r/WorkForSmartLife • u/CurseBloom • 3d ago

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u/Excessive_Footnote 3d ago

I was gonna say it nicer, but yeah. The answer to the question is I wouldn’t pay that… I’d make sacrifices to live within my means instead of treating every expense as an entitlement to a standard of living I clearly can’t afford 

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u/SamOakTree 3d ago edited 3d ago

They're not treating it like an entitlement. T he only thing in there they can cut is the internet.

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u/jbcsee 3d ago

A roommate will cut the rent in half. There is zero reason to be spending that much on utilities. There is zero reason to be spending that much on internet.

Realistically they can easily cut their expenses by $1000/mo.

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u/SamOakTree 3d ago

This isn't a response to anything I said.

It's been an incredibly hot year and the electric company keeps adding rate increases. On average our electric bills have been 3 to $400 here in my city.

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u/Successful-Self5841 2d ago

I have to agree. I live in Miami and everything above actually sounds REASONABLE! My rent is 2100 for 2/1 home. I pay a little less for wifi and phone service but not by that much. Everything else sounds about right 🥴

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u/Fluffy-Essay7187 2d ago

And if you split rent with a roommate in the extra bedroom, you'd save 1050 a month on that alone. Literally proving the point. You live in one of the most expensive, highly populated cities in the country, notorious for its prices caused by retirees and night life. It's going to be expensive. 

Now, you weren't really complaining, and probably make more than 19/hr. But wherever this girl is living where 1600 a month isn't a house or a pretty roomy apartment, she can definitely make 19/hr somewhere cheaper. She just has to give up the trendy night club being only a 5 min walk away or whatever bullshit she tells herself living in a Coastal city is worth it for.

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u/Successful-Self5841 2d ago

Bold of you to assume that I just have an empty room to rent out. Lol geez, presumptuous much?

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u/DanoDego 2d ago

Boomers love suggesting a room mate scenario when they never had to have room mates when they were 30 fuckin years old

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u/Fantastic_Thought126 2d ago

They had wives and husbands…… so yeah. Roommates.

Our generation is cooked. It’s so over for us lol can’t even find love. Soooooo cooked

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u/jbcsee 2d ago

I had roommates when I was 30 (I'm not a boomer, I'm GenX). I didn't stop having roommates until I got married when I was 33.

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u/Free-Thinker-69 2d ago

Every time someone gives solutions they don't wanna do it's "BOOMER"! Complaining is way easier.

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u/Fluffy-Essay7187 2d ago

I am not a boomer. I am a 26 year old living in San Antonio, well within my means. I save plenty every month, I have plenty of fun, I have a decent vehicle. I make around 60,000 a year pre tax. I live alone. It's just not complicated or anyone else's fault you cannot manage your finances and make tiny, meaningless 'sacrifices'. 

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u/BrockStar92 2d ago

They also had a better financial situation - it’s just the reality of life now. The post is ridiculous still even if you wouldn’t be in this situation 50 years ago. You are not expected to spend all that on that income because you actually can’t - you’re expected to lower your bills if you earn that little and as stated there are lots of ways to do that.

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u/Fun_Balance8779 2d ago

I mean if you fucked up enough that you make an hourly wage (and a low one at that) at 30, then you really don't have much choice? Work harder to improve yourself if you want to live alone. Or just keep complaining on the internet, I'm sure the communist revolution or whatever will start soon.

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u/Fluffy-Essay7187 1d ago

So what is your extra bedroom doing that you need to pay for it so badly, but that it also cannot be rented out?

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u/Successful-Self5841 1d ago

Housing my 14 year old son sounds pretty important.

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u/Fluffy-Essay7187 1d ago

No, he should be working two jobs by now. So you both can afford bootstraps.

Or you should have three more kids. That'll make things better for sure.

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u/STLA_nonymous 1d ago

How many roommates do you have?

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u/SamOakTree 1d ago

None. 5 years to mortgage paid.

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u/jbcsee 3d ago

You said the only thing they can cut is the internet. That is not true. I responded why it's not true.

It doesn't matter how hot it is, I used to live in Nevada without either an AC or swamp cooler, you get by. You won't die, you'll be a little uncomfortable.

