What I'm Saving For (The Scary Reality of an Apartment)

So, at this point, I've given you an introduction into my life. And I've told you about the bills I pay each month.

I have yet to mention savings.

Savings are a big part of my plan.

Everyone recommends having an emergency fund.

Well, this probably wasn't the greatest idea, but I decided to go ahead and skip that idea.

I'm savings for an apartment. An apartment with the love of my life. The love of my life who will be working a full time job while I work FOUR jobs and go to school.

I'm being stubborn (and maybe a little bit stupid here), but we can set up an emergency fund after we have our apartment. And until we pay for that apartment, my savings fund is pretty much doubling as my emergency fund.

No one recommends this.

Not a single person.

But, as a full time student and as someone who works all the time and is a member of a sorority (which is a very active lifestyle by itself), I don't have the time to manage more than a couple of accounts. I have three. Two checking accounts and one savings account. I have one checking account for bill pay only, and the other checking account is used for discretionary spending. For me, discretionary spending does include my toiletries and my gas. I can control how much I drive in a given week. And I can control how much I spend per month on toiletries. And food. Food counts as discretionary, because I have a meal plan on campus. And I can still eat at home when I need. :)

BUT

Back to what I'm saving for: THE APARTMENT

I'm going to break this down into each individual charge...

• $70 application fee ($35 for each of us)
• $150 redecorating fee (WE CAN PAINT!!))
• $100 - $505 security deposit
• $434 - $505 first month's rent

And then, we also have to save up to furnish our lovely apartment.

Lucky for me, I already have a few things that we'll need:

• a floor lamp
• a bedroom suit
• silverware
• glasses 
• a knife set
• some small kitchen necessities
• Christmas decorations (MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY)
• bookshelves
• a desk
• a table lamp

And there are probably some other little things here and there that I can't think of.

My mother is onboard with Jon and I moving in together, so she's promised to help me find what we need to furnish an apartment. 

All in all, I'm hoping to spend no more than $500 on furnishing our small apartment. It's completely doable. :)