City life vs country life: which is cheaper?
The lovely Frugalwoods had a post up recently about the cost of living in the country vs. their previous years living in the city. Apparently people kept saying to them ‘you must be saving so much money living out there!’ which couldn’t be farther from the truth for them at the moment. This really piqued my interest because I so often see people, myself included, making sweeping assumptions or predictions about lifestyle cost without actually examining the numbers.
Most of us are pretty bad at guessing what our life costs are. I recently saw a thread regarding family grocery costs with a huge range of numbers and reactions and judgements on the statement that the average family spends $500/month on groceries. For some people that number was just right and others it was way too low. Fair enough. But the really interesting part to me was how many people claimed to know exactly what they spent each month on groceries. This is where I wanted to ask questions. Do you track all of your spending and the average out food spend for the year? I know for myself the only way I truly know how much we spend on food is by tracking every single purchase. Before we did this I thought we spent 25% less than we actually did.
Unless you actually know what your costs are, making generalized assumptions/declarations about certain lifestyles are a waste of time.
Moving to the country could have been a lot more expensive for us with a few different choices. Unlike the Frugalwoods, we did not buy a homestead. We bought a house on a quarter acre lot within walking distance to town and our kids school. No tractor needed. There are no plans to live off the land or raise chickens. And we prefer to hire out for repairs rather than keep an expensive and space costly trove of tools (plus we’re not handy!).
That said, I’m generalizing on costs here and using percentages. I could provide a detailed graph and charts and such… we are users of Mint… but for privacies sake, I won’t.
Savings from moving to the country/a small town:
Childcare has dropped in cost by over 35%. The rates are lower here and you are not charged when your kids aren’t there. Our niece and nephew babysit for us for date night and they charge us less than half of what babysitters in the city charge.
Bye-bye sushi and cappuccinos. I thought we were mindful about our casual spending in the city and it was “reasonable”. Now that we no longer have good and cheap sushi a block away and so many coffee shops between us and any errands, our dine out and entertainment budget has dropped dramatically. We still go out once a week or so to a movie or for a date where we go for a walk. But it costs us a lot less than it did in the city. We spend about 20% of what we spent on entertainment and dining out when we lived in the city.
Our groceries are cheaper. We’re spending 10-20% less on groceries here because we can buy in bulk. The grocery costs are actually pretty similar to the city but now that we can buy a 40lb box of apples for $25, instead of paying $1.99/lb, we’re spending less. We’ve also moved from using recyclable coffee pods to French Press coffee that we grind from beans bought in bulk. I’m embarrassed to admit how much this change has saved us. *Hint: much more than buying apples in bulk has. Sometimes it felt like too much work to grind the beans and do the clean up for French press coffee. Which is really terrible to admit! But my husband’s willingness to make the coffee most mornings now that he has more time has made French press coffee our default.
Rental income. Our home came with a basement suite and we are about to rent it out for the first time. I don’t know if this will be an ongoing thing but if it is it will be a significant source of income.
Increased costs from moving to the country/ a small town:
Note, these are mostly one time costs that should have very little ongoing spend.
We bought a car. We paid cash for a pre-owned minivan and plan to use it for many years. With insurance, maintenance and gas this is a huge increase compared to our no car city life. Add in that we made $80/month renting our parking spot out and the increase gets even bigger. In the city we averaged around $150/month on transit, bike share and car-share. YIKES, the increase in cost for car ownership is exponential. *I haven’t costed out the investment opportunity loss of having money tied up in a depreciating asset. But it is there and it is significant.
All that garden stuff. We had to buy a lawn mower and some other gardening implements when we moved from the city to the country. I didn’t find a quick and easy way for us to buy a used lawn mower. The grass was getting long, so we bought one from the local hardware store. I think we are mostly done on those pieces but it was a significant outlay of cash.
More furniture. We bought most of it used before moving up here but it was still a significant cost. Two chairs for our living room, a dining table (our old one went to the basement suite), a queen bed and a couch for the basement suite and a coffee table and a few side tables. City life vs country life could also be called apartment life vs. house life.
For our city life vs country life we’re saving about 20%.
As listed above, some of our savings is a lower cost for items here and some is lifestyle change. There simply isn’t the same opportunity to spend here as there was in the city. I know many people live in an urban centre and aren’t tempted or don’t partake in cafe culture or the occasional green juice. But I did! So far we aren’t missing it. We take coffee from home to the sledding hill and go for ‘just a walk’ not a ‘walk and maybe drop by that French bakery.’
Of course we ski now which is very expensive in the city. But even that hasn’t impacted our budget that much. We only go occasionally and our local hill is really, really, really inexpensive. The cash outlay for our minivan was considerable. But if I threw a car payment into our monthly spend we would still have a cheaper lifestyle than in the city. And the other costs from moving here were from one time expenses. We’ve been pretty pleased with the change in our budget as we hope to be financially independent/retired earlier than the usual 65.
