New Apartment, New Bills: How To Stay On Top Of Payments

By Allie Mitchell on September 27, 2016

You have your new apartment, along with a new feeling of freedom. You are now an adult in your own right with a place to call your own. You start to think about how you want to decorate your place and you can’t wait to invite all your friends over to have small gatherings, but also large parties.

You start to settle into your new home and you can’t wait to really get your new life started. One day you go to check the mail, all excited that you have your own mailbox and all the mail inside is addressed to you and solely you. Then your face starts to fall when you see that the mail isn’t just magazines and junk or anything else you assumed that you would find. It is something much worse.

You read mailing addresses from the gas company, you see your electric bill and of course your cell phone bill is piled up there. Your heart starts to beat faster and somewhere in the pile is the bill for that time a couple of weeks ago that you went to the doctor. You are so overwhelmed and unprepared that you have no idea how to go about any of this.

You may have assumed bills come one at a time or maybe somewhere in your mind you hoped that bills were a thing that your parents made up to scare you, but unfortunately bills are a real thing and you as an adult have to deal with them. Dealing with things like bills is always something to be prepared for before they start to pour in.

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Figuring out the types of bills you will receive is always a good place to start and making sure to budget yourself along the way can make things much easier. Payment plans are usually always available for certain bills and sometimes depending on your situation you can change the plan you have or something of that sort.

This article is here to help you figure out the new bills you will have and how to keep track of them and how to pay them on time. Side note: paying on time is important; those people do not mess around with late fees. They are a thing and they will come back to haunt you every single time.

1. Heat/Gas: If the place you are residing in has this little thing called a thermostat you will very likely be paying a heat bill and if you have a gas range (for cooking) then you will be paying a gas bill as well. Depending on the time of the year, you will be paying a higher amount than at certain times of the year.

Keeping your thermostat at a pretty neutral range will help slightly with keeping your bill pretty standard every month. Make sure to keep on how much you are using when it comes to heat and gas so that you are not as surprised when your bill comes.

2. Electricity: Electricity is one of the things when living on your own you will be guaranteed to pay for. Keeping the TV on all night or leaving lamps on all the time can increase your bill of course, so just make sure you remember to turn off all your lights when you go to sleep or leave the house. Those can rack up more money than you can comprehend.

Be on the lookout for the electricity bill and make sure that when you know who your electricity provider is that you call and put the bill in your name so that you aren’t involved in any unpaid bills and such.

3. Cable/Internet: Internet nowadays will always be a necessity. If you don’t have internet you can’t pay bills, check emails or do anything else that the wonderful internet provides for you. Note that you do need internet for Netflix, so if you can live without paying for cable and just want to pay for internet with Netflix then by all means do it. You save money in the long run. Netflix and Hulu are top choices among students.

4. Renters Insurance: This is like the hidden gem that no one else knows is coming until it’s there. Renters insurance is very useful since it is there in case of damage from theft, fire or god forbid, a flood. While those things may never cross your mind, they can happen to the most likely and unlikely of people. Taking out a policy when living on your own is rather inexpensive if you look at it next to all the other bills you will have.

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Are these all the bills you will have? No. But are these the few rather important ones? Yes. You will have other bills like air conditioning and I mean, of course you will have rent. And then you will have to worry about things like groceries and making your money work for you. Don’t forget to plan for your future; you will be able to breathe better in the future if you do.

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