Too much stuff to live together
There was a recent item in the paper noting that the Mayor of London lives in a flat down the road from his family. I wouldn’t want to speculate on why he wishes to live under a separate roof from his wife and four children, but apparently this isn’t particularly unusual. Around one in twenty married couples in the UK choose to live separately, and a million couples maintain separate properties.
The article mentioned a few reasons why this is popular. People get married later and may have set up home on their own, and they may be very attached to their house. They may enjoy having people around, and coming and going as they please, and don’t want to give up their freedom. People’s work and travel schedules may be very different. And then there’s stuff:
Many young couples simply find they have too many possessions, combined, to fit into one home, and anyway their decorating tastes are poles apart.
How exactly does that conversation go, as you discuss moving in together and realise you won’t need two coffee machines?
“Well it”ll have to be mine, it’s a Francis Francis X1 stainless steel job with fully automated bean-to-cup functionality.”
“But mine’s a Lavazza Modo Mio limited edition, only 200 of them were ever made in fuschia pink.”
“Hmm, I guess we won’t be able to live together after all.”
I don’t remember having that problem when I got married, but then neither of us had a coffee machine. We had the luxury of being poor. Still, it’s a good reminder that if we’re not careful, our possessions end up owning us.
Breathe 
This has been an interesting year for us. When we found our savings and investments had dwindled so much they were not going to provide us with the income we assumed they would. We set to and cut out lots of things we didn’t need such as the two daily newspapers, we stopped using the car so much and didn’t eat out the way we used to. We now only replace things when they break down (no flat screen television as long as our old one still works) We are just as happy as we always were and in fact I would say we are happier, we have more time to spend together and see far more of our grandchildren. The lord is good.