On January 2, at 7:10 a.m., a new savings account showed up in my banking app with a balance of $0.00 and a name I typed in with cold fingers in the driveway while the car warmed up: "MOVE FUND, JUNE."
That's the plan for 2026. I want my own place by summer. Specifically, a lease starting June 1, ideally a studio in south Evanston near the Purple Line. I've been living in my old room at my parents' house in Wilmette since July 2024, and it's been the right call. But I'll turn 27 in November, my emergency fund is done, and the card is long gone. It's time.
Why $4,500 by the end of May
Last August I priced apartments in Evanston and Skokie, and my target landed around $1,300 a month for a studio with heat included. Here's what I expect moving out to cost, up front:
- First month's rent: about $1,300
- Security deposit, one month: about $1,300
- Application fee: about $50
- Movers for a few hours: $400 to $500
- Furniture, mostly secondhand: $600 to $700
- Basics like bedding, a shower curtain, cleaning supplies and tools: $400 or so
That adds up to about $4,100 to $4,300 if I'm careful. I rounded up to $4,500 because every estimate I've ever made for anything with a moving truck in it has come in low. Five months from January through May, $900 a month. That's the whole math: $900 × 5 = $4,500.
The kitchen is mostly taken care of, by the way. The thrift bin in my parents' basement now has plates, bowls, mugs, a saucepan and my beloved $6 cast iron skillet, all for about $90 total since October.
Where $900 a month comes from
This is the part I had to sit with for a while, because $900 is not loose change on my paycheck. My take-home is $1,240 every two weeks right now, since my own health plan premium and HSA contributions started in December. Here's where the money is coming from:
First, the emergency fund is finished. It hit $6,000 in December, and the money that had been filling it, roughly $500 a month for the second half of 2025, is now free. Second, I'm cutting my student loan payment from $1,100 a month to $800. That's another $300. Third, I'm trimming $100 off my fun and eating out line. Put together, $500 + $300 + $100 = $900.
The emergency fund stays at $6,000 and doesn't get touched for the move. That's a hard rule. If the move costs more than the move fund, the move waits.
What I'm giving up for it
The honest answer is speed on the loans. I knocked $9,980 off them in 2025, and the balance was $14,620 at the end of the year. At $1,100 a month I'd be done much sooner. At $800 a month for five months, I'm paying about $1,500 less toward them by June than I would have. With most of my remaining loans in the 2.75% to 4.53% range now that the 5.05% one is gone, the extra interest from slowing down for five months is small, around $25 by my rough math. I decided that's an acceptable price for my own front door.
The other thing I'm giving up is some comfort. Living at home costs me $300 a month for my share of groceries and utilities. An apartment will cost four or five times that. My savings rate will drop a lot after June, and I'm going to have to get used to it.
And a few smaller things: fewer dinners out with Priya, buying my lunch less, skipping a concert or two this spring. Dan has already volunteered to cook more on weekends, which I'm choosing to see as support and not as him wanting to cook anyway.
The transfers are automatic, $450 out of each paycheck the morning it lands, before I see it. I check the balance on the first of every month and write it in the club sheet next to the loan balance. If I get a tax refund, it's going to the loans, not the move. Pet-sitting money stays in its own line, with 25% held back for taxes as usual.
My dad's only comment, when I told him at the kitchen table, was, "Does the new place have a dishwasher?" I said I didn't know yet. He nodded like that was the most important part. It might be.
