Moving to the US: Living on a Budget

The Wall Street Journal reported that consumer spending in the USA continues to expand. Amongst the typical areas that Americans spend their money on, there are ways that you can cut back and budget – we have put them together in this blog post.

House share

Renting or buying a house in America varies depending on which state you are moving to. However, house-sharing is likely to be the cheaper than independently renting an apartment or house. Websites and mobile phone apps including Spare room, kangaroom, roomgo and expat.com make it easy to browse for rooms to rent and search for roommates to live with.

Fuel Costs 

Driving your own vehicle in America is more popular than using public transport. As a very large country with so many different states, the price of fuel in America will vary. A mobile phone app like GasBuddy allows you to find the cheapest fuel in your area and you can earn cash back by using it. Decluttering your car, keeping your tyres inflated and turning off air-con at lower speeds are things that you can do to be more fuel-efficient.

Money Management Apps 

Having a money management app on your phone is an easy way to store and track your payments, bills, and budgets. Examples of these in the U.S include Mint and Wally – by using these you can make more informed decisions when it comes to spending your money. If apps are not for you, Microsoft excel have budget templates that you can edit and organised in your own way.

Discount Retailers

The biggest discount retailer in the U.S is Target – Americans love this place! Other discount retailers include Walmart, J.C. Penney, 7-Eleven, Aldi, Market Basket, and Trader Joe’s. You are likely to find one of them close to wherever you are living in the U.S as they have various locations in different states. Look out for their loyalty schemes as a useful way of picking up deals and discounts.

Mobile and Broadband

The widely used mobile networks in America include Verizon, T-Mobile,  AT&T, Sprint and U.S. Cellular. U.S. broadband providers include Verizon, Rise Broadband, AT&T, Frontier and Wave. You can use a site like Whistleout.com to find and compare the plans and prices for these mobile networks and broadband providers, to ensure that you are choosing the one that you will get the most value from!

Fashion

The Business Insider listed the top ten retailers in the U.S. based on data from Forbes Global 2000 list of the world’s largest public companies. Taking the top spot is TJX Companies – the owner of retail chains TJ Maxx and Marshalls who are known for their discounted prices on branded clothing. Other retailers included in the list are Nordstrom, Ross Stores, and Burlington stores.

Our door-to-door luggage service is the budget way to send your things to the states or travelling around! By using it for your move to the U.S you won’t need to fork out on the expense of a removal company or pay airline baggage fees.