New Beginnings!

It feels great to be starting this blog with this post!

It’s official, credit approved, hold deposit paid, I am about to be the primary lease holder on an apartment for the very first time! I’m 27, I’ve lived in a few apartments, but they’ve always been arranged through school or as a roommate on a sublease to the primary lease holder. Apartment hunting is stressful, always is, but at least this time I wasn’t doing it on my own. Something about the Los Angeles rental market makes it way worse I think than most other places (other than maybe NYC, but I wouldn’t know). I plan on making a post about this in the near future, as I just went through it, for reference to myself for future moves and anyone else going through a city apartment hunt. It felt so good yesterday to confirm an apartment! A well maintained, amenities having, spacious apartment no less!

NO SPEND JANUARY:

I had declared this month "NO SPEND JANUARY" before I left for my New Year's trip back to Chicago and Holly (who is moving into the new place with me) embraced it as well. So far we’ve been successful (the Disney store is DANGEROUS for both of us, but that was gift cards and holiday money). Other than that I haven’t spent money on anything other than food in anticipation of the move.

This sounds like WOW, I must have so much money for the apartment now?! But sadly, no, as the reason I did no spend January was that in addition to needing money for the apartment,  I had to pay off all of the bills that added up at the end of 2012, including $1100 in car repairs, my $750ish remaining of my insurance deductible last year for my ER visit, the new lenses for my prescription sunglasses (I live in LA, so this is a necessary expense), everyone’s holiday gifts, and the new clothes that I actually NEEDED (I had like 1 pair of bottoms that fit). So that burned up through what would’ve been my budget for everything I am not spending money on this month as well as my 2012 emergency fund. Luckily, I have been saving for this apartment for over a year now, little bits every month, and I got a wonderful deal on the deposit for the place (yay New Year’s promotions! ), so there’s no actual stress financially regarding the move (other than furniture, but I’ve got go many plans and pinned furniture redos and refurb ideas).

CLEAN SLATE:

February is really the start of the New Year for me it feels like. I will have paid off all outstanding bills that I had incurred the last couple of months of 2012 (I pay off my credit cards monthly, including in this instance, so I never have any carry over credit card debt – and months like November and December of 2012 are the reasons emergency funds exist!). I will be moving into a new apartment, starting fresh in that regard! Clean slate, which is always a wonderful feeling!

A VITAL DREAM:

This blog is a fresh start too! Welcome! Maybe I should've started with that, but well, the excitement over the apartment is dominating my mood right now. This blog has been in the making for what seems like an age. I'm not new to blogging at all, but I'm new to this kind of blogging, even if I lurk at a few other blogs. I've only blogged on platforms that were either more like personal journals with commentary (LiveJournal, which I joined when you still needed an invite. I ended up getting that invite on the other side of the planet!) or fast paced visual based blogging (tumblr). These days, it's all about branding yourself, and I've wanted to create  "A Vital Dream" for a long time now (love the play on my full name). So, with my fresh start, I decided to finally push myself into making this blog. 

Coming Up:

*Pre-move in photos of the apartment! As a “before” for all the many “after” pics I plan on taking!

*LA/City apartment hunting guide - tips, tricks, and don’t forget to breathe!

*Apartment Plans and Ideas

*DO MORE THINGS – my New Year’s resolution