Recently in Money Category

Anyone lucky enough to be in Southern California today knows it was not a day you'd want to waste indoors. "Perfect" hardly begins to describe the weather here. Today's crystal clear skies called for an outdoor excursion. We hopped on our scooter and headed West to the Beverly Hills Farmers Market.

We hadn't exactly planned ahead. Our arrival to the market had us digging in our very shallow (as of late) pockets for cash. Six ones. No ATM in sight. A challenge. It was hard to resist the delicious aromas of the prepared foods but with only six dollars we'd have to maintain restraint if we were to bring any loot home. We combed the stands for the most reasonable prices and were quite proud of our bounty...

2 pounds yellow onion
1 bunch of asparagus
1 pound green beans
4 small heads lettuce

As the title suggests, I am now a coupon clipper. I can't put my finger on why but using coupons was always slightly embarrassing for me in the past. Maybe it was those times when I was a child and I went shopping with my mother and we'd get stuck behind the lady with the bag full of coupons and it would take ages for the clerk to enter them in. All the while my mother was bitching because she couldn't wait to have another cigarette. Maybe it's because they seemed similar to food stamps and I was too proud.

Well, it's not 1986 anymore (now the clerk just scans them in in seconds) and I've got better things than pride to spend my money on (I need to eat). Also, you know that crappy colored four page newspaper you get in your mailbox from the local grocery stores every Tuesday (the one you immediately throw in the trash)? It lists all the deals for the end of that week and it has coupons! By shopping for the items on sale in that paper in addition to the coupons I've consecutively saved at least $30 on every shopping trip. I go shopping about once a week so that means I'm saving $120 a month! Holy crap! Why haven't I been doing this all along? $120 is a third of my car payment!

So, keep an eye out for that big piece of colored newspaper that shows up in your mailbox on Tuesday, pull the manufacturer coupons out of the Sunday paper and check your local grocer's website for printable coupons (they mostly suck but you never know).

We're in (or just coming out of) a recession people! I don't know about you but I could use the 30 bucks.

If you've been reading this log since the beginning you'll remember my distaste for the California DMV. It's a place where everyone is required to go if you want to drive a vehicle and it's run by a bunch of minorities who know they can't get fired. They deal with shitty people day in and day out and it shows. Image that kind of clusterfuck only now rather than just the normal amount of people trying to get appointments (which the DMV is staffed for) there are hundreds of thousands! That's the California Employment Development Department.

When calling the EDD a machine picks up and tells you that they're receiving so many phone calls that there is absolutely no way they can answer. They instruct you to file for unemployment online or call the national unemployment assistance hotline.

Lets back up. The internet is the first place I go for everything (information, dates, times, work, pleasure, a wife!) so of course I started there. It all seems pretty straight forward, make sure you have your drivers license and former employers address handy and fill out the online form. Well, right off I couldn't complete the first page of the form. The first question they ask is if you've been employed in CA for the last 18 months... Well, no, actually I haven't. So then I click the "next" button and it takes me to a page that says I must call the California EDD office (800-300-5626). I figure no big deal until I tried to call. The answering message says to call the national office. Well that's easy, they even supply you with the number. So I call the national office number and they give me back the California EDD number (800-300-5626) and say I have to call locally in order to be helped.

"But wait, their message just told me to call you and now you're telling me to call them?"
"Yes, that's what they system says."
"You can't help me with anything?"
"No sir. Thanks for calling." Click.

WTF!! The federal and local governments are just pointing their fingers at each other and I'm stuck in the middle!

God damn it. I picked up the phone and called the California EDD again. And again. And again. About every 15th call I could get a different recording that actually let me touch tone in some selections. I wrote these selections down (1, 2, 1, 2, 7). The recorded voice made it sound like I would be connected to someone and I would go through all the prompts only to be told at the end that there were already too many people on hold and it would hang up. Arrg!!

Considering my options (none) and the exorbitant amounts of time I now have (unemployed) I hit redial for about an hour. And then, something close to a miracle happened: A human being answered the phone!! I was so happy I almost cried. Through that human I was able to file for unemployment but the story isn't over yet. She told me that they would next contact me by mail and that I would have to fill out some forms. At least to me, it seems like that leaves a lot of room for error. No claim number, no phone number to call them at, just an envelope in the mail arriving at some unknown time.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Today is a rough day for a number of reasons. One, it's weird how much the terrorist attacks still upset me and two, it's my last day of work. I woke up at 2am and couldn't fall back asleep because I was thinking about all of this. At about 4am I realized that after today these things won't be bothering me anymore which was a comforting thought.

Now, to just use the abundance of time I'm going to have wisely (right after I fill out all the unemployment forms).

I hate to admit it because I had the audacity to think that maybe Dom Filosa was recession proof. But, alas, he is not.

I am pending an imminent layoff. I was hired for a specific job that required my skill set. That job has since disappeared. I have to give it to my employer to give me an opportunity to try and maintain my employment but, in the end, they cannot.

I love and will miss those guys. Without them I would have never been able to move to LA and I'll never forget it. I pray they have prosperous times ahead.

Here's one to going out on my own for the first time!

Godspeed.

In response to someone searching the following question and finding my site:

How easy is it to move to LA?

