Living in a city, you learn that space is precious and do all you can to make sure everything you have is 100% useful. Before I moved in with my now-husband, Brian, I lived in a duplex in San Francisco. My unit was a 2-bedroom, 1 bath that I shared with a roommate. The place was great. Good sized rooms and a well-arranged kitchen and living space. I have enough room for my things, but there was no room for frills. Fast forward to moving out to the not-so-suburb suburbs of the Bay Area Peninsula and living in a similar-sized duplex, but the game-changer is that we have a GARAGE! Funnily enough, the garage doesn’t fit a modern-sized car but what it does fit is beautiful beautiful storage space.
Learning the Value of Storage Space
At first, we didn’t really understand what all this space was for. After attempting to fit a car in there and failing, we mainly used the space for laundry, a few extra chairs, and the memorabilia of our single lives that didn’t find a place in our shared home. It wasn’t until we started looking at places to cut spending in our budget that we really learned what this space could afford us.
The biggest budget category we felt we had control over was food and household items. After researching ways to save on our grocery bill and getting into batch cooking, we realized that our shelves and freezer were overflowing. That was because the main ways we could really start making an impact on the budget were being able to stock up on shelf-stable or freezable items when items during a sale or buying in bulk. I could never shop at Costco when I lived in the city because where was I supposed to keep 30 rolls of toilet paper?
After having this mini epiphany about the possibilities for the garage we made the investment into three storage shelves and a chest freezer and it seems hard to imagine going back. This space and these items allow us to take advantage of sales, buying in bulk, and freezing any item to prevent spoiling and waste. All which lead to huge cost savings. We nearly cut our food and household goods bill in half.
Space is a Privilege
As our budgeting journey continues to teach us things about cost-saving and the importance of having sinking-funds and savings, it also continues to open our eyes to the privilege we have in even being able to do these things. Of course, I encourage everyone who wants to save money to take similar actions, but even from the small fact that I would have never been able to do this in an apartment, I realize that this is not possible for everyone. I don’t know enough to get too in-depth on the topic but it’s one of those frustrating ironies that those who cannot afford more space are those who could benefit the most from what storage space could afford you to save. Even the idea of stocking up on a sale or buying in bulk means that you have to have enough cash on hand to buy more now to ultimately save money. I don’t have a solution for this double-edged sword, but I write about it in hopes of larger understanding and maybe some comments that would help provide additional ideas for those in a limited situation. I also recommend this video by Two Cents that highlights how it can actually be more expensive to be poor.
