Moving out of home, or wider “adulting,” as some might call it, is about the most exciting life step that you can take. Forget getting the mail and having to buy your own toothpaste, and it’s about as glamorous as it sounds. That is of course if you can cook, clean and stay out of debt. To keep you on your feet, we’ve sorted some tips for you, so find your motivation and head straight to Domain.com. There’s no time like the present.
Learn Basic Kitchen Skills
The first step to becoming a responsible adult, is being able to cook nutritious, basic food. You don’t need to be a masterchef but if you lack the basics, you’re going to end up spending a lot of money on take-out and may even give yourself food poisoning. Learn to cook a few key meals, including a simple process for preparing lean meat, vegetables and good carbs for week night dinners. A signature pasta dish is also a great one to learn. Then, buy allllllllll the Tupperware containers. You can never have enough Tupperware containers. Also, certain twenty-five* years old may have only found this out recently, but never cut raw meat on a wooden chopping board as this can cause cross contamination – which is NOT good.
*It’s me, I’m lucky to be alive.
Go Shopping Every Week
Now that you know your cooking basics, you can make sure you have everything you need from week to week to keep your cravings for Uber eats at bay. Obvious items for the list include bread, eggs, four bottles of chardonnay etc. Also on the topic of shopping, if you haven’t discovered Aldi yet your inner penny-pincher hasn’t lived. You can save around 40% of your bill if you shop here and take advantage of the sale items. If you really can’t bear to part with your big name supermarket, go shopping as close to closing time as possible. This is when the discounts get real.
Pay Your Bills On Time
If you think you spend too greater a percentage of your time on life admin right now, wait until the big, bad world hits you with a lifetime of scanning, form-filling and bill paying. But, you must do it. Getting behind on your bills is a sure fire way to lose control of your finances, because one day, your phone service and your electricity might be due to be cut off at once. Then you will be in a dark wasteland, void of Netflix of any kind. Take notice of every bill date, so that you avoid debt, paying interest and getting a bad credit rating.
Clean Continuously
Cleaning is just one of those things that slips away from everyone, because every person on this planet seems shocked that it is something you have to do constantly. Having “cleaning days” may be more suitable to some people’s schedules, but it makes it really hard to keep up. Plus, what if there’s something way more fun that pops up on your designated cleaning day? To avoid choosing a gig over doing the dishes, and coming back to a family of cockroaches, designate little tasks that you do every day. For example, dishes go straight in the dishwasher or cleaned straight away, and do one step of your washing process once a day.
Regularly Host People
Having people over is your bank account’s savour. Whether it’s cooking or eating in rather than going out to dinner, or just having pre-drinks on the balcony before a big night out, you’ll save oodles of money by learning how to play host to your squad. All you need is a banging cheese board, some bottles of wine from Aldi (seriously guys) and a deck of cards against humanity.
Keeping all these tips in mind should keep you out of your mother’s ear for the most part. However, don’t be afraid to seek help when you need to. There’s some things parents know that even almighty Google can’t help you with, and she would probably love to hear from you anyway.