Part-Time Side Hustle Ideas to Stretch Your Cash

January 30, 2017 | By Sarah AuthorMy First Apartment

After moving in to your first apartment, it’s no secret that the bills can start to come faster than expected. More than anything, it’s important to select your apartment that is safely within your budget. Use these tips to calculate what you can afford. However, if you need some extra cash for your savings account,…

10 Costs First Time Renters Don’t Think About

December 4, 2016 | By Contributors AuthorMy First Apartment

By Stephanie Lynch If you recently found the perfect apartment — congratulations! It can be pretty time consuming to find the right area, amenities, landlord and price. There’s nothing better than walking into an apartment and instantly clicking with it. While signing the lease to your new apartment may be exciting, most apartment tenants, especially…

How Much Rent Can I Afford on My Hourly Pay?

July 26, 2016 | By MFA Editors AuthorMy First Apartment

2017 Update: You can download our new Printable Apartment Budgeting Worksheet and use it to estimate your rent and budget for all your expenses. The basic target rent formula that landlord’s use is annual before-tax income divided by 40. When you are on a straight salary estimating the number is easy. However, if your are…

Ask Yourself These 6 Questions When You Are Budgeting for First Apartment Expenses

July 14, 2016 | By Kalee AuthorMy First Apartment

The amount of rent is obviously the most important consideration in your first apartment search, but there are several other factors that can make or break your first apartment budget. Before you fall in love with an apartment, ask yourself these six questions and factor your answers in when you are budgeting for apartment expenses.…

How to Save Money on Food

July 11, 2016 | By Kalee AuthorMy First Apartment

Food can get expensive, especially if you add eating out at restaurants to your cost. Redesigning how you buy and cook can save you a lot of money on food. Whether your budget needs organization, you need to clip coupons, or you need to learn better meal prep, saving money on food is definitely doable.…

9 Easy Ways to Make Extra Cash

January 2, 2016 | By Sarah AuthorMy First Apartment

As you move into your first apartment, hopefully you have taken some time to budget your expenses, plan for each month, and add some savings to your account. If not, now is the perfect time to start (for tips, click here). If you’ve found yourself slacking to add money to savings, or just want a…

Holiday Budgeting Tips

November 22, 2015 | By Sarah AuthorMy First Apartment

It’s almost the end of the year…can you believe it? This year seems to have flown past. While I love this season and the fun and family time it brings, I’m going to give it to you straight. It’s EXPENSIVE. Moving out is often a big rite of passage, which means your parents and family…

The 3 Secrets to Creating (and Sticking to) a New Apartment Budget

October 19, 2015 | By Jackie AuthorMy First Apartment

Unlike riding a bicycle, going to the mall alone, or receiving your first college acceptance, no one informs you when you’re ready to move out. Wouldn’t that be so much easier though? A major decider (besides your parent’s not so subtle hints) is when you’re are able to afford paying your own rent, utilities, groceries…

How Much Rent Can I Afford on My Income? – Two Simple Ways to Estimate

June 4, 2015 | By MFA Editors AuthorMy First Apartment

Update: You can download our new Printable Apartment Budgeting Worksheet and use it to estimate your rent and budget for all your expenses. We get questions all the time about how much rent should you pay based on your income. For example, here is a recent comment from Alen: “I have found a apartment for…

How to Keep Track of Your Monthly Expenses

March 10, 2014 | By Christa AuthorMy First Apartment

Our fellow blogger Alex just wrote a post about all the expenses us as apartment renters should be aware of. Every expense he listed rings true, no matter what your situation is. So the question now is, how do you keep track of them all? How can you continue to pay your bills and fund your…