice on eating for cheap is appreciated.
Also, um, just any general moving out/living on your own life advice is very much welcome. I've lived at home all my life and my parents do a lot for me, so I don't really have a whole lot of experience with... anything. Like, I'd need to make notes on how to properly do laundry without shrinking everything and stuff. Cooking I'm ok with. I can make a decent stir fry at least without burning down the house. But I just feel really unprepared for this.
tl;dr Moving out for 4 months to somewhere in Vancouver, Edmonton, London, Toronto or Montreal. How do I live on my own?
Do... Re.... Mi... Ti... La...
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
Reznik on
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Get a roommate. To save money, get a lot of roommates. Since you will not have income (just savings) you will probably not be able to get your own lease. Instead, look on craigslist or some similar community for people who need roommates. Try to find a place that is not too small for you to live at a bare level of comfort. Try to find a place near public transportation, so you can dispense with owning a car.
Plan out a schedule of meals before you go grocery shopping. Expect to make a big batch of something and eat it for a few meals running. You can cut a LOT of food expenses out by doing that. I'm told that cutting meat out of your diet as much as possible and replacing it with vegetarian replacements (lentils being the only one I've tried) will also save you a bit of money. I haven't had much success with that myself.
I don't have any specific advice on the other stuff you covered, but hopefully there's something useful in there.
I went into the last semester with around $800 saved up and while I will be getting hells of money at the end of the semester when all my students pay me, only two of my students, to make sure they have enough/keep up with the payment/I really don't care why, keep paying me weekly. One in check, one in cash.
My $800 dropped a lot until I made the very conscious decision to only spend my cash student's lesson money per week.
Since then I've maybe spent a total of $100 from my bank account on things that I definitely needed but didn't have the cash for(Picks for my guitar when I ran out, new strings for my electric when I broke a few, other similar stuff.... stuff that I need for my job, etc).
Making yourself a budget is a really, really great idea.
London, England, yes, very much so. London, Ontario isn't that expensive, same as any other mid-sized city.
And just to add, whether you do end up finding roomates through craigslist, it's still worth checking out for typical prices of room arrangements. It'll give you a ballpark for bacholor/2 bedroom/bunch of randoms room arrangements.
Make sure your apartment has basic appliances, and if possible, a washer and dryer - you'll save tons over a coin-op laundry. If your apartment doesn't have them, see if the building has coin-ops. Using outside coin-ops is a major pain and wastes a lot of time. Look for places with electric base board heaters, they're usually cheaper to heat than places with gas furnaces. In the winter, keep your thermostat set to 15 degrees celsius, minimum - to do otherwise is to risk pipes freezing and bursting, especially in older buildings.
As far as the meat thing goes, two ideas: one, always buy in bulk and then portion into seperate ziplocs and freeze them, and two, make friends with someone who hunts
Just some random thoughts.
1) Get a roommate. Everything is still detrimentally expensive for one person, and although it is dropping, bachelor and studio rents can still be as high as $1000. It's tough to say what rent will be like in January. Also, it gets really fucking lonely living by yourself when it gets dark out at 4pm and doesn't get light again until 10am.
2) If electricity and gas aren't covered by your rent, expect to shell out anywhere from $100 to $200 in the winter, as it's fucking dark and fucking cold. If you have a boiler heat system, leave the thing maxed, or the pipes will freeze, and fuck up your shit.
3) Food's pretty cheap, overall, and really cheap if you go to the Chinese grocers or out to a Superstore. I eat very, very well on $300 a month.
4) Unless you're renting a Condo or a house, don't count on having in-suite laundry. And if you are renting a condo, be prepared for over $1000 for a one-bedroom.
5) Transit is alright, but we're still lacking a functional LRT system. Buses can get you most anyplace. The bus pass tends to go up in price around January, but I think it's currently in the $80 range.
Overall, Edmonton isn't a bad city, but you'd be coming at the worst possible time of the year, when it's coldest and absolutely nothing interesting is happening.