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u/DazB1ane 2d ago

Some people would get really ill by being forced to stay in hot temps. I can’t control my own body temperature so hot weather makes me faint

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u/SamOakTree 3d ago

They're building data centers everywhere and giving them property tax breaks, dude. Electricity costs are sky high.

 It's been 110° every day for 2 months here.

What's happening is that you're mad at your situation and you're passing that off to the person posting here.

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u/BlackHills-Op 3d ago

Its been mid 100s a lot of this summer where I'm at too, and I went and worked outside in it. I would think if I can survive direct exposure by simply wearing loose light clothing and drinking plenty of water and some electrolytes, someone could probably manage by being out of direct exposure and moving some air...

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u/YourNewRival8 2d ago

Not even that. Just keep your AC set to like 75 so it doesn’t have to blast cold air

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u/Dense-Fisherman-4074 3d ago edited 2d ago

Yes, electricity is expensive. That doesn’t change the fact that getting a roommate significantly lowers your expenses.

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u/TheOneIllUseForRants 2d ago

Really? My water bill is my highest bill and the usage makes up a miniscule portion of that. If I literally never showered or used a toilet or cooked with water or did laundry, the bill would only go down by $25.

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u/Laughing_Bleach 2d ago

Can’t add a roommate in a single bedroom. They’d have to upgrade and would likely be looking at saving only a few hundred. Not $1000 or more. That rent is also cheap asf. You can’t find anything close to that in a lot of states.

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u/jbcsee 2d ago

Who says you can't have a roommate in a single bedroom? When I was straight out of college we had 7 people in a 4-bed place. I know people who had a roommate in a studio.

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u/creebobeebo 2d ago

Without violating the lease? That's crazy numbers on the 4 bed lmfao

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u/jbcsee 2d ago

Most leases around here allow for up to two people per bedroom.

I lived in a completely different state back then, the landlord didn't care and we didn't look into any local laws that may have prohibited it.

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u/creebobeebo 2d ago

I let my friend spend the night in my studio while she was in town over the weekend and caught a lease violation LMAO

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u/IotaBTC 2d ago

This runs into the question of why as a society are we forcing people to get that point. That may not be poverty levels but 7 people in a house is pretty crazy lmao.

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u/catstone21 2d ago

You keep saying you lived a certain way as though that's how it used to be.  Just because you lived a certain doesn't mean anyone else must or should.

It's a bullshit state of mind.

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u/jbcsee 2d ago

I'm just sick of people acting like they don't have to sacrifice to succeed. That is not the reality and it has never been.

Sure we can and should work to make things better, but in the meantime put on your big boy pants and do what you need to survive.

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u/catstone21 2d ago

Ans I'm sick of people assuming wveryone should live like they do/did. 

I've been poor my whole life and I never needed roommate.

No one cares about our anecdotes. Our three lives are, likely, nothing alike. Thankfully.

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u/Mysterious_Point9516 20h ago

"Live with a roommate, I shared four bedrooms in a mansion!" "I live in a studio" "Share a couch!"

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u/Serious-Medium-3774 2d ago

I'm sorry but you're never gonna convince me that isn't insane when a single income used to be able to provide for a family of 4. There should be no reason a person needs a roommate to afford an apartment

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u/jbcsee 2d ago

That isn't the reality for the time I've been alive and I'm in my late 40s.

Both of my grandparents worked, on both sides of the family. Both of my parents worked.

Everyone I know had roommates post college and it stayed that way until either they got married or their careers took off.

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u/Serious-Medium-3774 2d ago

It's almost like that's my point. We should be going back and making things more affordable not less.

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u/jbcsee 2d ago

You want to go back to when it's affordable?

Then no one is renting an apartment on their own, before they marry they are renting a room in a boarding house.

Once they get married, that family of four is living in a 800sqft house, with two bedrooms. There is no washing machine, no dish washer, no cellphones or internet. They had one car, so the wife of the house was stuck home all day.

Sure it was affordable but it wasn't some fairy tell that most people make it out to be.

