Combating rising housing costs with these housing hacks can keep cash your pockets.
Using small to large hacks will help keep costs to a minimum and keep you on track for housing bliss. According to Transcript Maker, good spending habits and financial responsibility starts as a college student.
Keep the thermostat at a set temperature
The importance of keeping utility costs low is my and my households biggest worry and can potentially become the biggest issue amongst roommates, said Mariah Breaux, a freshman nursing major from Las Vegas.
“Well I and my roommates fight a lot over utilities, so we came up with a laundry system,” Aubrey Pierce, a freshman general studies major from Kaysville said. “We each have our own assigned laundry days.”
Electricity is a higher cost for them, so they keep their thermostat at 78 degrees, Pierce said.
“We try to keep the lights off and we keep the temperature at a set temp so our bill is not crazy high,” Breaux said.
They have conversations about their temperature in the house so no one feels too cold or too hot, Breaux said. Once the conversation is had to keep the thermostat at one temperature.
Trade off grocery shopping responsibilities
Keeping a larger quantity of grooming items in the house makes it easy to just reach for the next item and not worry about who is buying what, said Jasmine Reese, a junior psychology major from St. George.
“My challenge has been eating out and phone apps have helped me to cut down on that significantly,” Reese said.
To keep food costs low, Costco is a great place to utilize, Reese said. Even though there are only two of them, it’s a substantial saving.
“The cost comparison for 10 sticks of deodorant compared to 1 stick is dramatic, and I am the kind of person who forgets to buy these things, so I basically almost never run out,” Reese said.
For food, her household shares milk, eggs and bread; they take turns buying it as they run out, Pierce said. They also take turns buying toiletry items.
“We made a list of whose turn it is to purchase household items for each person,” Breaux said. “One gets the hand soap, Clorox cleanups, dish soap, trash bag, and Swiffers to name a few. We have a specific rotating shopping list for cleaning supplies.”
Save space by coordinating who is bringing kitchenware
Before moving into a place find out who your roommates are in order to maximize space with what you’re bringing into the household. Lindsey Hope a resident assistant at Campus View Housing and a junior English major from West Jordan, said
“My roommates and I coordinated who was going to bring bowls, plates and all other kitchenware, which saved us money and space,” Hope said.
According to Student Hut, there are many inexpensive ideas on how to hack your life and space, such as using a binder clip to fix broken keyboard legs and warming up two items for two different people in the microwave by using a cup.
Use a budgeting app to keep track of expenses
“I use the app ‘Mint’; it helps you divvy up all your expenses and everything you are spending,” Reese said. “If you connect it to your Chase bank account, you can do a budget through the app. When you connect it to your bank it tracks what you are spending and lets you know if you are over your budget for the month.”
Not being wasteful helps my household and me, Hope said.
“My husband and I do have savings for an emergency — we have it set for a certain amount to come out of our checks,” Reese said.
Gotta Be Mobile lists the 13 top budget apps for 2017 to prepare for emergencies, save money and avoid bank fees.
“We feel like communication is very important,” Breaux said. “We act like adults and take the initiative to clean whatever is dirty rather than nitpicking over things.”
Setting firm boundaries early on with my roommates and establishing those boundaries early on helps to keep the household the way it needs to be, Breaux said.
“When we do have an issue, I don’t take it personally, and we do what is best for the household, Breaux said.You don’t have to like your roommates. You just have to respect them because you live with them.”
