A few months ago I moved out of a house share with four people where my overall housing expenses came in around $1100 each month to a 1 bedroom luxury apt that comes in around $500 more each month, all things included.
This seems irresponsible and very un-frugal on paper. However two major things have happened since I moved to a nicer place of my own.
1) I cook for myself for almost all meals and do better at conserving my groceries than before. When I was sharing a single kitchen with 4 other people, I rarely if ever cooked for myself. My diet consisted of fast food, seamless, and frozen meals. Occasionally I’d make some pasta, but even that was discouraging because of the sorry state of our kitchen.
It is very difficult to maintain a clean and hygienic cooking environment with 5 people all sharing flatware and cooking appliances. It also had the consequence of me not lunch prepping, so that daily expense of $10-15 lunches was weighing down on me as well.
Now that I have my own space and am paying a bit more for a clean quiet and roomy apartment with a big kitchen, cooking and cleaning on a regular basis is so much easier and more joyful. I’ve figured out my staple meals that get me by day-to-day (yogurt and almonds for breakfast, chicken rice and veggies for dinner, and a sandwich for lunch), and I don’t have to worry about roommates taking my food or stuff getting spoiled because It got lost in a packed fridge filled with four other peoples meals for the week.
2) I’ve seen unprecedented effectiveness and growth at my job, and have been verbally assured that I will be getting a raise in my immediate future. When I was living at my old house, my sleep patterns were constantly messed up by roommates going in and out, hosting parties, etc. now I’m in a very comfortable apartment all to myself. And My mental health has reached new heights.
I was struggling to be effective at my job while I lived in my old house. I was genuinely worried that I would not succeed and have to leave and find something else, as I’ve done many times in the past few years. I felt confined to my room when I was home since I didn’t feel comfortable always hanging in common areas with roommates who frequently stirred up drama and had beef with each other. So I would go home and mainly play games, smoke weed, and engage in my own personal comfort zone and bad habits that dragged down my energy during the day.
Once I moved to a place that gave me space and a sanctuary, I coincidentally turned a massive corner at work. I cracked the code for how to do my job effectively, have won over management, and am constantly being told that I have a future as an executive. Of course this has been a long time coming and due to years of persistent growth. But I am convinced the breakthrough happened in part because of the mental health benefits of coming home to a clean and safe space with no wild cards, dirtiness or chaos.
In summary, moving to a more expensive but much better housing situation has indirectly saved me hundreds of dollars each month on food, made it more attractive to do things like watch a movie on my couch instead of paying to go to the movies just so I can escape my house, and given me a much needed mental health boost to start growing my earning potential at work.
I am not blanket recommending that increasing housing expenses is always good idea. However I think I am a good example of when being frugal isn’t all about doing everything as cheaply as possibly.
It’s often about choosing the RIGHT things to invest in, and learning how to set yourself up to increasing you earning potential while also decreasing costs in a mindful way.
May 24, 2019 at 10:14AM
