June of 2016 we got a call from our current apartment manager. We put our names on the waiting list for our current apartment 8 months prior to moving here. This area doesn’t have a lot of modern apartment complexes to live in when compared to the East Coast where we are from. We visited a friend in this complex and knew we wanted to move here to be closer to work, the beach, grocery stores, restaurants, etc. especially since Mr. HutchLife was finishing school and we wanted to move out of the village we lived in. Mr. HutchLife was interviewing for jobs as a Pastor and in Finance to be proactive. We prayed and were confident that he would get hired and asked God to open the door for Him.
We went to visit the apartment complex and it was nice and in proximity to everything. There was a garage for the car and great storage space. It was much closer to work. Took 24 mins off of my commute at the time, especially with these Michigan winters. It was right on the water, had a nice balcony, quiet neighborhood, put us closer to the highway and if Mr. HutchLife received a corporate job offer it would work for both of us.
The issue we had was that the apartment was $250 more than we were currently paying. Ouch. Did we want to take on higher rent as we worked on becoming debt free? As is our ritual we prayed about it. Mr. HutchLife graduated from seminary, was interviewing, the seminary student loans were about to kick in and we needed clarity and guidance. We took into account the amount of time spent on the road driving to and from work, and to school (I was almost finished with my MBA) and when Mr. HutchLife started working how that would work. If it was a Pastoral job we’d likely be driving to Chicago and this apartment was right by the highway. If he received a corporate job offer we’d be close to that company as well. With clarity we signed the lease for the apartment and management took $50 off of the rent without us having to ask.
With moving from the village to this new location we knew we would have to cash flow the move and wouldn’t make any payments to our debt during July 2016. We knew the benefit of moving would outweigh the cost of putting the debt snowball on hold. We gave our current apartment our move out date which was after our move in date to the new complex so we had 4 days to move things into the new apartment. What a blessing that was to not have to rush moving. We moved in with no hassle. This was our fourth move since coming to MI in 2013 and it was by far the easiest and smoothest move. After moving in we calculated the expenses and we actually pay less now in bills because we cut out things we had at the old apartment:
1. No more laundromat and having to get coins – we have a washer/dryer in our apartment
2. We have a garage for our car so it keeps it dry when it rains and snows – less maintenance on the car, less money spent
3. Closer to work – much less gas $$ spent, less time on the road, more time together
4. We got rid of Apple Music, Netflix, Hulu, dropped Crossfit – huge money savers. Currently we have Netflix, Hulu and I have a personal trainer. More about that in a later post.
I’ve mentioned cost of living is extremely low here, it got even lower with the move even though the rent is $200 more. The other nice thing is the rent doesn’t increase each year, so that’s not something we have to worry about.
We have been truly blessed moving to this apartment complex and we are now in Year 3 here. There is very little to complain about and many more blessings came our way after moving in June of 2016.
Have you thought about moving to speed up getting out of debt? Did you make the move? Did you readjust your budget to stay where you are if it is pricey? I’d love to hear your story.
