Double Rent: Is this what the EF is for?

When I envisioned using my EF, I thought that a major catastrophe would have occurred: a fire wiping out all of my belongings, a death that I needed to rush back home for. Not this!

I put up my roommate ad over two weeks ago and I have gotten...zero hits. ZERO. How is that even possible?!

My email address is working, because I had a friend test it out for me. Just, no one is interested in viewing my apartment!! Over 400 people have viewed my ad, and 11 have put it on their 'watchlist' on Trademe. Over 300 people have clicked on my ad on Gumtree. But none have actually texted, called, or emailed me to look at my apartment.

I don't get it. I used the same ad as before, and have always gotten a decent number of hits, and at least one or two very cool people to choose between.

My roommate moved out today, and there is no one to take her place. No one to even show the apartment to! I am hoping this is just a pre-Christmas holidays lull going on, and that things will pick up in the New Year. But I have 4 rent payments to make before then...double my usual amount. I'm going to end up spending $2800 in rent this month. That almost equals my take-home salary!

OUCH.

An Experiment in Living Alone

Ah, roommates. At 33, they are getting a bit...old, kind of like me. I have never lived alone, and have never intended to. I enjoy having someone around once in a while, having extra room for less money, have someone to split the bills with, and I reckon having another person around keeps me from watching infomercials while eating ice cream at 3 am (I think...Lord knows what craziness my schedule would turn into if there weren't the roommate normalizing effect in my apartment).

Anyway, my current roommate moves out in a few weeks--her rent is all paid up until that time. Two days after she moves out, my mom and sister come to town for 3.5 weeks. I just returned from a week long work trip, and have major plans and heaps of work to do before they visit.

So. Here's what I'm thinking: I pay double rent for the time they are around, and we have my apartment to ourselves. It solves several problems:

1.  Having to immediately find time in my schedule for the grueling roommate interview process in the next week. 
2. The awkward, 'I'm going to bring in my crazy immediate family to live with us the day that a stranger moves into my apartment' situation. Um. No thank you, on either side.
3. My mom and sister do not have to sleep on air mattresses in the living room, common area space. Instead, the two of them have their own queen bed and room, OR one has the spare bedroom and one sleeps in the living room on an air mattress (prob. my sister).

It also creates problems:

1. Our trip just became $1300 more expensive for me (paying double rent for a 3-rent check month or more). 
2. We only need my apartment for 9 days/nights while they are here for 3.5 weeks--we are traveling the rest of the time. 
3. I will have to hope and pray that someone can move in RIGHT after they leave in early January, a time when most people are traveling themselves. 
4. My landlord may see this as an opportune time to try to sell my apartment. Try finding a new roommate in THAT situation.
5. Bills would go up: I would have to bear the full cost of electricity and internet for a month or more.

So, what would YOU do?? I won't go into debt over this, but it is not ideal to spend SO much money on keeping my apartment empty.

Yet Another Roommate...

Well, I swear! I go through them like tissues! The newest roommate has decided to move in with her on-off again boyfriend. Too bad for me, because she has been amazing--pays everything on time, is clean and pleasant, and is hardly ever home. She is really friendly and nice, but honestly, we never hang out and we aren't even facebook friends--both of us are too busy with our own lives to make plans to hang out. I don't blame her for wanting to live somewhere where she can pal around with her housemates.

As for me, well, this couldn't come at a worse time. I'm gone for the next week and a half for a conference and some traveling, and then my mom and sister come immediately after for their trip. I don't know how I'm going to have time to wade through the dozens of psychos that answer Trademe ads, and then show the new person around and teach them all the little rules.

Honestly, I may just use my $2K travel fund and keep the place empty until my mom and sister leave on 9 Jan. It is a really long time, but my roommate's bond should cover 3 weeks of that, and then it is just 3 or 4 more weeks of rent to pay. That way, my mom and sister have a room and bed all to themselves! I can also double the garage rent again since my roommate won't be sharing the garage spot anymore.

Not to mention, this could cause my landlord to pull the trigger on selling my place...in which case I'd be moving out, too.

Garage Woes and Parking Tows

For the past 6 months or so, I've been raking in some very easy dough: $18 a week for doing absolutely nothing. Basically, it is passive income at its finest. And it made me look at landlording (is that even a word?!) in a whole new light.

I rent my garage spot out for $18 a week (a steal for where I live!) to a random from TradeMe. He only parks there 4 days a week and allows my roommate to park there sometimes when he isn't using it. Great deal, right? A little compromise for everyone. I asked my roommate if she wanted the spot to herself for $18 a week, and she has always said no. I told her whenever she wanted it to herself, we kick him out, and it's hers for $18 a week or whatever she wants to negotiate. When both my roommate and my garage tenant need to park, one parks inside the garage, and one parks just outside.

Technically, you are not supposed to block the garages. And since we have a double garage that our downstairs neighbor uses, I have warned my roommate and garage tenant that they are to NEVER block the neighbor's side of the garage, under any circumstances. She is well within her rights to tow if that happens. And she is a bit...stern about this.

