I am a graduate student with ~$2000 dollar salary monthly for my TAship.
current rent + utilities is roughly 1000, food 400 a month (I eat out occasionally, it's my only form of entertainment and source of morale) and I give 300 a month to my parents to help support them. Phone bill, other stuff usually takes up more than half of the remaining 300 dollar.
Before starting grad school I have worked in the industry so now I have ~40k saving, fortunately that amount hasn't really changed since my TA ship salary seems to exactly take care of my monthly expense.
However, there has been various new source of noise that has driven me crazy this year, my neighbor upstair started working at home and has been really noisy with his heavy footsteps, I've tried to communicate with him and he's really understanding and has eased his footsteps but it's still really noticeable, so I don't think is fair to ask him to not live his life normally. Gotten new next door neighbor who enjoys loud tv at night, construction started near by, etc.
I have lived in my current apartment for 3 years now and it's ~775 for a really small space, like 200 sq ft. And it feels confining, it also look out to the garbage area and back alley where it feels really depressing.
I'm not sure if I can handle this any longer, I want to do well in my phd research and I will give anything to make it happen. I have found some good top floor apartments near my area (my area is a good location near school), they are cutting really close to my monthly expense, we are talking about rent at 1200 to 1500, so together with utilities this leaves me very little to work with and I may even have to dig into my saving and reduce my support for my parents.
Is it financially irresponsible to pay that much for rent just to get a better apartment?
Submitted December 14, 2020 at 09:01PM by killerofpain https://ift.tt/3gNbrYK
