What Luxuries Would You Give Up For a Room of Your Own?

Michael Falco for The New York Times This apartment cost $420,000. Interesting piece in the New York Times about several couples and what they gave up in order to buy tiny one- and two-bedroom condos in the City. No shopping, no fashion, no cigarettes, no going out. It's an austere...

By Amy Haimerl

July 31, 2007

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Michael Falco for The New York Times

This apartment cost $420,000.

Interesting piece in the New York Times about several couples and what they gave up in order to buy tiny one- and two-bedroom condos in the City. No shopping, no fashion, no cigarettes, no going out. It's an austere life that they describe, but one couple saved $90,000 in just a few years. That leads Cat to ask, just how much shopping where they doing?

Certainly prices are cheaper here in Denver than in New York, but it's still a struggle to come up with the down payment and mortgage for even a modestly priced house. When Cat bought, her place was the cheapest single-family home in the city. Something she could afford with just her salary, not Tom Cat's, too.

But the plight of Manhattan living is something Cat will now have to face. At the end of the month she is leaving Westword to become a senior editor at Fortune Small Business. And yes, move to New York.

Cat wonders how much shopping she'll have to give up.

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