Lurker > grimhilde00

JigsawTDCII posted...

including furnishing my apartment (again, fairly minimal on my end)

man most places here were furnished which I did NOT like. One, felt like that was a strike against having a pet. I got rejected by ten places, only one flat actually gave me a lease offer (but it was by far my favorite so suck on that other flats!). Also, they were usually ugly as hell. So much faux leather or outdated stuff. Yeah I want to move in and make it homey. Also hoping to stay here for a few years then be able to buy. So, glad I got unfurnished!

JigsawTDCII posted...

anyway, congrats on the move and now that most of those big expenses are out of the way and you dont have to worry about rent for 6 months, hopefully you can relax and get to enjoy your new home!

yeah time to settle in and other than buying furnishings and stuff, no rent for awhile will be nice. And my flat is on the Water of Leith which I love and in my favorite neighborhood I was aiming for :)

shadowsword87 posted...

Now I understand when most people move to another place, they usually aim for having an SO who already lives there.
Sounds like most of the expenses are just double rent.

it's about needing cash upfront since I don't have credit or a guarantor. But since it's upfront, I don't have to pay rent until April either. Just, if you move abroad, you need savings to be able to do that.

JigsawTDCII posted...

it might be possible to get this refunded. I rented an Airbnb for my last three months stateside before I moved overseas, and I didnt yet know my departure date and ended up not needing about the same amount of time as you, 2/3 of a month. I emailed my Airbnb about a month prior, let them know I wouldnt actually be staying those days so if they wanted to open up bookings to others for that timeframe they could cancel my stay for those dates. I didnt even ask for a refund, but was provided a full refund for the days I wasnt going to be staying

yeah I'll message and see if they're nice but not holding my breath

Jen0125 posted...

I paid for movers to move in to my house I actually bought and I thought it was super worth it. Relieved a lot of move in stress.

yeah when I moved from Texas to California, it was $8k for movers (furniture then) that moved everything and so worth it considering all the stairs and such..

For funsies I put in how much it cost to move to another country...

So what it cost.
- Visa (3 years) = ~$2500
---- this was entirely paid for by my company, other people might pay for this themselves
---- will need to renew this in 3 years time, so this will be a cost again in 3 years
---- healthcare surcharge 624/year = 1872
---- 479 shortage occupation list application cost
- flight = ~$800
- luggage = ~$1300
---- 4 suitcases, 2 duffel bags = ~$1000
---- stuff I cared about most or didn't want to wait 5-7 months shipping
---- van rental for Airbnb hopping = $300
- pet relocation service = ~$5500
---- cat arriving after me since I had a lot of luggage and timeframe was last minute for figuring out her stuff
---- health certificates, vet appointment, flights, picking her up and travel to airport for departure but picking her up at airport on arrival
- AirBnB for two months that's pet friendly = $7000
- finding a flat = $12,000
---- having to pay 6 months rent upfront being from abroad without credit here = $9k
---- also having to pay double the deposit for the same reason = $3k
- sea shipping other stuff = ~$4000
---- still figuring this out but these are quotes I'm getting
---- 18 boxes, not furniture
---- probably could have cut back on some of this...but sea shipping is by container so wouldn't have saved much

So that's roughly $30.5k out of pocket (plus $2.5k paid by employer), not including having to buy a bunch of stuff soon (furniture, necessities I didn't pack, etc).

Potential savings:
- having gone for a bigger company that would pay for relocation costs (typically cover up 10k from what I've seen)
- moving with less
--- save probably a couple thousand with less airport luggage + sea shipping costs
--- but also it's a container size for sea shipping so not sure how much I could actually save here
--- but also would have had to rebuy things
- not using a pet relocation service
---- if I had to fly back to the USA and into Paris, pay for a Chunnel pet service, and then train I would have saved $2k but would have been 30+ hours work
---- if I brought my cat with me immediately I could have saved 10 hours and $1k ish from the above, so $3k saved (but this was difficult with timing unknown and traveling with a lot of luggage). Would have been max savings here though
- AirBnB
--- I did places "entirely to myself" because I have so much luggage and also I don't want to live in a hostel for two months (plus with a cat not even an option)
--- I'd have to leave the city to find cheaper places that's over an hour commute. This doesn't work well when I was given a couple hours notice for some flat viewing, and was flat viewing multiple times a day. plus work.
--- could have saved if I knew ahead of time when I would have a flat, there's 2/3 month I didn't need
--- but booking things for a month at a time (I booked two) gives a monthly discount, and I didn't want to risk not being able to find a pet friendly place last minute so..
--- hotels could have saved a couple grand here for the same time but that's another meh situation to be in for a couple months with cooking, laundry additional costs, etc.

