In the city, you get less home for your buck, but you get “city life” – easy access to, well, pretty much anything that isn’t space, solitude, or quiet. For those last three, you can get those in spades out in the boonies, but you wind up needing to go 20+ minutes to get anywhere, and even then, your options are super limited.
We are spending a LOT less on food since we moved out here. Mostly this is because we’re preparing every meal for ourselves rather than doing delivery or going out. I’ve forgotten or been unable to bring lunch to work a couple of times, and we have grabbed some fast food once or twice, but even so – much less expensive.
We don’t have a condo assessment anymore. That’s $400 or so a month we don’t *have* to spend. Instead, we’ve got to either buy a lawn tractor or pay a landscaper to come out and do it, so basically it’s a wash for now. We have to set aside cash for yearly/bi-annual maintenance, too – driveway resurfacing, exterior painting, extermination, all that stuff. I still think that’s pretty much a wash, too.
In the city, the property we have would be literally unobtainable. Sure, there are houses this size – about 5,000 sq. ft. – but they would have yards of at most 1-2 acres and cost several million dollars. Here we’re on 20+ acres and the place was less than half a mil – less, even, than we originally paid for our condo in the city. But on the other hand, this place is needing work – deck needs TLC desperately, furnaces are ancient (25 years, when their service life should be about 15), and all that.
Transit is more – paying for gas since we drive more, paying almost 3x as much for the train than for the CTA. Internet is more – almost $100 for internet fast enough and responsive enough that I don’t pull my hair out, vs. $75 for way better service back in the city. Electric and gas are more, but that’s to be expected.
Really, it’s the food and the lower mortgage that evens out the cost. And also the space, solitude and quiet.