I've become more of the impression that when renting, it's worth looking into furnished places, even if they are a bit more expensive. Also it's worth looking into places that have utilities already included, even if you think you could save a bit if you just paid for them each yourself since you know you won't use that much. Note that I say "worth looking into" vs definitely.
This is part of the whole Time=money thing, and penny wise, pound foolish.
Think about how much of a pain in the ass it is to haul your shit around. If you move with furniture, that can take days out of your life, if not weeks. All the time and expense (unless you have a truck), freinds time etc... of moving. If you don't have furniture, you are an even worse position of having to buy stuff, even if it's cheap, and spend days (most likely weeks or months) slowly outfitting your pad with bullshit stuff from IKEA that will break immediately anyway. Even if you want to live spartan, that stuff definitely adds up, and there is ALWAYS something that you end up deciding you need. Such a waste of time, and unless you enjoy living in an airbed indefinitely (think back problems and bad sleep leading to poor productivity), you will have to drop money on some kind of furniture anyways. If a place is furnished, you rent, unpack your suitcase, and you're ready to go. Instantly. No stress.
As for utilities being included, think about all the time and effort you spend monitoring your electric bille very month, setting up the cable in your name, the heat, the water, etc... that is just another mental and time drain each and every month, and at least in NYC it was a huge pain in the ass to setup internet like we were in 1995.
So there is absolutely no slam dunk savings advice here. In fact this is very contrarian for this forum. All I'm saying is don't think your time isn't valuable, and don't think distractions and physical and literal baggage won't cut into your efforts and momentum on whatever other worthy goals you are trying to do. If there's clear huge savings - as most of the time there will be, of course go with it, but also be mindful of the time (opportunity cost), attention (slow of mental momentum) and STRESS that goes with that.
This is part of the whole Time=money thing, and penny wise, pound foolish.
Think about how much of a pain in the ass it is to haul your shit around. If you move with furniture, that can take days out of your life, if not weeks. All the time and expense (unless you have a truck), freinds time etc... of moving. If you don't have furniture, you are an even worse position of having to buy stuff, even if it's cheap, and spend days (most likely weeks or months) slowly outfitting your pad with bullshit stuff from IKEA that will break immediately anyway. Even if you want to live spartan, that stuff definitely adds up, and there is ALWAYS something that you end up deciding you need. Such a waste of time, and unless you enjoy living in an airbed indefinitely (think back problems and bad sleep leading to poor productivity), you will have to drop money on some kind of furniture anyways. If a place is furnished, you rent, unpack your suitcase, and you're ready to go. Instantly. No stress.
As for utilities being included, think about all the time and effort you spend monitoring your electric bille very month, setting up the cable in your name, the heat, the water, etc... that is just another mental and time drain each and every month, and at least in NYC it was a huge pain in the ass to setup internet like we were in 1995.
So there is absolutely no slam dunk savings advice here. In fact this is very contrarian for this forum. All I'm saying is don't think your time isn't valuable, and don't think distractions and physical and literal baggage won't cut into your efforts and momentum on whatever other worthy goals you are trying to do. If there's clear huge savings - as most of the time there will be, of course go with it, but also be mindful of the time (opportunity cost), attention (slow of mental momentum) and STRESS that goes with that.