The Cost of Breaking Up and Moving Out

by Anonymous

Last month, my relationship of five-plus years ended. Emotionally, it was about 75 percent mutual and 25 percent devastating. Financially, it was 100 percent a huge setback to my savings.

My ex and I had been living together since the summer of 2011. Luckily, we had been careful to split every major bill and purchase over those years, and kept a regular IOU that we tallied up at the end of every month and paid each other back via our separate rent checks.

However, separating our lives and moving out has still been a huge hit to what little I had in savings. A tally of what I have spent so far:

• $4.15: Cost of public transportation to take myself and three travel bags to stay with a friend the morning after the break-up

• $62.40: Various toiletries and cleaning items I bought to use at my friend’s place that I couldn’t haul with me when I left

• $350: Rent I paid my friend to stay in the guest bedroom of her apartment for most of June

• $79.80: Birth control that I had to purchase on my own, which we previously split down the middle

• $104.98: Rented U-Haul for a day to move all my furniture and things out of our apartment

• $488: Storage unit I am renting through at least the end of August to store said furniture and things

• $35.60: Pizza I bought as a thank you to all my wonderful friends who helped me move out

• $25.00: Copay for doctor’s appointment, where I pleaded my case for anti-anxiety medication

• $23.10: A month’s worth of anti-anxiety medication

• $500: July rent to my friend to continue staying in her guest bedroom

• $50: July monthly parking space at my friend’s apartment

• $25.00: My approximation for the cost of the gas I have spent driving back and forth between my friend’s apartment and our old apartment, to retrieve random items such as mail and things I forgot

• $46.50: Cost of three books (in lieu of expensive therapy) I purchased on Amazon, which focuses on getting past break-ups and being your best self

• $300 (but in actuality priceless): My approximation of what I have spent on social outings with friends since the break up

Total: $2094.53

If you are a kind, thoughtful, single man in your mid/late 20s who lives in the D.C. area, is not allergic to cats, and is interested in dating a kind, thoughtful woman, please say so in the comments. Anonymous would like to meet you.

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