Jana Hocking on why a single woman in her 30s isn’t a good housemate

Women who are single in their 30s face a unique problem that no one really considers. Jana Hocking says it leads to an embarrassing problem.

After freaking out during lockdown about living by myself, I decided to move in with a friend. I’m a social butterfly by nature, and the idea of facing a second lockdown with no one but me, myself and I for too long sent little shudders down my spine.

There’s only so much wine and Sex and the City episodes a girl can consume before she goes mildly bonkers.

So I packed up my things, and choofed around the corner to my friends house for what I expected to be a lovely little home life similar to that of Monica and Rachel’s on Friends.

Turns out that 1. I need to stop treating (epic) ’90s TV shows like reality, and 2. Housemates should be strictly kept to your 20s.

RELATED: Big dating lie all women tell

Spending lockdown alone caused Jana Hocking to freak out about living on her own.

As two career focused single girls, we spent more time at work and less time enjoying wine nights in our PJs. Oh, and two single girls living together is not the best situation. Should one of you be #blessed with the company of a male, you gotta consider a third set of ears in the household.

Love my friends, but certainly don’t want them to hear me in the throws of passion. Especially when it’s with someone you’ve promised your friends you are “like, SO done with!”

Hey, everyone has a secret dalliance from time to time.

So within three months it was time, once again, to pack my bags and head back to a lovely home life that involves just one girl and her dog.

RELATED: Secret flirting technique all women use

Once a gal is in her 30s it’s hard to live in a house share, says Jana.

Now, here’s the thing that happy couples don’t know about the single life … it’s expensive!

While couples look at gorgeous one-bedroom apartments, smugly knowing that they will be going halves in the rent, we poor singletons are scanning realestate.com looking for anything that’s not ridiculously out of the price range for a solo pay packet.

And that’s not the only expense we singletons are stuck with. Oh no.

There’s the cost of furniture, Uber eats delivery fees that can’t be split with a significant other, access to the streaming services that you pay for in full by yourself, buying fresh groceries that won’t go stale before the end of the week.

And don’t even get me started on the cost of dating. If we want to spend time with someone, it’s not a cosy night in with a pizza, a movie and PJs. No, we’ve still got to launch ourselves into the initial first date.

That involves the cost of an Uber to the date, halves in the wine, perhaps dinner, the uber home. You go on a few dates a week in the hopes of meeting someone special and you’re already down well over a hundred dollars. Per week.

Then there’s travel. Been invited to a destination wedding? Or perhaps you’ve been invited to a friend’s birthday interstate. Apart from the plane ticket which everyone has to fork out for, there’s then the hotel room that you can’t split with a partner, the travel to the wedding, and the wedding gift. All which can be halved in a couple.

By the time you’re a year into the single life, you are pretty darn broke.

RELATED: Mortifying moment with ‘unicorn’ man

Jana Hocking says couples don’t understand how expensive it is to be single.

It’s not just expenses you will have to wrangle with as a singleton. There’s what seems to be an acceptable bias towards singletons. A recent study found that rental agents are more likely to pick a married couple over a single person to rent to.

In the experiment conducted by the University of Virginia, rental agents read descriptions of multiple applicants for a rental property and chose one. The applicant pool included a married couple and different types of singles.

Although the applicants were similar in terms of wealth and careers, participants consistently chose the married couple over the singles and explicitly stated that the applicants’ marital status influenced their choice.

I’ve also discovered the cost of socialising in your 30s is far more expensive then it was in my 20s when a night on the dance floor followed by five vodka sodas and a Maccas on the way home put me out around $50 to $60.

With friends who are doing gloriously well in their professions, a night out now tends to consist of dinner at a nice restaurant, a cocktail (or three) and perhaps a little money put aside for the cheeky Uber eats order post-hangover the next day.

Nights have got a lot more glam – and expensive – since Jana was in her 20s.

One too many weekends of laying low can really give you a yucky dose of loneliness. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt about the single life it’s that your social life is incredibly important. Interactions keep the ol’ mental health in check.

So don’t get me wrong, the single life is a grand ol’ thing. Full of freedom and non-judgment bliss when you get up for that 3am snack. Really, at this current stage of my life I wouldn’t have it any other way.

But next time you want to invite me to the latest five star restaurant for a spot of dinner on a Tuesday night, maybe suggest a cheeky pasta night special instead.

Jana Hocking is a podcaster and collector of kind-of-boyfriends | @jana_hocking | Jana (with a J)