Think Before You Live Off Campus

Living off campus can give us more freedom and is much cheaper than living on campus. I have been living off campus for more than seven months and it can help me save money, but there still are many serious problems for me, such as the utility bills which are very high in the winter. My roommates always forget to clean the house, and the distance between my house and college is too long. Even if living off campus has many benefits like more freedom and less money, the problems of high utility bills, lazy roommates, and long distance trouble me many times.

In the winter, we need to turn on our heater, which causes our energy bills to be much higher than in the summer. When we first moved into our house, the utility bills were about eighty dollars per month on average, and each person just needed to pay twenty dollars per month. However, in the winter, the average number increased to more than one hundred fifty dollars. That is to say, every one needs to pay about forty dollars for the energy bill each month. What was worse, the price of gas was increasing sharply during these past two months. For instance, the month before last our total utility bill was more than two hundred, but last month, our bill was more than three hundred dollars. We asked our friend to help us to contact the energy company. They said it was right because, in the winter, the gas will need more to start it, and they had changed the way to calculate gas. Although our rent is just two hundred thirty seven dollars, the utility bill is high.

There are four students in our house, three women and one man. We can get along with each other in daily life, but the house is always full of things such as clothes, food, books and even some rubbish here and there. We also can find dirty dishes and wasted food on the table. Sometimes, the dirty dishes will stay on the table for more than one week. Even after I have told them several times, it will still be the same. Because our house is a very old one, the bathroom often have problems such as clogged shower drains and toilets. That’s a big problem because we have to be very careful when we use the bathroom. Also, women’s hair is longer than men's so it’s much easier to clog the pipes of the shower drain. We have to use special tools to clean it. I even had to use a fork to clean it last week. It’s necessary to choose the house carefully if we want to move off campus. Be careful; never choose a old house.

It’s about a twenty-minutes walk from my house to the campus. Maybe one would say it’s a good opportunity to exercise, but I have to say that it’s really hard when we walk to school in the winter. The temperature is too low and I feel frozen while walking for a long time to go to the university. I also have to work at night. It’s much harder for me to come back home without the bus because I’m always too late to go back. Many times, when I came home, it was twelve at night. My roommates often miss the bus because sometimes it’s not in time, maybe a little earlier or later. Last week, I missed the bus and there were only ten meters between me and the bus. I watched it as it was passing by me. So if wanting to live off campus, one should please choose a closer house, not a one further away.

Above all, living on campus is much more expensive than living off campus, but living off campus has many serious problems such as high utility bills, long distance between the campus and the house, and an unclean house. That’s not to say that we should live in the school’s dorm, we can choose a close house so we can save time and energy. It’s also very safe, because in winter, the roads are slippery and dangerous. We also need to choose good roommates, we can’t get along with the roommates who always throw rubbish here and there. Finally, if we want to save more, we should learn how to save energy. A lot of things could be solved when we live off campus, but we will become much more independent than before. It’s a good opportunity to prepare for the future life. Just remember to think before we live off campus.