Our Living Situation

At the moment, J & I are living in a 2-bedroom apartment with J's brother. He's moved in with us in February 09 but he's moving out again in September 09. J & I moved in this apartment at the end of June 08.

At the moment, J & I are paying $125 a week each which is $250 per fornight. And J's brother is paying $200 a week. This is fair because we pay the electricity and the internet and J's brother also has the use of our garage. Also, he doesn't like cleaning that much (that's another long blog vent in itself).

When J's brother moves at the first week of September, we're going back to paying $450 each per fortnight. Of course, this is going to impact on our savings but I think it's going to be worth it in the long run. Am I willing to pay another $200 for our privacy and my sanity? Yes!!

Another option would be is to move to a smaller 1-bedroom apartment whilst we're saving for our home deposit. We've thought about doing this but decided on just staying at our current apartment which we love for the following reasons:

1. It's a great area, it's only 7 minutes approximately to Sydney CBD (Central Business District). There are lots of cafes, restaurants and supermarkets within walking distance. Our local supermarket is actually just 3 mins walk away.

2. It's a safe and friendly area. I know literally every crime, every accident and every incident that happens in this area. Just call it perks of the job.

3. I can walk to work. My work is approximately 20-25 minutes walk and it's a very good walk through the park and the main road. This is handy because I don't have a car (because I can't drive, yet). J has a car and his work is around 25-30 mins drive away, less when not in peak time.

4. We really like this apartment. It's cosy and it's comfortable and we've arranged it around to suit us because we're more homebodies than extroverted party-goers.

If we move out to a smaller 1-bedroom unit in this area, our rent would not be reduced as much because the minimum rent for a 1-bedder is now around $330. Then there are the hassles of the moving, the lease-breaking, the actual looking for an apartment, etc.

We've paid off $450 before without any hassles before J's brother moves in, we'll just budget better than before and have a few more stay-ins instead of night-outs.