Making Sacrifices to Support a Lifestyle...
20 June 2017
I’ve lived in or on the immediate outskirts of this city for most of my life. Aside from that summer down the shore, or the few years I lived upstate for a job (where I met Elizabeth!), I have always lived within sight of the Philadelphia skyline. I learned the city by the same adventurer’s mindset that I still have when travelling, eagerly exploring all its neighborhoods and all of the exciting ins and outs that a major city offers. I spent many hours of my formidable years riding the el train through the west end of the city to downtown, then walking to South Street, Center City, or through the historical areas. It was during these formidable years that I would dream of living in one of these neighborhoods – actually living within that skyline instead of just in its view.
I set my sights on Old City. The neighborhoods of Philly are diverse, each with their own glamour and grit, each with their own distinct personality. For me, Old City had the draw as I became truly fascinated with the history steeped in these streets. This was the neighborhood that fit my personality. Imagine literally walking through Ben Franklin’s footsteps everyday as you step out your front door! Living there was a dream- one that I thought was well out of reach. I certainly couldn’t live there, right? You had to be rich, or important, or otherwise someone special for that!
When I was laid off in ’09 and the Lehigh Valley job market was well dried up, we decided to move back to my home city. We got jobs here and lived on the outskirts for a bit before deciding to jump into fulfilling that dream. Older and wiser, I knew that living there wasn’t as impossible as my teenage self had thought – but it was going to require a bit of planning, some hard work, and ultimately some sacrifices. I was scaling down considerably in size while scaling up considerably in cost. We had to strictly budget, get rid of lots of stuff, and do without any private outdoor space. But we did it. We had some tight living spaces that we made work. We had to pay for parking in a lot two blocks from our apartment. We didn’t save nearly as much money as we could have. But if I was pulled back in time with my knowledge now, I’d make the same decision.
I fulfilled one of my lifelong dreams!
We lived a half block from the Betsy Ross house and Elfrith’s Alley and it was an amazing time. Rents kept going up however and our property management wasn’t so easy to get along with, so we eventually decided to move. For a mortgage less than our rent we were able to purchase a house in the northern end of South Philly in the Pennsport neighborhood – a mere 14 blocks from our old apartment. Close enough, but at times it feels a world away. We had the full city with its fun and its history right at our doorstep, while now we are in a much more residential neighborhood with much less excitement. We’ve been living outside of “our” neighborhood for two years now.
An opportunity just came where we put an offer in on another place back in Old City, only one block from our old apartment. The price, size, and location all were absolutely perfect… but sadly, due to a number of circumstances we didn’t get it. We have been looking around for the past few weeks at other places, going on tours or open houses while scouring the listings online. We found some we liked, but not loved, and they are a bit pricey as well. Our costs will go way up. Can we do it? We can, actually. I’ve ran the numbers and we can make it work. But do we want to do it? That’s where it gets tricky.
We don’t spend money on “things” exactly, but we love to travel. We love to go out with friends to all the fun places the city offers. We can afford to move again and live in the part of the city we love, but what would we have to sacrifice to get there? The significant uptick in our monthly expenses would mean we would have to scale down the rest of our lives. Is that worth it?
Sometimes, you need to make sacrifices in order to support the lifestyle you want. We could choose to sacrifice some of our interests to buy the condo, or we could sacrifice living in “our neighborhood” to keep up the other things we love so much.
We decided to abandon our search for a new place.
We love Old City… and while that 14 block walk seems so far when we reminisce about living there, that same 14 block walk seems so short when we consider the travels we would have to sacrifice in order to make the move. We started this site because we are passionate about our adventures, and we have to be willing to face a few sacrifices in order to live the life we love.
And as for “our neighborhood”? It’s only a quick 14 block walk away…
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