A Look Back: Part 2

Jess is currently asleep on the couch. It’s kind of her thing really. Around an hour after we eat, we usually find ourselves watching something on TV. Perhaps it’s something recorded on our PVR. Maybe a movie from NetFlix. On the odd occasion, it’s something live on TV. But it really doesn’t matter what it is, because whatever happens to be playing the TV is nothing but a lullaby for my wife. Gun fire, explosions, yelling, screaming, crying, simple dialog – it matters not, and it’ll put her to sleep. By my estimations, I’d say Jess sleeps an average of 10 hours a night. 7 in bed, and 3 on the couch. The funniest thing is when she wakes up. “Disoriented” is by no means an accurate description. She stumbles around, eyes glassed over, speaking in broken sentences – “I Sleep Now” – and has what I like to call “hair explosion”. And as if these words disturbed her current slumber, she literally just sat up, proclaimed something in what I think was english, took off her glasses, slumped back over and kicked a leg out from under the blanket.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way… I think it’s one of those things you come to love about a person the longer you’re with them.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, I was reflecting.

Part 2 – The Cost of Living

In response to Drew’s comment, I thought I’d address the cost of living in California.

On the surface, I’d say it costs a lot less to live in Orange County when compared to Toronto. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re actually spending less – if anything, we’re spending more. So let me explain.

The only thing that appears to significantly cost more is real estate. The market here is out of control. If I’m not mistaken, I believe the median price for a home in OC was somewhere in the neighborhood of $710,000 – that puts us at number 2 on the most expensive list. The coastline is more or less spoken for with every viable piece of land (and some not) under development, and it’s quickly moving further inland.

But if you can look past the real estate inflation, you’ll quickly see inexpensive underbelly. For example, I currently drive an Infiniti G35 Coupe 6MT which in the US retails for $37,650. In Canada, the same model will run you $51,972 – that’s about $7,000 difference once you do the conversion.

Some other examples would be the weekly necessities. We shop almost exclusively at Trader Joe’s for our groceries, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s by far the best and cheapest grocery stores around. Target is a favorite of Jess’ – I don’t have the deep-in-my-soul love for it like she does (but I much prefer it to Wal-Mart). Costco may be available in Canada, but down here you can buy massive bottles of vodka for a fraction of the cost… which has to count for something. Hell, even Starbucks will sell you a Grande Latte for less.

Taxes are obviously lower, but that was to be expected. Hydro, gas, water, etc. are all about the same I suppose. Internet and cable are competitive too (with the must-have-all-services-with-one-company bundle). We signed up for Vonage when we got here (in hopes of keeping our old number), which is much less than Bell was back home.

Looking at that, you’d think we’d be saving a ton down here. But that’s not the case. Being that this is California, my take on it was “enjoy it while we’ve got it”. And that’s what I set out to do. So I got the sports car. And the motorcycle. We rented a much larger place down here which costs more than our place in Toronto. We’ve done some traveling (admittedly, a good chunk was covered through work), and if we go out for dinner, we go out! – I think that’s our of our weaknesses really. We both enjoy a good meal.

In the grand scheme of things, I’d say the cost of living is more or less the same as Toronto when you work real estate into the equation. I suppose you could get away with paying less if you decided to live about 20 miles inland, somewhere along the 71 in Chino – but anyone who’s watched the OC knows that’s not the place to be when you’re living in Orange County. There’s a reason MTV picked Laguna Beach.