Something Totally Exciting
I think my wife and I are moving to Texas.
We’ve been talking the subject to death, considering pros and cons, but always trying to stay objective and not focus too much on the pros (too easy to get excited). So we employed the same strategy I used when I needed to decide whether to fix up my piece of crap Cavalier, garage the Benz, or drive the Benz, sell the piece of crap Cavalier.
So, it’s either moving to Texas and spending money on all related expenses, or grinding it out in Michigan and saving a little money.
We decided we are going to do a recon mission into Texas and find out for ourselves whether it’s everything it’s cracked out to be. Life’s too short to sit on your ass, dreaming of what could have been.
So we bought a travel package from Hotwire – a week in a 2-star hotel, roundtrip tickets, rental car. Nine hundred bucks.
Before the purchase, however, I thought, “Maybe I’ll drive! I like driving, why wouldn’t I drive?”
Driving to Texas from Michigan:
- Hotel expense – $50 x 7 = $350
- Fuel expense – ((1,500 mi x 2) / 26 mi/gallon) x $2.50/gallon = $288, probably $325 (stops, detours, city driving, construction, etc)
- Two entire days wasted driving
- Extreme car-lag and fatigue
- Possible poor performance at job interviews due to the above
- Possible car break-down (hey, it’s a road trip) -> extra expenses, wasted time, getting detoured and lost
- Increasing car mileage dramatically
Flying to Texas from Michigan:
- One time $900 charge, all taxes included.
- Two extra days saved by not driving
- Mood improved and job interviews aced due to being well-rested, cool, and collected
Is all that driving worth saving a couple of hundred dollars? Not to us, folks. Besides, I just made over a hundred on eBay by selling those Wal-Mart routers, so it’s a no-brainer for me.
Excited!
As a resident of Austin, I’d like to add a few more items to your pros and cons list:
Pros:
BBQ
Fewer mosquitos
Cheap breakfast tacos
Armadillos and road runners
Tens of thousands of bats under the Congress street bridge
No income tax
Cons:
Scorpions [Admiitedly, it depends on which part part of Austin you're talking about. My neighborhood has them.]
Fire ants
Did I mention the scorpions?
Did I mention the fire ants?
Comment by Terri W. — March 25, 2006 @ 9:16 am
How do you deal with those? I’m a very good shot out of a slingshot (ha!)
Comment by How To Be Poor — March 25, 2006 @ 9:19 am
Heh.
The scorpions tend to be a problem in the very newest neighborhoods [where construction has recently been tearing up the ground and caused them to start looking for a new place to live. like your home] and on the outskirts of town. We are in the latter category.
Before I broke down and went the 4x/year professional pest control route [around 100 dollars per treatment, houses are big here], I was finding one about once a week or two. Then we tore up the backyard to build our deck and stuff. Then I was finding one a day. When I was 8 months pregnant with our first child and nearly stepped on one in the shower, that was the last straw for me. Heh. Now I find maybe once a month or less often. I’ve been lucky enough so far to always find them before my toddler does.
Thankfully we don’t have much of a fire ant problem in our yard, but we’re definitely teaching the kids to not mess with ant hills, and don’t step on them.
Comment by Terri W. — March 25, 2006 @ 12:12 pm
I used to work as an exterminator in MI, so that’s going to be a learning experience.
Comment by How To Be Poor — March 25, 2006 @ 12:17 pm
Pros:
More crappy cars!
Lots of really fat people (Makes you appear better by default)
Cons:
Crazy conservatives
(for wife) Crazy conservatives always trying to make teachers teach religion
Fire ants….definately fire ants
Comment by Kyle Stewart — March 25, 2006 @ 2:04 pm
“We decided we are going to do a recon mission into Texas and find out for ourselves whether it’s everything it’s cracked out to be”
^Being ‘cracked out’ is not a good thing
Comment by Lawrence — March 26, 2006 @ 12:25 am
“Crazy conservatives”?
And here I thought that Austin was the most liberal city in Texas … Sort of the Ann Arbor of the Southwest.
Dude, if you decide to move, we in the frozen body-parts of the country (I don’t know what part Chicago would be, but after the post-vernal equinox blizzard we just had, it is, in fact, frozen) will definitely miss you.
BTW, why do people chase after you? I know they chase after me because I insist on riding a bicyle on the busy streets . . .
Comment by Rick Stabile — March 26, 2006 @ 12:48 am
There still going to run after you, but they’ll be wearing cowboy hats…
Comment by personal finance advice — March 26, 2006 @ 1:09 am
They’re* – damn I need to learn to spell
Comment by personal finance advice — March 26, 2006 @ 1:12 am
Rick,
To understand why people chase after me, click here.
Comment by How To Be Poor — March 26, 2006 @ 7:08 am
Lack of opportunity – just wait til you get here. BTW if you mention traffic problems as a con for Austin you will obviously not be living in central Austin. But then again that goes back to the lack of opportunity. You will probably end up at Dell in Round Rock making $15 an hr as a contractor and never step foot in Austin.
Comment by Mike Deans — March 26, 2006 @ 11:11 pm
What do you mean? No jobs?
Comment by How To Be Poor — March 26, 2006 @ 11:12 pm
[...] I can be pretty tight-fisted with money. But there are some things that I am totally not price conscious about. Number one with a bullet on that list is scorpion control. Just a few days ago, I had the hubris to comment on How to Be Poor’s blog that I hadn’t seen a scorpion in quite some time. In fact, it had been several months since the last sighting. [...]
Pingback by Educating the Wheelers » Pay Any Price, Bear Any Burden — March 28, 2006 @ 8:56 am
Possible car breakdown? From you Max? You who babys your diesel? How could that be fathomable. That’s treasonous talk from you.
Comment by Gunnar Heinrich — March 30, 2006 @ 11:52 pm
Yeah, what was I thinnking :)
Comment by How To Be Poor — March 31, 2006 @ 5:44 am
free ringtones…
free ringtone…
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Trackback by acne treatment — October 31, 2006 @ 3:39 pm