I spent a year living in a beach house with 7 friends. Splitting the bills was surprisingly easy — other things weren't.

There really is simply a quality betwixt knowing your friends and knowing their ablution schedules.

I recovered that out, among galore different things — for illustration really 1 of my friends watches the aforesaid 30 minutes of "Legally Blonde" connected shut up earlier bed, aliases really different likes to telephone unofficial dibs connected the washing instrumentality astatine 6 a.m. — during my elder twelvemonth of college, erstwhile I moved into a six-bedroom location pinch 7 of my besties for our past twelvemonth of undergrad.

Living astatine the beach elder twelvemonth was thing everyone talked astir connected field astatine San Diego State University — a assemblage dream we'd heard astir for years but ne'er thought we'd really propulsion off.

Suddenly, it stopped being a hypothetical erstwhile a woman who lived successful a location successful Pacific Beach, California, astir a 20-minute thrust from our school, said her spot mightiness beryllium opening up. A fewer of america toured it, and earlier we knew it, we were signing a lease.

As we were getting fresh to move in, we couldn't hold for sandy feet, tipsy sunset walks, and spontaneous food taco runs. But we wondered if surviving successful a popular formation destination would beryllium excessively overmuch connected our wallets.

Turns out, it was cheaper and logistically easier than we ever expected.

The finances were divided evenly, and we utilized a spreadsheet to debar chaos

Our six-bedroom house was fundamentally a agelong rectangle pinch rooms attached to it. One of the erstwhile tenants, who lived pinch six different roommates, told america it would beryllium "enough space," but we realized that was a generous interpretation.

Even though it was challenging to compression truthful galore group into this home, dividing up the finances was amazingly easy.

We divided the utilities evenly and divided the rent based connected room size. I wanted the cheapest option, truthful I shared the maestro chamber pinch my friend, whom I'd known since freshman year. The room hardly fresh 2 shaky Amazon copy beds, but my rent was conscionable complete $1,000 a month, truthful I ne'er complained.

Additionally, we ever split family expenses, for illustration cleaning supplies and furniture, 8 ways, pinch the scheme to waste everything astatine the extremity and disagreement the profit equally. The only point we purchased individually was our groceries.

Most of the applicable problems had applicable solutions, too. We made chore charts, carpooled, and figured retired meal schedules — because 8 girls trying to navigator successful 1 mini alley room astatine erstwhile is simply a small challenging.

The harder portion was everything we couldn't put connected a spreadsheet.

It wasn't ever changeless fun, but the acquisition brought america person successful unexpected ways

Before we each shared a home, I pictured spending each waking infinitesimal pinch my friends. Instead, surviving together taught maine that sometimes the champion point you tin do is springiness personification space.

Some nights, I didn't want to socialize — I conscionable wanted to adjacent my chamber door. However, I learned I shouldn't flight to my room whenever I felt disappointment pinch someone, and alternatively needed to person the uncomfortable conversations truthful small things wouldn't fester.

Plus, moreover though being successful adjacent quarters pinch my champion friends was amazing, location were still issues of removal successful the house. Over time, everyone organized themselves into sections, unofficial small pockets of who was closest to whom, and it took effort to make judge those sections didn't calcify into thing much permanent.

Overall, though, during our clip surviving together, we stopped being conscionable friends who made plans and became group who knew each other's bad moods and weird habits. I saw them astatine their astir tired, stressed, and unfiltered.

After a while, we started to consciousness little for illustration friends and much for illustration family.

There were midnight room hangouts, each of america someway squeezing into 1 car for Target runs, 8 different playlists echoing done the halls arsenic we sewage ready, and group sprawls successful the beforehand gait pinch romance novels connected towels, chairs, and pillows.

Grocery hauls ever someway ended successful a Trader Joe's sensation test, and nights vanished pinch corporate yelling astatine the TV during "Love Island."

It's funny, I couldn't hold to beryllium adjacent the water pinch my champion friends. But successful the end, the formation was the slightest absorbing portion of that adventure.