Hello there, frugalites! I hope your body is ready for a sob story. You may need to knock some sense into me. Here's the situation:
I currently live in a townhouse that I love. It's spacious, close to shopping, down the street from friends, and ridiculously affordable ($650). After all of my bills, food, and luxuries are paid, I've been saving ~$1,100 per month. I've lived here for almost a year so far. Not too shabby of a situation, right?
Well, here's the bad: I live in a pretty sketchy area. I haven't had any problems first hand, but I do have to admit that it's pretty unnerving to regularly see police cars down the street and meth heads roaming throughout the neighborhood. Also, there's pretty much a halfway house on almost every block (sadly, this isn't an exaggeration). My neighborhood routinely has the comforting ambiance of helicopters searching for someone on the loose, as well as the occasional gunshot. A crime map of this part of town lights up like a Christmas tree (mostly drug, assault, and theft related crimes). I genuinely feel unsafe walking outside and avoid it as much as possible.
I also don't like the whole sharing-a-common-wall with the neighbor situation, especially since my neighbors are always bumping into the walls at all hours and blasting their TV. It's pretty damn irritating.
In addition to living in a not-so-great area, the commute to my current job is pretty awful. When I first got this townhouse, I was literally within walking distance from my job. Now, I am 30 minutes away in hair-pulling stop-and-go traffic on poorly planned streets (no freeway on this side of town). 20 minutes on a good day. Normally, this commute wouldn't seem so bad to me if I actually liked the area I lived in, but it's slowly starting to not become worth it.
My job, as luck would have it, is also not in the best of areas. However, only 10 minutes away (by freeway; made the drive multiple times) are some pretty nice, quiet neighborhoods. The average price range for a house there, though, is around $950-$1200 per month. I take home $2400.
Normally, I wouldn't even CONSIDER paying such a large fraction for rent, but I've been really thinking about it. I'm even willing to take a second job to offset the extra costs (don't want roommates- bad experiences). I currently do not have any debt, which is pretty fortunate considering that I don't exactly make a lot. No student loans or credit card debt, and my car is completely paid for. I also have a year's worth of my salary saved up in addition to retirement.
With that said, do you think I should go for it? Or, should I just suck it up and stay where I am and save for another year? Any apartment that's around the same price and NOT in a sketchy area is considerably further away (at least a 45-60 minute commute).
So, what do you think? Can I afford this? Am I being ridiculous? Is this a "wants vs needs" sort of deal? Help me out and slap me back to reality if necessary.
Thank you for reading all of this!
TL;DR: I live in a really crappy, unsafe area that's far away from work. Is it worth it to have almost a whole paycheck go to rent for a place that's quieter, safer, and much closer to work? Doing this would mean that I'd save ~$400 per month instead of ~$1,100. I am willing to take on a second job as well.
February 24, 2017 at 02:07AM
