Memes

$1800/month? That’s fucking insane. Look in to community living groups. I was turned on to it while I was in school (at 35 🤷🏻‍♂️) as a cheap option while I went back. I know we’ve all had room mate horror stories, but there are people out there who are willing to co-operate and work towards having a home.

Four years on and now I’m running the house (it’s just a rental with lots of rooms) and we have a great group of 5 that’s been together for over a year, including a 9 year old. (Most of us have been together 2 years now, we had a housemate leave amicably last summer).

I’ll admit the first two years were kinda rough. It took me a bit to recognize the red flags I needed to - and to build up the courage to be able to say “no, you wouldn’t be a good fit” to people I’ve known for years. I had some dramatic experiences trying to find the right people, but we’ve got a nice home now and we each pay around $600/month for a whole-ass home!

It does take work; physical, mental, and emotional, but saving $1200/month is worth it. You’ve gotta be able to communicate your needs respectfully and be able to look at yourself and acknowledge where you need to improve to be able to get along with people.

The rewards are worth it. We all work less now so we have weekly dinner and D&D and movie nights and it’s really quite nice. We still bump elbows from time to time, but we all know each other well enough now that it’s easy to solve conflict calmly.