{"id":2356,"date":"2016-09-22T11:45:30","date_gmt":"2016-09-22T15:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/?p=2356"},"modified":"2016-09-21T13:08:52","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T17:08:52","slug":"alex-the-5-lessons-ive-learned-so-far-from-moving-off-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/2016\/09\/22\/alex-the-5-lessons-ive-learned-so-far-from-moving-off-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex: The 5 Lessons I’ve Learned (So Far) From Moving Off-Campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0It has only been \u00a0three weeks since I\u2019ve moved into my off-campus apartment in Allston, but I feel that I\u2019ve learned enough in this short time to have lived there for months! Don\u2019t get me wrong, though, I\u2019m so glad I made the choice to move off-campus! It\u2019s been so awesome having my own kitchen, my own room (with enough space for a bed bigger than a twin XL!!!), and a clear separation between school and home. But there are definitely some differences with living off-campus that can require more effort.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m sure I have plenty more lessons to learn on the way, but for now, here are the five things I\u2019ve realized from ~~Allston livin\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Be friendly with your neighbors!<\/span><\/p>\n

You definitely don\u2019t have to be BFFs, but it\u2019s good to at least have a friendly relationship with your neighbors so that you can trust them, help each other out with favors, or just rant about your landlord together. There\u2019s no RAs when you\u2019re off-campus so if you get locked out of your apartment, it\u2019s nice to be friendly enough with your neighbors that you can ask to wait at their apartment until your roommates get home.<\/span><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Semester T-Pass is a need, not a want.<\/span><\/p>\n

Okay, so I\u2019m probably exaggerating that it\u2019s a need <\/i>but the Semester T-Pass been my absolute saving grace in the short time I\u2019ve been off campus. If I\u2019m running a little bit late to class or if I\u2019ve just had a long day and not feeling the 30-minute walk home, I can usually count on the T or the 57 bus to be there in five minutes or so. I also love using this pass on the way home from Trader Joe\u2019s runs so that way I don\u2019t have to feel guilty about being too lazy to lug my groceries home.<\/span><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Set aside an hour each week (at least) for groceries <\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in a rush to buy your groceries, you\u2019re more likely to spend unnecessary amounts and not really pay attention to what you\u2019re buying. I\u2019m a huge fan of Trader Joe\u2019s because their food is so inexpensive but still good quality, but it can be a bit of a trek for some people. Take the time instead to look through the coupons for Star Market so that you can shop close by and still save a good amount of money!<\/span><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Make sure you have your own checkbook.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had my own for years but only written three checks at most so I\u2019m excited to finally make a dent in my checkbook. Rent might get a little bit more difficult to pay when you don\u2019t have checks to write out to your landlord (and by difficult, I mean not possible). You can also print out online checks too if you\u2019re able to pay your rent that way! <\/span><\/p>\n

When your roommates tell you not to name the mouse living in your kitchen, listen to them. You will get attached.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking from personal experience. RIP Tiger the Mouse <333<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0It has only been \u00a0three weeks since I\u2019ve moved into my off-campus apartment in Allston, but I feel that I\u2019ve learned enough in this short time to have lived there for months! Don\u2019t get me wrong, though, I\u2019m so glad I made the choice to move off-campus! It\u2019s been so awesome having my own kitchen, … Continue reading Alex: The 5 Lessons I’ve Learned (So Far) From Moving Off-Campus<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2018,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[44423],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2356"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2357,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2356\/revisions\/2357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}