If you just started living on your own college dorm or apartment, you are probably feeling
the first struggles of leading an independent life and figuring out things by yourself.
In this video I wanted to give you a few tips that I’ve learned since I started living
alone and which can help you out and make you feel less anxious about the moving out
process.
Learn how to budget.
This is the first thing you need to settle before you do anything else.
Learning how to budget is a skill that will help you throughout your life.
Managing your money can be tricky and prioritizing expenses, knowing when to pay your bills and
managing pocket money takes a bit of practice but it will make your life much less stressful
and unpredictable.
I am currently using an excel spreadsheet to help me with my expenses.
I just insert all the items that I spend my money on in a monthly basis and then regularly
track my spending so I have an overall notion of where my money is going and where I should
save.
One YouTube channel that I highly recommend for starting building your finance health
is the Financial Diet.
Meal prepping Meal prepping is a life saver and something
that can both improve your health and diet as well as your finances.
Schedule one day per week to look at your pantry and plan the next seven days of meals.
This takes half and hour and will save you so much extra time and struggle.
After you’ve planned all your meals for the following week, go shopping or order the
produce if your local supermarket provides that service and save one morning to meal
prep for the following days.
Boiling eggs in advance, cutting firm veggies, making humus or other spreads in bulk, cooking
rice, boning or cutting meat, cooking soup and freezing pre cut loafs of bread - those
are all things you can do a few days in advance that will save you so much time during the
week.
Your wallet will also thank you since you won’t have the urge to dine out as often.
If you are unsure of how long you can preserve your food on your fridge or the freezer, I
will leave a link down below provided by the World Health Organization which lists different
types of food, the way they are cooked and the quantity.
Creating a Fixed Grocery List and Keeping Track of Expiration Dates
Still related to food, a good trick to save tons of money and make sure you are always
stocked on the food essentials is keeping a grocery list with all the basic items you
need in your fridge and pantry to make sure you never run out of milk again.
Check that list once per week and take a look in your kitchen – are you still stocked
on all of the items?
If so, can you estimate how long will it take until you run out of any of them?
Even if you are stocked, is your food reaching its expiration date?
Manage your grocery shopping around these questions instead of buying too much in advance
and letting it spoil or end up lacking some essential pantry basics and ending up dining
out.
Also, a bonus tip: to keep track of expiration dates, just grab a pen and scribble the date
when the package was opened or, if you are able to calculate it, the last day when it’s
considered acceptable to still consume that product.
Create a cleaning plan and schedule When you’re by yourself, cleaning definitely
becomes a burden since you have no one to share your chores with.
Also, leaving the entire cleaning of a room or house for one day only each week will take
precious time out of your schedule that you could be spending doing far more interesting
things.
What I decided to do was dividing these tasks per day instead of doing everything in one
morning or afternoon.
I decided to input all household chores in my calendar and create a repeating schedule
so I would be reminded periodically of these small tasks, such as changing towels, bedsheets,
vacuuming, cleaning the fridge, and so on.
I currently clean for 20 or 30 minutes every day instead of wasting my weekend with those
tasks and I think it’s a good habit to get the hang of as soon as you can.
Understand laundry I still think laundry is kind of a science
of its own and it was one of the things that I had most trouble getting the hang of.
First of all, understand that not all garments can be machine washed and as such, you’ll
have to be prepared with the appropriate setup and products for hand washing.
The fool proof way is to look at the tag, but as a general rule, if they are delicate
underwear, wool sweaters and silk blouses, handwashing is the way to go.
After that, divide your laundry by dark and light colors and do separate washes for each
or you’ll risk color transfer.
If there are any stains, treat them previously before throwing the garment into the machine.
Also, be aware that unless your clothing is severely stained, washing your garments with
cold water or very low temperatures is still the best idea in order to avoid disasters.
The exception are clothes like cotton underwear, sheets and gym clothing that have been exposed
to body oil and sweat and as such need high temperatures to be cleaned.
Organize bills and important documents Organizing bills, contracts and other documents
is important so you can refer back to that information quickly if you need to do so in
the future.
I usually place all of my letters, bills and documents in a letter tray as soon as I receive
them or print them.
Then, a couple of days later, I go through all of my correspondence and start labelling
it according to function and importance.
Contracts, which are documents that I will need to refer to in the future, go to my main
binder, where they are filed according to usage and date.
A good saving tip if you are paying for your bills is signing up for electronic bills instead
of paper ones.
Most companies offer a discount for people who sign up for the electronic version instead
of paper.
That is beneficial for many reasons – besides the discount, since the bills are redirected
to your e-mail address, you have less chances of forgetting to pay them on time.
On the other hand, you can keep track of them by keeping them in the external drive in your
computer in PDF version instead of having to print them and file them individually.
If you are unsure of how long you should keep paper documents with you, there’s a handy
guide at lifehack.com which I’ll link in the description box that lists the documents
you should permanently keep filed in your house, and those that you can dispose of in
a couple of months.
Start regulating your shopping habits If there was ever a good moment to start getting
into the minimalism trend, this is it.
When you are in a strict budget, with a not-so-good of an income or trust fund, going all out
and buying unnecessary things will straight up ruin your experience.
Learn how to keep to the essentials and test yourself on what you really need to feel comfortable
and happy.
If you really enjoy that perfume, perhaps it’s a bad idea to have a collection on
top of your vanity.
Investing in a good set of basic t-shirts, jeans and plain sweaters is better value for
your money than buying the trendy shirt that you will stop wearing next season.
This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to buy only boring, plain items, but be conscious
in your shopping instead of impulsive.
It’s a good time to start researching on how to build your capsule wardrobe and select
only the pieces that will make you happy and comfortable.
Caring for your health Part of adulting means that you need to start
taking care of your health as well.
Keep an emergency contact list in a visible area where both you and other people can reach
for.
Also, learn how to assemble a first aid kit and keep it in a place you can easily access.
To automate all health related errands, force yourself to book all appointments in bulk,
even if it means scheduling for weeks or months in advance.
Consult with your doctor to know how regularly you should be visiting, and then plan away
your dentist’s checks, dermatology consultation, eye check, and so on.
Start building your soft skills Building your career or soft sills should
start as early as possible and when you are transitioning from your life as a student
to full-on adulting, it’s crucial to master a few basic skills to ease your way into your
chosen career path.
Things like writing a cover letter or mastering your resumé are key aspects that you should
practice and learn about as soon as you can.
Attending job fairs or going to career related workshops provided by your university are
a good way to start getting acquainted with these basic requirements.
And for today these are the topics I wanted to approach on how to start living an independent
life.
If you would like to see more videos on this subject, feel free to tell me in the comments
below and I will see you next week.
Bye!