For the last two years, I have lived in a dorm right in the heart of campus with one other person. Of course, the crossover of me having the luxury of my own room for the first eighteen years of my life to sharing a prison cell shaped room with another person took some getting used to on its own, but I was lucky enough to have gotten the chance to live with a person I now call my best friend.
I am now a junior in college and have chosen to abandon the dorm-style as a personal decision to learn to become more of an adult in advance before I graduate college and begin to live on my own.
This year I am living with three other girls in an apartment with one bathroom, two bedrooms, shared closets, one kitchen table, and a kitchen the size of a shoebox.
Some tricks I have come up with to navigate this lifestyle are as follows:
Food Shopping
I have come up with the idea to spend around $50 per week on groceries. If you are anything like me you have probably never cooked a day in your life so shopping did not come a bit easy the first couple of times I went. I bought random food items that could never actually be cooked together as a meal and was eating random snacks the first week but then learned it was time to begin cooking real meals. I went on Pinterest and found great ideas that are simple and delicious! The bonus is that the meal suits my interests rather than having my parents cook a meal suited for the whole family! Another added bonus is no more dining hall food!
Sharing
It is tough being a woman and sharing things such as the shower with three other girls, especially on a Friday evening right before going out. The trick is to complete other tasks you need to before a big night out while a roommate is showering.
Dealing with Maintenance
When we moved into our apartment the bathroom had a horrendous smell we couldn’t get rid of no matter how much cleaning agents we used – we were forced to put on our big girl pants and call the maintenance people to help us out with our minor issue, but it felt like a huge step to growing up for us.
Saving Money
It is extremely hard to save money in college, especially being surround by the likes of expensive clothes, jewelry, night time beverages, décor, etc., but it is always good to BUDGET. Put money away for the most important expenses you have each month and then splurge the rest as we should as young adults still in college!
I have a few monthly expenses (phone bill, car payment, car insurance, groceries) and am still working on how I am going to handle my previous lifestyle decisions with the new lifestyle I have chosen, but I am excited to see what is in store for me.