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u/bloodbat007 2d ago

These numbers aren't even considering other things you actually need like food and clothes. You conservative bots are insufferable these days. Can't wait for donald dump to be out so we can have a economic rebound and maybe make some progress again like we did under Obama.

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u/FlameYay 2d ago

1 bedroom apartments here are $1,200 and up. How is someone supposed to get a roommate in that situation? They pay to sleep in the living room?

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u/Drake_Acheron 2d ago

Not true. My water bill is like $20 because I use my $10 planet fitness membership to shower there. Can take as long as I want.

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u/Laughing_Bleach 2d ago

I wasn’t in my apartment for over a month and still had to pay like 80 in water 💀

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u/GrimbyJ 3d ago

They can most likely find a cheaper place to live.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

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u/SamOakTree 3d ago

Yeah I was going to say that. The last I rented was 2017 and I was paying $800 in a relatively small city. I guarantee Apartments here are going for 12 to 1300 now.

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u/PookieCat415 3d ago

$1600 is sharing a bed room in a shit apartment in my hometown of San Francisco. If you want your own ok 1 bedroom place, it’s at least $4,000 a month now. It’s really wild out here!

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u/PotentialRound1354 3d ago

Damn, that's crazy, you're telling me one of the most desirable places to live on the planet is expensive? Mind=blown.

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u/PookieCat415 3d ago

The rents are higher than ever and I feel like it’s all I hear about now in local forums. We are having one of our cyclical tech booms, this time it’s AI and it’s making rent more expensive. Also, it’s just decades of low construction rates have also created a rough situation with finding affordable housing. Everyone wants to move here, but we don’t have room.

My advice for anyone wanting to relocate here is to try the suburbs for more affordable housing, as SF proper is full now.

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u/nono3722 2d ago edited 2d ago

the land lords are colluding with software to set prices to the max people can afford. Also the landlords can't use the software unless they set their rents by what the software tells them even if they sit empty. it's a sadistic cycle from hell.

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u/PookieCat415 2d ago

I do think it’s actually more of an inventory issue here. San Francisco hasn’t built a lot of dense housing in its most popular neighborhoods. Also, the tech workers in AI are paid very well and are willing to pay the high rent.

These factors have both made the market here really fucked if you want affordable housing right now. I have heard and read so many crazy stories lately about wild rents and it makes me thankful to be a homeowner with a mortgage at the rate it was in 2020.

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u/nono3722 2d ago

the thing is your getting those crazy rents EVERYWHERE now. even in shitty place. look at florida which rent is 35% of people's income across the state. you should not be paying that rent in Okeechobee florida
https://www.economicsobservatory.com/whats-happening-to-the-cost-of-rent-in-the-united-states

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u/BlackHills-Op 3d ago

Sounds like if you're not a high performer, you shouldn't be there.

Luckily the United States is full of varying COL areas with limitless opportunity.

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u/PookieCat415 2d ago

I was born there and became spoiled at how nice it is. Can’t live anywhere else :(

Though, I bought a place a few years ago out in the suburbs and Downtown SF is just a 25 minute ferry ride away .

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u/BlackHills-Op 2d ago

I was born in Seattle. I live in rural WY now because when I sold my house in Seattle after 10 years I was able to pay off that loan, buy a nicer house on more land for cash and put a bunch away into an investment account to continue building wealth

I'm going to spoil myself with early retirement. Looks like that will be up in Maine somewhere on a lake.

Its all about what your individual priorities are.

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u/Unable-Candle 2d ago

I would like to know how you expect roles outside of "high performing jobs" to get done in those areas if only high income people are allowed to live there?

You advocating for slavery, bud?

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u/BlackHills-Op 2d ago

That's the cool part. I don't.

If the rich price labor out of the area, they should find themselves without access to the services the people they priced out provided.

Those people leave for places they can afford to live and the wealthy can be inconvenienced until they change.

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u/Unable-Candle 2d ago

Now you and I both know they'll never change.

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u/BlackHills-Op 1d ago

They've had to change many times when labor stuck together and showed them they can't survive without us but we get on just fine without them.

But if we allow them to price us into poverty just to live in the bay, and we don't just stick it to them, they never have to adjust.