I am guessing you know where this is going...

Last week I got a frantic call from my garage tenant. He had parked outside of the garage for some reason (my roommate was out of town with her car, NO IDEA why he parked outside) and his car was gone. No one knew anything--not my neighbors, not the management company, not the tow companies.

We thought it was stolen. I freaked out, because my place is very very secure normally. All the doors and many windows of the 15 or so apartment blocks face each other, and generally there is always a neighbor around that will see something fishy going on. Several families live here and most of us are long-term tenants, anyway. I am saving up for renter's insurance this month, so OF COURSE something like this would happen right before I planned to buy it.

On with the story:

He called the police, who informed them it was indeed towed. Sucky, a $300 fee to get it out of impound. I felt  horrible for him, and offered to refund that week's rent. It isn't much, but it sucks to have your car towed--I've been there.

I think what happened was that he and my roommate had made some sort of agreement about who uses the inside spot, but neither of them told me. I really don't care, as long as they are happy.

I'm pretty sure my neighbor had the car towed. She denies it, but honestly, if it was in her way, I don't blame her.

When garage tenant first started parking, we signed a sort of lease agreement for the garage spot. My current roommate wasn't there yet, so when she moved in, he agreed to let her share the spot for half the rent (he was originally paying $36 a week, $18 to me, $18 to my roommate--my roommate now is effectively parking instead of getting $18 each week).

Today, garage tenant threatens to sue me for the $300 towing fee because it isn't his fault or whatever and apparently his lawyer friend told him that it is the responsibility of the contractor to take care of this kind of stuff. I just tell him, our contract is for the inside of the garage. I can't help what happens outside of it--you've been warned about being towed there & it is always a risk. I told him I'd happily refund last week's rent and arrange for him to always have the inside spot since he is paying for it. My roommate will have to deal--it's free parking for her!

He went for it, and is now no longer threatening legal action. But seriously, you cannot hold me accountable for being towed anywhere but inside my garage. Whatever he and my roommate decided, it isn't in the contract.

So all is OK now, although I'm worried that my roommate will want to move someplace where she isn't afraid her car will get towed. (Maybe I should just let her have it for free? She is pleasant, pays bills on time, clean, and is hardly ever home. While I'd like to be best friends with my roommate, this is probably the second best situation I can think of.) What a debacle, though. I kind of don't ever want to be a landlord if this is what can happen over a stupid garage spot!

Sinking

The high off of my recent socialness is waning. I blame nature, mostly. The weather has gotten extremely cold in the past few days, and my health issues are kicking up a bit again.  The fatigue, the feeling that I've caught a nasty cold that is about to lower the boom, and the lack of motivation to do anything physical at all is back.  I want my energy back!

Then there is the darkness that descends just as I'm finishing up work.  There is not enough daylight, sunlight, and warmth to make me happy!  Fall has just begun and I'm already SADD.

In any case, life circumstances could also be the cause. Just a week or so ago, I posted about how stable and great my life was, and how happy that makes me. There is nothing that makes me happier than a boring, predictable life.  Everything is changing again, though.  Everything always has, and everything always will.  I have to get better coping mechanisms to deal.

Our apartment squatter is leaving next week, I found out.  Not a big deal.

Work is getting way too crazy.  I worked until 4 am last Saturday.  On its own, not a big deal at all, either.  I welcome it because I love work...as long as other issues aren't taking up valuable space in my head.

Sister has gotten herself into another financial mess.  Big deal.  

And now New Roommate is leaving, I found out tonight.  Big deal.  This has bigger consequences than just finding a new roommate. This will probably prompt my landlord to pull the trigger and sell the apartment that I'm living in, like she threatened to do when my old roommate moved out.

Some people deal with change by embracing it, saying that there is a reason for everything, and that bad things sometimes happen to usher in new good things.

With my health issues and mini-depression tendencies that accompany it, I wallow and fight for stability instead. I hate, hate, hate change.  Some days, one thing goes wrong, and the urge to run home and curl up in bed and watch movies on my laptop is overpowering--that is my avoidance talking. But I'm much better than I used to be.  Sometimes I can talk myself out of a wallow and rally.  It's happening more and more.  It's a good thing.

So maybe the next roommate and/or apartmentwill be amazing. Maybe he or she/it will be a key part of loving life in Auckland.  Or maybe it will be just fine like it is now.  I can't afford to think differently.

More Roommate Drama

The situation with the roommate continues...
I feel guilty about something, but don't know if I should offer to pay for my mistake or not.

Ex roommate left some of her stuff in my apartment in mid-December, saying that she'd be back in a few days to collect it.  I agreed to this.

A few days later, she says she is coming by to grab it.  She still has keys, so I say, sure, fine, come on in.  New roommate is using some of her stuff (a lamp) until she comes to collect it.  She doesn't show.  Repeat of this a few days later.

