Personal experience: how much is life in Alabama

Mobile, Alabama Photo: Depositphotos

Ekaterina Voloshina, who moved from Moscow to Alabama, shared her life experience in the USA on a blog for TJ. ForumDaily offers a shortened version of her story.

Mobil is the third largest city in Alabama. This is the port in the Mobile Bay of the Gulf of Mexico and the quintessence of the South. Here, the ideal climate is not hot and not cold, in the summer on average + 30 ° C, in the winter somewhere + 15 ° C, sometimes it gets colder to + 2 ° C. I have never seen snow or even ice in the morning puddles, and I go out into the street on 7 in the morning.

Southerners are a special people, traditionally very nice, hospitable, affable. Strangers in a park or cinema can praise my purse, just passing by, say: "What a cool jumpsuit you have." Nice tradition: strangers can give children a small sweetness - a candy or a bag of raisins.

Taxes

Alabama is 8 place in the top ten cheapest for living states. Here is the most inexpensive consumer basket. For example, our family spends only about $ 800 — 1000 per month on products. However, the sales tax is 10%. To any price tag, be it a store or a restaurant, a consumption tax will be added to the check. It has a different rate, for example, in Pennsylvania it is 7%, and somewhere it is taken into account in catering, somewhere it is not. In 4 states, there is no sales tax at all.

Income taxes make up a third of the salary - 32% - and are divided into main 3: federal, Alabama state and pension tax. The highest federal tax rate is 11%. This is a standard expenditure on the armament of the state, the salary of civil servants, education and medicine.

5% goes to the pension fund, the rest is taxes of the state of Alabama and Mobile county, which are used for street cleaning, garbage collection and other expenses on law and order and the work of municipal services.

The tax rate can be reduced if there are dependents (but only if they are US citizens) or adopted children.

Medicine

If you are not sick at all and be healthy, then, of course, you can live without insurance, but this is utopia. Accounts for elementary procedures, and even more so for surgical interventions, will be considerable. The ambulance call is about $ 3000, the stay in the mini-chamber where this ambulance will bring you is $ 1800, the doctor's appointment is $ 500 — 700. And it’s not a fact that the doctor will accept you: when recording without insurance, you can simply be refused admission. In addition, prescription drugs will have to be bought for the full cost, and you cannot go far on over-the-counter painkillers.

Insurance for a family with 2 adults and 2 children costs $480 per month. Some doctor visits require additional payment. For example, a visit to a pediatrician is covered by insurance, but you will have to pay another $35 - these are the rules.

Some doctors, for example, a gynecologist, health insurance covers in full, to pay extra for admission does not need anything. Prescription drugs are also paid. If the drug costs $ 150, you pay $ 70, the rest is covered by insurance.

To put it in abstract terms, I like to be sick in America - I observe the flawless performance of the system. There was a case that 911 came to us. We arrived about 10 minutes after the call. While we waited, the dispatcher called back and checked the patient’s condition, asked about how he was feeling, said what posture to take, what to drink. 5 tall guys arrived. The 911 service is universal soldiers: they can put out a fire, remove a kitten from a tree, and make defibrillation and take delivery. Their task is to diagnose the situation on the spot and call for help, if necessary, for example, firefighters.

While you are driving in an ambulance, if you are conscious, you sign your consent to resuscitation actions on the tablet.

Accomodation

Most people in Alabama live in houses. Homes are often 1-storey, rarely 2-storey. Renting a house ranges from $ 800 to $ 2000 per month. For example, here is such a house in Daphne - 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms - will cost $ 1875 per month:

Our house

We searched the area for the highest rated children's schools. We were lucky: we managed to find a new, just built house in such an area.

Most newly built homes are not only spacious, but also very functional. As in the apartments, the living room, the dining room and the kitchen are one big area. They can be divided into small functional partitions, but there are no solid walls and doors here.

Separate rooms are bedrooms and bathrooms, usually 2-3 of them (adult, children's and guest). There are a lot of storage rooms in the house - we have 4 of them. The storage rooms are used to store food, household appliances, and beach accessories - such as umbrellas and sun loungers.

Often, a separate room is allocated for laundry, there are washing and drying machines. Drying machines are used even in the smallest apartments. Americans do not dry laundry in the street. For storage often rent additional boxes or buy a plastic mini-house and set in the backyard. Renting a 6 × 10 foot box costs $ 40 per month.

But the house is not only open space and the ability to organize barbecue parties in the backyard. It is also the lawn - the face of the owner. He needs to regularly cut and clean the fallen leaves. For running lawn can be fined in the amount of $ 50 to $ 300. The fact is that the front yard with a lawn goes out into the street - one should not break the general harmony of the area. Therefore, the first purchase of the equipment we had a lawn mower, and all household appliances were already in the house. By the way, for a garbage box not cleaned on time is also a fine - already $ 500.

In addition to the washing, drying and dishwasher machines, the house had a microwave (counted as built-in appliances) and a connected refrigerator.

Housing and communications costs

We spend $ 300 — 500:

Water – $50 — 70;

Electricity - $60 — 140;

Phone - $90 for 2 fare;

Internet - $59;

Television - $40-150.

For comparison: $ 50 is the cost of dinner in a restaurant for our entire family: 2 adults and 2 children. Including tip.

Credit history

If everything is stable with your income and you don’t need to use a credit card, you bought the car and house for cash, and you lit a cigar with a $ 100 bill - congratulations, you have a disgusting credit history, and you didn’t show yourself as a decent payment agent.

For example, I have a separate credit card that I use to pay at gas stations. I spend about $100 a month on gasoline, I carefully return this amount to my card on time - and this is how I build my credit reputation.

