When I moved into my own one-bedroom on East Sixth Street in September 2022, I thought I finally had the full picture of what solo living would cost me. I did not. Over the next three years, living alone cost me roughly $18,000 more than my roommate years did, and not all of it was rent. If you are trying to decide whether to live alone or find a roommate, this post breaks down every number I tracked and a few I wish I had.
Have you ever done the math on how much having a roommate actually saves you, not just on rent, but on everything else?
Most people stop at rent. I did too, at first. But after three years of living alone and two years before that with roommates, the real difference is bigger than I expected, and it shows up in places I never thought to check.
What I Was Paying With Roommates
When I moved to Austin in August 2020, my first roommate Jake, an American guy who had rented in the US before and knew how the whole system worked, helped me find a three-bedroom near campus. Jake had lived with roommates before and was pretty calm about the whole search process, which helped a lot because I had no idea what I was doing.
The total rent on that place was $1,800 a month. Split three ways, I was paying $600. Marcus, our third roommate who later caused some lease drama in 2022, was splitting it equally at the time.
Electricity, water, and internet split three ways came to about $55 to $70 a month for my share. Internet alone was $90 for the apartment, which meant $30 each. I was paying around $650 to $680 a month total, all in.
In May 2022, our landlord raised the rent by $400. That was the 2022 market doing what it did. My share went from $600 to roughly $733. Still shared. Still a lot cheaper than going solo.
What Happened When I Went Solo
I moved into my one-bedroom on East Sixth Street in September 2022. The rent was $1,450 a month. At the time I thought that was actually okay, because it was not too far from what I had been reading about Austin one-bedrooms.
But here is the thing nobody tells you clearly: when you go solo, everything stops being split.
Electricity in the summer in Austin is not a joke. August and September in a one-bedroom I was paying $90 to $110 a month on my own. In the winter it dropped to $40 to $55. Internet was $80 a month. Water was another $30 to $40. Renter’s insurance, which I had finally started taking seriously, was $14 a month.
My monthly costs solo looked like this:
| Expense | With Roommates (my share) | Solo (my share) |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | $600 to $733 | $1,450 |
| Electricity | $30 to $40 | $50 to $110 |
| Internet | $30 | $80 |
| Water | $15 to $20 | $30 to $40 |
| Renter’s insurance | $0 (skipped it) | $14 |
| Monthly total | $675 to $823 | $1,624 to $1,694 |
That gap is around $850 to $900 a month. Over 12 months, that is roughly $10,200 to $10,800.
The Three-Year Math
Let me be honest about how I am doing this calculation, because I got it wrong the first time I tried.
I initially added up three years of solo costs and compared them to three years of roommate costs, but that was wrong because I did not live solo for three full years straight. I had roommates from August 2020 to September 2022, which is about 25 months. Then I went solo from September 2022 until my cousin Ranjith Roy, who came to Austin in 2023 for his MS at UT, moved in with me for about a year and a half.
So the accurate comparison is not a clean three years of one thing vs three years of another. What I can do is compare the cost per month across the two situations and then multiply.
During my roommate months (roughly 25 months of the shared three-bedroom, plus about 18 months with Ranjith later), my average monthly all-in cost was around $720.
During my solo months (September 2022 to whenever Ranjith moved in, and then again after he left in mid-2024 until I moved to Mueller in 2026), my average monthly all-in cost was closer to $1,650.
The difference is $930 a month. Across roughly 20 months of solo living, that comes to about $18,600. That is the number I meant in the Bottom Line. Close enough.
The Costs You Forget to Count
Here is what I did not think about before I went solo.
Household supplies. When you have roommates, someone usually buys dish soap. Someone else grabs paper towels. It is not formal, it just happens. When you live alone, you buy all of it, every time. I was spending maybe $15 to $25 a month more on household basics just because no one else was picking things up.
Furniture and setup. When I moved into the one-bedroom, I needed stuff. Jake still had our shared coffee table when he moved out. I did not have a couch. I spent around $800 in the first two months just getting the place to feel livable. That is a one-time cost but it is real.
Food. I know this is not technically a housing cost, but eating alone changes how you shop. You buy a bag of something and half of it goes bad. I noticed I was wasting more food in the first six months of solo living than I ever had with roommates. I am guessing that added $30 to $50 a month.
