In my mid-30s, I still couldn’t afford to live alone in the US. I was sharing an 1,800-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bath house in Nevada with a roommate, spending $3,300 to $5,000 on my monthly bills.
As a writer and university adjunct English professor, I earned less than $2,000 a month and cleaned houses in my spare time to cover the rest. This left little time to realize my dream of writing a book.
I realized couldn’t achieve my goal in the US; the cost of living was simply too high. It was time for a change.
I’d spent time in Europe while earning my Master’s degree in London. On weekends I’d travel to France with friends and had seen how the cost of living could be much cheaper there.
So, when I had the opportunity to continue to teach online and increase my freelance writing work, moving to France felt like the best way to cut costs.
In France, my place was smaller but was everything I wanted
I moved into an apartment in a small city about 40 minutes by train from Paris.
It’s everything I wanted, and my rent was cheaper — €650 (about $740), including utilities. I was finally saving money.
Courtesy of Alice Hafer
Plus, it felt like a dream to write on my couch with my neighbor’s violet blooming wisteria visible through my white-curtained French windows framed by ancient wooden beams.
While my French apartment was certainly smaller — only 104 sq. ft. — than the space I had in the US, the layout was better.
Blending the kitchen and living room, the vaulted ceilings enabled a spacious bedroom loft with a skylit window and enough space for a reading chair.
While I sacrificed five times the kitchen counter space I had in Nevada, the whole kitchen took me only 10 minutes to clean, saving me hours a week.
I slashed my monthly expenses
In France, I saved anywhere from $1,700 to $3,200 a month on expenses, and I typically spent $1,600 to $1,800 a month to cover all my living costs, including rent.
A lot of my savings came from cheaper rent and no longer having a car. I paid $20 a month to store my car in the US and no longer spent the $475 a month it cost in gas and insurance.
If I wanted to go somewhere in France, I used public transportation, which costs about €50 to €80 ($57 to $91) a month.
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I could afford to slow down and still save on dining out
Courtesy of Alice Hafer
French bakeries offered pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants) for €1.80 ($2.09), while delicious dinners like boeuf bourguignon ranged from €12 to €17 ($13 to $18), a bargain next to my favorite $25 twelve-inch pizza in Nevada.
A glass of house wine back home could cost $12 to $15. Most brasseries, a sophisticated version of a cheap bar, have happy hours starting at 5 p.m., where a glass of wine often cost €5 ($5.80).
My life naturally slowed down as I delighted in spending hours with friends unbothered, knowing the evening would only dent my pocket a little.
I was finally free to finish my book
Courtesy of Alice Hafer
Even though I worked remotely, I slowed down my lifestyle by syncing my rhythm with the numerous French holidays when I could, and scaled down to 30 hours a week to add time to work on my book.
In France, the pressure to grind had less of a draw. I saved more than time and money by embracing the French lifestyle of “joie de vivre,” which encourages enjoyment over expense.
The shift in mindset empowered me to finally focus on self-enrichment and my creative goals rather than chasing a lavish American lifestyle.
The lack of financial pressure lowered my stress and granted me the extra time I needed to complete the final draft of my book.