A Year of Seasons

By Neil Solomon · 2 min read

Picture a woman named Wanda, sixty-four, who moves in October to a small coastal town she visited once, in June. In June the town had music in the square, tables on the pavement and a warm evening wind. She expects the rest of the year to look like that.

November is quiet. By January, the shops on the harbor are shut, the rain comes in sideways, and the ferry does not run for four days. On a gray Tuesday she writes to her sister: I think I made a mistake.

She decides to keep a notebook instead of making a decision. Each month she writes four things: what the rent is, what the utilities cost, what is open, and how she felt from 1 to 5. By the end of the year she has a table.

A year in Wanda’s town, by season (an illustration)

The June she visited was the most expensive month of the year for rent, $1,800. The average across the year is $1,250. In January, the heating bill was $220, nearly four times what it was in summer.

Spring is the surprise. The festival comes, the shops reopen, and the neighbors she had barely met are suddenly in the street. Her score is a 5. In July the crowds arrive, the bakery line grows to the door, and she gives it a 3 because she cannot get a table at her own cafe.

Wanda stays. She would not have known to choose this town from a two-week visit, and she would not have left it from a gray week in January. A year gave her all four seasons, and now she can decide knowing all four.

You might say a year is a long time to wait before a big decision. It is. It is also the time every season needs to come round once. Renting for a year costs something. Selling a house you did not want can cost far more.

You could keep Wanda’s four lines each month in a notebook. You could ask residents what the town is like in the month you would find hardest. You could also plan your spending by season, since a year is rarely twelve equal months.

The figures in our calculator are for an ordinary month. They do not show how rent and heating change from season to season.

Which month would be hardest for you in the place you are considering, and have you seen it? Tell us in the comments. Someone reading may be about to spend a January there.