Is frugal living possible in the cities that force us to pay monumental rent?

I'm bitter that I don't have a decent job. After two college degrees, you would think that is the least I should have. I don't have high cost of living, but without a decent job, any cost of living is difficult. Anyway, your situation. That is a really lot of $ for a place to live in a bad part of town in a dilapitated building. But I live in the country in the states have 9.9 acres, a 1 1/2 story home, and pay $520 a year. So to me, that's ridiculous, but I've heard it's nothing to pay $1,000 a month for not much in a nearby small city. What do you have that could help you? Do you have window sills with natural light coming through windows? Do you have a small table you could put near the windows. Can you grow some food? Even in winter, I can grow garlic, lettuce, greens, radishes, onions, small things that like cool weather. Sometimes looking around and seeing what you have that could help you can be a help. I go to etsy.com and am amazed at how people take nothing and make stuff to get more money. recycled and supplies or recycled handmade on that site will give you ideas about how to not have to buy some things by making some things that you need or maybe even be able to sell something if you want to. Will your student loan be over in the near future so you'll have a little more money? When I used to teach, I used to tell people ways they could get help so they either wouldn't need a loan at all or so they could have the smallest loans possible. I've seen student loans financially practically cripple people. Unless you get big bucks,it's hard to pay off those loans. That alone can make people angry and bitter. I was lucky, many people helped me so I didn't have loans for college.

When my husbad and I rented a house before we were able to buy a home we were paying 900.00 a month. We lived in the country. We had to move out because it was getting expensive and they never fixed anything that needed to be repaired. Also, the basement was full of mold and the landlord refused to get rid of it. Then they were planning on selling the house (without telling us) and gave out our phone number without our permission. Then they had lied about selling the house (they told us we had to move out because the house was sold. We had our friend call and pretend they were looking for a place to buy and they were told to come over and look at the place because it was empty). Boy were we mad. My husband and I own a home now and we pay so much less than we did when we rented.

Its hard to get by. Atlest minimum wage is 12$ an hour. Its much less here. I think that it costs more to live by citys. I live about 45 minutes away from the big city by me so my house payment is much less then if I lived right there. That is why we moved out here. We can afford to live here. I am so sick of just watching money fly out as fast as it comes in. It gets to looking like we may never make it ahead in life at this rate. Like we may be stuck here with the bills growing forever while there is nothing w can do but pay them.

we are in hamilton and i think that seems to be the norm when it comes to housing prices here in Canada. you are right, it is ridiculously high.

That sounds awful to being that kind of rent for something that is not kept up. I would see about turning the landlord in for not keeping up with things. Typically here for a one bedroom or even an efficiency you can find them for $400+/mo and many with utilites. I'd hate to say it but too bad you couldn't move in a with relative and pay half what you are paying or less to them in rent. That's why we bought our house (though some days I dread it) because our landlord was raising our rent (mind you 8yrs ago) to $705/mo on a 1100 sq ft 2bed 1.5 bath w/ heat & 2 space undergound garage w/ our apt. Sadly I really miss not paying a heat bill or paying for up keep on a house as it was a really decent apt set up... Oh and I just looked up the website for our old landlord and they are up to $780-810/mo so not too bad but expensive enough. We lived w/ my mom then too so the rent was split 3 ways wich made it very affordable living.

If you think rent is expensive ... look into the cost of home ownership. Property taxes on a small home in the area I am in is in the $4000 range... that comes out to $335/month just for taxes! Can't imagine how much a mortgage will be, and then there's repairs and maintenance costs! In my situation renting makes more sense right now.

I feel like it is a big burden, although I'm not really bitter about it, just sort of resigned. In our area, a one bedroom apartment is 1100 a month, which is quite a lot.