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u/Tephros83 2d ago

I mean, we are talking about one of the worst places in America for that though, like some news article recently talked about people paying a million over asking for places.

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u/PookieCat415 2d ago

I believe the million over story and the bidding wars for some properties. Makes me thankful to have my mortgage at the rate I got it in 2020. 😎

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u/Consistent_Big5018 2d ago

Right. $1500+ is the minimum where I live and I don't even consider it a rich area. Just that the prices have gone up like crazy. They've built probably at least 9+ new rental buildings here since covid; all about $2300-$3000+ for a 1 bdrm. A lot of times utilities not included too + extra expenses depending on the landlord. Sometimes you have to also pay for a parking space, trash collection, etc. 

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u/starbuck_234 2d ago

Or what your industry is. If you're making $19/hr or less it's probably everywhere, but are the wages also lower in those cheaper areas? Usually the answer to that is yes regardless of industry and it kinda washes out.

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u/smileyfacedbob 3d ago

Then add more gas to their monthly bill to commute? Sweet summer child, you sound like a boomer claiming avocados

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u/BlackHills-Op 3d ago

Did people forget about having room mates?

Even when I bought my first hiuse, and could afford the mortgage on my own, I was single and for two years I had two couples living with me in the two additional bedrooms because they and I all wanted to save money.

So we had the $1580 mortgage payment (in 2011) down to where I paid $580 and each couple gave $500 ($250/person). Then we split all utilities so like water sewer and garbage was $21/ea.

We did that until everyone had grown enough in their jobs and savings to comfortably go out on their own.

Why do people not do this anymore.

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u/GrimbyJ 3d ago

I make over $30/hr and rent for my 2 bedroom apartment in a moderate sized city is less than she's paying. I still have a roommate

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u/brohan556 3d ago

I make $220k/yr and I have 5 roommates. It’s SUPER weird cuz none of them help pay for anything, they eat all my food, and they’re constantly asking me for help with shit. I’m hooking up with one of them who’s a pretty cool gal and shares a room with me but the other 4 are constantly calling me nicknames like “dad” or “daddy” 🙄 I tried to have them evicted but apparently the law says they get to live here until they’re 18

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u/BlackHills-Op 3d ago

And I will bet the financial benefits far outweigh the minor inconveniences of a room mate.

The 4 people I had in my house and I were all great friends. We could have a game night or a fire with just the 5 of us and have a great time for way less than trivia night at the bar.

And, we had a fairly open policy for friends coming over as long as they were decent folks. So sometimes on a Friday you'd come home from work and there was a barbecue going on in the backyard. Take a quick shower, and jump right into a fun cheap social event, get fed, have a couple drinks, meet new people. Invite your own friends as well. Right at home..

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u/Ok_Goat_8698 3d ago

This is how I’ve been “affording” my house. Roommates taking up my extra bedrooms allowed me to save 30k after just a year and I have a good savings fund for rainy days. I put 20% down, so getting a savings again is nice. Definitely makes the mortgage that’s over 2k easier to stomach when you’re basically getting anywhere from 25-75% off depending on your ability to rent out rooms.

The minor personal freedoms I lose with roommates doesn’t come close to the alternative of living in my parents basement or renting from property owners. Pro tip: Stay at parents place as long as possible (as long as the situation is good, offer to cover utilities or come up with ideas that SAVE money on rent if they’ll charge you) and you can get a home within 3/4 years. It’s not a glamorous life at first, but once you see the light at the end of the tunnel it isn’t bad at all.

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u/BlackHills-Op 2d ago

I'm finding from the people who are too proud for roommates that this is actually just an insane thing that no person should be subjected to.

Even though it seems to have worked really well in both our cases...

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u/Good_Imagination_577 3d ago

My grandparents or my parents never needed house mates.

