Frugal or not...

I am a frugal person and I also like to enjoy life and in my own humble opinion, I am doing a good job balancing the two.

Last year, I accepted a job offer that has significantly increased my income. It was a welcome opportunity with one drawback. I have to cross a bridge in Istanbul's traffic to go to work each day. I am spending way more time either on the road or at work just waiting for the traffic to get lighter.

Initially, I thought about moving close to my work but this area is extremely expensive. I would have to pay a rent twice as much of a rent that I can possibly collect on my own apartment.

I gave up the idea and decided to grin and bear it.

However, lately, I have come to the realization that this is eating way too much time and I have no time to take care of myself. Besides, I started feeling constantly tired lately. This affects my work performance as well.

I decided to consider moving yet again but in a different way. I rented a small studio apartment. This costs way less than moving and renting my place out.

The studio I have rented has a full kitchen plus a washing machine. All I need to do is to get a bed, an armchair, a small wardrobe from IKEA. The cost is way less than moving my whole apartment. Besides, when I am done with these, I am sure we can use these things within the family. Or, I can gift them to someone who needs them. Our office will be in this location until the end of 2017. Before my rent is up, I will know for sure whether we would be staying here for another year or not.

Next week, the studio will be painted and cleaned and I will be able to move by next weekend. The rent period will officially start by August 1.

I am planning to stay close to work during the week and go home for the weekends.

This will save me 4 hours of my life every single day. The monthly cost is around 6 per cent of my total monthly income so, it is not so terrible. I wish, I had thought of this before.