My best friend and I have recently been talking about getting an apartment together, but I need some advice. First off, we both live about 50 minutes away from the town we plan on moving to because I work there right now, and she plans on getting a job there as soon as she can, but it scares me because she wants to move out ASAP, but she hasn't been hired for anything yet. I would kill to move out right away because I know I can afford it, and I'm getting really sick of driving 50 minutes to work every day, but I really don't want to ever get in the situation where she can't afford to pay rent for a month, so I tell her she can pay me back. I know she would never purposefully do that, but I really don't want it to put on strain on our friendship if it gets out of control. What are you guys' thoughts on living with best friends? Also, I admit, I'm kind of a chicken. I can't wait to move out, and I have no problem living on my own, but I'm so used to my safe little town where I can leave my car unlocked in my driveway all night that I'm going to be really paranoid living in a bigger town. Advice would be much appreciated! Or just some moving out stories. :)

So it IS true! This cop in Bemidji told me that people in small Minnesota towns leave their cars unlocked, so their stuff gets stolen sometimes, and that constitutes most of the crimes in these towns besides bar fights, lol. And there's very little crime anyway. Man...no sirens. That was a huge plus for me, since there's so much crime here that you'll hear at least one siren every hour. I'm moving to Bemidji for college, from a huge city (Baltimore). I have to say that I prefer small towns over big cities. Even though there's more to do in the city, I still prefer small towns because they're much quieter and I don't have to fear for my life when I go "downtown" because Bemidji's downtown is the equivalent of a Main Street kind of thing. Seriously, it looks like a couple of streets with local shops and small restaurants and cafes, and a courthouse which is right next to the jail and across the street from a police station. :laugh: I'll miss not having a mall or a bunch of places I can go for fun. But I think I'll be happier despite all of that. I hear the Super Walmart is the town's main attraction. ;)

It's very true! Except I wouldn't consider Bemidji a small town :P I don't remember their population, but the town I live in has about 900 people. Maybe it's up to 1,000 now. So it's very rare that people get their stuff stolen out of their cars here...but it does happen. Lol. It's also very rare to hear sirens. Speaking of, I have a friend going to Bemidji state this year, too, and I plan on visiting her, so maybe I'll see you around! :P I've always preferred small towns, too. Which kind of stinks because Nathan refuses to live in a small town, and he thinks the town I'm moving to is too small, even though it's the third-largest city in Minnesota. I think he's crazy. I hope you like Bemidji. I never used to wish I lived in a city where they had a mall or things to do in general because I would just hang out with my friends, but now that my friends are all going away to college, I need something to keep me preoccupied.

It's like 5,000 people or something, but most of the population is college students haha.

I just moved out myself. It seems super scary, especially since I was moving several states and my family moved across the country from me. It was also kind of stressful because I don't have a permanent place yet, just a sublease that's up at the end of the month. But it's not that bad. Particularly I guess because for a long time I was the woman of my household after my mom died, the responsibilities related to living on your own aren't that daunting to me, like cooking and cleaning and just making sure things happen on time and having intiative. The worst thing about moving out for me is not having a dog anymore and not being anywhere near my family, but you'd still be so close to yours so that's really cool! :) Personally, I moved before I had a job in the place I was moving to, but I also had/have a lot of savings in the bank from my previous job in order to cover the jobless months where I was/am searching. So while I want to say don't worry about and she'll find a job and then it won't be an issue, I can totally understand you not wanting to jeopardize your friendship, especially if she doesn't have savings to cover rent if she doesn't find a job right away. I think it might be the most [i]prudent[/i] thing to wait and see if she can get a job first. And then as soon as she does move ASAP. I've never lived with a friend before but I think it's probably a good idea to err on the side of caution in terms of putting unnecessary stress on the relationship. As for living in the city, I totally understand! I lived all my life [i]at least[/i] 20 minutes from anywhere at all, and usually down back country roads and things where it was pretty much super safe. But I also worked in DC, haha, in a bad part of town, so I'm used to keeping things locked and being aware of my surroundings and all sorts of fun general safety awareness. But unless you move to a bad part of town, I really wouldn't worry too much. A city's a lot different than a small town but as long as you keep things locked and don't go looking for trouble, you should be fine!

[b]RainOnYourParade wrote:[/b] [quote] I've always preferred small towns, too. Which kind of stinks because Nathan refuses to live in a small town, and he thinks the town I'm moving to is too small, even though it's the third-largest city in Minnesota. I think he's crazy. [/quote] Pffft, what a loser :P Small towns are awesome. Cities are noisy and you can't see the stars :(

....my university has about the same population than that college town. And I grew up in a town with a population of 32,000 and thought that was pathetic and tiny. Now I live in Christchurch, which is the oldest official city (by Royal Charter) in New Zealand, and the second largest urban area in the country. In June 2010 the population was 376,700, buuuuut... a LOT of people have moved out since then. No one really knows how many. There was supposed to be a census this year in February/March, but of course, giant earthquake, so the census got cancelled. So yeah. I live in (by New Zealand standards) a big city.

[b]Owlright wrote:[/b] [quote]I just moved out myself. It seems super scary, especially since I was moving several states and my family moved across the country from me. It was also kind of stressful because I don't have a permanent place yet, just a sublease that's up at the end of the month. But it's not that bad. Particularly I guess because for a long time I was the woman of my household after my mom died, the responsibilities related to living on your own aren't that daunting to me, like cooking and cleaning and just making sure things happen on time and having intiative. The worst thing about moving out for me is not having a dog anymore and not being anywhere near my family, but you'd still be so close to yours so that's really cool! :) Personally, I moved before I had a job in the place I was moving to, but I also had/have a lot of savings in the bank from my previous job in order to cover the jobless months where I was/am searching. So while I want to say don't worry about and she'll find a job and then it won't be an issue, I can totally understand you not wanting to jeopardize your friendship, especially if she doesn't have savings to cover rent if she doesn't find a job right away. I think it might be the most [i]prudent[/i] thing to wait and see if she can get a job first. And then as soon as she does move ASAP. I've never lived with a friend before but I think it's probably a good idea to err on the side of caution in terms of putting unnecessary stress on the relationship. As for living in the city, I totally understand! I lived all my life [i]at least[/i] 20 minutes from anywhere at all, and usually down back country roads and things where it was pretty much super safe. But I also worked in DC, haha, in a bad part of town, so I'm used to keeping things locked and being aware of my surroundings and all sorts of fun general safety awareness. But unless you move to a bad part of town, I really wouldn't worry too much. A city's a lot different than a small town but as long as you keep things locked and don't go looking for trouble, you should be fine![/quote] I should really ask her if she has any money saved up. I know she just graduated and got a ton of money from that, so maybe she's waiting to use it on an apartment. I never even thought of that. :/ Lol. Yeah, I'm used to locking my car when I'm at work, or when I'm anywhere in the city, but I feel like I'm going to be really scared to go outside after dark on my own, even if it's just to my car. Heck, I'm paranoid about that in the town I live in now and there's never been any serious crime. Also, I have no clue what I should be looking for in an apartment, or what a good price range is.

[b]larry229 wrote:[/b] [quote]And I grew up in a town with a population of 32,000 [/quote] Do I need to remind you about the size of Reporoa? ;)

No, but you're also like only twenty minutes from both Taupo and Rotorua.