I ask for the keys back, because my key, the original, is too dull to make another working copy, and the set that new roommate is using is tricky--takes about 3 minutes to open the door, if they work at all.  It takes her another week to return that set of keys, even though I say it is urgent.

Old roommate sets several more appointments to come by, we make concessions, arrangements to be home at the appointed times, and never shows.  This happens maybe 3 times since she returned her keys.

Fast forward 2 weeks after she gets her bond back.  I have a bunch of people coming over to my apartment to stay.  I don't want them to have to look or deal with her stuff.  I facebook her, saying that if she does not collect her stuff in 5 days' time, I'm putting the biggest thing and eyesore that there is just no room for anymore (a broken TV) out on the curb.  Last time we talked, facebook was her preferred method of communication.  She says my emails to her about bills weren't getting through, and she runs out of credit on her phone all of the time and changes numbers so I am never sure of her current number.  At this point, I'm sure she'll never be back because she has received her bond and has had zero communication with me except about money, her bond.  If she had bothered to keep in contact with me (I have facebooked and texted several times to say merry christmas, happy new year, how are you?, no answer) or offer thanks for holding onto her stuff or kept any of her appointments without me nagging her 12 times, I would not have done what I did next.

Five days later, my friends are arriving in town, and I have not heard from her.  I set the offending TV on the curb.  It disappears.

Today, 6 days after that, she texts out of the blue to say that she is coming over to collect her stuff.  I make arrangements for someone to be home.  She collects her lamp and leaves the rest of it.  She notices that the broken tv is gone.

She calls me, and I tell her what happened.  She gets angry and says that I should have emailed, called, texted, etc. instead of facebooking, and I am to pay for the TV, as she has sold the broken TV to someone.  I am friends with her on facebook.  She has been on there nearly every day and has not responded to my message.

Feeling like I should have done more to contact her, I offer the (working) TV in the garage as a replacement.  She refuses it.

So.  Do I pay?  I don't even know how much she sold it for, but once upon a time we (collectively, she and I) paid $50 for it.  A major part of me does not want to do this because of all of the past drama, but what is your vote?  I am obviously beyond seeing this rationally and can only see my side.

[ETA:  OMG!  She wants $70 for a broken TV.  She is totally crazy.]

Mattress Mystery

Agh.  I feel like I am in Crazytown, an alternate universe, somewhere where common sense does not exist.

The roommate has been out for almost a month now, and it still isn't over.  There is a missing mattress, which was in her room when she moved in.  While I was traveling in August-September, she bought a new bed, moved it in her room, and did God knows what with the original mattress, which is now missing.  She told my landlord that she would replace it with her boyfriend's extra mattress, and landlord said, cool, wrap it in plastic and store it in the garage or somewhere safe, that is fine (new roommate has bought a bed and is using it).

So how is any of this my problem?  Well, she apparently has no way to get the mattress over to our garage, and now is asking me to go half-sies on renting a trailer to move the stupid mattress.

Um...excuse me?  How in any universe, parallel or not, is this my financial or otherwise responsibility??  Yeah, it's not.  She keeps asking if I know what happened to it, but of course, I don't--when I got back from my trip, I just assumed she had bought a bed frame for the existing mattress, not a whole bed.  She keeps blaming it on our evicted neighbors for stealing the mattress, but they moved out last April and nothing has ever been stolen from our garage, so that doesn't hold water.  Some of the people I've told about this think she sold the mattress or gave it to her friend and is lying about it.  I have no idea; at this point anything is possible!

She also refuses to 'run around the city' getting plastic to wrap the mattress in.

Whatever.  The landlord is holding her bond until she does all of this.  Ex-roommate keeps asking me to lie and tell landlord that the replacement mattress is there, but I refuse.  I am not going to tell landlord to release the bond until every little thing of hers is out of the house (her broken huge-ass TV and lamp are still around) and that mattress is safely stored in plastic in our garage.  And you'd better believe I'm not going to pay to move that dumb mattress.  I didn't lose it and it is not in any way my fault or responsibility it is missing, but it will be if I lie to my landlord and ex roommate doesn't do what she needs to do.  I will be the one left in the lurch, paying to buy a whole new mattress when she cuts and runs after getting her bond back.  At this point, her bond is the only thing still tying her to her responsibilities here, and I am not going to give it up that easily.

It just seems like there is a 'right' way to deal with this kind of stuff:  own up to your responsibilities and make amends where necessary, and a 'crazy' way:  blame everyone else but yourself and refuse to cooperate, and she takes the crazy way every time.

I will lose a huge group of fun acquaintances over this nonsense, but I don't care.  I can't deal with this ridiculousness any longer.

Leasing

I'm a weird one--once I get it in my head that I'm going to do something, not much can sway me from doing it.  So under the pressure of my roommate and her boyfriend, I made myself the deadline of deciding on a new roommate by tonight.  That's a mere 5 days after roommate told me she's moving out, and after only 3 evenings of interviewing people.  That's insane.  But I did it. In the end, it wasn't because she wanted me to (although it was initially), it was because I set that goal for myself.

