I was making money – stupid money. So when Ian, my boyfriend, came to me with this idea to move to a new state, it seemed realistic to attain.
He wanted to finish up his degree at UCLA, versus at an in state institution. At this point, I had been bartending for about two years, and even though the money was fantastic, I was done with the bar life. It had just run its course for me and I was ready to move on - not to mention GROW UP!
We knew that we needed to start saving for moving expenses to make this cross country voyage. We quickly opened a joint savings account and started putting money in right away. This was the first time I had ever had to prioritize and budget money in my life, much less a moving budget. In hindsight, I would have to say that Ian and I had a pretty good plan.
I was to put half of my earnings from every shift I worked into the account and Ian would contribute too. The account was to be used for rent and bills for the future, and to give us a cushion when we moved. We also knew that we wanted to go out and visit California to go apartment hunting. I wasn’t into just looking at apartment ads online and picking one blindly. So we booked flights and hotel stays to begin our search.