Loading…
9
Compared my DC rent receipt to my old Buffalo lease, and the math finally made me stop feeling guilty
I moved to DC for a job back in March and have been quietly regretting it every time I pay rent. My place here is 620 square feet and costs $2,150. My old two bedroom in Buffalo was $1,100 and had a backyard. I kept telling myself I was failing at adulting because I couldn't just be grateful for the new job.
Then I sat down last weekend and actually wrote out the numbers. My commute here is 12 minutes by metro. Back in Buffalo it was 40 minutes driving, plus I spent about $180 a month on gas and parking. I also used to pay $90 for a gym membership because my old building had no gym. Here, the gym is in the basement and free. My power bill in Buffalo was always brutal in winter, like $160 some months. Here it's been around $45 because of the newer windows.
When I added up all those extras, my true cost of living in Buffalo was about $1,530. So I'm paying $620 more now, but I get two extra hours of free time each day and I haven't had to scrape my windshield since I moved. That still doesn't make the city easy, but it stopped me from feeling like I'd made a purely dumb choice. Has anyone else done this kind of side by side comparison and found the gap smaller than they expected?
0 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In0 Comments
No comments yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this discussion.