Starting from Scratch! Please Help Me!!!!

[My sister's princess]

I am signing the lease to my first apartment tomorrow

Soooooooo

I have been looking around for coupons, but help me with any good ones you have found, and any budget and savings tips you have.

I am living with 2 boys So I am sure they will eat anything I bring into the house, and will use what ever I put out as far as soap, paper towels ect

I have been lurking for a long time and know if anyone can help me with this it is the DIS budget board people!!!!

 

[ah1126]

Check out the Dollar Tree and Family Dollar if you have them near by. They are great for paper and cleaning products and they have good deals on some food sometimes.

If you need household items and funiture I would check yardsales and craigslist.

Good Luck!

 

[My sister's princess]

We are good on furniture, but thank you

I got my dishes / food storage on BlackFriday (DBF didn't understand how important it was that I get the crazy deal that had on dishes )

I hadn't thought of the dollar store for paper products, I never noticed them there, thank you!!

 

[Plantlady]

check out hotcouponworld.com you can find your grocery store, and people will do the coupon matchups for you.

 

[poohfriend77]

I am signing the lease to my first apartment tomorrow

Soooooooo

I have been looking around for coupons, but help me with any good ones you have found, and any budget and savings tips you have.

I am living with 2 boys So I am sure they will eat anything I bring into the house, and will use what ever I put out as far as soap, paper towels ect

I have been lurking for a long time and know if anyone can help me with this it is the DIS budget board people!!!!

My best advice is to discuss with your roommates what will be shared and what won't ASAP. I doesn't make sense for you to have three rolls of paper towels on the counter, but the guys should split the cost with you so you're not the only one providing that kind of stuff. That can lead to roommate problems pretty quickly! Same goes for food. Split costs if any of you is preparing a meal to share, but you may each want one cabinet/shelf with snacks and food that is off limits to the others.

I second the suggestion of checking yard sales/thrift shops if you need household "stuff" (dishes, utensils, lamps, bookshelves, etc) It's also a great idea to subscribe to your local newspaper, or at least pick it up on Sundays, to get sales ads and coupons so you can compare prices and find the best deals on food, cleaning supplies, etc. Congrats on your first apartment!

 

[My sister's princess]

check out hotcouponworld.com you can find your grocery store, and people will do the coupon matchups for you.

Do you have to pay to belong to this service?

 

[clh2]

First off - have each renter contribute to a house "supplies" account. That way, there will not be one person always shelling out the $$ for cleaning supplies, paper towels and TP.

Also - same concept - decide in advance how to manage food. All food separate, all together, just get the staples, i.e. butter, ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper, flour, sugar, etc and then everyone get their own food.

And my other advice - set up a weekly chore chart. It really isn't that hard, and the chores shouldn't take more than 1/2 hour or 45 minutes per week. This should include, vacuuming, bathrooms, kitchen floor, garbage out, etc.

In case you are wondering...I lived one college year with 7 roommates. The phone probably was the worse problem, but that was LONG before cellphones had been invented.

 

[My sister's princess]

First off - have each renter contribute to a house "supplies" account. That way, there will not be one person always shelling out the $$ for cleaning supplies, paper towels and TP.

Also - same concept - decide in advance how to manage food. All food separate, all together, just get the staples, i.e. butter, ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper, flour, sugar, etc and then everyone get their own food.

And my other advice - set up a weekly chore chart. It really isn't that hard, and the chores shouldn't take more than 1/2 hour or 45 minutes per week. This should include, vacuuming, bathrooms, kitchen floor, garbage out, etc.

In case you are wondering...I lived one college year with 7 roommates. The phone probably was the worse problem, but that was LONG before cellphones had been invented.

We have decided that all house hold items will be split 3 ways, however each 3 penny's I save is one penny of mine, and therefor one more penny for Micky


Thank you for the advice on the chores and things!
As far as chores both boys are very tide thank goodness. DBF and I will be splitting our food, and the other young many (my bestfriend) will be doing his own thing. If we all want to make dinner together on say Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we will shop for that together. We have done great with discussing all these things as we don't want any horrible fights breaking out.

 

[Plantlady]

Do you have to pay to belong to this service?

Nope. It's a forum, free.