Having a roommate is a great idea for those who are willing to trade a bit of privacy in exchange for some hefty money saving.  There are tons of basic living expenses that can be split between two or more people. One of the biggest things you can save on is rent.

The highest cost of living alone is rent. If you ever looked for a 1 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment, you know what I am talking about; the availability of 1-1s is limited, hence they usually go for a premium. So why not get a roommate? The cost of a 2-2 is never too much more than a 1-1. For instance, in Houston you can rent a large 1-1 for $800. But if you had a roommate you could get a larger 2-2 for $1100. So you would be paying $550 instead of $800 to live in a larger place. This equals $3,000 in savings each year.  You would be giving up a bit of privacy, but you still get your own room and shower. Not a bad tradeoff. And the savings doesn’t stop there!

Think about the utility costs of living by yourself. In Texas, there is a minimum fee imposed on any home that doesn’t use over a certain amount of electricity. The fee varies, but the fact is you will end up paying for it by yourself if you live alone. Unless you have a huge place and have the A/C blasting 24/7 there is no way you will reach the minimum kilowatts usage if you live by yourself.  So you will be paying that fee by yourself. But if you had a roommate, you guys would probably use more than the minimum kilowatts. And if not, you would only still pay half the fee. If your individual electric bill is $80 a month, you would only be paying $40 if you got a roommate.  In that example, you would be saving $480 a year. The same concept goes for water and other miscellaneous costs, such as renter’s insurance; if you had a roommate your costs would be split. Another advantage of having a roommate is how much time you could potentially save.

Division of labor is something beneficial not only in the business world, but also in everyday life. If you had a roommate, you could easily share everyday common tasks, such as cooking. You could make something big enough to share. You could do all the dishes in a batch.  You could take all the trash out at once. These are things that can be done in bulk, and do necessary make it more time consuming if you lived with another person. Of course there are certain exceptions such as laundry, but you get what I mean.

I know it might be difficult to find a roommate. Maybe you moved into a different city this year or have some other circumstances. But I just want to open your mind to the potential of having another person in your life to share the costs of living.

What do you think?

 

 

 

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