Parton Andie - Leaving home: survival of the hippest

Other Books by Lynn Johnston

With This Ring

Family Business

Graduation: A Time for Change

The Big 5-0

Sunshine and Shadow

Middle Age Spread

Growing Like a Weed

Love Just Screws Everything Up

Starting from Scratch

There Goes My Baby!

Things Are Looking Up...

What, Me Pregnant?

If This Is a Lecture, How Long Will It Be?

Pushing 40

Its All Downhill from Here

Keep the Home Fries Burning

The Last Straw

Just One More Hug

It Must Be Nice to Be Little

Is This One of Those Days, Daddy?

Ive Got the One-More-Washload Blues...

Retrospectives

All About April

The Lives Behind the Lines: 20 Years of For Better or For Worse

Remembering Farley: A Tribute to the Life of Our Favorite Cartoon Dog

Its the Thought that Counts... Fifteenth Anniversary Collection

A Look Inside... For Better or For Worse: The 10th Anniversary Collection

Little Books

Isnt He Beautiful?

Isnt She Beautiful?

Wags and Kisses

A Perfect Christmas

Graduation: Just the Beginning!

For Better or For Worse is distributed by United Feature Syndicate.

Leaving Home copyright 2003 by Lynn Johnston Productions, Inc., and Andie Parton. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Johnston, Lynn, 1947

Leaving home : survival of the hippest / by Lynn Johnston and Andie Parton.

p. cm.

ISBN: 0-7407-3303-6

1. Young adultsUnited StatesLife skills guides. I. Parton, Andie. II. Title.

HQ799.7.J64 2003

646.7'00842dc21

2002045159

Attention: Schools and Businesses

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Preface

Adrienne (Andie) Parton and I have been friends for thirty years. When we met, we were both single moms, surviving thanks to our children, our sense of humor, and welfare.

We have shared, leaned on, and learned from each other. Her family (Stephen, thirty-one, Christopher, twenty-nine, and Jennifer, twenty-three) grew up with music, laughter, and the ability to tell it like it is.

I thought her advice to our children as they left home, went to school, found work (and went to school again) was worth sharing. I asked if she would write a bookand typical of Andieshe came through.

Lynn Johnston

Introduction

S o youre heading out.

Youve long dreamed of the day youd leave home to start a new job or go to college, and this is it. Your future beckons and youre outta here.

This little guidebook will alert you to the potholes of life and will haul you out when youve seen the warning signs and fallen in anyway. After youve heard the folks advice and ignored it, after youve built up your savings and blown it, after you left home but got lonesome the next day, then check out this last frontier of assistance, this Manual of Mayday, this Book of Help.

Herein lie the answers to the Now What? questions of life on your own: Ive blown the budget, now what? Ive picked the roommate from hell, now what? Exams are over, we partied, Ive been evicted, now what?

Check this out; it could be the most valuable thing youre packing!

Part 1

Shelter: Be It Ever So Humble... Theres No Place Like Home

Chapter 1

Finding It: Getting in on the Ground Floor of Apartment Hunting

A h, my own place! How many times have you tried those words on inside your head? Well, this time its for real. Time to vacate the parental nest and find a place with your name on the door. Your new abode could be one of many possibilities: a room in someones attic, a college campus residence, a house full of roommates, or an apartment on your own. Whether your finances are pointing you to a rooming house or a penthouse, youll need to visit your future city well in advance to secure your new digs. Take a friend or a parent with you to lend their perspective. Their two cents worth can prove invaluable (especially if it goes toward gas).

Before you take off, use the library or the Internet to check out the For Rent ads in the classified section of your new citys papers. Also, youll find that many savvy educational institutions have made their housing info available on-line. In many cities, the housing notice board on the college/university campus is the prime advertising spot for area landlords. So whether youre a student or not, this could be the place to start the search. Youll get an overview of availability, price, and the location of everything from single rooms to monster student houses.

If theres a glut of listings, advantage goes to the renter. This could mean lower rent or one month free. Note that one month free often means Thirteenth month free. Try not to be loaded down with a twelve-month lease if you plan to dump your apartment before the summer months. Subletting can cause you grief if some yahoo takes over your place (since you are still responsible for it).

However, renting a sublet could be just the ticket for you. If you take over someone elses place at the end of a school year, youll have a few months of cheaper rent with time to scope out the terrain.

The Roommate Wanted ads are another area to explore. Notice boards in every college and university are loaded with these, and you dont have to be a student to peruse them!

Its important to check out several places. (That means more than two!) You need to get a feel for what your housing allowance will score you. Check a potential place after dark: Who knows what comes out when the sun goes down? You need to be safe. If low rent buys you cockroaches and a back-alley entrance, youre going to need more cash. If rooms rent by the hour, pass.