This past week, I was given the opportunity to live on my own. My aunt and her husband needed someone to watch their house and two cats while they were away on vacation. I was beyond excited to spend seven uninterrupted days by myself (and the cats, obviously) to get a nice little taste of freedom from my parents and younger brother.
As it turns out, it was nothing like I had expected. I learned a lot of new things during the week.
1. Groceries are deceptively expensive.
I decided to eat a vegetable-based diet with the occasional chicken breast throughout the week. The main reason for this was the mindset that if I only bought veggies, I wouldn't spend that much money on food. To be smart about the money I had to spend on groceries, I shopped only at Aldi, knowing that their prices are always lower than most supermarkets.
I ended up spending almost all of my grocery money on a small handful of veggies and a 3-pack of chicken breasts. My planning clearly did not work out.
2. It's not fun eating alone.
After coming back to the house from work every day, it was usually time to start prepping for dinner. Every night, without fail, I would find myself in front of the TV. There was no one there to share my meals with, so what else was there to do than watch some stand-up comedy while I ate?
3. Running out of things to watch on Netflix is surprisingly easy.
I'm not sure if I'm just picky or if Netflix's selection has gone down. Honestly, I'm probably just too selective for my own good, but they need to seriously step up their stand-up comedy options!
4. Making plans with friends doesn't always work out.
I got lucky enough to be house-sitting right down the street from my two best friends in the entire world. With that being said, somehow our schedules never matched up prior to 10 P.M. But we definitely made it work out a night or two!
5. I missed my parents more than I thought I would.
Thankfully, I had work every day, which is right around the corner from my house, which meant I got to stop home a few times during the week to see my family and my precious cat. I'm used to being able to bug my mom at all hours of the day, so it was a bummer when I didn't have her in the same house.