Moving to America: what to carry with you and what are the costs of home improvement

In May, 2016 I won a green card and have been living in California for a year now. I already talked about how won the green card and moved to the USA and about what Errors discovered a year later. Now I want to share what to bring to America, except for money, and what will have to be spent on arrival.

Фото: Depositphotos

In the US, we flew straight from home, with a short transfer in Copenhagen, but still we did not take the things with us enough for a comfortable life, in my understanding of the word. Well, I decided to list what I had to buy. Perhaps for some it will be useful information in planning a move.

In my case, a one-bedroom house for 2 adults and a 9 child were set up. And here is the dwelling plan:

The apartments have one bedroom, 1 bathroom with toilet, living room, kitchen and loggia the size of the 1,5 kitchen in Khrushchev. In addition, there are built-in wardrobes for shelves and hangers and two storage rooms. From the furniture were only cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom. A stove with oven, microwave, dishwasher and refrigerator are standard in most homes - some do not have a refrigerator, but everyone has a dishwasher.

Almost all the houses here are rented without furniture, so the sleeping place was the first thing for me. Of course, the mat on the floor here is quite soft, but there is something in it that is not suitable for regular sleep.

Bed and mattresses were bought to Ikea. The bed is bunk and will perfectly fit for spending the night my young sisters, who will come to visit very soon. We bought for 170 $, but I am the owner of the Ikea family card, so if the goods become cheaper within three months after the purchase, the price difference will be returned to me. Convenient, right? Especially if you consider that the card is free and is done directly in the store in a special vehicle for 1,5 minutes.

In addition to the bed were purchased:

• 2 single mattress, for $ 90,
• a sofa that turns into a bed to sleep in a common room (there is a wide range of them, from $ 300 to several thousand),
• dinner table ($ 100),
• 4 chair ($ 25 apiece, but we got a sale for $ 12),
• chest of drawers ($ 370),
• printer bedside table ($ 15 instead of $ 85 on sale),
• chest of drawers to the bed ($ 120),
• a sofa to just sit in the nursery ($ 85),
• TV stand, which is also a stand ($ 150).

Total furniture can take about $ 1300, although you can shrink more, but is it worth it?

Now the devices. Some kind of equipment comes complete with a house or apartment. For complete happiness we needed:

• electric kettle,
• iron,
• a vacuum cleaner,
• toaster,
• blender
• fryer,
• carpet washer
• tv and
• Printer.

All in all, it cost about $ 700. Huge for me, TV in 50 inches with 4k was bought on a regular day at a sale at the BestBuy store for $ 350, kitchen items were bought in a Walmart store or Amazon, a vacuum cleaner was bought on Black Friday for very strange money up to $ 100.

Body and kitchen towels, washable mats in the bathtub - Home Goods network is perfect for these pieces. They sell items of amazing quality at prices from Walmart.

In Walmart, of course, you can also find good towels, to be very attentive, but with rugs that can be washed, there are serious problems. For me, a normal towel is one that absorbs, does not scratch the skin with the branches from which it is made, and smells of what it contacts with, and not toxic chemicals from the paint in which it was dipped at the factory. Dishes from plates, forks, cups, pans and a scoop with a spatula for non-stick coating can be successfully laid here in $ 200.

Places need to know: prices and discounts

Great places to shop - Ikea, Home Goods, Target. These same places are good for buying bedding. And once again I want to emphasize that using store cards in certain cases significantly reduces prices.

You can get nice-sized discounts not only for those who move to live in the United States, but also for travelers. To do this, you only need to register in the store’s mobile program or on its website. As we know, every state in the USA is a small country, so actual information for California may not be applicable in Texas or South Carolina.

To get the most pleasant price, show the cashier a card that is in the store’s mobile application or take a screenshot of the card after registering on the site and show it. Get all the privileges of carters - it's fast, free and profitable. In addition, the application has a handy barcode scanner that will inform the price of goods, and you do not need to look for price checkers, as they say in Belarus.

There are electronic coupons in Ralphs, Albertsons, Whole Food (maybe someone else has forgotten) that you need to download to the card, but without coupons in these stores, there are a lot of promotions that apply only to cardholders. Many of the price tags in the store have 2 prices right away: with and without the store card. Sometimes without a card is more expensive in 2 times or even more. In Ralphs, you need to ask for a card from an employee at a service center, it will be given free of charge, and then you can add its number to the application. On Fridays, Ralphs gives out coupons for one free item. So I tried a lot of weird, but unexpectedly tasty things that I would never buy for the first time with money.

The Target network is a very interesting system. There you get the card immediately in the mobile application, but with discounts it is more interesting. You scan the goods with a scanner in the application (you read the barcode with the phone camera), and if there are any discounts on the goods, the coupon is automatically added to a special electronic “wallet” and activated when you scan the store card at the checkout.

I accidentally discovered this feature of Targat last week - and so miraculously bought myself beautiful shoes for $ 7 instead of $ 25.

In some stores you need to buy cards. These are usually specialized retail outlets, for example, bookstore. In Barnes and Noble, for example, today you can buy a card for a year for $ 25 (remember, in California, the salary per hour is MINIMUM $ 10.50). The card gives free shipping (usually $ 10,000 for delivery), a permanent discount on 8 – 10% books and any other.

Findings. I highly recommend that you spend 5 minutes registering on the mobile applications of US retailers or on their websites and receive significant discounts without any efforts at all. A little time to download coupons - and even more discounts. In all supermarkets (this is where both the raspberry, gaskets, battery, and children's underwear) are sold, which I have met, discount cards are free. If you often actively buy books, sports goods, etc. - it may be beneficial to buy a store card for money.

Total

Total for arrangement, slightly exceeding the absolute minimum for survival, $ 2500 is enough. You will also need a car to exist. My dear Dodge Durango for $ 1900 continues to delight me.

And now we’ll round up a little more and get that for peace of mind it’s good to have $ 5000 for home improvement plus the rental price of your apartments on 2 – 3 a month in advance.

Published by author @aqisfm

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