Why being in debt and having to live in an apartment sucks

One of the bad things about being in hella debt is that a lot of your decisions are pretty much made for you. Housing is the primary one. It is sure difficult to save up a down payment for a home and qualify for a mortgage when you owe loads of money and are having to pay out a buttload of your income each month.

And that means renting. Blech.

In my experience, renting an apartment is cheaper than renting a house or a condo or whatever. The unfortunate side effect of this is living in close proximity to other idiots. I am usually reminded of this when my apartment starts smelling like cigarette smoke from the neighbors. Or when I go to leave my 3rd floor apartment but a neighbor is grooming their large dog on the stairs.

Tonight, I am really hating the debt thanks to the people that live below me. Now, in all fairness, I have assumed that they were geriatric and hard of hearing for some time now as there is always a lot of noise from the tv/stereo. Today though I hit my limit with their noise when the floor was vibrating from their loud music. After going into the living room I was unsure if it was coming from below or across the way so I opened up the door. The smell of grilled burgers caught my nose and I realized that some idiot was outside grilling and had turned up their stereo. (Apparently they are not aware that portable stereos are in fact still manufactured.)

So, I decide that I will go ask them nicely to turn the volume down and if they do not that I will call the police. Call me naive, but I expected to find them on the 2nd floor. Oh no. These Einsteins were on the ground floor with their grill and patio chairs and had their 2nd floor apt door open (right below me) with their stereo cranked up.

I asked if they could turn the volume down a bit as it was loud. Actually I had to kind of yell that. The girl yelled back, “Oh, is it loud? Can you hear it up there?” And I was like “Uh, yeah, it’s making my floors vibrate.” Then she asked her boyfriend/husband to go adjust the volume. He glared at me and I went back up.

He did lower the volume a tad. However, it was still loud. I did not call the cops though. I suspect once their food is done that they will actually eat inside and then lower the volume to their normal loud but bearable level. And almost as bad as the noise is that these two people are breeding. There was a small child with them and the woman was very pregnant. Oy vey.

So, now it is not just about getting out of debt. It is about getting out of apartments and away from other people.