Imagine being a young homeowner with the keys to your first home. Would you spend above your means to keep up with the Joneses, or would you live a frugal lifestyle to continue to save for the future?

In this story, one woman is in this situation, and she is very frugal. That’s how she could afford to buy a home in the first place!

The problem is that her neighbors don’t like her frugal lifestyle.

Keep reading for all the details.

AITA for moving into a classier neighborhood and “bringing down the property value”

I am a 25 year old woman in engineering; I was very lucky to have a full ride scholarship to school and land a great job when I graduated.

I’ve been living a really frugal life because It’s rather set myself up for the long term future than blow my money now.

My family was never that financially stable so the things I value most are saving and investing for the future.

Saving really paid off.

So I can drive an old truck I fix up, I ride my bike a lot of places too. I’d rather have friends over for drinks and potlucks than go out to eat.

And six months ago, I was able to buy a house.

It’s in a neighborhood just outside of a city in the Midwest, I wanted to be just slightly outside the city because the local taxes are a lot lower.

My house is in a totally residential area with mostly families, apparently the schools nearby are very good.

She doesn’t love the neighborhood, and the neighbors seem to dislike her.

It kind of sucks in some ways, it’s not really diverse at all and after having moved there it seems like people look down at anyone who’s too different; there’s not much to do within walking distance, I bike to the city but most people drive.

So here’s the conflict… A bunch of my neighbors have told me that I’m bringing property values down, and things like that.

I’ll give a couple examples of stuff people have said and why.

She came up with a pretty clever way to fix her truck.

I have an old truck, and I fix it up myself. Used to always use parts from a junkyard or online shopping. But then I heard about a guy who wanted a broken down truck, same make and model and year as mine, towed away.

I said I’d take it for free, because I wanted to be able to use it for parts when something in my truck needs replaced. It’s saved me a lot of hassle having it right there.

Just a month ago someone rear ended me and I was able to use the tailgate, back panel, and taillight assembles to fix my truck.

Her neighbors don’t like the truck.

I keep the parts truck under a cover when I’m not working on my main truck.

My next door neighbor said that the neighborhood wanted me to get rid of the eyesore because of property values.

I said I’d keep it covered but I was using it.

The neighbors don’t like her friends much either.

Next, I have a lot of friends who ride bikes, or electric scooters, to get around. When they come over, they lock their bikes and scooters up outside, because they’re in the habit of always locking up.

Another of my neighbors said that all the bikes locked to the fence make the area look trashy and criminal. Nobody locks up bikes. Plus, the bikes look “cheap”.

Plus, they have rules in the area about no street parking overnight, and limited street parking in the day, to keep “big parties” out, but we’re bypassing the intent of that rule by biking (I didn’t even know this was a thing, all my friends just happen to rarely drive)

She’s not sure what to do.

I don’t know what to say, I feel like they ought to stay in the their lane.

I don’t want to start blowing money to keep up with the Joneses, But they seem mad I’m not fitting in. Not gardening and landscaping, getting a new beemer, etc.

AITA for living how I’ve been living?

This sounds like peer pressure, although, the neighbors may not exactly be her peers. Let’s see if Reddit thinks the neighbors’ complaints are reasonable or not.

Here’s a good suggestion.

This person thinks she made several poor decisions.

She does need to consider curb appeal.

Another person doesn’t think she’s really frugal.

She may have picked the wrong neighborhood.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.