Before I went on vacation, I received a letter from my apartment office informing me of how much my rent would be raised when I renewed my lease. The damage? $72. Of course, my rent hasn't been raised in two years, which was nice. At the same time, the increase was something of a sticker shock.
My first reaction was to jump onto Craigslist and find new digs. I was brought back down to earth when I discovered my rent raise was actually reasonable.
Well, if I'm going to be paying more, why not go for broke? And that's exactly what I'm going to be for the next 12 months.
I went to the leasing office today to see how much it would cost to move into a larger one-bedroom apartment. The two which would be available when my lease expires easily broke the $700 threshold. Then the leasing manager looked up two-bedroom apartments. She found one going for less than $700. In essence, my rent raise would be $93. But I would increase my square footage by 273 feet.
So yes, I'm going to be broke, but now I'm going to have an entire room dedicated to my studio. For the next 12 months, I won't have to play spatial relations games just to squeeze one more piece of furniture (or equipment) into my 10×10 bedroom.
Of course, that means I have to pack. The weather is now getting hotter, and I am moving. Somethings are timed quite nicely. Other things are not.