I've always taken the position when moving and have to decide between taking food/storage or furniture that you can sleep on the floor but you can't eat furniture so take the food/storage.
Maybe I should have rethought that. My kids made me keep their bed stuff although I got rid of ours. It's a good thing I kept theirs. $800-2500 for a mattress? $300 ish for a chest of drawers? (Yard sale prices btw) $350-800 for USED washer and same again for a dryer? $495 for a used couch and that's half of what a new one is.
Before you yell free cycle, the closest ones are 75 miles away. Ditto for craigslist and their prices are just as bad. I haven't even started looking at bookshelves.
I admit I am super spoiled by the great farmer market in my town of Huntington Beach where I can get scads of product for .33/lb. But I was unprepared for the sticker shock of sale prices of $2.99/lb for produce here. I found a place which runs about half that, but that's still a LOT for me. I will definitely be planting a garden and when produce is on super sale buying it by the bushel and canning, dehydrating or freezing it. I found a Sprouts in Dallas, near where I will be twice a week, so I will stop there and see what's what. And the "Asian community" is not much further up in Plano so I will be stopping by there to see what's up next week. I heard there's a Ranch 99 (we had them in California) so I'm hoping the prices are similar to ours. Plus I'm dying for some oyster sauce to make chinese food.
I have been flummoxed as to why no one grows a garden here, and now having seen the prices I am truly confounded. Even if you have to pay to bring soil in for raised beds, it will pay for itself in one season.
The great news is we CAN put in a garden where we are at, if I can find someone to scrape off the grass (we are in a house now BTW) and find someone who wants to dump wood chips. I can see I might have to use some weekly feed on it also. I'm going to start with container gardens though. I'm really looking forward to getting my greenhouse here.
The house is north and south facing which is wonderful and only 1 bathroom window on the west. No need for lights all day. DS15 and I installed a small solar light on the carport which stays "on" all the time. It charges in the day and shines through most of the night and works really well. I wanted to buy a worm composter but for $109 off amazon and $45 home made from a place in Dallas I guess I will have to make my own.
Gas is cheaper though! A far cry from the $4-5 per gallon we were paying in California it is around $2.20 for the car and $2.50 for the truck. Longer distances to drive though, so it might balance out. But it sure feels better at the pump.
Two miles outside city limits so our internet is very limited. We pretty much live at the library from 10am to 5pm. Air conditioning, Internet, printer, fax, comfortable chairs more or less, bathrooms and a snack/eating area. Plus our phones work here, lol. I am looking forward to getting a television and installing satellite though, I have to confess. By 8pm I am ready to sit and veg.
I met someone in my son's homeschooling group who lives in Forney, that's about 8 miles outside Dallas. I can see the appeal of a "city" lot which is 1 acre. As we plan our moves going forward, I think this would be about the right size, although we did find the perfect place near Tyler which was on 6 acres (Internet issues though.)
Well that's it for now. It's time to leave the library and go explore the grocery stores. Somehow, I don't think I'll be finding oyster sauce locally anytime soon.
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