beatusrhenanus

Just stepping in again to thank you all for your insightful posts and conversations - I'm learning a lot. A theme that keeps coming up seems to be that electricity bills and medical expenses will be high, and most likely always higher than one might imagine. I'm revising my planned budget accordingly, and after a few months of real life experience I'll hopefully get a more accurate figure for us.

petitefrancaise: I really appreciate your encouragement with regard to cycling. There's a gym at work so I imagine I can probably shower there, and I've heard that the road connecting where we live to the workplace is gridlocked at rush hour, so I think biking, however uncomfortable, will be quicker than driving. Apparently cycling on sidewalks is legal in Florida, my only worry is crossing the huge six-lane intersections and getting hit by an inattentive driver...

Pulaski

Not only "legal" but recommended! It seems to be legal in most if not all states, but I still find it strange to see police riding their bicycles on the sidewalk even in the heart of the downtown area.

Honestly, I think it is close to suicidal to ride a bicycle on the road in the US. I hear of several fatalities each year of cyclists just carelessly driven over by car or truck drivers here in NC (I assume it is similar in most other states), but it is shocking that in almost all cases the fatality is largely ignored as "just one of those things", with the driver not so much as ticketed, never mind prosecuted!

One thing to watch out for is that major junctions often lack any sort of pedestrian phase to their traffic lights. It is bad enough that even when there is a pedestrian phase to the lights, pedestrians have to "share a phase" with traffic travelling parallel with them, meaning you have to rely on drivers to yield to you when you are crossing the road if a vehicle is turning left or right. But at major suburban junction with no pedestrian phase you have to take your life in your hands to cross the road, not least because pedestrians are often rare and therefore drivers don't expect to see one, and that's assuming that drivers don't ignore the red lights entirely (tip: they do, scarily often). You also have to watch out for drivers doing a perfectly-legal "right on red". .... It is quite complicated being a pedestrian in the US!

chawkins99

Maybe they should take a test?

anotherlimey

Welcome!

Speaking from experience, your initial post wasn't that far off.

The big unknown is the health insurance and copays. You should be aware that even if you get a good estimate of the fees as of today, that sometimes employers change plans and that can change coverage drastically.

Utilites in an apt for two, I didn't see a size, might be $250. I have two cells for under $100 on ATT gophone, you can find it less than that with Boost; Internet for $50 maybe, electric is probably $100-120, I pay $150 in an old house (i.e. no double glazing) in a warmer part of the state. In an apt you probably will not pay water or sewage seperate, I didn't, but it might vary by county because that's who I pay now for those.

Car is doable, it would be one car though, and not large. Insurance sucks in Florida, it will probably be $200 at least.

You won't catch me on a bike in Florida. I don't let my kids ride further than the end of the street, too many idiot drivers around. And walking outside in summer... lol, you'll be a hot mess in 10 yards.

Ridibunda

Craigslist. com & charity stores like Goodwill and such can save you loads of money. I don't care much for used clothing, but furniture, kitchen gadgets and mostly everything else is fine with me. A couple of years back I bought a lovely used pickup truck on Craigslist - one of my best purchases ever. I could afford a new one, sure, just didn't see the point in spending 3 times the amount.
Shopping on Craigslist could also give your husband something very useful to do.)) Very important, especially after one had just been uprooted...

mrken30

Practice you hitch hiking skills to save money.
Don't they have gators living on the median in FL?

jellybean_17

Hey, we are in Florida too For electric we pay approx $120 p/mth (new build detached house), water is $60-70 if we don't water the grass (you won't need a figure for that), phones we both have a plan with H2O for $27 a mth if you do auto recharge, coverage has been fine, I think we pay $60 for comcast internet (good speed) and basic tv package as we don't watch any of the channels. Groceries for us are high but there's 3 of us, you can shop around though (publix is better quality but you pay more), car insurance is just over $200 p/mth for one car - we are new here so no driving history taken into account at that rate! I have found things here to be higher priced than back home, but we came from Yorkshire so you probably won't find as much difference

The cycling will be sweaty but its only 2 miles and you can shower so I would say go for it too Lots of people in this area are out cycling, yeah its hot and humid but it's a good workout. Make sure you get out and visit the state parks, springs and take a kayak or tube down one of the springs rivers when you're here - so much fun!

zzrmark

I think autumn, winter and spring happened in Florida on February 10th this year, I think it was February 6th last year.

An earlier poster said that water, sewage and trash were probably included in rent price. We have just moved out of rental and had to pay for those things through the landlord's specified agent, so not only not included in the rent they had the cheek to load the bills as well.

A/C is a bloody electric eating monster, wife has trained me to live with it at 76F, occasionally setting it to 74F on the odd evening, every degree lower that it runs at seems to increase costs exponentially. It runs 24/7 nearly all year round, we do set it a few degrees higher during the day when we are both out but not too much as it has a tendency to freeze up when cooling anything more than four or five degrees below its daytime setting. Try to get a property with ceiling fans, you'll find it a lot more comfortable for sleeping. You'll have to get used to the racket of a ceiling fan at night, which pales into insignificance when your a/c system, or that of your neighbour, kicks in at regular intervals in the wee small hours, sprinklers going on at 3am are also a nuisance if you're a light sleeper.

Registration costs on a first vehicle are flippin' extortionate and vehicle insurance is no better when compared to UK prices. I budget $100 a week gas but probably do more miles than most (in a stereotypical US gas guzzler). Beware secondhand vehicles, Floridians insist on changing their engine oil every 3000 miles but have a tendency to ignore all other servicing requirements until the vehicle stops moving ( I like to play a game seeing how many vehicles I can spot in a day with shot shock absorbers, some days I hit double figures fairly quickly!!!). US car salesmen are as trustworthy as Delboy.

Edit: Forgot to say, insurance about $240/month on a 2010 F150, similar for monthly cost for my wife's 2004 Accord - older vehicles seem to cost more to insure (quite probably due to the lack of servicing, mentioned above). Both are insured through my wife's clean, long time accident free, policy, I haven't got the foggiest what they'd charge me if I tried to insure it independently.

Pulaski

Holy cräp! We pay about $1,300 a year, total, for a 2003 F250, a 2002 Mustang GT, and a 2003 Accord. Adding a 2016 Accord added about $700 to the annual insurance cost.

petitefrancaise

Just a note, but ceiling fans should be pretty much silent. Mine are. They probably need balancing or replacing if noisy.

zzrmark

That sums it up quite nicely!

Besides servicing issues, Floridians like to drive into each other whilst they are texting and/or after having consumed more alcohol than is good for them, they also have a penchant for running down cyclists, pedestrians and motorcyclists and crashing into houses/shops/trees. Then there's mother nature chucking in the odd sinkhole, hurricane and flood damage just to spice things up a bit (not overly sure if any of those would be covered though). Non of which is conducive to sensibly low premiums.

Pulaski

Agreed, and they're pretty cheap, and fairly easy to replace, so if it making a noise just replace it. ..... I got a new 54" one a few weeks ago for $45 from Lowes.

zzrmark

I forget that normal adults have rubbish hearing. I can still hear those blasted high pitched noise deterrents used to keep yoofs from loitering in public places although my pet peeve is hearing aeroplane pilots yakking away on their intercoms interfering with the audio on my headphones whilst trying to watch the latest films on a 6" headrest screen. Most annoying on a 9hr transatlantic flight.

petitefrancaise

I think it's you that's not normal!!!

earplugs?

zzrmark

You think?

Background noise is something I've gotten used to but a/c units still make a heck of a racket through paper thin walls. I didn't mention buzzing lightbulbs because no-one else seems to notice them