How not to be homeless (kinda)

I knew it was coming. For the last 3 weeks or so I have stopped on the 4th to last step and peeked just over the landing to see if there was a slip of paper on my door. Every time there is nothing there I am relieved and make my way up the rest of the steps and home. But Tuesday, it was there. My renewal notice. The sheet of paper from the office that says, "hey so your lease is up like soon and we need to know if you are moving out or staying, and if you want to stay it will cost you X more money that it did last year. K Thanks."

I thought I had more time. I knew my lease was up the end of August, but I thought I had at least one more week to figure it out. They thoughtfully gave me 24 hours until the sixty day move out notification was due to give me this information. So kind. My rent went up only 5% (awesome, cuz I can TOTALLY afford that, not) IF I signed a 12 - 14 month lease. If I wanted to go month to month it would cost 150 more, PLUS an extra 100 dollar month to month fee, making it totally not an option at all. So my final option would be move out, and live at my parent's house. Which is sooo not happening.

List of things I would rather do than live at my parent's, where my dad will treat me like I am 12 and no one else is home to focus on.
-eat glass
-live in a van, down by the river
-have several root canals with no pain medication
-wear a sign that says "I am a failure"
-pretty much anything painful...


I, being a smart girl, came up with a compromise. I refuse to live at my parent's (see above). I cannot lock myself into a 12-14 month lease, as I have NO idea where I will end up once I finally do get a job. I figure it would almost cost more to move out than stay put, also I *HATE* moving. So really I just wanted to give myself some wiggle room to stay put and figure everything out. So I very sweetly convinced the office (Manager has lots of teacher friends and understands my situation) to allow me to sign a 6 month lease at the 5% increase (tried, nothing could be done about that) which gives me till January/February to figure something out.

It is going to be tight. Some things are going to have to go -(bye netflix... and other non necessary expenses). But I am almost positive that I can make 6 months work between my part time job, unemployment, and the rest of my paychecks. It's gonna get a bit dicey when I add in my car payment, but I'll save that dilemma for another day. For now, I should not be homeless until 2012. Which gives me some time to figure everything out. I hope.

So with that battle done, I am giving myself a much needed break and getting out of town for the weekend.

:)