The Financial Fairy Tales Blog

There are many transitions in life you make and you grow up and increasingly become aware of the greater responsibilities on your shoulders. It will dawn on you one day when you’re packing your bags full of clothes and everyday living items; you’re going to have to take a giant leap into the big wide world. One of the most difficult and daunting transitions from teenager or student is the coming of age as an adult. Living on your own will be tough for a smorgasbord of reasons, however, managing your personal and property finances by yourself will be the most harrowing challenge. The chances are good that you’ll be limited by income, but counter to this is the abundance of information and access to advice at your pleasure. Follow a few rules, mixing simple and complex solutions to problems, and you can navigate your way through life averting catastrophic setbacks.

Photo by – Max Pixel

Budget before you move

Before you’ve moved into a new apartment or shared house, make a budget that reflects your current income, the monthly costs to live in the property such as rent, your expenses such as insurance, or phone bills, and finally your expenditure such as the weekly food shopping or on new clothes. Use this budget you create to see you through the first month or couple of week. After you feel settled in into the new place, take a look at your bills and go back to the drawing board to rebudget accordingly. Keep in mind some properties have utility costs which are seasonal, such as air conditioning which you might have used in the summer.

Image credit – Frederik Hermann

Top of the range tech isn’t a necessity

You don’t need to have all the latest gadgets and appliances around the home, and a lot of young people make silly financial choices that they could do without. Don’t try to reconstruct or emulate in any fashion every part of how you used to live before, such as the need to have a laptop or tablet. Your parents of the university may have provided you with the technology all the other students had, but rather than wanting electronic accessories; you should focus on skillets, plates, cutlery and varying sizes of pots and pans. However, if you’ve been hired for a job that is well-paying, modern studio apartments have all encompassed utensils and connectivity as standard, such as here. Simply download the app required on your smartphone, and you can adjust the heating, set the time for the washing machine or dim and turn off the lights.

Cooking for yourself

There’s an endless wave of information on the internet for beginners just learning how to cook for themselves. Groceries are the most unpredictable, fluctuating part of your budget. Identify what your essentials are, such as bread, milk, and cheese dependent on your tastes. Cooking in bulk will save you money and time. Rice, pasta expand when inside your stomach, so you will feel fuller when eating this food type. Vegetables have a high water content as consequently, also fill you up with relative ease, not to mention the health benefits their exert. A better financial option is to cook in large quantities and freeze the excess individually. Buy airtight boxes and vacuum sealed bags which will preserve your food for up to 5 days at a time. Generally, the price per portion goes down when you cook this way because you save on energy bills and food prepping.