So, which did I choose?  The couple which saves me bank or the guy?  I liked the people involved about the same amount, so more money vs more space became the deciding factors.  Because I've been saving up (in fact I'm about out of ideas for new savings goals!), I'm OK with money.  I could use (a LOT) more in retirement, but I don't feel like have to sacrifice anything for the sake of having a little more disposable income.  I have everything that I really want, and I can afford everything that I want.  I just choose not to buy it quite yet--til I feel I've earned it or really need it, I suppose.  So it feels like a treat, rather than something that I deserve.

So, the obvious choice was more space.  I let the nice fellow know that I'd love to have him come live with me, and after a little bit of a miscommunication (he's foreign), he accepted.  Landlord comes on Saturday to do the inventory (docking the roommate for the garage door opener and the mattress because I let her know what was happening), and then he signs the lease.  And I am rid of the toxic energy that has plagued me for the past week.

Huz to the zah.

Learning

Yeah, this experience has taught me some things about myself, for sure:

1)  I'm a pushover and easily bullied.
2)  I react to bullying and guilt with manipulative and passive-aggressive tendencies. It has taken me this long to a) realize that is what I'm doing and b) quell my reactions to a more dilute level.
3)  I hate hate hate confrontation.  Instead I now refer to it as trying to figure out how to explain my feelings in a calm way when it becomes necessary.  It takes the bite out of it and I know I can do that.
4)  It can be fun to meet perfect strangers.  It is not OK to tell a random stranger on the street in depth about yourself in real life, but in certain situations (like future roommate situations) it is acceptable and encouraged.  I need to do this more often (meet people, not find roommates...ugh).  And maybe internet dating isn't so bad? I've been doing internet roommate-ing for years.
5)  I feel bullied or admonished very easily.  Because I hate confrontation, I'm super sensitive to any situation where I feel like I may have to defend myself.
6)  You never can tell what people are really like.  Great one minute, psycho the next.
7)  It takes me a while to realize that I'm being bullied, and when I do realize, I get ANGRY.  It takes me another while to figure out how and what to tell the people that I'm angry at my feelings.
8)  I've grown up.  Her BF was ranting at me yesterday and normally that's when I lose it and snap due to the emotional pressure, ruining any chance of working things out rationally--I literally go from meek weakling to tiger in an instant (never violent though--just say things in a way that I wish I hadn't).  Instead, I took it in, thought it over for a day, and decided that if they say anything else to me that I perceive as bullying--absolutely anything--we'll have to meet in person to talk this over.  I didn't do any texting of the feelings or writing notes, which are total cop-outs.  Instead, I fully intend to sit them down and calmly and rationally explain myself.  If it escalates out of that, I feel good in standing my position to not back down and to demand 2 weeks to find a good person.  If I find someone before then, cool.  If not, too bad.
9)  It can be exhausting to meet perfect strangers.  It's amazing how I can tell, within a few minutes of meeting someone (really the first few seconds), if it could work or not.  Even if you don't think it will work, you still have to go through the motions of showing people the place, etc., in order to not seem like a psycho.
10)  You can tell what kind of people they are by their emails and texts. I haven't been wrong yet.  Voicemails, however, are trickier and often very misleading.
11)  I'm too emotional to tell right now, but I've let go of being friends with my current roommate.  Whatever happens will happen.  I might be too annoyed/appalled by her behavior during this debacle to be friends with her after this, anyway.

I say this all calmly and from a good place, because I have two good choices for the room.  Neither are exactly what I wanted, but will do.  One is a couple, around 35-40 years old, who are REALLY nice and who would make my rent super-low but possibly make the house feel crowded.  They are extremely cool but I worry about only having the one bathroom.  And they work all the time and I really wanted someone that would hang out once in a while.  The other is a guy that I found easy to talk to and seems really reliable.  He's very focused on his career and seems stable. I don't want to live with a guy, but if I have to, he'd be a good choice--no creepy vibes at all (might be gay...that'd be even better!!!).  Even if I didn't choose him, I'd definitely invite him to some group activities and hang out with him again.  If I lived with a guy, I'd just have to hide my underwear while drying it...and get a good full coverage robe. :)  And not talk about reality tv or the microdermabrasion that I'm getting soon. Any other tips to living with a non-significant other of the opposite sex?

Can't Deal

Yeah, OK, I'm not getting any work done this week, it's very clear.  Or sleep much.  I can't concentrate on anything except worrying about who is texting me about the apartment, when they are coming over, if my roommate left the garage door opener for me, and what if I don't find a good tenant.  I had 10 people lined up and over half have already flaked.  No more texts or emails came in today--bad sign.  Only two people have kept their appointments--the Oz guy and a couple.  I really just want to live with a fun, nice girl about my age. That might not happen.

