4 ms·

Hm funnily enough, my house has helped me combat that too. I'm in the suburbs + not in Seattle anymore so everything is cheaper. And the restaurants here are o

Hm funnily enough, my house has helped me combat that too. I'm in the suburbs + not in Seattle anymore so everything is cheaper. And the restaurants here are on par with Seattle tbh. Bigger kitchen + ability to grill means I cook way more. And I'm closer to a supermarket than I was in Seattle. I never had anything walkable in the city but now it's walkable or a 90s drive. It did take years of practice to learn how to cook with confidence. But I frequently now buy a whole (free range, locally grown) chicken on sale for 99c/lb. And generally just use what's on sale. More storage space means I can stock up when staples are on sale. Both shelf stable food and stuff like paper products. That's free money. Add those up and I've saved a lot of money.

marssaxman 2y ago
I can see why you are happy with the life you've found. Congratulations - it sounds like you've made a great change! There are actually similar reasons motivating us to stay in our central Seattle townhouse, despite feeling "house-poor". Having three grocery stores within ten minutes' walk makes it easy to cook fresh meals at home, which I do most of the time these days; we've dropped the delivery habit. We don't have to drive often anymore - I walk to work, and my wife has an e-bike - so a single older car meets our needs, keeping transportation costs in check. Inflation may have squeezed the slack out of our budget, but we still have a better life here than the one we could make with the money we might save by leaving.
- whateveracct 2y ago
  Yeah, I do feel you about the "stuck"-ness of it all. Just as a sanity check I looked into what moving out of this house would look like. And like you said, due to interest rates, it's not pretty. So I've just leaned into it and invested in the house. New water heater/furnace. Remodeling & finishing things. Landscaping. I figure I should be ready for the long haul. And you can definitely do worse than living in central Seattle in a townhouse :) it's a wonderful city.

marssaxman 2y ago

I can see why you are happy with the life you've found. Congratulations - it sounds like you've made a great change! There are actually similar reasons motivating us to stay in our central Seattle townhouse, despite feeling "house-poor". Having three grocery stores within ten minutes' walk makes it easy to cook fresh meals at home, which I do most of the time these days; we've dropped the delivery habit. We don't have to drive often anymore - I walk to work, and my wife has an e-bike - so a single older car meets our needs, keeping transportation costs in check. Inflation may have squeezed the slack out of our budget, but we still have a better life here than the one we could make with the money we might save by leaving.

whateveracct 2y ago
Yeah, I do feel you about the "stuck"-ness of it all. Just as a sanity check I looked into what moving out of this house would look like. And like you said, due to interest rates, it's not pretty. So I've just leaned into it and invested in the house. New water heater/furnace. Remodeling & finishing things. Landscaping. I figure I should be ready for the long haul. And you can definitely do worse than living in central Seattle in a townhouse :) it's a wonderful city.