First off, I think the answer might be yes, but I want to get other people's opinions on if its worth it. I guess another question is what amount of savings is worth moving for?
A little (lot) information: Currently living in a 1 br ~550ft sq 580 sq ft apartment in a kinda crappy building but a good Chicago neighborhood. Haven't had any problems with neighbors or the landlord, and my maintenance guy is great. The problem is that my rent is being raised to 1340$ this year and utilities are annoying. When I moved in, all utilities except electric were included in the rent (which was 1285$ at the time). Last year they separated utilities from rent (ended up being 43-85$/mo) AND raised the rent to 1325$. The kicker is that I don't have control over the heat so I have no control over how much I pay for gas (stove is even electric). Not only that, but the water is billed based on the building then distributed out to the tenents using a ratio that is based on how many people are living in an apartment. So utility situation sucks. I also question whether I need the 1br apt because I'm only 1 person, and I can only be using either the living room or the bedroom at a single point in time. I hardly ever use my living room when I'm alone because my computer is in the bedroom, or I'm reading on my bed, or cooking/eating, or I'm not home at all! I probably spend more time cleaning the living room than I do actually living in it.
Onto potential new places, if I lived in a studio rent would be somewhere in the 850-1100$ range. I feel like I should move to save money, but I'm having trouble convincing myself. I have 2 cats and I'm not sure they would enjoy being cooped up all day in the smaller place, and many places have move in fees and pet fees. Also it turns out there are larger studios than my current place that still cost less in rent/utilities. My estimate of moving fees would be somewhere in the 50-500$ range (one time). I'd have to spend time finding a place and actually moving to the new place. Lastly I know a lot of my furniture would not work great in a smaller place, so I'd have to do some refurnishing. My current furniture is pretty crappy though (4 yr old abused Ikea furniture mostly), so I might be starting to replace those for more quality (hopefully found on craigslist) pieces anyway? I know I'd probably avoid this until they were falling apart or I'm forced, so I probably won't actually do it unless I move to the smaller place.
So, help me out... should I move? What if I only end up saving 200$ a month? Is it worth it to go through the hassle of moving?