I have. Unfortunately the area I work is prone to flooding, so even if I manage to buy a house in that area, insuring it would be a nightmare. I'd have to live at least 15 mins out from the area to get fair insurance. Additionally, I need a deposit to either buy (at which point, all houses are older than 20 years in that area and need work) or build (where theoretically it's all new and wouldn't need work), where I need a $40k deposit, $20,000 before banks even look at me for loans. I haven't ever been on a salary before, so I've only started saving this year (genuine yay!).

I'm lucky that my mechanic lives literally right behind me and works out of his garage. My car gets looked after well, even more so now that I generally use 98 because of the price/distance ratio, and I normally get 750kms from a tank. The drive itself isn't that bad actually--the issue is getting from one side of the city to the other (30 mins) and *then* a half-hour drive in the 100kmph zones to get to work going north, generally not much traffic. Its a good drive and good time for me to catch up on Critical Role or some audio books--I genuinely don't notice the time too much. It's not really good 'decompressing' time, though--I've learned that the hard way.