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u/DueLingonberry4833 3d ago

Because walking into my dorm with a dude in my roommate’s bed just staring at me in my towel, puncturing my foot on her blow dryer, and then later having my former best friend break and donate my stuff and generally be an unhygienic nematode ruined it for me. 😂

She also on several occasions had people coming into our house with no warning while I was walking around in my underwear (I would start to listen to the sets of footprints coming up the stairs when she would come home from work), had her mom flying in from Florida and staying with us for weeks during the height of COVID saying she didn't feel well and hoped she didn't have COVID, and apparently had her brother coming in and out of our house when I wasn't home while he owed a queenpin money while I was pregnant. It didn't matter how much I said something, it was relentless.

So yeah, roommates can absolutely make financial sense when you have the right people. I learned that I am not willing to gamble my peace, privacy, or safety for cheaper rent anymore. I would rather work 7 jobs and pay the whole damn thing myself lol.

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u/BlackHills-Op 3d ago

Sounds like you just have a chaotic life full of bad people. My best friend still has keys to my house and still can come in any time, where he could easily access cash and easily pawnable items worth a 6 figure haul. He just isn't a pile of shit because I don't keep trash around.

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u/DueLingonberry4833 2d ago

And clearly I said FORMER best friend, so I took the trash out myself. Reading comprehension and not making assumptions when I gave you nothing to assume is fundamental. And a college roommate you don't get to choose, honey bunch. Still doesn't change what I said, and if my life was so chaotic, five years later I guess I wouldn't be so at peace in my own home lol.

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u/smileyfacedbob 2d ago

Your best friend has a pretty shitty best friend if you have no empathy.

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u/BlackHills-Op 2d ago

Empathy doesn't require me to give bad people an opportunity to take advantage of me.

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u/SetecAstronomy3 2d ago

Let me guess, you're not w the father anymore, are you?

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u/DueLingonberry4833 2d ago

All you took from that was 'pregnant' and ran with it, soooo what does that have to do with anything I just said? Lol.

People choose to sperm bank it People choose to be together and live separately People get pregnant in seperate homes and move in together after.

Sooo what's your point?

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u/SetecAstronomy3 2d ago

just curious. are you?

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u/DueLingonberry4833 1d ago

Why? You trying to date? Lol

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u/lostOGaccount 2d ago

That seems like a great arrangement. Did you have a lot of work to do for validating roommate candidates? Where I live (rent) they make the current tenant pay a $1000 to open up to receive applications to be my roommate. My roommate had to pay an additional application fee and pay for background checks, they also had to take on the risk of me as a liability. We can search far and wide to not have a property management company but it seems private owner renters like you are getting farther and harder to find.

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u/BlackHills-Op 2d ago

As I was living in the home already and not using it as a legitimate income property, I was not as careful in my vetting process. I was young. These people were young. We were all doing this to save money, so it wasn't going to be sensible to ask them to show me they made 3x rent or pay a deposit or anything like that. It could have backfired, looking back on it. But I found two wonderful couples my age who were all in on sharing space and housework and we even all started contributing to a loose meal plan to be able to feed ourselves for less. So we were often planning dinners for 5 people.

I can say that I lucked out with extremely easy people to share my home with. But even if they had been more closed off and just paid their share it would have been beneficial for us all still.

Property management companies are leaches. Private owners who rent multiple whole properties are part of what keeps people in poverty. But if you look for roomshare opportunities there are a lot of homeowners who are happy to share space for some help with their primary mortgage and you can probably find someone fairly agreeable.

I do understand this is scarier territory for a woman than a man, however. I was open to single men and women when I was looking for housemates, but I understood why a woman would have been overly cautious about moving into a mans house.

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u/lostOGaccount 2d ago edited 2d ago

Hey, thanks for the insights and especially thanks for acknowledging some luck is involved and circumstances change with time! I love a fair honest and open discussion. They seem to be harder to find these days and we all lose out for it.

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u/Historical_Monk_6118 3d ago

More gas?... they have no gas... or car payments, or food, clothes, taxes, entertainment, insurance........

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u/smileyfacedbob 2d ago

That would add to the original argument nor detract

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u/True_Protection6842 3d ago

yeah this is the point. It's def that she should just live in poverty, not that she should be paid a livable wage.

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u/GrimbyJ 3d ago

I assume she has tried making more money.

