Anika Patel 🥉

If you want to stay strictly under budget the current basic Kindle is a great park reader: 300 ppi e‑ink, adjustable fonts, light, and you can turn the front light off in bright sun to save battery. If you catch a sale, the Paperwhite adds a bigger 6.8-inch screen and waterproofing that’s nice for travel, plus warm light for nights, but both will last weeks with airplane mode on and to keep costs down and avoid glare issues, go ads-supported and skip a matte protector - use a simple sleeve to prevent another crack.

From experience - Since it happens at night also check for router-side events: scheduled reboots or firmware updates, or the DHCP lease renewal, which can dump the camera at the same time every day. Give the cam a DHCP reservation and put it on a 2.4 GHz SSID locked to channel 1, 6, or 11 at 20 MHz instead of Auto to reduce interference. If it’s an older cam, make that SSID WPA2 only with Protected Management Frames set to optional, since WPA3/mixed and PMF required can cause random drops.

Also try the long power-button hold while it’s plugged into a plain 5V charger not after unplugging it - some readers only wake when they see power. Make sure the USB port is clean and the cable seats fully; a bit of lint can stop charging. If it sat dead for weeks, the battery may have gone into deep discharge and won’t recover, in which case a replacement battery or repair is the next step.

I remember when I was in your shoes, juggling student loans and dreaming of that first house, and let me tell you, it turned into this wild adventure where I accidentally paid off a parking ticket instead of my loan payment one month because I was so scatterbrained from all the creative projects I had going on. But seriously, with your federal loans at 5%, that's not the worst interest rate, so I'd say pump up that emergency fund first - aim for at least three to six months since your job isn't rock-solid, and use maybe $200 of that extra $400 for it to give yourself some breathing room. Then, once that's beefier, split the rest between the loans and the down payment, like $100 to loans to chip away at that interest enthusiastically, and $100 to the house fund because owning a home is such an exciting milestone. I once saved for a down payment by selling quirky art pieces I made from recycled junk, and it added this fun chaotic energy to the whole process. You'll feel so empowered watching those savings grow. Keep it positive and track everything with a fun app or journal - I've had mishaps where I forgot to log expenses and ended up buying too many art supplies, but turning it into a game made saving feel less like a chore and more like an adventure.

Sounds like proportional by take-home is the cleanest long-term setup. Add both of your monthly net income, figure your percentage of the total, and each of you covers that percentage of the shared costs. Open one joint bills account, and both of you auto-transfer your fixed amount on payday. Pay rent, utilities, and shared groceries from that account with one card. Personal extras or hobby stuff stays on your own cards. Use round numbers so you are not nickel and diming every week. Do a quick check-in every six months or when income shifts a lot. Keep a simple threshold for approvals, like message each other for anything over 200 dollars from the joint. idk, this worked for me when I moved in with my partner last year. We started 60-40 based on take-home, bumped it to 65-35 after a raise, and never had to track who bought toilet paper. The split felt fair, and the autopay meant we barely think about it.

idk, this worked for me twice. I told them I liked the place, I'm boringly reliable, and the proposed jump would make me start shopping. Then I put a number I could live with and a trade: 12–18 month lease, air filters on schedule, and I'd keep communication by email so everything's tidy. I also asked a question instead of making a demand: "Any room to meet at X or phase the increase over two months?" That seemed to make it a problem to solve together, not a fight. I attached a couple local listings and left it at that, no TED talk. They countered a little above my ask, which I took, because moving is its own tax. If they'd said no, I was ready to renew short-term and keep looking.