Things have gone missing from the apartment, and I have a feeling that I'm going to be held responsible for them in the long run.  1)  roommate let her friend borrow the garage door opener, and it's missing.  That's $80 right there.  2)  roommate moved the mattress that was in her room and bought a new bed, and that original mattress is gone.  I don't think she thinks she should be held responsible for either...which is worrying.  If the mattress was in the garage and someone stole it, but it was yours and in your room originally, aren't you still responsible?  And generally, aren't people responsible for things they lend to their friends?

I also am a little worried that she's forgotten about the money I've given her for stuff.  $20 for artwork that never appeared, $20 for a TV that never worked, $20 for a lamp (she's taking it with her), $50 for the dryer (it's staying).  She mentioned that I owed her $30 for the dryer ($50 minus $20 for the lamp she's taking) but after thinking about it, I gave her more than that by knocking some money off of the utilities bills (for the things listed above), so we should be even.  Also she should get a replacement for the fire extinguisher--she caused a fire and never replaced it, despite me mentioning it a few times.  That's $40.  It's adding up!

Just so many headaches.  and tough conversations.  that I don't want to have.  esp. since her bf is already pressuring me about their money situation.  on the same token, NONE of this was my idea, I didn't make her decide to leave, I am only trying to do what is fair for myself.  I didn't make them not save any money for this kind of situation. It's really not my concern.  I realize she didn't lose the remote, it was her friend, and it's not her fault that the mattress was stolen, but...still her responsibility, right?  And I don't want to pay for someone else's responsibilities.  

Maybe I could mention these things to my landlord, who will take the $$ for these things out of her bond?  It is just so tricky.  I really like her and her friends and would love to stay friends with them all, but if I am too hard-ass I may lose them.  I don't have that many friends to begin with here, so maybe I should just eat it all, small price to pay for companionship while in a foreign land...

Fair or Not Fair?

I am very stressed out.

It doesn't have to be like this.

Here's the question:  who is responsible for getting someone in a vacant room in a house:  a) the roommate that is staying or b) the roommate that is leaving?

In our lease, it says that the landlord needs 21 days' written notice for vacating the tenancy.  Great, right?

But if the leaving roommate found someone else to take the room immediately after giving notice, what happens then?  Who gets to decide who moves in?

It's a big gray area.

Here are the facts:

1)  it's been 3 days since my roommate gave me notice.  She initially said that she was giving me around a month's notice, she hadn't even told my landlord yet, she wanted to prepare me.  Awesome sauce, sounds great.  In the meantime, she puts up an ad and gets the good feeling about the Australian girl guy. She hopes I will decide to let him move in the next day (Tuesday) so she doesn't have to pay any more rent than she has to--her lease started on a Tuesday, so she's hoping to stop paying on a Tuesday.

2)  Yesterday at work, she finds out that she might be made redundant in a month's time.  Awful!

3)  We meet the Australian dude, I tell him I'll make a decision by Friday (4 days away) and let him know.

4)  Today, roommate texts me that her friend can move in.  I know him (it's a he for sure) and he can move in tomorrow.  I've talked to him a few times at parties and he's a nice dude, but no one I'd normally spend a lot of time with.  His ex-wife is crazy, he starts and scraps businesses very quickly, and he may be in some sort of major debt or trouble with the IRD, based on the mail we've gotten at the house (he stayed here when he was made redundant not too long ago, still gets all his (scrapped) business mail here).  He also changes apartments on a whim very often.  I don't want to go through this again in 3 months' time.  I say no, I don't want to live with him when there may be better choices out there.

5)  She texts back that the longer I wait, the more rent she has to pay.  She has already moved in with the BF, so she is now paying double rent.  I tell her that we'll talk about it in person.

6)  She and the BF come over and the BF goes on a rant about how I blew it and I 'lost' the guy last night because I didn't make a snap decision to let the first person I saw rent the room.  All I can say to him, over and over, is that I need to see people this week, and I'll make a decision on Friday or Saturday.  It's an important one--I can't just let anyone move in because my current roommate has to pay double.  I have to like the person that I live with.  Current roommate says she thought it was up to her to find a replacement.  He doesn't understand and tells me that the way I do things I'll lose every person to come through, and tries to convince me to let roommate's friend move in right away.  I refuse.  I actually think I'm being really fast by deciding after a week.  I tell my roommate that she paid 3 weeks' bond so she has a cushion there.

7)  I have to live with the person, shouldn't I get to choose?  And shouldn't I get a reasonable amount of time to not only decide, but to interview people?  I tried to assure my roommate that I wouldn't let this drag on for weeks, and that I'd have to pay her share of the rent if it exceeded 3 weeks' and I still didn't have a good candidate.  I just don't know what my rights here are, I guess.  I'm not trying to screw my roommate over but I need to LIKE my new housemate--my apartment is not that big!

What do you think?   Is there protocol here?

