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Ask HN: Any tips for living cheaply in SF?
11–20 of 84 posts
Re: Ask HN: Any tips for living cheaply in SF?
#12I have never lived in SF, nor have any plans to — but what are your reasons to be there? Surely it'd be easier (or should I say cheaper) to work out of Seattle?
I compared living costs using Craigslist. Turns out apartment prices all almost the same. The only cheaper thing is 200 bucks for gasoline to go there/back. EDIT: I think that the advantage that moving down there will give me will outweigh the $200.
You probably figured this out already, but living a little bit out of town (along the peninsula for example) can cut your rent by 40%, which would be more than the caltrain/bart fare to get you into town every day.
Depending on your motivations, it could completely defeat the purpose of heading here though.
Re: Ask HN: Any tips for living cheaply in SF?
#13In a down economy, with huge unemployment in the valley (lots of competitors, unless you're unique in some way?) are you not better investing in yourself by continuing college?
Re: Ask HN: Any tips for living cheaply in SF?
#14If I fail I'll go back to living with my parents/continue college in the fall.
Why not just do it from home? I don't really see the benefit of moving to SF. You'll reach Ramen profitability a lot more easily if your costs are $0. You might even start college with something that most students can only dream of: income.
Re: Ask HN: Any tips for living cheaply in SF?
#15Why? Is there really a point to moving to SF? I see no plan here and really no reason for you to take such a leap, so why bother wasting your money just to move locations for the summer. Anything you would be doing there could be done from where you are. Save your $3000, continue working on what you have, and if it seems to be a good idea, invest it into that product. You gain nothing by moving there (unless you find actual work). I really don't understand why everyone here is telling you to do it. I know at 18 it can seem glamorous to do something so crazy but if you sit back and think about it for a second, its pretty stupid. If you have a finished product and have something to gain by moving there (like finding people to work with or for you on it) then I could see it. If you were simply planning on looking for work then I could see it. I just see no plan and it seems like a big waste to just do something so irrational.
Re: Ask HN: Any tips for living cheaply in SF?
#16Regarding the weather, I've lived in both places, San Francisco is much colder in the summer than Seattle. San Francisco, and most of coastal Northern California, barely has seasons. Though Silicon Valley and the East Bay (Oakland, San Jose, etc) do get warmer, San Francisco, being surrounded by water on 3 sides, just doesn't get hot in the summer beyond a random handful of days. (On the the other hand, it also barel…
That's like a huuuuuge PLUS as I really don't like hot air. Now I have another reason to go: get away from hot Seattlish weather.
> Now I have another reason to go: get away from hot Seattlish weather
As someone who lives in Atlanta, this sentence about made me spit coffee out my nose... =)
(FWIW, I'd love to move to Seattle area, but it's just not in the cards for me.)
Re: Ask HN: Any tips for living cheaply in SF?
#17I have never lived in SF, nor have any plans to — but what are your reasons to be there? Surely it'd be easier (or should I say cheaper) to work out of Seattle?
I surely can't speak for him, but I can offer my own experiences. I was born in Chicago, but moved to Puerto Rico when I was a kid and lived there for 20 years. Puerto Rico is much, much cheaper than anywhere in the United States (My rent for the two-bedroom apartment I was living in was $250 per month). But after being stuck in a meaningless PHP gig (where I was more of the company sysadmin than a developer) and having a difficult time getting a programming job, I started looking to the U.S. for a better opportunity.
I landed a job in New York City, where I'm currently living at. The city is awesome and my job is fun. But in reality, the Bay Area was my first choice, and it's still dream of mine to be able to land a job over there. I'm in the process of getting more information to further my skills so I can begin actively searching for work over there.
I was doing well in Puerto Rico (earning more money than most people I knew, living close to beach with constantly great weather, all my friends and family living there, etc.) and I'm certainly doing well in New York City. But if I had the chance to move to San Francisco, I wouldn't think twice about it. Maybe I'm wrong, but the Bay Area is kind of like the Mecca for developers and aspiring entrepreneurs like myself.
Like I said, I certainly can't speak for mannicken. I'm sure he has his own reasons, perhaps even similar to my own reasons. But if he's really willing to do it, that should be reason enough, regardless of where he is now.
Re: Ask HN: Any tips for living cheaply in SF?
#18(Background: I came from grad school in Seattle to SF for my job.)
(a) Freelance work is heavily dependent on contacts. If you don't have contacts then it's a crapshoot. Maybe you'll luck into something, maybe you won't.
(b) For housing, scan http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/sub/ ; $700 is not impossible, but you'll be living in a spare room of someone's house, and even then that's the low end & you should expect compromises. SF housing is much more expensive than Seattle, as in 2x the cost for equivalent space. I don't know where you got the idea that the costs are comparable (are you mistakenly including East Bay or South Bay prices instead of SF city prices only?). $100 for food is doable if you know how to buy cheap food in bulk and cook it yourself. As for "everything else", heat/electric/broadband can easily consume close to $200 if you're living alone. In a share it should be less, but you should ask about utility costs in your housing situation. On that budget, you should not count on spending any money on entertainment. There's some free entertainment to be had if you're scrappy, but expect to get most of your entertainment from walking around the city or riding your bike through the parks.
(c) Summer SF weather is colder than summer Seattle weather. Bring sweaters.
(d) [you skipped (d)]
(e) SF is an expensive place to live. If this is your 2.5 months of adventure before college, then you just have to weigh whether you're willing to pay $3k for that experience. (Not a bad way to spend it actually.) If you're really trying to bootstrap into a sustainable living situation, SF isn't the best place to go with as little savings as you have; there's too much danger of burning through your seed capital before you get revenue-positive ;). I get the sense that for you it's more the former than the latter --- that is, there's not much downside if you fail --- so what the hell, go for it.
Re: Ask HN: Any tips for living cheaply in SF?
#19I live in SF, it's a great city, and if "living in SF/bay-area" is your dream, go for it.
But that's not quite the same dream as "reach ramen profitability on my web project". In fact, the two dreams may conflict. Moving to and learning a new area takes a bunch of time and money, and the bay area (especially SF proper) is expensive -- compared to Seattle or living with family.
For a young techie, the biggest benefit I could imagine being in the bay area versus Seattle is a larger job market and scene of potential collaborators. But are those what you need to make your project ramen-profitable -- or do those opportunities represent other paths entirely?
Re: Ask HN: Any tips for living cheaply in SF?
#20[deleted]