When you're choosing a roommate, there's a lot to think about — especially if you'll be living off-campus, where you have many more responsibilities than you do with on-campus housing.
One of the things to consider seriously is whether your financial lifestyles match.
What does that mean? Let's see...remember the early episode of Friends 
where Monica, Ross and Chandler all had money to do things, and Joey, Rachel and Phoebe didn't? Well, it created a rift — similar to what can happen with roommates who aren't on the same page financially.
Here a few things to think about before you sign a lease with a new roomie:
Do you agree about how much rent you can afford? This is basic, but you shouldn't even be apartment-hunting
with someone who's looking at housing that's out of your league. Let him find another roommate and you can use the pool and gym at their apartment complex when you visit.What about utilities? Remember, utilities go beyond water, lights and heat. What type of Internet service do you want to get? Will you be investing in cable or satellite television? Do you "need" TiVo®?
Don't assume you both agree about what's necessary.How will you furnish the place? Are you both okay with mismatched hand-me-downs, or does one of you want to furnish the place from scratch? Can you afford whatever your future roomie is proposing?
How about the day-to-day stuff? Make sure you discuss your approach to buying food and other household stuff. Don't wait until she eats your favorite organic pasta sauce to have this discussion. Make sure you agree about what to share the cost of, and what is "hands off." Find a fair way to split the community items. Otherwise you might always be the one buying the paper towels and dishwasher soap.
If you've already been through a financial mismatch with a roommate, got any stories to share?
Hmm..I never thought about it like this. I'm not planning on living off campus this fall, but its definetely something to think about for this comming semester and fall 09 year.
I moved in with one of my best friends our second semester of Freshman year. We both worked full time, had full time boyfriends, and went to school full time. And honestly, the full-time schedules were what saved us from losing our friendship. We weren't in each other's hair constantly in the little 2 bed apt. Summer break without school drove us crazy since we were always together.
My advice - live with someone who works an opposite schedule as you so you each can have the place to yourselves at times. Worked well for us!
I had the same college roomate 3 of my 4 years in school. We met in the dorms and became fast friends, so when the dorms started to cramp our style, we decided to be roomates in our very first apartment. She came from a wealthy family and I was working full time to make ends meet, so initially- we had to sit down and talk about what I could really afford and how we would separate things like groceries. I nixed the chic loft apartment on the hip side of town and vetoed going in on new furniture and we ended up in an older apartment that was all bills paid INCLUDING internet and cable- YESSS!! I'll never forget her face the first time we went into a Goodwill for a coffee table- it was utter terror! But she was a good sport and we went bargain shopping together and we made bonding experiences out of revamping garage sale finds and turning them into one of a kind pieces, and by the end of the first year- we had that apartment looking AWESOME! We were even able to have really nice monthly dinner parties with our friends for less than $3 a person. She turned into more of a penny pincher than I was- and she'd always call or text me with all her finds. She recently bought her first house and called me to boast that she only spent $1000 on an entire living room of furniture-couches, tables, art and all! I like to think that it was good for her to have to learn to stick within a budget- that's a skillset everyone needs, no matter how much you have to spend.
@ Anonymous -- That's great advice. Thanks for sharing!
@Budgets - sounds like you were a great influence on your friend. Way to go!