Moved out and need help...

[arkadeus]

Hello all! Right, iv just moved out of my parents house for the first time so with me being new to living on my own I thought id ask you people for any tips, help, advice etc that would really help me out. Another thing, I'm really bad at cooking so any tips there would really help also. Thank you.

[Balleuuh]

You'll have to fix the 'being bad at cooking' thing if you wanna live cheap imo..
Going out to eat or buying premade food will turn out to be more expensive in the long run.
Also, get a girlfriend, that should do the trick. (I keed, I keed )

Ps: Congratz btw

[Stormgnoef]

Congrats and enjoy your life with noone nagging at you.I move out 3 years ago.Felt so good and still does.You can just buy some cooking books or take some lessons.

[Snow White]

Landlords are the most crooked people on the plant, so make note of any problems with the apartment (that were there when you moved in) and report them to him / her immediately. He/She will try and pawn them off on you and keep your damage deposit if you don't.

Keep your house clean! You don't want roaches, rats etc. So, do your dishes!

Don't leave wet towels on the floor / carpet. That's an invitation for silverfish, house centipedes and mold.

Take the garbage out, don't just leave it outside until you feel like it! (Cause you never will, and you'll attract wildlife)

If you spill something, wipe it up immediately! You don't want ants.

Be nice to your neighbors. You never know who you're living next to...

[Howard Moon]

Congrats on moving out Now get a cookbook, one of those "for newbies". Get yourself some plants for your new place, and take care of them. Get acquainted with the neighbors and try to get on their good side; this will help when you have parties and play loud music late in the night. Make your place cozy so that friends want to come over and you are never lonely.

[Grading]

You'll have to fix the 'being bad at cooking' thing if you wanna live cheap imo..
Going out to eat or buying premade food will turn out to be more expensive in the long run.

This. A friend of mine lives on his own, he always goes out and buys either a kebab or a pizza from the store, and always complains about not having money, which is funny and sad at the same time.
So definitely learn to cook, it'll save you money!

Also be sure to clean your house every now and then... A dirty place isn't fun for anyone.

[The Illusive Man]

This. A friend of mine lives on his own, he always goes out and buys either a kebab or a pizza from the store, and always complains about not having money, which is funny and sad at the same time.
So definitely learn to cook, it'll save you money!

Also be sure to clean your house every now and then... A dirty place isn't fun for anyone.

Yep that cooking issue needs to be fixed asap OP I mean it is pretty expensive to go to a restaurant and get food evey day.

That cleaning stuff is also important if you don´t want to live in a junkjard lol

BTW HF living alone Its nice !!

[Halle]

As someone who has been moved out for almost longer than I lived with parents, I can offer a few bits of advice.

Routines - Get into them: Make set days for doing certain chores and stick to it.

Don't let things build up: It's a lot harder to face a mountain of dishes for example than to just wash that plate you threw on the side right now.

Pets: Avoid like the plague unless you really know what you are getting in to. Even small things are considerably more work than you expect.

Neighbours: No matter how weird you might think they are, you may need their help one day. Look out for them and they will look out for you.

Cooking: As a husband and father of two kids I cook pretty much every day for the whole family. Its a lot of fun and is very, very easy. As with most things 99% of the difficulty is just having the balls to give it a go. No need for cookbooks either. You are currently using the internet, its rammed with free guides and recipes. Also don't be afraid to deviate from the given measures of ingredients. Test, experiment and above all have fun!

[Kulthor]

Get a george foreman grill... it's pretty hard to screw up if you have common sense!
There are no rules to cooking my friend. I'd start off with small things... Hamburger helper is relatively easy.
Just read the back of the box... it's a delicious meal and very easy. Just google recipes and usually they will tell you what to cook them on and how long.

I still haven't moved out but I do enjoy cooking and fixing things around the house a lot.
Guess you could say I'm the house keeper.

[Deatheryn]

Set up a bin to recycle cans! Best advice I can give you because if I had recycled beer cans when I first moved out I could have bought a brand new car in the first 6 months!

...And listen to Kulthor^, Forman Grill and a $12 box of 1/4 lb hamburgers will go a real long way toward saving $ and it takes like only 2-4 mins. to cook a couple burgers on a Forman!

[NumeroDos]

I've got a pretty good arrangement with the fiance' -- I do the cooking, she does the cleaning afterward. 2 essential tools I use pretty much daily are a non-stick electric skillet and a grill. Not sure if you're in an apartment/house/etc. but if you can't have a propane/charcoal grill on the property a George Foreman or other electric grill should work just fine. Also -- when buying food/household supplies (paper towels, toilet paper, detergent, etc.) go somewhere like Super Walmart or even look into getting a membership to BJs / Costco. Obviously you don't want to buy perishable food (bread, fresh veggies/fruit, etc) there, but for things like meat, frozen veggies, drinks....you can save quite a bit of money buying it in bulk and either throwing the case of Gatorade in the closet or a bulk pack of chicken in the freezer until you need it. Also cuts down on how often you have to run to the store to grab stuff.

