Great Day

Today was a great day even though I was exhausted. I didn't get much sleep last night as my husband was up sick. When someone gets sick around me I can't handle it. It makes my stomach turn and I start feeling sick myself. I had the hardest time falling asleep and I think I finally did by 4:30. I got up at about 10:45 and got ready. Then I went to meet some of my best friends for lunch. It was really great to see them. I love when I can get together with my friends and even though I haven't seen them in forever when we get together it feels like we never were apart. Those are the best friendships ever! After eating way too much I went to my parents' house and hung out with my dad. We watched tv and I searched online for new apartments. My husband and I started talking about maybe moving out of our apartment. We first tried to buy a house a while back, but things fell through. In the end, that probably worked out better for us, especially since the first house appraised for $390,000 and then took a nose dive the next month to $320,000. (I find it hilarious that the seller that didn't show up to closing because they had to come up with $6,000 is still trying to sell their house now for $325,000 short sale, when we were willing to pay $50,000 more than that in March. They DESERVE it!!!!) Anyway, our apartment complex was bought out by a monopolizing company. Then we got a new management company. When we started renting here about 3 years ago we payed nothing for parking, no utilities, and no monthly pet fees. NOW, we pay $25 a month for each car, we have heard others are paying utilities although we aren't sure why we haven't been given a utilities bill, and there is now a $50 a month per pet fee. As of right now we have not gotten a utilities bill or charged for our pets, but our lease is up in August. The other thing that has been nice about our apartment complex is that after the first year of living here we became month by month renters which allows us to get out of our lease in 30 days without paying any fines. From what I understand we are now going to be required to sign a one year lease. Every year our rent has gone up, which is understandable, but it is apparently going up much higher than it always has. This means that by August we could be potentially paying $300-$400 more a month. That is outrageous! Since we realized this could be a reality and I'm not working full time next year, we are thinking of looking for a new place. We could buy, but I really don't think we are ready to do that especially after what we went through earlier this year. The good thing is that a lot of apartment complexes are trying to get people to move in so they are offering 1 to 2 months of free rent. We found one place that has a bigger apartment, with a washer/dryer for a lot less than what we are paying for our apartment now. I'm sure we'll have to pay a pet fee, utilities, and parking fees, but hey if it starts out $250 less than what we are paying now, it can't be much more than now and I'm sure it's not more than what we would be paying here in August. I was reading reviews for the other place and many people were complaining about the management company, but a lot of things that the people were upset about were things that would not bother Rod and I. The only thing that they did complain about that would bug me is the elevators being out for several months. It wouldn't bother me where we live now because we live on the 1st floor, but this other place doesn't seem to have a 1 bedroom apartment available. I love living on the first floor, but if we could save money next year then I would be ok moving. We'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks. We are going to have to make our minds up pretty quickly. I'll keep everyone updated on our decision process.