What immigrants save on in the first year of life in the USA: personal experience - ForumDaily
The article has been automatically translated into English by Google Translate from Russian and has not been edited.
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What do immigrants save on in the first year of life in the USA: personal experience

On your channel “Queen in the USA” on Yandex.Zen a Russian-speaking immigrant talked about how she had to save during the first year after moving to the United States. Next - from the first person.

Photo: Shutterstock

The first year is the most difficult. The hardest thing was morally: lonely, a lot of problems of the most pressing nature, pregnancy.

The financial side of the issue was also far from cloudless. My husband worked on a permanent basis. The earnings were unstable, enough exactly to cover the basic necessities of life.

I worked part-time in the first month of pregnancy and starting from the eighth. The total income was small. The savings we brought with us ended less than six months later, and we began to gradually sink into debt, from which we got out for a very long time.

In general, we had to save on everything, but we cannot say that we counted every penny. We just learned to live within our means, denying ourselves something, postponing spending or finding better shopping options. How exactly?

1. Economy class grocery stores and wholesale purchase

I do the grocery tracking at our house. I distributed our regular spending across several stores. I bought meat in bulk and frozen at Costco. Vegetables, fruits and cereals - in Super King. There was no talk of any organics, it’s just very cheap in this store. I bought everything that needed to be updated every few days at Ralphs. This is a very standard American mid-range store.

When we got the opportunity, we switched to organic products from Trader Joe's. They have an excellent selection of products in terms of composition and naturalness. I often buy something at the farmers' market or the farm itself. And only with the purchase of meat, nothing has changed.

2. Buying things in stores with a discount

TjMaxx, Marshalls, Ross, and Nordstrom Rack all sell sweet mall residues. Here you will have to rummage among the hangers and read more closely the tags with the composition of the fabric, but decent things from famous trading houses are not uncommon and no exception. The price for them is always significantly reduced.

Calvin Klein Linen Pants for $ 5 or GUESS Suede Boots for $ 15 - Easy. Another plus of these stores is the frequent replenishment of the assortment, every week you see a “new collection”.

Decorative and care cosmetics are also brought here in large quantities. Both brands are normal, and compositions, but you need to carefully check the packaging for integrity.

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3. Purchase of certain types of goods in stores of the lowest price category

99 cents only and Dollar Tree are perfect for when you need to buy Christmas cards for all the neighbors, Christmas tree decorations or disposable tableware for your outdoor birthday party. I always started preparing for the holidays there, gradually buying what was missing in more expensive stores.

Home decor in the form of scented candles, photo frames, all kinds of pictures and inscriptions can also be picked up here, as well as some kitchen utensils. Stationery, notebooks, calendars, kits for children's creativity are very beneficial.

You can take some food, but not enough. For example, canned vegetables (peas, corn, etc.) and spices are sold by the same brands as in other stores, but at a discount.

4. Coupon sites

A full range of services, from neighborhood cafes to medical services, can be found on coupon sites. If I decided to pamper myself with something in the first year, then I definitely checked whether it was possible to do it economically. So, a basic visit to the SPA can cost, say, not $ 25, but $ 12. And the art party is not $ 35, but $ 20.

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5. Buying from hands and selling unnecessary things

In the first year, I bought and collected a ton of things and household items from my hands for free. Thanks to this, preparation for the birth of the baby cost us quite inexpensively.

From the second year I began to actively sell everything I had at home. It brought me 200-300 dollars a month on small things. This money was not at all superfluous and allowed me to feel freer in my desires: to drink coffee, buy a dress, meet my girlfriends.

Gradually, our financial situation improved. I can't say that now we live richly, but we can definitely afford much more than before. And the basic expenses have grown: from rent to paying for the baby's backside, almost equal to the monthly rent.

Original column published on the blog. “Queen in the USA” on Yandex.Zen

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