[Collegeguy]

I am laughing so hard right now because I KNEW the first thing he would say is I am having a problem cooking. Exact same thing happen to me when I moved out on my own. Damn, I need to learn how to cook!

I'd go with simple things first to start cooking so you can actually survive on your own.

Go buy some pancake mix and syrup. Pancakes should be very easy for you to cook. If you don't know you could youtube it. Use water and not milk for pancake mix.

Then buy some eggs and bread and whatever else you like on sandwiches. Making an egg sandwich is very easy and you could learn that on youtube too. Should take you no longer than 2 minutes to learn how to make an egg or flip it properly.

Last, spaghetti is insanely easy to make. I mean holy sh$t easy. All you have to do is boil some water and that's it. Put noodles in and boil it. Throw one of the noodles at the refrigerator to see if it sticks to the refrigerator. If it sticks then it means the noodles are al dente and they are done. Put in sauce and enjoy.

I guess those three simple things will work for you until you have time to learn how to really cook.

[Newbryn]

You have to get the learn to cook part right 1st, saves a lotta money, good luck though.

[arkadeus]

Thank you all for your replies

[Jackmoves]

In what country do you live?

Learn to know your neighbours. Don't be one of those that complain about every little thing that might irritate you, some things we can learn to live with, this is esp important if you live in an appartment complex.

My first appartment I lived in had pretty thin walls so if people were noisy you would hear them, had a girl as next door neighbour and she had her bedroom wall to wall with my bedroom, and that was hell. It was fine until she met a dude after that I would hear her way too often, pornstar in the making I tell you, very loud and very vocal, finally I grew tired of it and told her straight out when I met her one day in the stairway that everyone on the whole street heard her and that it was bloody annoying lol

She took it pretty well, though she was embarrased.

[Cheddabezze]

Throw a noodle at your fridge? LOL what kind of sorcery is that? Noodles all take 7-9 mins to be al dente.

Cooking is great. Allrecipes.com is where I get my ideas from. Its really hard to screw it up when you have every step waiting spelled out for you.

Also, I would advise not having your friends over all the time. This happened to me, it was cool at first but after awhile they were letting themselves in. I would wake up in the morning and someone would be sleeping on my couch who wasn't there the night before. Like wtf? Get out of my place!

[Laize]

Landlords are the most crooked people on the plant, so make note of any problems with the apartment (that were there when you moved in) and report them to him / her immediately. He/She will try and pawn them off on you and keep your damage deposit if you don't.

Speaking as a landlord, you're full of it. Not all landlords are bad. In fact I'd wager that more tenants are crooked than landlords. In my time I've had tenants:

- Leave without notification (Or the last month's rent)
- Smoke in the apartment despite not being allowed to
- Disturb and intimidate the neighbors/other tenants
- Not pay rent
- Sue me when I retain their security deposit
- Squat until I file for eviction
- Run the air conditioning 24/7 and then complain when it breaks
- Hang drapes running down to the floor heating units and then act surprised when the place catches fire
- Drive a lawnmower into my pool
- Not clean the bathroom forcing me to remove mildew from every square inch
- Not report a problem with the roof that turned into a 5'x5' hole in the ceiling
- Sue me when their shit gets destroyed (And lose every time. Renter's insurance exists for a reason)

Tenants are assholes and if you wonder why your landlord is an asshole it's because he's dealt with a dozen people who would try and screw him over on HIS property before he finds ONE person who treats him with respect.

Anyway, as far as living on your own for the first time I have these recommendations.

1) Get renter's insurance. You don't want something to happen to everything you have in the house without some kind of fallback.

2) Treat the apartment with respect. Nothing pisses a landlord off treating an apartment like you own it. Yes, you rent it and you have a right to be there. However it's still HIS property. He's paying taxes and maintaining it for you and will have to clean up whatever mess you left when you're gone. Treat it well.

3) Be on time with rent. Aside from destroying his building, nothing pisses off a landlord more than issues with rent. No one likes walking up to a tenant and being like "Come on man... you're 2 weeks late on the rent." It feels dirty asking people for money. I, personally, have no tolerance for it. I tell tenants that unless they notify me ahead of time that they'll be late on rent, I'll post a pay-or-quit notice 1 week after rent is overdue. I'm very accommodating if they are willing to work with me, but if they just treat me like "the man" and try to "stick it to me" I have no problem sticking it to them.

[Collegeguy]

Throw a noodle at your fridge? LOL what kind of sorcery is that? Noodles all take 7-9 mins to be al dente.

Double, double toil and trouble.

[llDemonll]

Always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, get things in writing and have them signed by both parties. If you ever agree to something or get your landlord to agree to something, get it in writing and get it signed and dated by both parties. That way if issues come up and you know you agreed to something different you will have it in writing and it will be legal evidence

[Brutes]

I'm moving out aswell and find some of these tips very useful, tnx