Cheaper does not automatically mean better of course.
We’re spending less and we’re really enjoying it here but I still think fondly of city life. Living downtown with kids was awesome. I don’t regret any of our years as a condo family. And because we chose to be a condo family, and bought into Vancouver real estate, we were lucky to be able to sell in a hot market and buy a home in a small town for much less than we sold for. This financial windfall has pushed us far closer to retirement. Thank you city living! *I’ll speak to housing costs in another post.
I’d love to hear from those of you that have calculated a city life vs country life. Did costs go up or down? What surprised you the most?
I haven’t been to your website in MONTHS and MONTHS. I just recommended you to a friend and said you were local in Vancouver living with three boys in a two bedroom apartment. I best let her know that things have changed although you still have lots of great recommendations
Hahaha! Well, there are still lots of posts here about small space city living with kids. She should check out apartmentmama.com (mom of 3 in downtown Vancouver now living in a townhouse) and 5kids1condo.com (single dad of 5 living in a downtown condo).
Really great blog post, you had me thinking about our own finances. We moved from London to the nearby countryside but I still commute into London at least part of the week.
Things like not eating out in the city as often is certainly a money saver!
Very interesting. I’ve lived in a large city, then moved to a large town and saw a good drop in my expenses. I was single back then. I now live in a very rural town and my expenses are higher, but only because I have a larger home and children now. So, I can not really compare city life and country life, but I can guess that my country life would be quite a bit less expensive. Of course, my income is also less, but I think that rural life is still less expensive.
We spend more than I’d like on groceries and more than I think probably. But I give a high priority to eating nutritiously and fruits and vegetable are expensive on Vancouver Island for some reason. But I take solace in the fact we diligently avoid food waste at home. I also purchase ‘ugly’ fruits and vegetables like carrots and potatoes which would otherwise be discarded. As well, restaurant visits are a rare occasion.
I don’t think you can compare living in a condo in the city to living in a house with land in a village. It is not the same. Either you compare living in a condo in the city and in a condo in the village or living in a house with a big garden city vs. village. So no “you need a lawnmower in the village but not in the city”. If you have a house vs. a small condo you’ll have a more expensive lifestyle. So the only thing left is transportation and rent. Cost of childcare doesn’t differ from city to country but from area to area. And when your family takes care of your children – that’s not because you live in the countryside but you life in the near of your family. I lived in the countryside in Germany and as soon as 18 every person had a car and a drivers license, because there was no way to get to work without a car in a reasonable time. So a family of 5 had 5 cars!
Hi Anita, This is a personal blog so I’m just comparing our move as I find the change in costs interesting. I know a lot of condo families wonder about change in cost of living to a house and vice versa. Transportation costs can vary wildly from city to country based on what the person uses or needs. You can live in the heart of the city and if you and your spouse work outside of it and away from transportation lines, you may need two cars. In our town there are apartments in the heart of the town and it would be possible to not have a car. Choices. Some people live in the city and never eat out or spend on entertainment. Some live in the country and make trips to larger cities and towns for concerts, etc. As I wrote, it’s not always safe to generalize these lifestyle costs.
Moved from Toronto, ON (2.5 million ppl) to Victoria, BC (80,000 ppl) about a year ago and our costs on every front have gone way UP while our income has gone way DOWN. Probably the opposite of what people would expect! Salaries are not high here, but groceries, real estate and gas on an island? Crazy expensive. I still have not gotten over the cost of a block of Black Diamond cheese. But our quality of life has improved on every front (no traffic, beautiful beaches, great weather) so the reduced savings rate has been totally worth it for us.
Yes! I’ve lived in Victoria – it’s expensive. And Vancouver, like Victoria, has lower wages than Toronto from what I have seen/read.
Thank you for mentioning quality of life as a being a factor for a move. So true: the beaches, weather and no traffic are wonderful reasons to move somewhere. We are really enjoying the snowy but relatively mild temps of the Kootenays. We’re having more outdoor fun than we would during our Vancouver winters!
Hi Rachel, Since moving from city to country 4 1/2 years ago everything is cheaper except for transport. We had to buy a car and had two for a while. I can catch the school bus in for under $2 if I have to and many people in our area hitchhike, car pool or ride bikes. We grow our own food and medicine, rarely go out where in the city we had regular eating out outings, pay cheaper rent for acreage and on and on. We barter and trade stuff with others which we did in the city but now it is for home grown food etc. I am more peaceful, a better parent, rarely busy and more since moving to the country which cannot be measured in money but is the most important thing to me.
