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Moving to a new country may be challenging, even tougher if you’re not used to living on your own! Here are some important tips to follow for the best experience.
You’ve lived for so long with your essentials that it’s easy to take them for granted. Some hard-to-see items don’t feel necessary until suddenly, they are. Of course, you know some things like towels, kitchen supplies and toilet paper but there are a lot of items you don’t think about. Here’s an essential list to get you started:
With such a fantastic food scene, it’s easy just to order delivery all the time. Those costs add up quickly, and cooking for yourself will help out your budget immensely. Just search for easy meal ideas for inspiration, or if you’re really stuck, you can try meal prep services! Services such as HelloFresh and Fresh Prep give you ingredients and recipes so you can make your meals without having to think about it!
When you live alone, it’s so easy to make a mess. No one’s there to nag you to put your dishes away or anything! However, that mess may get too big real quick. Try establishing small, easy cleaning habits right away, so you’re used to having a nice clean space. Make sure you do your dishes right away and set up a schedule for cleaning your bathroom, doing your laundry, changing your sheets and so on. Keeping your space neat lets, you focus on enjoying living alone!
Vancouver is not the most social city. People sometimes prefer to keep to themselves, making it intimidating to talk to neighbours. If you’re living alone, though, your neighbours may be the only ones who can help! Swap numbers for safety, and if there’s ever too much noise, tell them to send you a text. If you’re in an apartment, making sure you have someone to buzz you in if you ever forget your keys can be a lifesaver! And who knows, maybe you’ll make some new friends.
Make sure all your income isn’t just going towards whatever is so important. Let’s go over the basics. Calculate your income. Make a list of the expenses you have every month – rent, groceries, phone bills, internet bills, insurance, groceries, entertainment, transportation – everything. You can use your past credit card statements or bank information to help you figure all this out. Determine which are stable, mandatory expenses, and which ones are things that change every month. Subtract your expenses from your income. If you’re still positive – that’s great! Put that extra money in your savings. If it’s negative, identify which areas can change.
After that, using an app is super helpful to track your expenses from month to month, but of course, you can do it by hand. Then you can start to see patterns in what you buy, and you can make limits.
Living alone for the first time is a massive change in responsibility. Make sure you’re staying on top of everything, but don’t forget to have fun. You get to be free and live how you want to live. Enjoy your independence!
