Apartments

If money is not a problem go to where your friends are. Unless they can be dicks and you don't really want to spend 24/7 with them. Then go for the cheaper one and get to talk to new people and possibly decent food ;)

Hm?
Moving from an apartment with lots of acquaintances to an apartment you don't know?
You should avoid it.
Do not have any money?☑
Did you go to the cafe?☑
And do you not cook yourself?☑
If you can cook yourself, your finances may improve, probably for the rent.
First of all, why don't you talk to your friends who are cooking yourself? ε=ε=ε=ヾ(*ﾟΘ。)ﾉ　

Hey you!(o'Θ'o)ﾉ))
Friends who cook their own food! He──(o'Θ')人('ω'o)──y
The total amount of money put into the cafe is about this!(ﾉΘ)ﾉ ⌒ 💰∑(･ω･ﾉ)ﾉomg! How much is your food cost! ((-ω-｡≡｡-ω-))💵 that's cheap!(´･Θ･) ヾ(ﾟεﾟ )oops!
As you place half of the amount of money to be put into the cafe, would you like cooking and ingredients instead?
(ﾉΘ`) ┐(´～)┌ Rather than buying ingredients for one, buying for two is cheaper for you, and the breadth of the ingredients will be broadened? (´･Θ･) 　🎃🥕🍆o(≧▽≦)o🍅🥔　🥒
It may be good to say so.
=͟͟͞͞( っ'Θ')╮ =͟͟͞͞🥗

My younger self would take the comfy apartment rooming with friends.

However now, after having already lived with friends and paying over $1,000 for an apartment previously? Give me cheap apartments all day.

Does having bimonthly payment change the amount of money you get ? If not, then Id suggest just investing tad more into balancing your budget more thoroughly, but living where you like.. (I mean, all you have to do is reserve two months of pay once you recieve your paycheck)
I lived in dorms for almost 8 years (due to not having much money and with poor choices for work).. Just learn to cook, its fun..
Probably due to cultural differences but I just cant understand how a person can talk about budgeting money and go to cafes all the time and not even cook themselves..
I mean, I usually did go to some near cafe to eat lunch.. but theres still breakfest and dinner.. Id burn through my budget in several days if I wouldnt cook myself

BTW. If you can believe it - my dorms cost me around 10 euros for first 4 years. Than going to Uni price increased to 50 euros (both cases monthly pay). Still - thats crazy cheap. The dorms werent that good, but living with friends was cool enough

If it was only floor plan I would say chose the cheap one. I don't think it's too important, and money is always money.
But if you will have friends in the first one - that's another matter. Being close to friends is a big plus, and it will make your life much more comfortable. And, after all, you can always move to the cheaper one if you change your mind.

Learn to cook. It will help you eat better things + save cash on food + it will help you for the rest of your life + you can cook really nice and good cheap food.

As you say that the cheaper one is still nearby, you can still go out and meet your friends just as often from that one. Only that you'd have to walk slightly longer (depending on how close your definition of "nearby" would be). Studying cost a lot of money so might as well pick the cheaper one if it's not that much worse than your current one.

As a panda can't you apply to a zoo? Free room and food. :p

What kind of friends we're talking about? Close-but-not-quite-close-friends or actual friends that you know from a very long time? Living with the former may reveal a lot of nasty shit about them and you may end up regretting taking that apartment.