Love this. Thank you for sharing. There are so many factors in comparing lifestyle choices and location choices. The benefits to an absence of traffic and the addition of a quieter pace can’t always be measured in dollars.
We moved back to the country two years ago and I think we spend less for the same reasons you mentioned: access and convenience! Target is a 15 minute drive so I don’t go for one thing anymore and usually only stop if I’m “in-town” for something else.
Yes, if we are out of a staple item we usually just work around it rather than go into town. We enjoyed the lack of easy access to things in the Isle of Man as well and found it contributed to lower spending. Something to think about if you know you aren’t great about resisting coffee shops, etc.
We had a suite in our basement for years. A great mortgage helper. I know you have three young boys. I imagine they are very active and make lots of noise. If you want to keep along term tenant I hope there is some soundproofing in the ceiling. It isn’t hard to do but can make all the difference. It is important to remember that your tenant deserves a quiet environment too.
The noise is one of the reasons we didn’t immediately rent the suite out. We’ve been very open about the time and level of noise with the tenant and it is a short term arrangement while she is here for a temporary work contract. We would have no problem with her deciding to leave if the noise is too much. We think eventually we will get another house and turn this house into a two suite rental.
I keep all expenses on paper, in categories, for each month…I like to know on what we spend money, if there is an increase in a category…maybe we should do something about it.
For a family of 3, on food, we spend around 300 euros/month(Eastern Europe).
My son eats during the week at the kindergarten.I bring cooked food to work, but I do hope to lower our food spending in the next months.
That’s impressive!
We do keep track of every dollar we spend. About 5 years ago, we moved back to the small town that we had lived in before moving to the city. The city we are talking about wasn’t very big, but one of the biggest in our mostly-rural state. Anyway, we didn’t calculate the percentage, but one area we saved most a great deal it was definitely “entertainment” (coffees, out to eat, etc, which we didn’t do much of, but now do almost none of). We spend more now in transportation, although we do walk a great deal in our little town. However, our biggest savings, by far, has been housing. We lived in a relatively rare affordable rental and still paid more than twice as much as our mortgage, insurance, etc. for our house now. Our utilities there were more expensive than our house-upkeep budget here. There are other savings here (buying local food from local farmers is much less expensive and better quality than we were able to find in the city, but to get the most of the savings, you have to have a place to store bulk food, which we do here), and although we do spend more on some things, we are saving a significant amount of money living in a small town.
Thank you for the posts. They are always inspiring!
As a money saving side-note, I wanted to share our favorite travel (or daily use) coffee gadget (and money saver). It makes great coffee and we have been using our filters for years and they stay nice. They will pay for themselves in just a couple of cups of coffee and they are easy to use at home, pack, etc. No, I am not affiliated with this brand at all, they have just been a HUGE money saver for us! (Finum Goldton Filters) They also make great tea (grow your own mint and save huge or buy tea in bulk and skip the bags). Thanks!
Thank you for the coffee recommendation. We are going on a 10 day road trip and I am already thinking about how we can save on coffee 🙂
These cost comparisons are always quite personal and unique to our family. Others may have made the same move but decided they wanted to ski at the high end resort near us instead of the cute and so cheap local hill. That decision would easily 10X the cost. Or if we lived rurally and needed a second car or had to frequently commute back to a big city for work.
Re: bulk food. Our garbage output is about 50% of what it was in the city. I find that fascinating. Of course, we are car owners now and our food is trucked six hours from the coast for consumption so I am not kidding myself that our carbon footprint hasn’t increased. And we own a single family home which consumes so much more in services and needs than a condo. But still, quite interesting to me.
A very interesting post. I’ve not moved from the city – I’m still apartment living in the thick of things, but I like the idea of living in the countryside. Btw, I was watching old episodes of House Hunters International on You Tube and was very excited to find you on The Ilse of Man.
Haha that was a fun thing to do!
We’ve just done the (temporary) move from small town rural (pop 2000) to big ish city (pop 110,000) and I can definitely say I already adore having a major supermarket 1500 metres from my house. Less if you walk! Compared to having the dinky one 5km from home or the bigger ones 20kms down the highway it’s lovely. 15 minutes driving here gets us into the city with everything, not almost into town.
We were warned about the high cost of everything here, since most things come 3000km by truck, but it’s been pretty similar. Electricity is cheaper, but that’s a state thing. Cat registration is cheaper! Car rego, sadly, is not.
The neighbours being right there is weird but it’s overall very quiet and suburbia is growing on me. I’m planning to just appreciate the heck out of everything being so close while I’m here.
I could see that supermarket access would be a huge improvement. We have a surprising amount of big supermarkets here (3) because we are a centre for a region. So even though there are only 4000 people in this town it serves probably 8-10,000. So we are a 25 min walk/6 minute bike from two supermarkets. Enjoy suburbia and its comforts!