is that really how much u pay for one months RENT....

u could so pay for 2 apartments here in oregon

ELMO

TOBY SAYS: Really? Where's Oregon?

Indeed. My parents always tell me I could have 2, maybe 3, "nice" 2-bedroom apt-s Down South where they live for my $1500 monthly rent in Boston. To which I say, "Yes...but there's not a decent university/symphony/opera company/museum/public transport system/"bit o' culture" within 500 miles. So your point is what?"

OMG mine is 650 for a 1200 square foot apt overlooking the lake in north Chicago... ::mind is boggled::

Have a brag why don't you

Or you could pay for almost one-third of my apartment.

Oh that's quite darling.

I almost fell for somewhere with an exorbitant rent at the end of the summer; it also had an extremely large kitchen with a glass ceiling, you see... .

JAC, if I was paying $1500 a month for rent I wouldn't be able to go to any of those places :-P

Jesus Christ! WTF is it with all the comments on Toby's rent. It really wasn't the point of his post. I personally have a 30-year Adjustable Rate Mortgage. I know, I know. I should have gotten it fixed when the prime lending rate was lower, but I was too busy fucking. Do you want to know what my monthly mortgage payment is? You see, this doesn't have ANYTHING to do with Toby's post. Plus, we don't even know if his rent included heat or any utilities. Can you imagine the wonderful conversations we could have if we only knew what he paid for cable?

Anway, it was a great post Toby. I loved the card. Put the rent amount back in the post. It was perfect the way you had it. Screw these guys.

TOBY SAYS: I think I'll leave it out. I don't like talking about money, salary, rent, etc. It's tacky and uncouth.

Republicans don't want you to talk about rent, salary, etc. It helps employers screw us better if we feel its uncouth to tell other people how much we make.

Gran blog. Compliments. Bissus da l'Italy. :)

I love it when Toby says 'uncouth.' It brings a smile and a slight giggle to mind, because it's a funny word, and Toby's a funny guy, and I love him, and I want his babbies, and his daddy. But not his daddy's daddy, cause that would just be ridiculous.

Let's see ... I have a 10 year ARM, but I put over 38% down so I could avoid PMI. I also got my lender to to give me the same rate w/o any points in exchange for moving my SEP-IRA over to them. Altogether I pay about 1,538/mo in interest and another 320/mo in condo fees. Of course, that interest is completely deductible. Totally getting a killer tax refund this year. What? I'm being uncouth? No way...

Seriously - lovely card, Toby. Such a thoughtful lad :)

Toby is a wise man: the rent enclosed in a card will buy him at least one month where he can be late with the delivery of a future rent check. Brown-nosing works!

Hmmm...a four-digit rent check. I've written more of those than I care to think about.

But now my rent check only has 3 digits, AND I have my own one-bedroom apartment. Don't ask how I pulled that off in San Francisco.

For the record, and to continue kicking a dead issue: I wasn't commenting on Toby's rent. I was merely seconding what he's now written into his entry: if you're an avowed city-dweller, high rent/high C.o.L. is the cost of not having to live in the sticks. I can't imagine not living in something approximating a Northeastern or European city (S.F. certainly qualifies!), therefore I know I'll have pay for what I get...but I'll get what I pay for.

And putting a rent check in a Valentine's Day card perfectly combines bitter and sweet...inspired, Toby. :-)

OMG. I had no idea these comments would be about the rent. (There, I continued that trend.)

The card -- and idea itself. Perfect. It brought a smile to my face on this drab day in the Midwest (where a four-digit rent check for a one-bedroom would mean you screwed up).

Toby, me confused. I thought landlady is a bitch. Or will she get that you are being sarcastic? I can't see the check enough to tell how much you pay but everyone else seems to be able to enlarge it. Should your account info, address, etc. be posted on the internet? Or maybe you have carefully blurred those parts.

A lover? Are you bi now?

Sorry i didnt mean to start an uproar over ur rent, i was just saying....i dont know what i was saying im just 17 and couldnt imagine that rent....SOrry to do that to ya....

ELMO~slowly lowers head in shame

TOBY: Ha ha ha, it wasn't you in particular, it was everyone in general. Don't be ashamed!

Ha, Ha, Ha. Guess what? You may not have even paid your rent. You may have just GIFTED something without a penis with $1,000+ dollars.

