This month (August):
Balance:$21,340.08
Years left: 1.583333333
P =$1,125.48, I =$88.93, Escrow =$809.48
This month (September):
Balance:$20,210.15
Years left: 1.5
P =$1,129.93, I =$84.47, Escrow =$809.48
One month’s prepayment savings: $0
In the end we decided to move out here with next to nothing– we filled up the car, sent a few boxes, and DC2 and I each checked a bag and did a carry-on on the plane.
And now our 1200 sq ft 2br apartment is mostly furnished.
How did we get here from there?
1. We bought a couch, dining room table and chairs, large ottoman, bunk beds (and mattresses), king-size bed (and mattress), kid’s bike, shelves, and a few sundries (plates and bowls, cooler, toaster oven, microwave) from some people who were moving out for 1K. I’m pretty sure we could have bargained her down given how last minute she was about everything, but 1K was less than we would have spent at IKEA on much cheaper versions of the same stuff, so we’re good. Even though she was a PITA to deal with and kept going on and on about how she didn’t want to sell us things because they were dented.
2. IKEA has a lot of very inexpensive stuff. We bought three small tables (one for the living room, two to use as nightstands), a set of odd silverware (that cost less than the same partial sets of silverware at goodwill– our goodwill sucks), and a few skirt hangers.
3. The apartment has some built-in shelves and cabinets.
4. We have some friends who were happy to give us the crappy stuff they bought back in 2000 that they have since replaced with much nicer stuff but hadn’t gotten rid of the crappy stuff even though they never use it. Yay generous packrat friends who were saving this stuff for just such an opportunity! Here we got some not great quality pots, pans, bakeware, measuring spoons and cups (the kind where you have to guess the size because they’re so well-loved), and so on. They have dibs if they want it back at the end of the year, but they’re hoping they won’t.
5. The same friends are letting us borrow some shelves and a card table they were keeping in their garage because they want to clear out the garage to organize it. Also they’ll want them back at the end of the year.
6. We got a card table and chairs at Walmart for $55 that we’re using in the dog-run for outdoor dining. DH also got a bike for himself at Walmart.
7. After trying to work in the eat-in kitchen and being defeated by the heat of the sun, DH decided he really needed a desk, so we got one for $60 off a neighborhood list-serve.
8. Target filled in more kitchen and bathroom odds-and-ends, as well as things like envelopes and printer paper.
9. Amazon filled in for some bigger items like a printer, extra ink, a bike for me (after waiting too long to buy one locally so all the students have cleared out anything under $300. If only I’d bought the first time I looked! Also, what is going on with Forge bikes not actually having any bikes in stock anywhere?)
10. I ended up getting a laptop as I didn’t realize work wouldn’t come with a computer and my old laptop is giving up the ghost.
11. Another friend has a piano lying around that the previous house owners left that she said we could have for the year if we pay for moving. Paying for moving there and back puts it still at less than the cost of renting or buying a new digital piano. (We really did want to bring our own piano but just couldn’t fit it in the car and it would have cost more to move than to rent one for the year.)
12. We got some black-out curtains from Kohls (online, clearance). The place did come with curtains, but the bedroom curtains didn’t block out any light and the living room curtains only covered about half the window, exposing the world to streaking toddlers who don’t want to get dressed in the morning.
13. (Update) Scored another set of shelves and very small chest of drawers that someone in the neighborhood left out with a free sign. Now DC2 can keep hir shirts and pants in separate drawers and I have a place to put hir winter clothing and too big stuff, which means there’s room in the closet for their toys.
We’re doing a lot of “making do”… like, we don’t really need a casserole if we have the knock-off le creuset for some tasks and a mason jar for other tasks. We don’t need a pyrex 13×9 if we have a metal one. And so on. We’re using long flat bowls instead of small plates for a lot of things (the plates we have are enormous). But it’ll be fine for a year. Things that aren’t fine we’ve eventually bought (like an ove glove– way better than the towels system we’d been using).
How much did this all cost, I dunno, something between 2K and 3K? Closer to 3K if you include the bikes. How does it compare with shipping? We’re ahead if we don’t ship stuff back at the end of the year, but we’re about even (since we’d have had to buy bikes anyway) if we do a Pod at the end of the year.
How did you furnish your first place/most recent place?