Have a schedule. When I was at collage me and the others discussed when we eat,shower,sleep and accomodated to each other with the best of our ability to not annoy eachother too much. Also sharing the housework is something we had problems and fixed it with a calendar where you had to do something every week (cleaning up, washind dishes, buying toilet paper) and if someone didnt do anything in that week, everyone else got his monthy payment lighter by 100forint (0,3 euro i think)
As for cheap vs comfy, I would go with cheaper for the reason that the extra money you get, you can use it for going out with your friends, not even mentioning that if you are with your friends for prolonged time, petty squabbles became major irritants.
As for food, look for the discounted/damaged/close expiration items for additional cheap living. You can live on bread and beans for a few years, thats what I ate usually

The main question for me is: do you want more expensive apartment because it's really much much better, or do you want it because you have some buddies there? Trust me - living together with someone who you considered your best buddy can quickly turn friendship into hate ;p I lived in rented apartments with both friends I knew and random preople for 7 years before I decided to rent something for myself and move in with then my girlfriend, nowadays fiancee. As for living with friends it's a real test to your friendship, with two guys I keep in touch and pretty close to this very day, but we still had our big problems (unavoidable if you're living with someone for long time period), with other two friends it basically ended our friendship (one guy, great party'n'drinking buddy turned out to be a real pig, he wouldn't do anything in apt, not take garbage, store moldy pizza leftovers in lockers etc, other guy kept partying hard without considering anyone else, also while really really drunk he would hit on my gf as well as other peoples companions). On the other hand, most of random people I lived with I do not keep contact with, but I found one new close friend this way. My main point being - living with your friends/buddies may look awesome in movies, but in reality it often may result badly, so mostly focus on finding apt you will like for itself, not because of your buddies, you will still be able to visit them and meet with them quite often, no need to overpay just to live in the same apt ;p

Just to throw something extra into your decision making - Living with friends in the nicer place, you may save a bit more money on things like water, electricity, gas bills, and groceries if you're taking it in turns to cook or sharing groceries. That could help to balance out the higher cost a little.
You mentioned the more expensive place was living with people you know a little. Is the cheaper place living on your own, or with people you don't know at all?
I shared a room with two people I didn't know in the first year of uni, had my own room in a dorm in the second, then shared a house with friends in the third with a private room. I probably wouldn't have planned it out like that if I had the choice before starting university, but they all had their good and bad points and looking back I wouldn't change them, so I'm sure it'll all work out regardless of which one you go for :)

Besides the money you will save by cooking communally with friends, a good floor plan, especially if it provides some privacy and personal space for everyone, is a real plus. Learning to live with others, who aren't your family, can be difficult at times because everyone is coming from a different set of ground rules that they grew up with. Negotiating through that and compromising when disagreements surface will be much easier if you are not in each other's way.

Really depends on your situation and price difference. Not sure what the exact freakout and budget problem you had is, but if it were me having budget problems, I’d go for cheaper. You don’t have to live with friends to hang out with them. Good floor plan and living with friends is a luxury (not as actual luxury, but I mean as something that is not a necessity), and living outside of your means can really cripple your finances for long term.

100 bucks a month extra? doesn't sound like THAT much more.
you have to like your home after all. but for how long are you planning to stay there? living one or two years in "not the best" place while saving some money for other things is quite reasonable. if you want to stay for longer you obviously need a place you really enjoy and not just kind of like.
and being near friends is great as well.

still the extra cash needs to come from somewhere. either by saving on other expenses or by getting a small job or whatever.

Renting is inherently risky, since it's very easy to end up in a place with problematic management. If it's a place that many of your friends recommend, then that's a good sign that problems are generally uncommon and insignificant or, at the very least, are niche in nature. That assurance, light as it may be, easily makes up for any small increase in rent, by its merits alone. So if there are other benefits to that location, and it's only a 14% increase, it seems like a sure thing.

That said, if you can't afford it, you can't afford it. So.. budget first, then take the second place if it seems feasible.

It's generally easier to room with acquiantences than friends, since the social demands are less [and thus any strain from the stress of having regular interactions is reduced], but personality is always the most important factor. Good friends do generally make for good roommates (though that doesn't necessarily mean they won't have quirks that'll annoy you, and close proximity does tend to reveal if your friendship isn't as constructive as you thought it was). Carefully consider what your friends would actually be like to room with, past the "Oh, that'll be fun!" initial thought.