With those savings it still would have been over $20k out of pocket (without relocation being paid by employer)

anyway don't have to pay rent until April now so I guess that's nice

edit: oh didn't include some visa services (document processing and some extra stuff) and travel for that that was around $1k too

my previous company IPOd last December. I guess I'm glad they allowed staggered selling lockup periods so I was able to sell 30% before the crash and diversify it better... there was a lockup period for the rest. I have sold a bit more but it's a drastic loss compared to if it were diversified since it's a high growth tech stock (company is fine but eh the market). So I'm a little over leveraged with that still but I'd like to get it back up to what I paid income taxes on before selling the rest :/

but hey I'm not going to complain too much about a windfall even if some wind was taken out of the sails

the most annoying thing is when you realize you logged in with facebook in certain things (like bumble -- that or phone number which doesn't support number changes, or apple ID but that isn't allowed on an android phone /minirant) and have to reactivate for two minutes

I don't think people should have their privacy and rights hindered by the status quo of how things used to be is enough

I don't think representing people who aren't a majority is upsetting in any way

I don't think treating people with basic decent courtesy is much to ask for

I don't think assholes being called out for being assholes is bad

does that make me woke

sooo

you encouraged and participated with a married man with three children to cheat without consent from his wife

wife is possibly coping by going along with it (a lot of people cope this way and it doesn't make it ok and doesn't mean they're really ok with it)

also your own open relationship boundaries were not respected here

yeah pretty shitty

GBP close too. good time for me to be moving over my US dollars to UK bank accounts so that's personally beneficial.

went to the office today and the view is the castle

so many cannons

my parents and grandma are up my ass about how I don't intend to go see the Queen with her being in Edinburgh and I live here now

just.. never really cared about the monarchy. but my mom is like waking up at 5am over there to watch the funeral and crying lol..

side note, apparently less than half of Scotland support the continuation of the monarchy

yes

I got this a couple years ago so probably a newer one but I love it

at the time the reviews I saw said it was great even with comparable wacom, fraction of the price, with some features wacom was missing for their comparative one (at the time a few years ago)

and much more affordable

https://youtu.be/CoWmZ2pQ05Q

I might get a day off work, so, cool

I just switched jobs and my income went down like 75%, so dunno probably not. Salary seemed on the higher end for the market here tho.

can't relate. I'm actually just starting getting into a normal routine this week after half a year which I'm enjoying. But still, mix it up after work and on weekends.

update: I'm in Scotland, started working, need to make a trip to London for visa reasons which is annoying before I can open a bank account but getting that done this week (and that's blocking getting a cheap af phone plan -- 31/month for family unlimited with the best provider, would do single but I don't see that option and I want the best coverage)

flat hunting reminds me of San Francisco with demand

but loving it here so far :)

there's a nice old lady neighbor I chat with nextdoor to my Airbnb

mine pretty much never shuts up, gibberish sometimes if I'm not thinking but notice it.

GOT IT

flying out tonight woooo

I'm going to have to pick up my more permanent visa ID in London (not just the stamp on my passport), wonder if I can do that with the 4 hour transfer I have in London....I mean worse case can get a train

so visa office emailed me on Friday saying my passport with the visa vignette should be delivered Monday (it's overnight but workdays only but being picked up Friday).

I booked a flight for Tuesday, red eye, so got all time tomorrow

UPS only just updated their actual delivery date to Tuesday before noon

fingers crossed that works out >_>

ParanoidObsessive posted...

It's great. But like with most things in life, it's an ironic paradox.

