<p>PM- we live in the boonies in a neighborhood of mostly second homes, 20 minutes to the nearest grocery store, though there is a tiny corner store for emergencies about 10 minutes away. It is also 40 minutes to "town"with a state university and decent mall and 1+ hour to one big city, 2.5 hours to the other big city (like with real airports)</p>
<p>Mainly we just plan well, only go to town if we need multiple items, etc. At $3/gallon for gas, I have to really need it to make the trek. I like where I am and don’t need to go to town for entertainment and since restaurant options are so meagre and mediocre as compared to a big city, we just really got into cooking and are happier to spend the $$ on quality ingredients for a meal we make ourselves.</p>
<p>We did leave the bigger town life over 20 years ago and so are accustomed to the small town life. We just like living small and doing our own thing. I do find we are much less materialistic than my friends in our old town…but then if you’ve watched RHOC, you understand that OC is pretty materialistic. When I visit there I get such a case of the wants going shopping, luckily I spend all my money on education and clearly don’t need and OC type of wardrobe and in my small town, no one cares, so I can live less expensively and not have it rubbed in my face everyday.</p>
<p>I find people coming to second homes are often content to do their own thing and not network, but are also happy to connect with neighbors and have a support system, some one to keep an eye on the house when they are gone, etc. So, you can find an entirely new group of friends with all sorts of interesting life experiences.</p>
<p>It’s different, it’s more mellow, but it’s quite nice.</p>