"I love....how much money we're saving by doing this."

[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. We love a strong woman, so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like lingerie!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

Even though I keep hearing the recession’s over, those of us on a student budget are still tightening our belts (and not because it makes us look thinner). A lot of innnovative ways to save have popped up in the last few years, but one of the most life-changing is the idea of moving in with the significant other to save on rent.

There are some good reasons girls are doing this, no question. First and foremost – money! Splitting your payments with a roommate makes the payments easier on all, but more over, by splitting with the BF your money (and his) is actually going to the place you’re both spending time. Most couples tend to spend most of their time at one person’s place (usually the one without the creepy or obnoxious roommate/that weird cabbage smell) so it makes sense to pool the money into that place’s rent instead of splitting it up between two different apartments when one barely gets used.  And the money crunch can be a good excuse for moving in – like, say, if your parents are a little less than thrilled about your relationship turning all grown up – if it was something you had planned on doing anyway. Read More »

While trying to figure out a topic for this week, I thought about all of the questions people ask me, the relationship girl:

Did you come to college looking for a boyfriend?
Do you not like dating or hooking up?
How did you know he was the one?

Personally, my relationship isn’t very clear cut. We still don’t really know when our anniversary is. It all started out with the girl living across the hall from me freshman year asked if she could set me up with one of her friends from high school. He came over and we watched a movie with a bunch of our friends.

The night ended with me and him making out on our mutual friend’s bed.

We hung out a few times that week but he ended it by informing me that he wasn’t looking for a girlfriend. I didn’t see or hear from him for 3 months after that! But once I did see him again, we became friends with benefits (for lack of a better term). Neither of us wanted anything serious, and I was perfectly fine with it. I liked kinda/sorta having a guy, but I also liked the idea of not being tied down in college. Read More »

You finally made it over to the bed. His shirt is off, your underwear is soaring across the room. The lights are dim. The bed is quickly being destroyed. Lips are locked and you’re ready for sexy time. And then you hear the tap, tap, tap at the door.

Ah, interruptions during sex.

Everyone hates it, but in college, it seems unavoidable.  Maybe college students just don’t have the decorum to realize that if the door is shut, locked, and the person inside is yelling and pleading for you to go away, you should just walk away. Or perhaps since most college students are used to sharing everything from computer labs to showers, they think trying to walk in on their roommates sexy time is a-ok.

Seriously, whenever my boyfriend and I are trying to have some alone time, one of his three idiot roommates ruins the moment. It is usually like clockwork. If one of them isn’t sliding pennies under the door (yes, this happens. It’s strange, I know) to get my boyfriend’s attention, it is his annoyingly pompous roommate knocking to “inquire” about a bill. Oh, and my personal favorite is when they need to borrow my boyfriend’s stapler. It’s 1am on a Saturday, why the hell do you need a stapler?

If we wanted them to join, I’m sure we would leave the door open. But we don’t. And I don’t get it. If we just said goodnight twenty minutes ago, why are you sliding pennies under the door? What is it that makes people so oblivious to the need of alone time with a significant other? Maybe human beings secretly enjoy ruining the moment for someone; a little satisfaction knowing that a simple interruption can make a couple lose the desire for the moment. Or maybe that need for the stapler really is that imperative. Read More »

So you managed to find yourself a keeper. You’ve been together for a substantial amount of time, the big L word has long since been exchanged and you two are pretty much inseparable. You are one smitten kitten. You’ve even got the guy using the words “our” and “future” in the same sentence. In fact, you two are so annoyingly in love, that you’re spending way more time at his place than at your own.

At this point, you’re starting to question the practicality of paying rent on a place you barely see, but at the same time, moving in together is such a big deal.

So then … what are the pros and cons to that complicated middle ground that is ditching the girls and moving in with your man?

Pros:

You have a chance to see what married life would be like. It’s a scary thought, but that’s where lots of college relationships go, right? Can you balance the chores? Do you manage money the same? Can you tolerate his tendency to put empty milk cartons back in the fridge? It is essentially a test drive on all (ALL!) levels of compatibility, which is great because if that test drive fails, you can go your separate ways without having to formally divorce.

You get to see a side of him you might not see otherwise. You see him on his bad days, his good days … you’ll see the real, honest to goodness HIM and not just the “him” he shows you on dates and such. Read More »

I read an interesting article today about young people living with their grandparents after college graduation. Not only is it saving them thousands of dollars in rent, but their elderly relatives and extended family get a sense of security having someone else in the house. I’d bet a few home cooked meals every week probably aren’t too bad either.

But could you do it? I have two surviving grandparents who live approximately 1,300 miles away. While I love them to death, I tend to get frustrated when either one comes to visit for longer than a week. It could be one Grandma’s church sermons on DVD or the way her clothes smell like moth balls and White Diamonds. My other Grandmother usually enlists me to start ghostwriting her cookbook. We get about 2 pages in before she lays down for a nap and forgets about the project.

I think the novelty of sharing memories and getting buddy-buddy in the TV room would wear off pretty quick. No more loud-parties, early bed times and a digital divide as wide as a Grand Canyon would irritate me to no end. But if you’re thinking about giving it a try, the article’s author has a few tips: Read More »

As far as relationship milestones go, moving in together is right up there with getting engaged and having a child. It may not seem like such a huge deal initially, but it’s really one of the bigger make or break moments in a relationship.

Deciding to live with your significant other is essentially committing to a practice marriage; you will find out how often he wears the same pair of smelly socks, that he has a difficult time digesting Mexican food and calls his mom twice a day. This doesn’t mean there is something fundamentally wrong with him, you will just finally get to see all the not so shiny things about him–things that ultimately shouldn’t matter if you are in love.

After all, he’s going to know how scary you look in the morning, hear you fart, and discover that, indeed, you sometimes poop.

Being that its such a huge step, it goes without saying that moving in together is not something to be taken lightly. Here are some things to consider before taking the proverbial plunge. Read More »

After a four hour drive from New York to Maryland, I was ready to finally get back on campus.

My mom pulled up alongside my dorm building, and I climbed my way up the three flights of stairs, dumped my bag in front of my room, and then walked two doors down to give my girlfriend a welcome back kiss. It wasn’t until after a minute or so of “I missed you!”s that I actually went back downstairs to start unloading my trunk.

I promise you I’m not a guy infiltrating CollegeCandy for a sociological study on women. I’m a girl just like the rest of us…save for the whole bisexual thing, that is. Believe it or not, there are plenty of members of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender/Transsexual) community on campuses across the country. Hell, there’s even a directory that has a list of colleges that have gay and lesbian organizations – and these are only the ones with paid staff. But even with places like these, meeting the right significant other is just as hard, if not harder. Read More »