Prior to washing, sort laundry by color (whites, darks, bright colors) and sort out towels to be washed separate. If you have stains, pretreat with Shout or some other product. With regards to water temperature, hot water works best, but bleeds colors and fades clothes, and some things can be ruined by hot water. Keep it on the cold/cold cycle and use basic detergent (no bleach) if you're not sure. all detergents are basically the same, but if you're hyper-allergic, don't use the generic kinds. Bleach will keep white stuff white (and not dingy-white), but too much can ruin things. When done with the washer, either hang clothes in well-ventilated area or use a dryer. With a dryer, don't set it to maximum heat, or you'll shrink all your clothes. Good rule of thumb is dry it until it is warm, not hot, to the touch.
Other than that, there is some good advice here. Budget your expenses, and keep track of what you spend on a daily basis. Look for a roommate (Craigslist is a big plus) and know what you need prior to moving out.
they have a reputation for a reason.
Montreal would be kind of middle of the road for cost of living. Do you speak French? Not everyone here speaks English. Trust me on this one, it's awkward sometimes to be an anglo in this city. Montreal would still be a great choice due to the strong gamedev scene here, even if you don't speak French. Most of the game studios conduct their daily business in English, I think, and people you run into on a day to day basis who can't (or won't) speak English are relatively rare. Except when you're buying booze, the province-run liquor/wine stores never have English-speaking staff.
Where do you currently live, OP? Somewhere in Canada, or the northern US? Do you need advice for surviving Canadian winter?
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Give a man ramen and you don't have to teach him anything!
@vonPoonBurGer: I live in northwestern Ontario so I'm pretty good for dealing with winter. As far as French goes, I barely remember any of it. The last time I took French was in grade 9. I can ask where the bathroom is and tell people that I'm a cat.
So, roommates. How.. does that usually go? Do people chill a lot with their roommates, or is it usually just 'hey what's up we live under the same roof I'm gonna go do my stuff now'. I'm not the greatest at carrying on conversations with people who don't really share the same interests (namely video games and animation ((not anime))), but aside from my slight social awkwardness I don't think I'd be a particularly bad roommate. I mean, I use headphones when I'm on the computer, I don't party or smoke, I can be a bit messy but it's pretty much only confined to my room, and I usually watch TV shows and shit on my computer so, again, headphones. Probably kind of stupid questions but I've always just lived with my parents so the whole living with strangers thing is unexplored territory. Of course this will be different if I manage to room with some people from my program, since we're all pretty much friends already.
Are there some behaviours I should watch out for so I don't inadvertantly become a very annoying roommate? And what are some things I should look out for when I'm looking for places and roommates?
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
My worst roommate was a woman who had screaming fights with her boyfriends, took up every available square inch of the apartment, and required silence in the house after 10pm. I should have talked to her other roommate before moving in as well as listened to the little voice in my head that said she was weird...
You can get by in Montreal with little to no French (god knows I do), but you'd probably want to be living in the west half of the city. Traditionally, west Montreal was anglophone, east Montreal was francophone, and Boul. Decarie sort of marked the border between the two. It's blurred a lot in the past couple decades, but the west half is still predominantly English-speaking. You'd probably also want to lean towards EA Montreal, I think they're more English whereas as Ubisoft Montreal is more French. That's just my outside impression, I could be mistaken, and I'm not sure about other studios here in town.
I know when I first moved out on my own, I had a really bad habit of not picking up after myself and not taking on my share of the domestic duties. Back at home, cleaning got done because my stepmother would do it, or would assign it as a chore to me or one of my siblings. Without that external motivator ("go do the dishes or I will nag until your ears bleed"), I was really prone to just letting it slide. Make sure you keep that in mind when you first move out on your own, you need to be diligent about doing your fair share or you'll likely piss off your roomies. You'll probably also want to avoid roommates who have those same bad habits. Hopefully you can check out any place you might rent beforehand. A pile of unwashed dishes in the sink, or a bathroom that looks like it hasn't been scrubbed in a while should be red flags.