Of course, if it's someone you've lived woth before, it's much like the consideration with recommendable apartments. You can save a lot of potential stress by going with a (reasonably) sure thing.

As far as apartment living / household tips.. uhm, that's going to be a lengthy list of things, even from my perspective.
Could you narrow down the focus some? :P

I'd never really cooked for myself when I first moved into my own place but cooking turned out to be easier than I expected and eventually turned into something I quite enjoy. It's just one of those things you need to get stuck into. You can save a lot of money and make great food and it is less difficult and time consuming than you might think.

There are far more important things in life than saving 14% in rent. Budgeting is important but I've lived in some crappy places to save money and in hindsight it wasn't worth it. I've lived with some bonkers people to save money and it wasn't worth it - I'm not sure if I have posted here previously about the terrible year of the Juggalo where I ended up dividing an apartment in half between myself and an Insane Clown Posse fan but that was a thing and it wasn't the kind of thing I would wish on anybody else. I got the toilet but that was barely even a positive given the methods he used to dispose of his poop.

Try to step back and consider the big picture and I wish you the best moving forwards whatever you decide.

Maybe we can start a recipes thread and share the cooking skills of SG users :)

Just sharing my 2 cents as someone who lived in the dorms myself with a meal plan. I paid a lot of money for my dorms $1,300 per month which included 60 meals (not a bad deal, but I could have saved a lot). Since, I'm usually the introverted type, I used this opportunity to be extroverted and plan out dorm events with my dorm mates. Working out in the morning together and playing at the beach. I made some good friends, but our career paths were very different so we didn't really stay in touch.

After a year, I moved to a shared house for $375 a month with strangers. The people in the house were cool. I think generally most cases you'll end up with cool people. After all, you're doing those people a favor by moving in and paying a portion of their rent. They will at least try to get along with you.

I kind of just went back to my introverted lifestyle in that cheap apartment. Fell into some bad habits like playing games late into the night without doing my homework and just eating cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I sort of need other people to motivate me to better myself.I kind of created a big hole in myself by no longer interacting with my friends at the dorms. I was probably really depressed now that I look back on it. Good friends can go a long way.

I guess, because the new living arrangement was so cheap compared to the dorms, I took my time there for granted. Wow, I didn't realized I was in the mood to share so much about myself -_-. Thanks for reading my 10 year old history.

Learning how to cook, is a great experience. Eating your badly cooked food is a step to learning to cook better. ^^ Learning to be comfy with others is great I have to add. All the positives but here comes the negatives, since you are already stressing on rent payment than your actual studies, I do not think its a good decision to move.

I've not lived in a dorm but have experience with living with different people. You might the most forgiving person but at times some habits needs to be listed out. In the comfy apartment's scenario, buying food, do you label? Have everyone sort out what kind of house rules there will be. Since you are not close to them, there may be invasion of privacy or simply using your items without your consent.

Advantage of the dorm is meals and lodging basic needs are taken care of so you can concentrate on your studies and part time. Moving out will take out more from you. Its a fun and great experience. Depending on how strong your mindset is, it might end up being a nightmare too. Having to worry about alot of unnecessary stuffs which in the end might derail you from your studies. Security is also an issue living out from the dorm imo.

It might also be a blessing in disguise IF you are able to find great roommates. People that are willing to share and care for. These are the things that we can never calculate but only to hope for. Even living with your own next of kin can be a real hassle and draining, not to mention friends/strangers where you have to bear with all sorts of antics or leave.

How much do you project to save if you move or you don't at all? If you are in the comfort zone of not worry about costs I will have said go for it without a doubt. Since you have have your financial worries about the rent, I feel you should find stability so you can complete your course without derailing from it.

Best Wishes and Best Regards to your decision, Cruse~

Any time you have housemates, set up a weekly chore rotation to keep everyone accountable. Everyone does their part, no exceptions. Also no dishes left in the sink, no exceptions. Try to keep communication direct but mature, no passive aggressiveness.