Take care when considering your new apartment or rental house in Columbus or Athens that you correctly understand what you’ll be paying. If the ad says $550 monthly per person (or $1,500 for the whole rental), you’ll want to ascertain whether that amount is inclusive or exclusive of some or all of the other expenses that you may have to pay.
This is important since if the rent is $550 per month and you still have to pay utilities and other costs, you may not have enough money left over to spring for a pitcher of beer at the Crystal in uptown Athens or The Little Bar on High Street in Columbus. Not to mention pizzas for sustenance!
If you’ve rented before, you likely already know this – the rent itself is only part of what it costs to live away from home. First-time renters, however, should pay close attention to the following.
What Hidden Costs Will You Have to Pay?
• Utility bills. Other bills that you’ll likely have to pay include utilities – electric, gas, water, sewer, trash/recycling. Depending on how your Athens or Columbus rental housing is heated, the electric bill might be high and the gas bill low, or both bills relatively high. Find out if the rental has a combustion natural gas furnace. If that’s the case, you’ll be paying high gas bills during the heating season. If the rental has a heat pump that provides both heating and cooling, then your gas bill will be relatively low, while your electric bill will be relatively high. The good news here is that it’s within your control to save money on heating and cooling – just get accustomed to warmer indoor temps during the hot months and cooler indoor temps during the cold months. If your rental has ceiling fans, use them to make the indoors feel cooler in the summer (which will allow you to dial back the AC). Your water/sewer bill is likely combined and may even be connected to your trash/recycling bill. Different municipalities handle this in different ways.
If you’re lucky, the amount of rent that’s advertised will include all of these utilities. However, if that advertised rent seems low, it probably won’t include utilities. The old saying applies in this case: “If something seems to good to be true, it probably isn’t.”
• Other bills. Even if the rent includes the basic utilities (electric, gas, water), it would be highly unusual for it to include such costs as a telephone landline (as if you need this), cable TV, Internet/Wi-Fi service or streaming TV services. Unless your folks are paying for your cell-phone and entertainment services, these will be costs that you’ll have to absorb. Again, you’ll want to weigh whether having money for a few beers at your favorite bar is more important than that monthly Hulu, Netflix or Prime subscription.
• Storage. It’s possible that you’ll have to pay for extra storage for your belongings if 1) you have a lot of stuff; and/or 2) there’s not much storage space. Find out if this is the case and then consider those costs when tallying your overall expenses while living in a prospective rental house or apartment. Generally, houses have more space than apartments (and even possibly a garage!). But that’s not always the case, and some apartments are equipped with loads of storage space. There’s also creative ways of creating storage space in a rental unit (see a separate blog on this site).
Another option is to just not bring as much stuff. If your folks are OK with you leaving some of your belongings at their place – you know, that collection of stuffed animals or those boxes of old Little League trophies – that might be a simple way of avoiding paying at least $50 per month or more for a storage unit in Athens or Columbus. (Or just throw them away?)
• Parking. If you’re bringing your car to Columbus or Athens, find out of your prospective apartment or rental house has on-site parking. If it doesn’t, determine whether there’s sufficient on-street parking for your vehicle (and whether it’s legal to leave it there for more than 24 hours at a time). Many municipalities, including Athens and Columbus, mark certain residential areas as 24-hour parking zones. In Athens, it’s most of the city’s residential areas. If you have to rent a parking spot, figure those costs into your overall expenses. You might be able to find an affordable option for paid parking. If you’re not bringing a car and live too far to walk or ride a bike to class and beer, factor in the cost of bus service or any other sort of mass transit you can arrange.
• Groceries. This expense can vary widely depending on 1) how much you eat; 2) how many people are sharing the costs; 3) how often you eat out (though you’ll need to factor those costs in as well); and 4) how expensive your tastes are. Having lived with yourself for all your life and being amply familiar with your own eating habits, this one shouldn’t be rocket science.
• Laundry. Unless your rental comes with a washer and dryer, you’ll need lots and lots of quarters to feed the machines at the laundromat or the common laundry area at your apartment complex. Some apartments these days even have coin-operated washer/dryers inside the apartment itself.
Now that you’ve considered ALL the costs of living in that spiffy apartment or rental house, does that quoted rent amount still seem doable? Of course, you’ll also want to consider whether there’s any other plausible alternatives, and then choose one you like that you (or your parents) can best afford. Good luck out there!