Adventures in Roommate Hunting--Prologue

The wily wonderful roommate is an elusive beast, wandering through the wilderness and concrete jungle.  Only careful words will draw them near, and even then, the slightest flaw in circumstances can scare them away, never to be seen again.

Today Chapter One in the Roommate Hunting saga took place.  Actually, there is a prologue to the story:

I put up my ad on Saturday.  On Sunday, a guy texted me under the guise of looking for a roommate in response to the ad I have up.  I'd prefer not to live with a dude, but if the personalities fit, I could be down with it, so I'm also accepting interviews with a few guys. We set a time, and then he came back with, 'how negotiable is the garage rent?'  I said, Very, for the right candidate, and we could work something out, like he does more cleaning or always takes out the garbage or something.  He came back with an offer to massage me weekly, phrased very creepily (how is that ever NOT phrased creepily from a stranger, via text?!).  I told him I don't go for massages really and he just kept texting back that I didn't have to go anywhere--we'd do it in the privacy of our apartment.  Then I just said forget it, I've got plenty of other people who are willing to pay full price (not a lie).  He texted back lots of winks and told me to 'think about it.'  I'm still getting texts...

Oy.

The Good and The Bad

The Great, actually:  I got a letter from my company informing me that they're giving me a Christmas bonus of 4% of my salary--enough to cover 2/3 of a trip home, the rest could be covered by normal monthly excess.  A Christmas miracle!  Ecstatic, I went out with two friends to dinner and dancing to celebrate this fact, that my friend is staying to get her PhD here, and that my other friend had his birthday yesterday.  I spent ~$100 tonight, all told, which is fine--my bonus could pay for that 20 times over.

The Bad:  I got home tonight, excited to buy tickets home, and checked facebook (as you do).  My roommate sent me a message (couldn't find me this evening) to tell me she is moving in with her boyfriend.  So...I have to spend the next few weeks looking for a new flatmate instead of going home.  I wouldn't feel comfortable going home before finding a new person, because I can't afford the whole apartment by myself.  I kind of knew this was coming (uh, they got a dog together, for heaven's sake!), but was really hoping she'd wait until the holidays were over!

Ah well.  I am a little scared--last time I had to find a new flatmate, I didn't have many responses.  Plus, it was exhausting and I almost let some awful people move in because I was so tired of the process and wasn't getting better people.  Even with all the tiny petty things I complained about, I definitely got lucky to find my current roommate.  And who moves apartments just before Christmas?

So, to sum up:  Yay! and ARGH.

I Kinda Got A Dog...

My new roommate is SUCH a b*tch.

I don't know what my roommate is on.  She randomly adopted a dog on Monday as a surprise for her boyfriend.  Who does that?  and WTF?

We're not allowed to own a dog in our apartment.  She (the dog) sleeps over every night...and stays there during the day when roommate's BF has to work and can't take care of the dog.  Technically we don't have a dog...but in reality, it's the same.

I'm glad I actually like this surprise for once.  It doesn't bug me, in fact I adore pups--ROOMMATE IS SO LUCKY ABOUT THAT--but it would definitely bug my landlord.  So I guess I get the benefits without all the hassle or blame??

how cute is she?!  ...those ears!

Payment!!!

Roommate agreed to pay for the garage!!  Hallelujah.  I'm not sure what took so long.  I hate bugging people about that kind of thing...

And the joke's really on her for waiting so long, because I'm going to use the money to buy stuff for the apartment.  A Blender!  A veggie chopper!  Better knives!  decorative artwork!  a juicer? apple corer! a food processor?  and maybe even a maid cleaning!  :)

What kind of upgrades would you do to your household if you had a cool extra $80/mo?

Time To Live Alone?

I don't know what is going on with me lately, but for the past few months, I've been really annoyed at my roommate.  Even before the garage debacle, things were building up.  Now?  I just find myself avoiding her and going into my room straight after getting home.  I work out, make dinner, eat it at my desk in my room while working or watching TV online, shower, and then retreat back to my room.  Over and over.  I just can't handle socialization sometimes...a lot of times, lately.

Things just build up, and like a bad marriage, I just get so angry at the tiniest little things.  I have certain 'rules' about the way that I live and maintain my household, and while I don't expect everyone to adhere to them 24-7, 100% of the time, I do expect a base level of decency.

I feel like I told her my trigger issues when she moved in, but she still does them!  Even with reminders!  Can I just vent and list the things here and you can tell me if I'm being crazy?