None of these are huge individually. Together over a year they add another $1,000 to $1,500.
What You Actually Get for That Extra Money
I do not want this to just be a list of ways solo living costs more. There is a real reason people pay for it.
When Ranjith was living with me, he was on a grad student schedule. Late nights, odd hours, friends over sometimes. It was fine, we got along well. But there were stretches where I just wanted to cook something at 10pm without worrying about noise, or work from home without background distraction. You cannot put a price on that easily.
The question is whether the price you are paying feels worth it at that point in your life. For me in 2022 and 2023, it was. For someone newer to Austin on a tighter budget, the roommate math is harder to argue with.
What Ranjith’s Stay Actually Changed
When Ranjith moved in sometime in 2023, we split rent and utilities the same way I had done with Jake years earlier. My share of the East Sixth rent came down to around $725. Utilities dropped to about $55 to $60 for my share.
I will say this: having a family member as a roommate is a different experience than a stranger or even a friend. We had the same general habits, we were comfortable being direct with each other about things like cleaning or having guests over, and there was less of the unspoken tension that can build up with someone you do not know well.
When Ranjith finished his degree and went back to India in mid-2024, I felt the rent jump immediately. Not because it literally changed overnight, but because that next rent payment hit and I was back to covering the whole thing myself.
What I Would Tell Someone Deciding Right Now
If you are brand new to Austin and your budget is tight, find a roommate for at least your first year. The savings are real and the market is still not cheap enough to make solo living easy on an entry-level salary.
If you have been here a while and you have a stable income, the solo premium might be worth it for the headspace alone. But go in knowing the full number, not just the rent line.
A site like GoFinanceTools has a post I wrote on how much of your income should actually go to rent, which is a useful gut check before you decide. And if you are doing the math on your first apartment here, the move-in costs post breaks down what to expect upfront.
The short answer: roommates save you real money. Solo living costs real money. Both can be the right choice. Just make sure you are looking at the full number before you sign.
FAQ
How much cheaper is it to have a roommate in Austin right now?
In a typical two-bedroom split evenly, you are probably paying $850 to $1,100 for your share depending on the neighborhood. A one-bedroom to yourself in the same area is likely $1,400 to $1,700. So you are saving somewhere in the $400 to $700 range every month, just on rent. Utilities and other shared costs add more on top of that.
Does splitting with a roommate actually work out legally if something goes wrong?
This is the part that trips people up. If both your names are on the lease, you are both responsible for the full rent, not just your half. So if your roommate stops paying, the landlord can come after you for their share. I wrote more about that exact situation in this post on what happens when a roommate stops paying rent.
Is a two-bedroom or a one-bedroom better for roommates?
Two-bedrooms are the most common setup, and they usually work out cheaper per person than splitting a three-bedroom in some buildings because the price per square foot is different. That said, three ways in a three-bedroom can sometimes beat two ways in a two-bedroom if the rent is low enough. Run the numbers for each specific place rather than assuming.
What about the deposit when you live alone vs with roommates?
Deposit is usually one month’s rent in Texas. So on a $1,450 solo apartment your deposit is $1,450. On a $1,800 shared apartment where you put in your share, it is $600. That upfront difference matters a lot when you are just getting started. Some landlords ask the whole group to put up the full deposit jointly, which means you need to trust your roommates to actually pay their share back to you at move-out.
Did living with Ranjith feel different from living with a stranger?
Yeah, honestly. We knew each other’s habits before we ever shared a space. There was no period of figuring out if the other person was going to leave dishes in the sink for three days. The hard part was more about timing. He had late evening classes and I had an early work schedule. We worked around it.
What is the fastest way to find a roommate in Austin right now?
Facebook groups for Austin renters are still active. SpareRoom and Roomies.com are the main apps. UT Austin and other university housing boards still post a lot. If you already have a lease, posting in those groups with your address, rent split, and move-in date gets responses pretty quickly in my experience.
How do you handle splitting utilities fairly with a roommate?
The easiest way is one person puts the account in their name and everyone else Venmos their share each month. Some people use Splitwise to track it. The main thing is agreeing upfront who handles which bill. Letting it be informal works for a few months but then someone feels like they are always the one chasing people down.
