When I graduated from college, I was deeply in debt.
- I owed a tremendous amount in student loans and credit card bills.
There was also a car payment and health insurance to cover. My budget was stretched extremely thin. Despite working two jobs, there was little money for rent. I could only afford a really cheap apartment. The place was tiny and rundown. All of the appliances were outdated and didn’t work very well. The refrigerator wasn’t cold enough to prevent milk from spoiling. The oven smoked and any time I ran the microwave, I blew a fuse. All of the faucets leaked and the water pressure was almost nonexistent. The majority of the windows were painted shut yet allowed drafts in. The front door didn’t close properly. The apartment wasn’t tightly sealed and created a lot of energy waste. This created a big problem because I was responsible for the utilities. After trying out the air conditioner, I never turned it on again. The cooling system supplied very little, rather tepid air that smelled horribly musty. Within fifteen minutes of operating it, I started sneezing, felt congested and came down with a headache. Plus, it never shut off. The air conditioner ran continuously until I finally raised the thermostat setting. With the severe winter weather in my local area, I had no choice but to rely on the heating system. It cost me a fortune in energy bills yet couldn’t keep up with demand. The apartment was always freezing cold. I eventually realized that it was costing me more to live in that awful apartment because of the expense of the heating system.