• leaves dishes out for DAYS at a time. Days. I will wash a roommate's dishes once in a while to be nice, but not every day.  My rule for myself is I wash them within 24 hours of dirtying, unless I have an extremely busy and/or forgetful day.  Even with that rule, my dishes are usually washed within 2-3 hours of the meal.  Exceptions are when I have a late night snack--I do those dishes the next morning.  When I left my breakfast dishes in the sink the other day because I needed to get to work, I sent her a text to apologize for the mess and said I'd clean them when I got home.  Courtesy.
• Likewise, doesn't wipe the counters after preparing a meal.  No one is that clean.
• does not clear out the dryer lint.  EVER.  OMG, this is my #1 pet peeve!!!  (How weird is that?)  I came home from my 2 month trip, and the lint trap was choking.  She clearly hadn't cleaned it in 2 months!!!  When we got the dryer, I told her how important it was for fire hazard & energy efficiency reasons (and for my sanity) for her to clear it out every time.  A few weeks ago, I showed her AGAIN how to do it and told her that it could catch fire.  Did she start cleaning it? N.O.
• she is scared of the garbage disposal, yet uses it and in fact throws things down it that she knows cannot go down it.  Again, this was made clear when she moved in:  no citrus peels, it'll break it.  Today I found a teaspoon in it.  Now, I am totally frightened of the thing, having seen too many gory scary movies, but I don't let that stop me from fixing it.  She also doesn't turn it on.  EVER.  It just fills up and stinks up the place all day.  Grrr.
• I recently discovered that she turns on the shower and lets it run for 15 minutes before even getting in.  WHY?????  All it does is confuse me, because I think she's in the bathroom and that the bathroom is therefore unavailable, when in fact, it IS available.  Not to mention the wasted hot water/electricity.  The shower curtain gets mildewy because she crumples it up in one corner after showering, and she drops water all over the floor, so I can't wear socks in there.  I get so grossed out by wet socks...(I know the last two sentences are totally nitpicky.)
• Likewise, when I get home, EVERY light in the entire apartment is on, regardless of the room she is sitting in.  Kitchen, bathroom, entry way, balcony, living room, her room, doesn't matter--they are all on, sucking up energy and wasting our electricity.  Particularly disturbing is that the living room lights are on the ceiling, which is 20 feet high and therefore completely inaccessible to either of us shorties.  Once those lights go out, we aren't getting them replaced for months, until my landlord's fixit guy can come over, and one of us is home.
• lack of guest warning etiquette. Particularly when guys are over, I need to get a warning so I can not walk into the kitchen in my white tank and short pajama shorts with no bra on, like I did last week when two of her guy friends came in the apartment at 11:30 pm on a Wednesday.  AWKWARD.  And her boyfriend is always coming over at random times nowadays.  I don't mind him now, but when they first started dating, there was zero warning that there was a guy in the apartment that I didn't know.  ZERO.  My roommate was in the shower one morning (I saw her enter the bathroom while going to the kitchen), and while preparing my breakfast, I hear a noise that is decidedly NOT coming from the bathroom and then a guy walks into my living room.  Had never met him before, ever.  And he's in my house at 6:30 am.  NOT COOL.
• never takes out the garbage bins to the curb.  never ever.  when she does take out the trash, she puts it in other people's bins.  
• I guess I shouldn't complain about this in the face of the other issues, but she has weird cleaning habits.  Like, I have a face towel I use every. single. day.  I get it wet every morning, and hang it on the hook to dry.  Every day, it is back in the cabinet, and I have to take it out.  Every. day.  Why on earth is she wasting time folding it and putting it away when I obviously use it daily?!
• I swear she uses a third of the toilet paper roll every time she uses it.  The roll is changed every other day.  It ain't me using it all up!  I use like two squares to pee!  I don't want to be a total TP Nazi about it, but sheesh, I refuse to buy nice TP if it is wasted like that.
• She wads up TP & overflows the bathroom trash (a ha! the mystery is solved), why not put it in the toilet instead of on the floor?!   And why not put a plastic bag in the bathroom trash to control the germs?

Oh man, there are so many more of these.  I think that, as much as I love my apartment and sharing rent and utilities expenses, I need to seriously consider living on my own when she moves out.  Given the situation with her boyfriend, I think it is only a matter of time before they move in together--I give it 6 months before this happens!  Especially if she has similar complaints about me or my nagging to correct the above.

My Dumb Roommate

I found out that she kicked out the wonderful paying garage tenant FOR NO GOOD REASON.  One of her friends said that they wanted to rent our garage, maybe, so she terminated the lease for the good tenant and ...nothing ever came of the new tenant.  Her boyfriend has been parking there in the interim.  I expressed my annoyance that it was all for nothing and said that I'd start advertising the spot right away, but she objected and said that she thought her friend may want it still.  I think she just wants her BF to have a free place to park.

Nuh-uh.  No way.  If you want your boyfriend to have a place to park, have him rent it at half price, paying me my $20 a week and excusing him from your $20.  I'm not letting anyone free-load off of me!

So yeah, I'm annoyed.  That was an extra $100 that could have been in my pocket by now.  I told her that I'm keeping her half of the AECT dividend in return for the money that she lost me.

I can deal with her not doing dishes for DAYS and not cleaning out the dryer filter for MONTHS (it was choking the dryer when I got back--she obviously didn't clean it at all, which IS A FIRE HAZARD and she's already caught the place on fire once), but losing me an extra source of passive income for nothing?  Nope, not having it.

