Notes on living semi-frugally in the Bay Area.

I live in the Bay Area, but my cost of living is pretty low: roughly $30k/year. I think I live an extremely comfortable life. I try to be fairly frugal, both so I don't end up dependent on jobs with high salaries and so that I can donate a lot of my income, but it doesn't feel like much of a sacrifice. Often when I tell people how little I spend, they're shocked. I think people conceive of the Bay as exorbitantly expensive, and it can be, but it doesn't have to be.

Rent: I pay ~$850 a month for my room. It's a small room in a fairly large group house I live in with nine friends. It's a nice space with plenty of common areas and a big backyard. I know of a few other places like this (including in even pricier areas like Palo Alto). You just need to know where to look and to be willing to live with friends. On top of rent I pay ~$200/month (edit: I was missing one expense, it's more like $300) for things like utilities, repairs on the house, and keeping the house tidy.

I pool the grocery bill with my housemates so we can optimize where we shop a little. We also often cook for each other (notably most of us, including myself, also get free meals on weekdays in the offices we work from, though I don't think my cost of living was much higher when I was cooking for myself each day not that long ago). It works out to ~$200/month.

I don't buy that much stuff. I thrift most of my clothes, but I buy myself nice items when it matters (for example comfy, somewhat-expensive socks really do make my day better when I wear them). I have a bunch of miscellaneous small expenses like my Claude subscription, toothpaste, etc, but they don't add up to much.

I don't have a car, a child, or a pet (but my housemate has a cat, which is almost the same thing).

I try to avoid meal delivery and Ubers, though I use them in a pinch. Public transportation costs aren't nothing, but they're quite manageable.

I actually have a PA who helps me with some personal accounting matters that I'm particularly bad at handling myself. He works remotely from Canada and charges $15/hour. I probably average a few hours of his time each week.

I shy away from super expensive hobbies or events, but I still partake when they seem really fulfilling. Most of the social events I'm invited to are free. I take a couple (domestic) non-work trips each year, usually to visit family.

I also have occasional surprise $500-$7,000 expenses, like buying a new laptop when mine breaks. Call that an extra $10k a year.

In many ways, I'm very fortunate to be able to have this lifestyle.

I honestly feel a little bewildered by how much money people around me spend and how dependent some people seem on earning a very large salary. Many people around me also seem kind of anxious about their financial security, even though they earn a good amount of money. Because my lifestyle is pretty frugal, I feel very good about how much runway I have.

I realize that people's time is often extremely valuable, and I absolutely believe you can turn money into more time. Sometimes people around me are aghast at how much time I waste walking to the office or sitting on the BART. But for me, I don't think I would actually be much more productive if I spent 10x as much money on productivity, and it feels extremely freeing to know I could quit my (nonprofit) job any time and fairly easily scrape by. I recommend at least considering it, if you haven't already.