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We are currently living in the Abruzzo region of Italy. It is about 3 hours east of Rome and about 2 and 1/2 hours from Naples. Living in a small town has forced me in the best way possible to slow down and really understand that nothing is that important. A lot of things actually can wait and a lot of things can be done without the stress and the pressure. The fact that we were able to buy a house all in cash, honestly at that time felt unbelievable. The house that we ended up buying was
listed at 13,000 euros, but we ended up purchasing it for around 11,500. My name is Cassandra Tressel. I am 33 years old and I moved to Italy with my family in 2023. Abruzzo stood out to me for a few reasons, but first of all, it is very much lesser known. So, I didn't want to deal with issues of mass tourism or over tourism in popular regions like Tuscany. Abruzzo's very authentic. It feels that way and it doesn't feel like anything is put on for a show. We also live in a traditional hilltop town. We are almost 1,100 m above sea level and so that means we have these magnificent views all around us.
We lived in New York from 2015 to 2019. I was working for a tech startup and Alex was a butcher at Whole Foods. The last place that we lived in, we were renting for about $2,000 a month in Brooklyn. And I couldn't imagine realistically saving up for a down payment to buy a house somewhere in New York. At the end of 2020 is when our daughter was born and that's when we started to think about what's next for our future for a family. We ended up buying the house in Italy in 2022. This is our home in Abruzzo. Welcome and come on in. We bought the house in cash for 11,500 and after renovations and decorating, we spent an additional 15,000 on top of that. So, this is our living room where we naturally spend the most amount of time
together as a family. So, now we are going upstairs where two of the bedrooms are located. This is our master bedroom. So, this is where Alex and I sleep. Also, the state of the house was manageable. The amount of work and the type of work that needed to be done wasn't completely unrealistic for us to handle ourselves. The most expensive part about the renovation was the plumbing, which I think came out to be around $3,000 to replumb the entire house. Now, this is our small but mighty bathroom and this is my daughter's bedroom. So, a lot of color and a lot going on. Now, we are moving on to the kitchen, which is undoubtedly the most colorful space in the entire house.
Raising a child here in Italy, specifically in a small town, has been very cost-effective and the cost for full-time preschool is 60 euros a month. When I talk to my friends who have kids of similar ages back in Seattle, the average cost of something like preschool is like $3,000 a month, which is crazy. I would say electricity is about 150 euros a month. We do pay for water, which usually comes out to around 70 euros a month. And then we also have Wi-Fi that we pay for, obviously, so that's around €13 a month. And then each of our phone lines and the data that comes with it is around €12 a month per phone.
The quality of food in Italy is substantially better than anything I've experienced in the US. Whenever we do visit the US now after being in Europe for a few years, it's funny because whenever we go out to eat or anything, we always feel really bloated because I think we have just adjusted to how the food is in Europe and we're just not meant for the food in the US anymore. So this is one of the three butcher shops that we regularly go to. Typically, we like to buy all of our meat locally in these small butcher shops um just because it tastes better. The quality is much better. And we also get cheeses here cuz every butcher shop will always have like a cheese case.
Cheese here is equally as good. We typically spend around €120 on groceries. That's per week. And keep in mind we are feeding a family of three plus we have two cats and two dogs. Ciao. So uh moving to a small town in Italy, you have no other choice than to learn Italian. Um we have learned Italian. I will say that it will never be perfect and of course I'm always going to be shy and not feeling as confident as I should, but it's a learning curve and um yeah, it's something that I strive to work on like intentionally every day. I saluto Antonio.
Ciao. Buonasera. Questo è nuovo. Non l'ho visto mai. Prima. Eh sì, ok, capito. Eh. Non è vecchio no. Ok. This is our red Fiat 600. So, in Italian, it's called the Seicento. We bought this car for 1,000 euros, and we bought it in cash. So, no financing. And we use this car primarily just to get around town. When we lived in New York, I worked for a tech startup. And then when we moved to Europe, I was able to keep that job and work fully remotely. Then I picked up this marketing job for the Italian travel company. I definitely make less now than compared to working for a New York-based company, but my time is much better spent, in my opinion.
I think my overall relationship just with a career and work in general has changed drastically. I kept thinking, "What do I want out of my career?" And then I kind of realized maybe I don't care as much as everyone else might care about their career. This one is Fiki. He's our sheepdog. He is an Abruzzese sheepdog. And then this is Tango. And both We have a rental property in the countryside not too far from us. So, Alex totally manages that. He cleans it. He repairs everything. It's a lot of work, so that's what Alex gets to do. The second property was purchased for 17,000 as the purchase price. And then I think we put around another 15,000 into it.
I would say maybe on average we bring in about 1,000 euros a month from it. The obvious answer for what I miss the most about the US is definitely my family and friends. At this point in our lives, I could not imagine living back in the US full-time. Of course, we will continue to go back and visit our family and friends, but since this has really been all we've known um as a family since raising our daughter, I definitely would not want to change that. The best feeling that I continuously get from purchasing a house here is a sense of relief. So, every month I don't have to worry about this recurring payment that's going to happen. No paying for a monthly rent or a mortgage. We don't have to
account for a large payment every month and it's just done. We own the house in cash. It's paid for in cash and it's just done and I don't have to think about it. Obviously, this also gives me a sense of freedom, not just financially, but it gives me the confidence to not feel like I have to be tied down to a traditional job and I can explore other creative ways to make money or just things that make me happier than being tied to a regular job.