My $150 Weekly Budget

I calculated that I needed to spend less than $150 per week in July to make my $500 savings goal for the month.  This month is particularly tight because I have to pay rent 3 times instead of the normal 2.  BOO.

The first week went OK--not too bad.  I spent $146.37.

The second week has started, and I've already spent $10 on my lenses for my glasses.  With the overage from last week, I have $143.63 left to spent this week on groceries, medical, misc, cell phone, and eating out.  I can do that, right?

I think Electricity is going to go WAY OVER this month and blow my whole plan, though.  I budget $100/month, but we're already at $81 just for my share, buying the cheapest electricity through powershop.  My roommate has GOT to stop using the dryer every day and heating up the large living room and leaving all the lights on, even in rooms she hasn't been in for hours.

I like this weekly-budget game.  I've only ever budgeted monthly before, and checked in every once in a while to see how I was doing.  It would be constricting after a while, but I think I'm going to do it every so often as an extra challenge to myself.

Charity for May Fulfilled!

I just got an email from Kiva saying that my loan was repaid!  I intend to turn around and lend that money over and over again. It feels awesome that the same money can be used to help many people in turn.  To me, it is spent money--I never expected it back.  Even so, I'm counting this as my charity budget for the month of May--so in effect, this money is helping me reach my May goals, too!

As for May's budget, I will barely squeak by, I think, in order to make my goal.  God willing, that is.  My bank account is sitting at $60 until Friday payday, and I still haven't bought groceries for this week.  I will have to transfer some $$ in order to help assuage my apprehension about accidentally overdrawing (not due to me overspending, due to, for example, my electric bill suddenly becoming due--I put those things on autopilot so I usually just make sure I have enough to cover electric and internet in there.).

My roommate owes me almost $300.  She usually is pretty late with her payments, but pays within a month of my bill to her--but she still owes me her share of the electric and internet bill from April.  So that is another reason why my bank account is so low.

I have spent $1,613.21 so far, and still have to pay for my internet bill share.  All told, I calculate that I can spend about $30/day and still make my May goal of saving $720 to fill my Oz fund, on top of saving $340 towards my long-term goals.

I used to be able to save at least $1K each month, no problem, but between my Kiwisaver contributions and my new health insurance premiums, it has become difficult.  I am thinking of getting my dentist and eye appointments done (the main reason that I signed up in the first place), and then cancelling my insurance and saving that $90/month premium to something else.  It doesn't cover the usual reasons that I go to the doctor anyway:  eczema and allergies--they are pre-existing conditions here.

Anyway, as a result of getting sick earlier this month and trying to cut back spending to make my goal, I have barely done anything in May...I feel like a hermit!  I am sure that there will be a June backlash because I feel somewhat deprived.  Bad news for June's budget!  I have to re-learn how to straddle that line between spending as much as I want and just spending on essentials.  If I end up having a little bit extra after I fulfill my May goal, half will go to spending on something I want and the other half will be saved in my 2011 US fund.  How's that for a compromise?

Whoops

Well, we rented a carpet shampooer yesterday, and sucked up as much water as possible.  We had all of our fans and heaters running yesterday, and we tripped a power breaker!  I was really worried that we had ruined the wiring for about a half hour, before I found the main power switch downstairs had flipped off.  

The carpet is starting to dry a little bit, but for the most part, it is still very damp and slightly squishy underfoot.  I've read about diatomaceous earth to dry it out even more, and I've borrowed a dehumidifier from a coworker to boot.  The dehumidifier is on its highest setting in the hall at the moment.  

My carpet was starting to smell a little bit over last night, so I spread some baking soda on it, and will leave it there to soak for a few days before vacuuming it up. 

I'll also try the cat sand, or diatomaceous earth, once I can find it in NZ.

More worrisome than our apartment is the downstairs damage.  No one lives downstairs at the moment, and it STINKS in the stairwell connecting our two apartments.  We sucked up as much water as possible from the hallway outside of the locked downstairs apartment, but I'm really afraid of what it smells/looks like in there--the water definitely goes underneath the apartment door.  Also, I opened the garage door today (which is directly below the downstairs apartment) and there was a huge puddle.  

There is a tenant on the first floor behind the garage, but we haven't heard any complaints from him/her.  It looks like the water drained toward the garage, anyway.

The lighting in the hallway has also decided not to work in the downstairs portion.  As I said, water was POURING out of the light fixture hole in the downstairs hallway onto the landing to the downstairs neighbor's apartment...that light stopped working during the flood, but the other three still worked up until this evening.  I am afraid that we fried the electrics somehow.  Everything on the 3rd floor (where we are) works fine, though.

I've let my landlord know about all of this, so it is out of my hands and into home insurance, right?  She doesn't seem too worried, but I kind of am nervous that this is somehow going to cost me out of pocket...