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Living on Your Own
JEN: And I was like, well you have a birthday party every single year! Of course my hypothetical housewarming party would take priority.
LUCY: Yeah… sure.
JEN: Hold up. What is this?
LUCY: Oh I've seen this before! Actually Jen, since you're thinking of getting your own place, you should probably play it.
JEN: What do you do?
LUCY: Well, common apartment expenses pop up here and you pay them by whacking them with this mallet.
JEN: That sounds awesome. I'm so ready.
LUCY: We'll see. It starts off pretty easy with rent.
JEN: Piece of cake.
LUCY: You have to keep track of utilities and things like cable and internet, too.
JEN: I get it. Regular budget stuff. This is so easy.
LUCY: Good, because this is still the practice mode. The actual moving into an apartment mode starts now.
JEN: Aah! What is all this stuff?
LUCY: There's your security deposit and first and last month's rent, since some landlords ask for that. Sometimes a credit or background check is required and you need to pay for those, too. There's a pet deposit and you can't forget that parking stalls sometimes have an extra fee. Then there's association fees for certain apartment buildings. Oh and renter's insurance and that's not counting moving expenses!
JEN: Uhh oh.
LUCY: Moving companies, or truck rental, or a pizza budget for friends helping out.
Packing materials like boxes and tape and the bare necessities of apartment setup, like toilet paper, lightbulbs, cleaning supplies, utensils, a first aid kit, a tool kit and we haven't even gotten to furniture yet!
JEN: Futon! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! How did I do?
LUCY: Well. You missed your pet deposit and your electricity bill, so you'd be living in the dark and you wouldn't have your cat. And judging by your score, it looks like you need to have a lot more than just a couple months' rent saved up before you make the move.
JEN: Why is it doing that?
LUCY: It's a new month, so some of the expenses from the last round are gonna pop up again.
JEN: So when does this game actually end?
LUCY: Oh, Jen. It never ends.
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