When you have the money to go you won't have the time, and when you have the time you won't have the money. And when you finally get to the point where you have both time and money, you won't have the energy or the motivation.

And then you die.

or you live in a country that mandates a good amount of time off annually and you can take inexpensive trips

oh no wait I have a weekend trip to Inverness planned in a couple weeks, that counts

only moving. flight tomorrow finally.

captpackrat posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/9/3/AAQwHjAADnGh.jpg

oh so pretty! love its coat

no I like being flat

also I'm used to much more expensive housing markets

what that's beautiful

also holy fuck moving abroad is expensive

- cat: can either spend $4k for flights, trains, chunnel from Paris pet service and have to handle all the vet certificates and travel 25+ hours, or a little less than $6k to use a pet relocation service that makes my life easier

- visa was a few thousand but my company paid for this thankfully

- I'm probably going to have to pay 6 months of rent up front since my credit score from the states doesn't come with me / is reset

- shipping a one bedroom by sea with a crate is like $4k+, but thankfully my mom has a 75% discount with FedEx so that's by air and I only have boxes (no furniture) so that will be under $2k for me

- expensive short term lodging until I find my own place

- I had booked a cheap flight for $700 but my passport is coming a day later so now all the flights are around $3k (or $2k for multiple stops, nothing nonstop from where I am anyway), luckily I can use miles I have instead. oh and bringing a bunch of suitcases with me will be a few hundred too while I wait on the boxes

- all the furniture etc I'll have to rebuy

lol I just emailed like 15 different flats to view next week and they all came back with automatic emails saying viewings are full

THIS GONNA BE FUN

at least I have an Airbnb for a month to look

Dark_Spiret posted...

if you think its getting that bad its as you said, they have the guns. the left are the ones sitting in the corner twiddling their thumbs, screeching to the high heavens in hopes that brings some form of change. thats not the way the world works most of the time. the right are going to protests heavily armed which DOES influence decisions. if more people on the left did so, especially more minority communities it shows they arnt the pussified party to allow their country to slip into that totalitarian mindset maybe youd see something serious happen.

left gun ownership has actually increased since trump

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38297345

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/22/if-others-have-rifles-well-have-rifles-why-leftist-groups-are-taking-up-arms

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/10/25/first-time-gun-sales-not-voting-for-trump-430310

adjl posted...

A properly maintained drinking fountain is likely to be more sanitary than a properly maintained reusable water bottle

? are you talking about plastic reusable bottles?

Kyuubi4269 posted...

Scotland just leads in neglect for child abuse.

https://www.gov.scot/policies/human-rights/childrens-rights/

doing more here than what I see in the states

that's illegal in Scotland even from parents

but kebabs if I do

I think I might not order from there

got an inverness weekend trip scheduled too :D gonna be fun, see me some loch ness monster

here is a poem from Scotland's Robert Burns, who is celebrated on Burns Night (25th of January, the poet's birthday), called an Address to Haggis

http://www.robertburns.org.uk/Assets/Poems_Songs/toahaggis.htm

lihlih posted...

Is that a meal over there, or just a small appetizer/sample?

I had it as an appetizer cause I was traveling solo and trying to eat a bunch of new things, would have shared it. It was listed as an appetizer.

But haggis, neeps (turnips), and tatties (potatoes) is a classic meal

VampireCoyote posted...

will you try haggis

I already did while I was there! was great. Had Mango chutney, pickled onions, and things with it

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/5/0/AAe6yIAADmv-.jpg

I'm flying out next week wooo

Scotland here I come :D

no, big reason I'm leaving the country

that's weird

I've never been into sports. went to University of Texas, never saw a game, though slightly regret that cause could have been an experience at least.

thinking about learning more about rugby and getting into watching that since I'm seeing someone who plays and it's a new cultural experience that can be fun

but weird to be judged about that not being an interest of yours

oooo I'll be watching that

Chef. I love to cook and I'd learn stuff.

Jen0125 posted...

https://www.adagio.com/green/autumn_mist_green.html

Here's a yummy blend

ooooh

imma have to try both these smokey suggestions