Well, that depends on where you're moving from. I moved from Colorado without the help of an employer or the military and I don't think it was too difficult. I had a friend move to LA from Boston with the help of an employer and he seemed to do it without terrible difficulty.

The first and largest hurdle is of course cost. Doesn't it always come down to money? See my previous post about what I spent here. Saving was difficult for me as my wife was in school and not making a whole lot of money. I ended up teaching part time at a community college (in addition to my regular job) and having all the extra income go directly into savings.

I guess the second hardest part before we even hopped into the moving truck was finding a job. It's extremely difficult to get someone to hire you in Los Angeles while still living in another state. Fortunately, I really lucked out and found someone who was into taking chances and saw no problems with hiring the kid from CO. My friend who moved from Boston didn't have so much luck initially. I moved out here a few months before him and he called up to ask if he could use my LA address on his applications. That way it already looked like he was a California resident and the potential employers wouldn't see him as a high risk hire. If you want more clarification on this point leave a comment with your email and I'll get you an in depth response.

Third? Finding a place to live. Again, see the post I mentioned above. Be prepared to slum it for at least 6 months while you get to know the city and the parts that you like and don't like. If you have any questions about parts of the city leave a comment with your email and I'll definitely get right back to you.

Another irritating part of moving to LA was dealing with all the naysayers. I can't tell you how many people told me I was going to hate it. "Too much traffic", "Shitty people", "Too much pollution", "It's earthquake country!". The naysayers went on and on. My biggest piece of advice? DON'T LISTEN TO THEM! Follow your heart and just try and not do anything too stupid.

I guess to sum it all up: If you can save a little money, find a job and a place before you move out here the only thing standing in your way is one long drive or short flight.

See you soon?

This is a direct response to a google search term that drove traffic to my blog (thanks google analytics!).

How much money should you have to move to LA?

I can't tell you exactly how much you will need. I can only tell you what I had.

In short, I saved about $4800 for our (which constitutes me, my wife and a 20 lb crazy dog) move from Denver to Los Angeles. I rented a truck (and a trailer for the car) and tossed everything we didn't/couldn't sell into the truck and then headed off west on June 22nd, 2008 (my 25th birthday).

It just so happened that during the very last week of June in 2008 the US happened to see some of the highest gas prices of all time. We stopped at numerous desert locations to fuel up and paid around $5.00 per gallon (for 85 octane!). It did help that we received about $200 in shell gas cards from friends and coworkers before we left (not added in to the $4800).

One thing we really lucked out on was that we found our apartment in Koreatown and they were desperate to have as high of as an occupancy rate as possible (because they were trying to sell the apartment building) so they were offering sick move-in specials. We moved into our 700 SF studio apartment for $99 plus July's rent of $890 (we got the last of June for free) plus the dog deposit of $500. In total that added up to $1489 (which is a great deal in LA).

Then came all the DMV business of getting the car and scooter registered, getting CA drivers licenses, getting Nicole's last named changed and a smog test (which our car failed because of the catalytic converter). We had to get a new cat converter that ended up costing us $1600 (that we charged to a card) plus another $300 for the regular DMV (and name change) stuff. I shouldn't forget to mention that we had expired plates when moving out of Denver because our plates expired the week we were moving and we didn't want to pay the registration fees twice but ended up getting ticketed while parked on the street for expired plates (another $50). Also, you might want to think about all the time you're going to lose if you're paid hourly by waiting in line at the DMV.

The most important thing I want to note is that I did have a job before moving which required a flight to LA before the move that cost $280 for a ticket, $300 for a hotel plus another $250 for a rental car and gas and then food expense (I think I ate lunchables almost exclusively).

To sum it up:

$905 for job interviews
$800 for the rental truck
$450 for gas
$1500 to move in
$300 DMV
-----------------------------------
$3995 Total

I would recommend you have at least $3000 when you hit the road for LA and be prepared to slum it in the hood for at least six months.

It's all a small price to pay for a fantastic adventure.

I just pulled this off of a lamp post on Melrose & Crescent Heights and had one of those "Only in LA" moments. I don't know whether to laugh or cry for him.

This is how long and how much (roughly) our move has cost us thus far:

May 29th - June 1st

Airfare to LA for interviews: $200.00
Rental Car in LA: $265.00 (I'm under 25)
Gas for rental: $70.00
Hotel Room in Costa Mesa (1 night): $80.00
Food while in LA: $100.00

Total: $715.00

June 9th

Received a decent job offer in West Hollywood

June 12th

Packing materials (round one): $45.00

June 13th

Penske Rental Truck w/ Car Carrier (reservation for June 21st - June 27th): $665.87

Total cost far: $1,425.87

Projected Costs

Gas for moving truck (1,100 miles, 8mpg @ $4.00/gal): $550.00
More moving supplies: $100.00
Food for the road:$80.00
Goodbye Party Supplies: $50.00

Deposit/Rent on new apartment

Dog deposit: $500.00
Key Purchase: $50.00
Prorated June Rent: $208.00
Regular deposit? (don't know if it required): $890.00

Total: $758.00 (could possibly go up to $1,647.00 Not sure yet)

Total get out there cost: $1,538.00 (or $2428.00)