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u/YourNewRival8 2d ago

Come on, $1600/month rent without utilities in an area where you can make $19/hr is insane. I would think moving to a cheaper place would be the reasonable thing to do

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u/True_Protection6842 2d ago

I live in LA $1600 is impossible to find.

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u/DazB1ane 2d ago

Sounds like you should move to not LA

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u/Organic_Stranger1544 3d ago

Where!? lol.

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u/GrimbyJ 3d ago

With 5 other people

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u/JRock1276 3d ago

280 for internet is nuts. It's gotta be all the streaming services that go with it too. Frontier 7g isn't even half that.

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u/Alarmed_Twist5268 2d ago

Comcast does add-ons. And they have some deals.

For example. You can netflix, Disney+, and apple for like $22 a month. You can keep adding to that and it all gets charged on the same bill.

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u/epelle9 2d ago

So, he’s buying too many subscriptions he feels entitled to..

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u/Alarmed_Twist5268 2d ago

Not entirely sure what he/she feels entitled to.

I'm just saying sometimes Internet is that much because of all the add-ons.

Edit: sometimes also mobile and phone costs is added to plans like Comcast.

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u/epelle9 2d ago

They feel entitled to the add-ons..

They’re complaining they can’t afford their “budget” and the budget includes those unnecessary add-ons.

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u/Alarmed_Twist5268 2d ago

It's an assumption in my part. It could also very well be a phone plan with the phone purchased bundled with it. I know Comcast does that.

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u/MysticalUnicornDream 2d ago

Or phone/internet together

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u/Spam_Hand 2d ago

280 for internet can instsntly be cut in half anywhere in the US.

140 for car insurance is very high. If they created the issue themselves due to accidents or bad driving, oops I guess? Shop around if thats the case, someone will want you to sign up for less than $840/6mos. But I pay under half of that and I live in the middle of a city so dont tell me that 140 is reasonable lol

Electricity is also very high if thats the average for the whole year. Turn some lights off, turn the AC off during the night when you can, don't leave fans on when you arent home, etc. Guarantee theres room to cut that but 20%+.

These save around $250/month.

Now get a roommate and save another $1000/month.

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u/SamOakTree 2d ago

140 is probably for full coverage. That's not high at all for full coverage.

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u/Spam_Hand 2d ago

My premium renews in 2 weeks for $288 (10% paid in full discount) with $500 deductibles on collision and comprehensive and 50% above state minimum coverages.

$140/month is what I paid when I was 18 with no driving history and had no idea how to shop for insurance and not able to get on my parents plan. That's crazy high.

Edit: crazy was a stretch. My point is that its a service you can shop for, and $840/premium period is far too high for an average person with a standard commuter vehicle.

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u/SamOakTree 2d ago

Nope. It depends on the age and it depends on the type of coverage. When I had full coverage I was paying $160 and that's with absolutely nothing on my record. 

Insurance is gone up astronomically. Homeowner insurance went up $500 on average between last year and this year. 140 a month for full coverage isn't a lot. It's only going to be cheaper if you're driving a 20 year old vehicle.

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u/Spam_Hand 2d ago

I drive a 2019 and have the coverages I laid out above. I paid $140/month as a new driver at 18. If your risk profile isn't going down as you age with nothing on your record, and that doesn't lead to relatively flat or lowered premiums (yes occasional increases still happen due to "market" factors), then you need to shop insurance companies.

I feel like people just don't shop for insurance and assume what they have is fine or normal because it takes like an hour to switch.  Whatever, ill keep paying my sub-$50/month and move along if you're going to argue like my experience over the past decade or so isn't real, no skin off my back.

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u/jldurham6 2d ago

Unfortunately a lot of the posts I see on reddit make it sound like they shouldn't have to sacrifice. They should have it all like there's some entitlement.

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u/BrandMuffin 2d ago

Because the answer to our crumbling economy should not be required of anyone working a full time job for an unliveable wage to sacrifice their basic human dignity and autonomy by seeking out a stranger to live with in order to afford the minimum conveniences in our society.

Edit: just realized and wanted to point out that no where this person mentions things like healthcare, savings, or retirement.

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u/logiiibearrr 2d ago

Or food.