In New York City, THE LAW is that your rent is not legally paid until you provide a judge with proof (in the form of receipts or cancelled checks) that you paid your rent. In NYC, landlords can (and many do) still sue you for not paying your rent when you gave them your rent without getting a written receipt. Landlords sue tenants for non-payment of rent hoping that they didn't save the receipts and/or that the tenants don't have cancelled checks for a year or so worth of rent. AND, this is all a result of the law in New York that the tenant is legally responsible for PROVING that he paid his rent.

No mmatter how much you like your landlord, or how good a relationship you think you have with your Landlord, if you live in a major city and you are paying big bucks in rent, you should ALWAYS get a fahking receipt AND keep a copy of the check and file way the cancelled checks (if you pay with personal checks).

Here is another scam that takes place in NYC if you pay your rent with personal checks. The landlord will take the checks and horde them. Then, maybe six or eight months down the line, the landlord will deposit the six or eight checks hoping that one or more of them bounce. If one or more of your checks bounce, you will be in serious trouble (at least in NYC) for not paying rent AND passing bad checks.

I pay my rent with a money order, I xerox copy the money order AND I get my landlord's agent to sign a receipt showing that he received the money order.

Oh, I don't want to scare anybody, but there is also THIS little scam in NYC. The landlord will sue you for non-payment of rent (even though you paid your rent) and the landlord will NOT notify you that he sued you. You won't know that your landlord has sued you for non-payment of rent until you go home and find out that you have been evicted from your apartment. In NYC, if you have a very bad relationship with your landlord, you should check Housing court from time to time to see if your landlord has sued you for not paying your rent.

NOW, you know the real cost of living in the big city, i.e. LIVING IN FEAR.

TOBY SAYS: Um, yeah, my landlord is normal, she doesn't do shit like that.

Enjoy your blog and love the card you are sending to your landlord. Maybe she will have a kind heart and lower your rent for a month. Somehow, I plcture your landlord looks like the old lady Woody Harelson hooks up with in Kingpin.

Oh, by the way you are the subject of a miss connection on craigslist.

If your okay with it than i am too.

you know that peoples comments should not make u change what u write in ur blog, its YOUR BLOG, where u should be free to write about whatever u want. Im not going to stop writing detailed descriptions of my encounters just cause a few readers dont like it...and besides if they dont like what u wrote tehy dont have to read it

ELMO~just a little imput

I pay $1200 a month to live in Chelsea but I also have 2 other roommates. They both pay $1600 a month. Cities are expensive. We're not just paying for an apartment but proximity to work/school, culture and nightlife.

Wow, Peter. I thought I was doing a good job of being obnoxious, but I bow to the master twat.

Take a fucking pill already, jeez...

OMGGGGGGGGGG!!! NO WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who fucking cares? Not everything you read on the internet is fucking true, you (ostensibly) gross old men. Toby totally lives in a one-room converted janitors' closet in some shithole building that goes for a blow job, a bag of coke, and a one-dollar bill per month. Get over yourselves.

Peter Everhard, I find you annoying. You renting some shady place in Bed-Stuy?

Living in NYC is only equated to Living in Fear if you're retarded.

Ahhh...soph year in college I was dishing out $1500 for a farking studio in downtown Manhattan. Sad thing is, I had roomates! In a studio! Well, you didn't think a 19 yr old could afford that by hisself, right? 4 boys in a studio in Manhattan. Now THAT'S a story for the grandkids!

I thought the card was cute. And some of you guys are so funny with your responses. And to the one guy: why WOULDN'T you get a receipt for your rent payment? I mean, who doesn't? If I'm writing a check for $1600 I'm gonna stand right next to that landlord until I get some written confirmation! I mean, $1600 would otherwise cover like, two months of clubbing and going out! I wouldn't wanna waste that on a rent that I can't even prove I paid! :-)

Gosh, rent comments aside I had to do a TOTALLY OFF TOPIC COMMENT about Brat Boy's latest typo...

He is such a writing talent

"(as my domestic diety Martha Stewart would point out)"

Is Martha dieting now? Martha Meets Jenny Craig in the latest Diety CRAZE!!!!

in re Rent and Big City Living, here is a blog entry idea for you Mr/Ms Toby, THE GMC PAD
http://walkthrough.nytimes.com/?p=236

According to The New York Times, General Motors calls the GMC PAD a "mobile urban loft". Feel free to blog it, this is just a regular freebie, I mean, it's not like it is "Be Nice to Gay Boys Who Can't Put on Muscle Mass Day" or anything.

I think that is so cute and sweet. I love that card. :) What a delightful way to pay rent.