Hey NZCol
The joy of living and working in Edinburgh is you can live pretty much anywhere you want and you are never really that far from anywhere.
I live exactly 2miles from the shop door. 30mins walk or about 5mins riding allowing for lights etc.
Same applies when out drinking of a weekend. If you canny get a taxi (this is common!) then just shrug the shoulders and get a pace on. Bosh!
Try looking in areas like Bruntsfield, Marchmont, Newington (thats where i am), Parkside, Loanhead (admittedly not in the bypass limit but cheap as hell to live in and actually only a short easy commute to city centre), Portobello/Joppa.
It is a top place to live.
Mark