A blog out for the 'burbs

After travelling many fun roads over the summer holidays with my kiddies in tow, I find reality now crowding back into my consciousness. No longer allowed the distraction of lazy hazy, I’m back on the financial-happiness-while-home-with-the-kids warpath…a path my husband is steadfastly trying to detour to the ‘burbs.

Let me start by saying that the ‘burbs are a perfectly lovely place for many people to live. I just don’t think I am among those who would remain sane in this mystical “mortage and expenses reduced” land my husband has envisioned. When I think of life out there all I can imagine is lots of time spent in the car driving kids to/fro. Then there’s the searching desperately for new friends for both myself and my 2 year old to socialize with (I cannot be trusted left to my own devices for long). And on top of that, the bulk of the ‘burb population are double income families who aren’t around so much during the days.

The kids would likely adjust fine and my husband whose office is closer to the ‘burbs would be pleased. However I selfishly can’t think of giving up the walking to everything I could possibly need. Plus the large contingent of amazing moms I can call in an instant if I have an emergency would be gone. And finally, our neighborhood just got written up in the New York Times as cool so, call me shallow, I’m finally part of the cool group and don’t want to miss out on any of the perks that may or may not entail (who am I to argue with the NYT - http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/travel/05surfacing.html).

So what do I do now? I must put on my rational face and attempt to approach our upcoming field trip to the ‘burbs with an open mind. I know what you’re thinking…sounds like I’ve already made up my mind, but I can be swayed if it is really the best thing for our family. It may take a session of flogging myself with guilt (I’m been assured I’m very good at this) over money stress, but I’ll make the effort.

After said open-minded field trip though, the spreadsheet comes out and I’m going to crunch the numbers before I give up my cool club status. So far my desperate plea to stay here has been emotional. Time to build my checklist below and add any others I can think of …

1)Real costs to sell our home > realtor, land transfer taxes, etc.
2)What our home can realistically sell for
3)Costs for any repairs or upgrades we still need to make before we could sell – including furniture we may need to exchange for staging purposes
4)What the new house costs would be > price of home, moving costs, new paint and window covering budget
5)Cost of the extra vehicle we’ll need to get around > initial and upkeep/gas
6)Cost of children’s programs for 2 year old (many of the things in our area are community supported and free)
7)Cost of gym membership with childcare so I don’t balloon to 1000 pounds when I start driving everywhere instead of the constant walking I do now.
8)What real disposable income we’ll have available after all of this to use to counter the aforementioned emotional ties I have to my current home