Sidebar updated, change in savings plan

I updated my sidebars yesterday. Man, did my budgets get creamed during April. I overspent on groceries (by $25) and my dining out budget (by $12). I also had to withdraw $1950 from my downpayment fund in order to pay for the last month's rent on my apartment for September and my half of the realtor's fee. Now I'm back down to 53% of my goal on my downpayment savings. Ouch.

On the plus side, I received my tax refunds (~$500) and a $500 bonus at work (which ended up being about $300 after taxes). I was able to contribute an $300 to my emergency fund, and an extra $250 to my downpayment fund. I also maxed out my fun fund.

Since I'm going to be back to paying rent as of September, I'm changing the way I save for the next four months. Instead of dividing my savings among my emergency, downpayment, and Roth 2010 funds, I'm going to put it all into my emergency fund until it's maxed out. If I do this, I'll have that maxed sometime in July. I think this is the best move, and will make me feel a lot more secure in September when my monthly expenses skyrocket with the additions of rent and utilities, and I'm not able to save as much money each month.

Got an Apartment

Well, that was quick. Or at least it probably seems that way, since I just blogged about this last week, but after a lot of searching, C and I have found a place we both liked and we're going to sign a lease this week. We'll be renting a 1-bedroom apartment about a mile down the road from where I am now. It's right on the subway, around the block from a large grocery store, and has a park nearby, too. Our rent will be $1550/month, plus electric and possibly gas (I can't remember if there's a gas stove or not), and cable/internet if we go for that. We're also going to be renting a parking spot that comes with the apartment, which neither of us needs, in order to make an extra $25-50 a month by renting it out at a slight markup to another tenant. Many of the tenants apparently need more than one parking space, so this is common practice in the building. And since parking on the street overnight is illegal here (seriously!), it shouldn't be hard to find someone to take the spot off our hands and knock $25-50 off our rent per month.

We had hoped to find a place with a bit more space (ideally, a 2-bedroom), but after looking at many, many apartments we realized that we probably weren't going to get a (clean) 2-bedroom in our price range/rent cycle, so we settled on a larger 1-bedroom. The apartment has a ton of closet space and a much bigger kitchen than I've ever had, so I'm quite excited about that. :)

When we go in to sign our lease, I plan to ask about subletting. In the off chance that I find a place to purchase before our lease is up next September, I'd like to know what my options are. I had to break my lease to move into this rent-free apartment last year, and I definitely don't want to become a serial lease-breaker. I'll also need to completely re-work my budget, since I won't have as much money to put towards my student loans or save. I need to figure out whether savings or paying down my loans is a priority. It's a tough call. If I keep possible homeownership in mind, it's even tougher; do I want to put a larger downpayment down (of course), or do I want to have less debt to my name when I eventually make that purchase? I'll probably go with savings, and drastically reduce what I pay towards my loans each month. Or, I might alternate and make a large savings deposit one month, and then a large student loan payment the next. Over the next few weeks, I'll be doing a lot of thinking about this.

Apartment Search has Begun!

This week has been exhausting. After much discussion, C and I have decided to move in again in September. We've spent much of the week looking at apartments, unsuccessfully. We're looking for a two bedroom or a large one bedroom apartment under $1550 (that probably sounds insanely expensive to people who don't live in a big city, but alas...). We live in a big college town, which makes things difficult, since neither of us is keen to live in an area/building full of college students. Nothing against them, but we're in our mid-twenties, it's time.

We're having trouble finding an apartment that's 1) large enough for both us AND 2) in a clean building that isn't full of college students AND 3) that is in an area that is an easy commute to downtown, where we both work AND 4) that meets our budget. We're willing to compromise a little on the size if it's in a great area, or pay a little more for a slightly larger apartment (i.e., we'd be willing to pay more for a 2 bedroom if the perfect one came our way). So far, though, we've not really seen anything that meets even two of those specifications. I think our realtor hated us because she thought we were too picky. I don't see how it's picky to know what you want and be annoyed when your realtor is showing you tiny apartments in shitty buildings, though. Bah. Anyway, we have a couple of appointments lined up for the weekend, so we'll see what happens.

I'm still definitely interested in buying something, but I feel too rushed waiting on the apartment search while I seek out a condo/house. Anywhere I can afford is going to be in a less desirable area, so finding that perfect gem is going to take time. Renting for a little while should ease up the pressure a bit and allow me to save more money, while also keeping up the search. I also need to look into what kind of financing I qualify for. I have a good idea of what I want to spend (although every realtor I've spoken with thinks I should be spending $50,000 more than I want to), and I'm just crossing my fingers for a great deal on a bank-owned property or something. We'll see.

Men at Work

I discovered, upon arriving at the subway stop I get off to go to work, that the power is out for a few city blocks surrounding my office. My office building was completely shut down due to the outage, so we were all sent home. It's nice to have a day off, but irritating that I couldn't have been notified prior to trekking out to the office.

It's not a good day for an impromptu day off because the inn's owner and his brother were supposed to be working on my heat today. They're going to install a thermostat so that I can control the temperature for my apartment and the guest room above my apartment (which also suffers from lack of heat). Unfortunately, the owner's brother is not very professional when he does work in my apartment. I once came home to find my apartment completely trashed because he had been working on replacing my heating pipes; like, he had actually spilled my cat's litterbox all over the floor. Gross. I really appreciate his willingness to work on the apartment and get this done, but it's frustrating to have to clean up for hours after he leaves. Hopefully, with the owner here, he'll be more cautious. I put some dropcloths down in hopes that it will minimize the damage.

I've just been informed that they're now going to come over after 5, which is really annoying and inconvenient. Since I'm home it's not so bad, but I would've been really pissed to show up at my apartment after work, ready to make dinner, only to find these two clowns working in my apartment. I know it probably sounds like I'm a whining, ungrateful brat, since I don't even pay rent. I definitely am grateful. I'm also a highly routine-oriented person, and having people working my apartment seriously disturbs my routine and throws me completely off kilter. Here's hoping they get this done quickly, with minimal mess.

Edit: They never showed up, so I put off exercising/showering/eating dinner for nothing. Bah.

Last week

Things have been crazy lately. Part of living here rent-free is being on-call, should any guest emergency arise overnight that requires innkeeper intervention. Last week, I had a streak of five or six days straight in which I received emergency calls. I normally get fewer calls than that per month! A couple of them were just people arriving late who didn't know what to do, which didn't require any action on my part, but I also had a lockout or two, plus a couple of temperature complaints (our central heating/cooling system is ridiculous). I feel like I've really earned my rent-free status. ;P

It's been quiet so far this week, and I'm hoping it stays that way. I'm exhausted!