My husband recently accepted a new task across the country from our home.
I am a freelance contractor in programming and software design and largely work from home.
My husband on the other hand is a recent graduate in nursing school and had trouble finding work in our small town. When he landed the new task out west, the two of us were both ecstatic. I mentioned for years I wanted a change of pace and thought this would be a perfect opening for us to start a new life in a new place neither of us had ever even stepped foot in. It was also going to be the first time either of us had lived in a medium sized city. All of us both had grown up and lived in that same small midwest hamlet our entire lives. What the two of us soon discovered was that rent rates in our new neighborhood were unbelievably higher than back home. Whereas before the two of us could rent a 2 kitchen condo on our income alone, the two of us were now restricted to apartments only. It wasn’t the perfect solution, but the two of us now had a opening to save from 2 incomes instead of 1, so the two of us decided to stick it out. One large concern we’re having is how the a/c was installed. It is housed in a large closet that also contains our water gas furnace and our washer and dryer. The heat from both of those components sizzling up the a/c to the point where our electric bill is as high in this small condo as it was back new home in our seasoned house. I think that the two of us will have to find a new condo when our lease is up, because the two of us can’t even afford to save a little each week with living costs as high as they are now.