Move-in Day and Housing over the Summer

Move-in day was both exciting and scary! It was an early start of 6am for myself, my Dad and my boyfriend. We drove the 3 hours to Southampton, packed everything from my room in halls into the car before the move-out time of 10am and then set off to the new house, which was only a five minute journey away.

When we arrived, one of my housemates was already there moving in, so it was exciting to see her! It was a case of get everything out of the car and into my room and we'd sort it from there - organised chaos! I was very lucky to have my two guys to haul things up and down stairs for me! My plan was if I get stuff in, I can easily come up another time to organise it all the way I want it, or it will be something to look forward to in September.

Once the hectic move-in was done, I left the boys unpacking a few things in my room and started sorting in the kitchen. We were hoping to be able to set up all the bills on the day, but our student account was not up and running by that point so I had to leave that in the hands of my housemate who is staying in the house for the majority of the summer. (That is, apparently, easy enough to set up. They set up a direct debit over the phone and just need details and a meter reading - luckily we'd been shown by the previous tenants where the meter was!)

We also had the chance to meet the people living in the house that is joined to ours. We are an annexe, and so share the bills with the other house. Therefore it was good to meet them and get to know them a little on the first day so that we weren't strangers in September - plus we need their internet! They seemed very welcoming and nice, and many people on the road are students so I feel we have picked a good area to live in!

Over the past couple of weeks since we moved in, my housemate, who is still at university, has decorated the house with bunting, fairy lights and cushions! She's been baking lots and working out how everything in the house works. It's such a girly house, and I am excited to move in properly after the summer!

...

We were able to move into our student house on 1st July and, like most student houses, the contract is a year long. This means we have to pay rent over the summer. Sounds okay, until you realise that the summer is about three months long - and that's a lot of money!

I made sure that I worked out exactly how much I would need to pay, both for bills and rent, and put this aside so that I didn't spend it. However, this left me with rather a small amount of money to last me the summer, as Student Finance does not account for this period of time, and, having been told that I only had one shift at my summer job, I was left a bit stuck!

Again, my budgeting notebook had to come out, and I had to work out how much I could spend per week and still have some money left over as a safety net at the end of the summer. On top of this, I began doing cleaning jobs for my parents at home and at work, just to earn a little bit of money. Luckily, I was able to pick up a few more shifts at work and things worked out okay - but this was the first time in my life I'd been worried about the possibility that'd spent too much! I'm always very careful with my money, so not having quite enough was a bit of a shock to the system.

Obviously this isn't me complaining that I have no money, because I am very fortunate to have what I have, and the opportunity to even go to university! This is just my way of saying keep an eye on your money, check what you're spending and what you need to save for essentials, and budget sensibly.

Bills bills bills!

Over the last few days, we have been doing lots of research into bank accounts, bills and finances and I've realised I have a lot to learn! Every task seems daunting, but between us so far we've managed to muddle through.

First off was setting up a bank account. Our first issue was choosing a bank, but thanks to Google and word of mouth we made a decision on the best one for a joint student account. We needed to all be able to pay into it, and create a direct debit to pay the bills we need it to. Then, we had the issue of trying to find a day when everyone was free to go for a meeting at the bank. One of my housemates was back at home and only in Southampton for certain days, and my other housemate was on placement for her course and so was only free on certain days. Eventually, after many unproductive phone calls to the bank trying to set up an appointment that worked for at least two of us, we decided it would be better to set up an account in just one of our names, and then we could add the other two at a later date when we were all back in southampton and everything was more settled. One of my housemates will be in Southampton on placement over the summer, and so she will set up the account in case anything goes wrong and she needs to go in to the branch about it - it wouldn't be much use for it to be me if I'm at home!

Then, we looked at bills. We are lucky in the sense that our water and internet bills are shared with the house we are joined to (our house is an annexe on the back of another student house, both rented by the same landlord), and so we don't have to worry about that until we move in. Electric, however, we pay ourselves. I was able to chat with the student currently living in our house, and she didn't set up her electric until they moved in...and all we have to do on the day is ring up, give them a meter reading and set up a direct debit. Another task sorted for now!

We then had other little things to think about, like a TV. We are still deciding on whether we want to get a TV license, as it is quite expensive. Obviously we need one to watch TV, but we could just watch programmes on catch-up. One of my flatmates has a TV, but we are researching into the right box we might need and how to go about setting it all up. I feel like I am learning a lot!

In terms of furniture and small appliances that we might need, for example a toaster, microwave, chest of drawers, we were able to find most of the items we needed between us from family members etc...but our plan B on move in day? Ikea. The students currently in the house were selling a few items of furniture as well, so that was helpful.

Being the organised person I am, I have been drawing up lists of things to accomplish. I'd definitely recommend this, as I always feel like I've forgotten something if I don't have it all written down! Plus, you then have the satisfaction of crossing a task off your list when it's done! You don't realise when you start out quite how many things you are going to have to sort before you can move in. But for now, we are on top of it all - and it all seems a lot easier than I imagined once you get started!

Thanks for reading!

Laura