Cards, checks, cash

What a 5 dollar bill looks like - I don't know. Like 50-dollar. I don’t even know what denominations have notes, because in six months I didn’t hold cash in my hands, except for dollar notes. On Fridays, children at school can buy ice cream, so I give them a dollar. These are all my cash expenses since last August.

Everything else: purchases, gasoline at gas stations, utilities, fitness, medications, children's sports - is paid by card or online.

Another convenient payment option is checks. The school often offers to buy uniforms with school symbols, books, excursions. So that the child does not lose money and does not forget what exactly he brought the payment for, we use checks, it is very convenient. In the check the amount is written, the recipient and the purpose of the payment, and the school checks cash.

Buying a car in installments. The dealer can provide an interest-free loan for up to 6 years. For example, after paying the down payment, you decided that you were comfortable paying $ 500 monthly without losing the quality of life. The cost of the car is divided into 500, in the end you get a payment period.

You can repay the loan ahead of time, without fines, but the buyer does not motivate anything for early payment. Of course, there are limitations - age, current income, status in the country, and so on. Loans are not handed out right and left, but the most important thing is the notorious credit history.

Interest-free loans stimulate the purchase. The dealer wins, because it receives the buyer, the bank wins, because it receives a commission from the dealer for the loan. The buyer receives a car and a loan without predatory interest.

Mortgage built on the same principle. In the chain "developer - bank - buyer" everyone wins. But given the increased risks, the bank still takes a mortgage interest: from 1 to 3%, depending on your income level, number of dependents, age, and other factors.

Food

Vegans here are the engine of progress. Thanks to them, even in non-specialized stores, 8 types of onions and 20 types of greens are sold (beet tops and mustard, for example). Recently, I found “vegan eggs” - from chickens fed by grass, because vegans do not eat either meat, or milk, or eggs. There are also many allergies to peanuts and gluten, so the packages are labeled: Gluten free, contains peanut. In my son's school, you cannot bring food with peanut butter or peanuts.

Cheese. I will tell about him separately. No subtleties of taste, aroma, color, crust, mildew exist for the American consumer and the cuisine of the South of the USA. The main quality of cheese is one - fusibility.

Any food is good if it is covered with a layer of stretched, slightly burnt crust of melted cheese. The crust should be like cognac - 3 finger thick.

How to save on food. There are many ways. In any grocery store there are leaflets for current sales and promotions. Promotions can be found on the website, in the same place and place an order. You can pick up purchases at any store network.

There are absolutely implausible ways. For example, "Walmart" practices the policy of the lowest prices. You can take a pack of cookies, show the cashier the photo of the same pack from another store, but at a lower price, and pay at the price of a competitor. It sounds crazy, but it is.

Shopping

Clothing. There are discounts "Marshals", "Ross Dres For Less", "TJ-Max." They sell the mass market with 20 — 50% discounts. There are also cheap American brands. You can buy high-quality things for the home: dishes, Ralph Lauren bed linens, plump towels, or a cotton sundress for $ 6. On the obvious defect things are surely indicated. Somehow I saw a beautiful jumpsuit for 1 $ with a half-torn zipper. A piece of paper was pinned onto it - so on automobile sites they point to a scratch on a car with a finger.

Cosmetics also often sold in discounts. The reason for discounts is not always obvious. For example, the Estee Lauder set can cost $ 45 instead of $ 70, the Revlon pedicure set - $ 15 instead of $ 25.

Economy shops. There are several economy class networks in Mobile: “Dollar General”, “Dollar Three”, “Family Dollar”. They are smaller than supermarkets, but the range is the same: food, household chemicals, toys, some clothes and shoes. Unlike large chains, such stores are not particularly picky in the choice of suppliers, so there is a lot of Chinese junk here. Economy stores are good to buy a bunch of colored hairpins for a girl who loses them every day, or children's coloring books. Otherwise, I would not even buy paper towels here.

Promotions, gifts and coupons. Retailers grip customers in a stranglehold. I made a haircut at the hairdresser for $ 8 - you will immediately receive a coupon for the next visit for $ 2,99, cheaper only in the morgue. You will issue a credit card in a chain of stores (similar to “Mega” cards in Moscow) - you will be filled up with coupons and small gifts like Viktorias Secret pants.

Return policy is unthinkable. The clothes will be accepted after a couple of months of active use and the money will be returned. A friend bought diapers for the baby, used three of them, and decided that they were not suitable - the child had irritations. The store accepted the open box without three diapers and returned the full amount.

School

The education system is one of the most logical, practical and productive structures that I have met in life. Everyone has heard that Americans are stupidly impassable and cannot name 4. Apparently, from excellent schools, students get into monstrous colleges, where they turn into complete rams, or maybe it is only in Alabama that everything is so radiant and unique.

I find it difficult to comment on stereotypes and monologues of Zadornov, I see a superbly organized and working system, which is very different from the Russian one for the better. I often attend school and see how teachers communicate with children - respectfully, firmly and without lisping.

Five-year-olds carry out projects once a month, and that is not counting the daily tasks in math, spelling, and reading. Pupils are explained not only by natural phenomena, but also by social concepts: what is racism, who is Martin Luther King, why do we need social professions and how to use money.

Once a month, children receive a local school currency (the amount depends on academic performance) - you can buy sweets or toys for it at a school fair.

Miscellanea

Small business. The state supports entrepreneurs. To organize a business, you need to buy a permit: a license for a year costs $ 120. Business pays taxes: federal, Alabama state tax and Mobile county tax. If during the 5 years the company shows zero profit, then a check is organized. If the profit is at least $ 5 per year, it is possible to conduct business without supervision.

Parking. All parking is free, except for parking in the city center, but these are just a few streets. Parking on them costs 15, 25 or 30 cents per hour, depending on the zone. It is forbidden to park the car in the center for more than 2 hours.

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