how serious is the fighting with your parents?
I moved out at that age once. Sixteen. (but moved back)....twas a highly traumatic experience. I then moved out again 2.5 years later because of my parents.
I want to stress to you that the legal age to leave home is 18. Although, it is also legally not allowed for ANYONE to force you to live at home at 16. You are 15. You need to wait a while.
I had to wait a while too.
During this time, if your abuse is still severe, you can work out the following things:
First, start a budget. How much will you get a week? And how much will you spend? Be realistic. After that, work a second budget, what I call an "emergency budget" where you can see whether you'll scrape through if you lost your job. This can be done by working out your youth allowance.
If you're getting youth allowance, that;s perfect, but to get some spare cash from centrelink, you need to divorce yourself from your parents and claim 'independence'. This is why I asked you how severe your parents and the fighting are. If you parents are in fact actually abusive to you, you should contact the school counsellor, or any form of counselling, so that when Centrelink judges the severity of your abuse at home, they have a third party to interview. That way, you go under the catergory where your parents are not exercises their responsibilities as a parent, therefore your income is judged by itself, rather than your parents income. Your income is without a doubt small, so you would get about $200 a week. You could also apply for rent assistance
If you for some reason do not feel that your abuse is severe, contact your school counsellor anyway. He/she can judge for themselves, they're professionals, and even if it is not severe, it could probably give you peace of mind. You can work out some ways to get through to your parents.
Honey, if you manage to get out somehow, you need to make sure you have a safety net ie your family to fall back on when times get rough. You will need
-somewhere/one to fall back on
-a budget totally organised
-a job, that is stable.
-about close to $700 - $1000 of spare money, such as surprise bills, fees for uni, textbooks for uni, textbooks for school, majorwork money... as well as general furniture you might need. This is meant to be 'spare money', where you're probably not going to touch unless it was an emergency
-a shitload of support from your friends - at times I got severely depressed and lonely
In my case, not having a family that loves me anymore, I have the Northern Sydney Youth Support Service as well as Ryde Adolescent Health that will support me if I was in great need. As well as this, I have my boyfriend's family who welcome me to stay anytime. I'm excersising this now as we speak, since I have recently become unemployed. I feel that you being 15, even if you go to a sharehouse, you will definatley need someone to fall back on if your family is out of the question. Call some organisations. You will find that you need to have a few sessions of counselling before they are willing to help you.
You will also find that because you are so frikin young, and your only reason is because you fight with your parents, is that when you do move out, your parents will either try to get you to move back in, and work some compromises. If you feel this is the case, I strongly urge you NOT to move out and work it out. Even if you do just 'up and leave', go as a sort of stand, rather than a full-blown "im leaving home". Work it out in every which way you can think of. Moving out should be your last resort.
I'm currently out of home now, (I'm 18, going to uni) and my parents have since disowned me entirely. Centrelink has a file about me spanning for 3 years, as well as two youth organisations I have been counselling with for 3-4 years. I'm this independent and receive about $200 a week, with $33 a week's rent assistance. I havent spoken to my parents for 3 months. Even though I'm aware that they were extremely abusive, I honestly feel sick and lonely at times, regardless of how many friends I have. It's a very intense feeling, wish I brush off really quickly. But no matter how abusive, you WILL miss them... that is, if you had any conscience in you.
Expect being pretty poor for a very long time, especially if you wish to go to uni. I cannot stress how important it is to budget.
As abusive as my own parents were, it takes a very particular sort of person to leave home against their parents.... emotionally, mentally as well as being thoroughly organised, ambitious etc.
Other than this, I have also had urges to quite uni entirely and just work full time, it would certainly make things financially easier. Before you move out, make sure you plan and make yourself stick with what you want to do, so that later you do not lose sight of what you really want.