Lots of advice here already, so I'll mention one that is overlooked by a lot of people: learn to cook for yourself at home. You will save a lot of money and be more healthy in the process if you prepare your own meals.

If you don’t need to for safety or sanity, don’t. Now is a bad time to try and set out on your own.

If you must move out from your parents, find someone to do it with, not a romantic partner but a platonic one that you can be good roommates with (maybe harder than finding a romantic partner lol). Going alone these days is near impossible unless you’re already well off me have a healthy safety net, something most people don’t have today.

• know where the fire extinguisher is and how to use it
• ensure there are adequate and working smoke detectors. also carbon monoxide detectors if there is a risk from clothes dryers, etc.
• keep at least 2 gallons of bottled water per person stored at all times
• keep candles and matches in a location where you can find them in the dark
• keep a fully stocked first aid kit
• know where the nearest emergency room is and how to get there

be safe and well! :)

Make sure you have a towel. I say this as a guy who dried off after showers with an old tshirt the first week after I moved because I am a great planner.

Extend that to other less glamorous essentials. Think about the mundane things you use daily that blend into the background.

Lots of good advice in this thread. My contributions are to say don't move in with friends you aren't willing to lose. I did it despite the warnings and it turned out terribly. I can't say I regret it but depending on how the situation turns out for you it could range from losing someone youve been close to for most of your life to downright traumatic.

Don't be afraid of renting rooms for a while (as a male, can't say that's a good idea for women or people in marginalized groups). It's cheaper, less binding, and frees up some funds to develop other areas such as reliable transportation, good furniture, etc.

Take your time finding a place and be realistic with what you can afford. Being on your own is expensive and it's important to make sure you're moving somewhere you actually want to live and that will give you access to the things you need. Be it groceries, good job prospects, or education.

I'm from the US so I'm not sure how things are in your country but it's rough out there. Take the time you have now to figure out a career field that you'd want to work in and that would provide the income for you to be financially independent. Immerse yourself in the culture and structure of that group. Find community pages, forums, websites and programs. Read it all and get an idea of what you'll be getting yourself into. You may become aware of adjacent industries or specialties within that field that interest you more than the job you were originally thinking about.

Best of luck!

Came here to say learn to cook and always check Youtube before you give up.

Once talked to a younger kid who had just moved out, they were complaining that the cost of a BLT sandwich delivered to their house everyday for lunch was a crazy expensive 9ish dollars at the time, roughly their hourly wage. Yea, of course it is. 7-9 dollars will buy all of the ingredients to make that yourself all week (2015 dollars).

Youtube can teach you a lot more about cooking than a recipe and vague instructions alone. This is a fun channel I discovered during Corona Quarantine.

In addition, always check Youtube for tutorials/DIY videos before you call any repair service, even if it's covered by your rental agreement. Couple winters ago I was able to kick-start our furnace instead of waiting for the landlord to do something. You can practice on someone else's stuff before you get your own place; or, if you don't feel confident trying to fix it yourself see what should be done by whoever shows up.

Edit: and also have a box of cash you never touch, one day you will need it

When you're making a budget don't plan to spend everything you make. You will always be out of money if you do that.

I would look at making a budget beforehand. For rent, look at actual listings in the area you want to move to. You'll probably need roommates.

And keeping a job isn't that hard as long as you treat it like a strange form of high school where the teacher or principal can fire you.

I started over again out about a year ago, and my best decision was to buy an alright futon and save up/look around for a decent quality bed. The futon was enough that I wasn't miserable but not so good that I could be complacent like I would with the first mattress I could afford/find. Since I was not desperate, I could wait till a good deal showed up.

Also, you are going to establish 'home' in phases or waves. It will be really exciting at first, but your energy will probably peter out sometime after you have a basic kitchen set up, sleeping area, and maybe sitting area. That's natural and nothing to feel bad about! I wound up being in a ~10 month break after my initial blitz before I started to turn my apartment into a home; it took me that long to recharge.

Have some savings in case of emergency. A few thousand at least.

Work out a budget. What you earn, minus your bills + 10%, is the money you have for fun. The 10% helps prevent bill shock. Personally, I record the amount of the last four bills and average them then add the 10%. Seems to work.

Inherit or buy quality cookware and learn how to cook. Quality isn't necessarily expensive. And good cooking is cheaper and healthier than anything else. At the start doing meal prep recipes to cover a week would be good.

thrift stores are great for clothes and kitchen wares. a decent stainless steel pan, pot, and spatula will cover you for like 70% of your cooking needs.