More thoughts:
- Having a place by yourself is always going to be more expensive.
A 1-bedroom place might go for $850 a month while a 2-bedroom place
may go for $1200. Do the math. Also, if two of you are getting the
furniture, it works out cheaper.
- I recommend avoiding furnished places. The furniture's usually
crap.
- Around the corner from Melbourne Uni, there's a bookshop called
Readings on Lygon Street. The side window is covered with ads for
people looking for housemates.
- As spidee has said, the telco price wars work out in your favour,
so look at a few and see who offers the best deal. I've been with
Optus for the last 10 years, and they do all right by me.
- Broadband should set you back about $50-60 a month.
- For God's sake, get a place with gas appliances. You do NOT want
to pay to run a gas stove in your kitchen. Most places use electric
heating, but if you can find a place with gas heating, go for
it.
- If possible, avoid getting a place on the ground floor (unless
it's a house) - ground floor places are cheaper, but it's really
not worth it in terms of privacy and security.
- Speaking of security, you're right about Footscray and Richmond.
In any case, neither is as conveniently located as Coburg and
Brunswick. Collingwood's not too great on safety either.
- More stuff backing the car point. If you do have a car, Footscray
market is about 20 minutes' drive from Brunswick, and for things
like meat and vegetables, it's much cheaper than the supermarkets.
And if you do get a car, top up your tanks on Tuesdays - it's the
cheapest day of the week.
