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    By situation · 3 tips

    Renting

    What to check before you sign a lease, plus ways to cut housing costs.

    1 Before you sign

    Renting and buying a home

    Before signing a lease, check the ownership certificate and any mortgage, and pay everything by transfer with the purpose noted

    Before signing, ask the landlord for an ID and the ownership certificate. Then take your own ID to the real-estate registration office and check whether the home is mortgaged or sealed by a court. You can check even before you have signed a contract. If the home was mortgaged or sealed before it was rented out and is then auctioned to a new owner, you cannot demand to keep living there. Make every payment by transfer with the purpose noted, and keep the record.

    • High value
    • Evidence A
    • Saves money

    2 Saving money

    How to get by when you have no money

    Cut housing and food to the minimum: rent a shared room by the month instead of by the day, and cook for yourself or use a subsidized meal canteen instead of delivery

    In 2025, food made up 29.3% of average per-person spending nationwide and housing 21.7%. Together they are over half, so cutting these two is the most effective. In the author's experience, a daily-rate room or hourly room, converted to a month, costs more than a shared room, and cooking yourself is cheaper than ordering delivery. When you look for work, ask whether food and housing are provided; a job that provides them wipes out these two big items.

    • High value
    • Evidence B
    • Saves money

    Related

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