Economy of Scale

Introduction

This essay was written by me, Brandon Nolet, in the context of moving in with someone else and all the things that come with it. I think it’s efficient to live with someone else in the same dwelling, regardless of the certain drawbacks.

Moving in Together

Towards the end of the summer I’ll be moving in with my partner of more than a year in an effort to save time and money, and be closer to each other. Currently we live in separate dwellings and it takes about 40 minutes via public transit to get to each other. We’ve been sleeping at each other’s places, alternating days, and this is mostly working, though I feel we’ve grown out of it for a few months now.

I’m excited to be moving in together though the process of finding an apartment we’re going to stay in for at least 2 years is a lengthy process. It’s unfortunate that my rental agreement finishes at the end of August rather than at the end of June because July 1st is usually “moving day” here in Canada (or at least Quebec) so it’s harder to find a place. Most people’s rental agreements finish at the end of June.

Saving Time

Because we’ll be living together, we won’t have to be spending so much time travelling back and forth to be able to sleep in the same bed. For us, being able to go to sleep and wake up beside each other is an immensely valuable thing and whenever either of us is waking up without the other, it feels like we’re missing something.

Sometimes I’ll go back to my place because they work until 9pm but I finish work at 4pm. So I spend the 40 minutes getting home around 4pm and then around 8pm I spend another 40 minutes going back to their place. Similar times are spent travelling when they’re sleeping at my place that night. The net savings result is probably going to be an average of around 40 minutes to an hour per day.

As well, this will mean that even if my partner starts really early in the morning, we’ll still be able to sleep beside each other because, well, that’s the only place to sleep at that point!

Saving Money

Because we’ll be living together, there’s less chance of wasting food I would say. Oftentimes I find that the size of packaging of most stuff is much more accomodating to those who are living with someone else or geared towards an actual family (hence the “family pack”). It’s unfortunate because something like lactose-free cream (which I need because, well, most are allergic to dairy) only comes in a 1 litre carton vs. the regular cream that comes in half litre cartons.

As well, because we’re making bigger meals, the economy of scale kicks in meaning we can make larger portions all at once saving on time and money because less time spent cooking means less money spent on electricity to cook the food. It’s not exactly the biggest gains but there’s something there.

Because we’ll now be sharing an internet connection, collectively we’ll be saving on that front. I have a 30 down/10 up connection and that’s sufficient for two people. We’ll be eliminating that entire bill altogether because we only need a single internet connection.

As well we’ll save on “rent”, and various other knicknacks because when you live with someone else, you only have to have a single of each thing vs having to purchase double of each thing to have that thing at both places, like a coffee maker or something.

Conclusion

I’m really happy not only looking forward to saving time and money, but also saving the frustration that comes with living separately with someone you’re in a strong relationship with.