I Moved to An Expensive City and Made My Life 35% Cheaper at the Same Time

Here’s how I did it.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels

Three years ago, I met the love of my life via chance encounter in the middle of a mid-sized downtown in the American Midwest. The only issue was that he was only in town on business.

So after dating long distance for a little over a year, I began looking for jobs in his much larger city. And within a few months, I’d signed an offer for my new job, picked out a new place, and reserved a U-Haul. But my primary concern with moving to a bigger city was potentially taking on a much higher cost of living.

So, beginning with my initial apartment search, I set out to keep my cost of living less than or equal to what I’d been accustomed to. And over several months leading up to my move-in date, I reworked every major category of my new budget so that I was not only able to reach this goal sustainably, but I was also able to decrease my total COL by more than 35%.

Here’s how I moved to an expensive city and cut my expenses by 35%.

Step 1: Research Regional Differences in Every Category

Before I even started looking for a place to live, I knew that I’d have to pay more in rent if I wanted the same size apartment. And I knew from visiting my…