'Hot Bedding': Why Australians are sleeping with strangers to save money.

Monique Jeremiah would call herself a traditional woman. 

But when the pandemic started causing ripples in Australia and there were whispers of a lockdown in 2020, she made an unconventional offer to her ex-boyfriend.

The pair hadn't dated for years, but they had remained great friends. And while their relationship didn't work, who was to say they couldn't be incredible housemates? 

Scratch that... bedmates.

Watch Mamamia Confessions: The worst thing a housemate has done. Post continues after video. 

"When I realised that our relationship had no future, we agreed that we should just stay friends," she tells Mamamia. 

"And one day, I just realised, he doesn't want to rent a house somewhere else. Why don't I propose the idea and why don't we just share a bed and nothing more?"

He agreed and moved into her place on the Gold Coast a few weeks later, in 2020. 

"We had totally separate lives," she explains. "I'm always running around doing business things here and there and he was travelling for his own situation, so it worked out perfectly."

Monique charged her ex-boyfriend $170 a week to live in the luxury apartment. The cost also covered water, electricity and internet. 

"There was no other bill for him to pay for that just to have a place to come home to when he needed and really go live separately," she recalls. 

Their unique situation, despite being unconventional, is no longer a rare thing and as living costs increase, people are finding creative solutions to battle the financial crunch. 

Hot bedding typically involves strangers sharing a bed to save on rent and usually means sleeping on shifts. 

Research from the University of Technology Sydney found 3 per cent of the 7000 students living in Sydney and Melbourne hot bedded to save on rent. 

Four out of 10 of the students also confessed to skipping meals due to the cost of living. 

When COVID decimated Monique's successful business where she worked with international students moving to Australia, she knew she had to make some rather risky decisions. 

"We made a decision, not only to financially share a bed but also as a way to mentally and socially cope during COVID," she explains.

The pair lived together and shared a room until May 2022 and those around them couldn't help but feel it was an odd decision to make. 

"[They all] thought it was ridiculous," she says. "They said, 'Why would you do that? Why would you stop yourself from being in a relationship with someone else?' But I wasn't looking for a relationship because I'm content with my business life."

"People did not understand the situation," she continues. 

"But I was like, 'No this is a financial decision that we made, and a social decision. We respected each other and we're still friends... Our friendship survived hot-bedding."

In the meantime, she felt it was the perfect situation during a dire time. 

"For him. I think it was nice that he was able to come home and I was just there," she continues. "There's a lot of people that going through depression and all kinds of issues and for me, I wanted to make sure I avoided being alone for so long."

Of course, there were rules the pair followed to ensure their situation wasn't ruined, including not inviting anyone else to sleep in their bed. Monique shares they also ruled out sex and kept it professional.

Even though her former bedmate has since moved interstate, the pair have remained friends. She tells Mamamia she would hot-bed again — even with a stranger. 

"As long as I can learn to trust the other person, I would probably do it," she shares. "People nowadays, lots of people are sharing houses and I would be happy to do the same thing."

Interestingly enough, Monique was one of the ladies who was vying for the heart of a farmer on Farmer Wants A Wife earlier this year, while she was still sharing a bed with her ex-boyfriend. 

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"I told [him] at the time I was going on a TV show and to look after the place," she explains. "We were totally broken up and there was no relationship there. I would love to be married, I would love to have kids and I still have those traditional values but I'm just doing things differently to find the right person. 

"I am who I am and I'm different."

Monique currently lives with a few other international students and still lives on the Gold Coast. 

Her advice to others who are considering hot-bedding is to find someone with similar values, or at least a shared respect. 

"Know the reason why you are doing it," she explains. "For example, I knew his circumstances and he's a father [and] I knew he was a good person."

"I wanted to find someone like me with old-school values and a lot of respect and I'd do it again," she continues. 

"I'd like to find someone who is an entrepreneurial person who doesn't want to live alone. Male or female, that's fine!"

Monique Jeremiah is the owner of The Team at Diversity Models. You can follow her journey on Instagram here.

Feature Image: Supplied.

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