| I’ve just moved from a 3 hour commute from the suburbs to a 15 minute walk to work. While there are lots of positive changes to living so close to work, I’d just like to add some of the negative ones I’ve found since I moved: 1. A 3 hour commute would leave me exhausted when I got home. I would wake up at 7:30, get into the office at 10:00, leave at 19:00 and be home around 20:30. I’d eat dinner and then settle down for to bed. Since moving I now have so much time in the evenings for practising guitar, video games, reading and social events, but I’m no longer tired in the evenings which is preventing me from sleeping. 2. Living in London is stressful. I’m on a quiet street, but it’s a lot of people, a lot of light pollution and a lot of noise pollution. I’m used to pitch darkness and dead quietness. The air is also no where near as fresh. 3. I find that living so close to work makes it harder to unwind. Upon getting home I’m still in work mode. The commute was a nice chance to forget about work and calm the mind. 4. I used to walk almost 25 miles a week, it’s less than 10 now. Sure I can go running more often, but it requires more effort to enforce the habit. 5. I spend so much more cash living in London on rent, food, social life and dating, which leaves almost none for savings and motorsport/track events/cars. |
This is the weird part for me: moving into the city saved me money overall.
In the suburbs where we lived, every person needs a car. It was a 30 minute walk just to get to the nearest store. So we paid insurance, gas, maintenance, etc on two vehicles. In the city, we have one car that we rarely use. If it dies, we'll get a car-share membership. (Frankly, I'm not certain we wouldn't save money if we just did that immediately).
The commute wasn't just long before, it was expensive: $400 CAD or more per month. Inside the city, $140 has me covered. Utilities on the small house we rented were nuts, especially in the winter. We pay a fraction of that now.
Adding it all up, the increase in rent was less than the saved amount.
The only real danger I find now is that I can go out with friends. I have more opportunity to spend money- but at least I'm enjoying spending that money.