How I Save Money While Single Without Getting A Roommate
We can do this.
Welcome to Cheaper Than Therapy, a newsletter by Shani Silver.
When times get hard, and resources become strained, those who live alone aren’t immune from financial difficulty. Sometimes however, it can feel like we’re forgotten. You can clearly see why, and it’s never a contest to see who’s struggling more, but living alone is simply easier to manage than also living with a family or dependents that you’re responsible for housing and feeding. That’s just reality. At the same time, we exist, and we deserve to be seen and understood. We can acknowledge how we’re lucky, and how we’re strained. We don’t share a bed or bills with a partner, and when we’re scared, we’re scared alone. I want to help us feel less scared, more in community, and more resourced.
I want to be clear when I talk about saving money, I’m talking about practical things I do in my own daily life to reduce my spending, I am not an authority on social or government financial resources in any way. I’m a person who is finding that the same money I’ve been earning isn’t going as far as it used to. When that happens, I adjust, and it’s important to me that single people know that we have options other than “Just get a roommate!” which is fucking infuriating to hear. When you’re struggling, you don’t want everyone’s go-to suggestion to center something that for many of us decreases our dignity and even potentially our mental health. If you wouldn’t tell married people to get a roommate, don’t tell single people to do it, either. If you love living with roommates, wonderful! I think we’re going to start seeing a lot more friends come together in living spaces. That is beautiful, but in this moment it’s not for me, and if it’s not for you, I get it.