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We’ve all had at least one really messy breakup. There’s no character-building experience quite like packing up all your things and moving out of your shared one-bedroom apartment. But there’s a cost that comes with freedom, and according to a recent study, that cost is $7,125 in Texas.
A study from Integra Credit added up the costs of breaking up, sort of. They factored together the costs of moving out; “a breakup is defined as moving out of a shared one-bedroom apartment into a new one-bedroom apartment, using a moving company to relocate furniture within the same state,” reads the study. So, if you were wise enough to trust your gut and never move in together, perhaps all it costs is your time.
In Texas, breaking up (as the study defines it, anyway) comes down to this: moving truck costs are $850; the average security deposit for a one-bed plus the first month in rent is $2,514; renter’s insurance and utilities will run you about $645 (we know it’s hot, but surely there’s a way to get your A/C bill a little lower) and a $30 apartment application fee will run you a total of about $4,000.
If you win all the furniture in the split, you save about $3,000, but if you have an especially stingy ex, or are looking for a completely fresh start, you’re getting closer to $7,000. Let this be your sign to stand 10 toes down on keeping that couch when you first move in together.
But what the study forgot to include is the price of at least four pints of ice cream, a minimum of one retail therapy session, several real therapy sessions with a licensed professional, potentially a new companion with four feet or gills, a box of hair dye and a gym membership to fill your newly freed time.
The most expensive state for a breakup is predictably California, where finding a new apartment and furnishing it from scratch costs $10,000. Oklahoma is the cheapest state to restart in, costing about $6,000.
Obviously, the price of moving out can vary considerably, and can you even really put a price on liberation? We think not. Plus, money can’t buy the feeling of loading the dishwasher however you want, or finding new meanings in Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumors.” Godspeed, and definitely keep the couch, and the garbage can, those things are unnecessarily expensive. We speak from experience.
