Jobs in MN

[fromupthere]

Originally Posted by golfgal

Last time I checked Winona isn't in Rochester, unless the recent earthquakes out east moved it??

The University of Winona has a Rochester campus. If you bothered to look at the link, you would have seen that.

[lalife]

Originally Posted by GBCommenter

I really have to speak up as once again Golfgal is going beyond having pride in the part of MN she lives and highly skewing the picture. She is not doing a service to the OP and her questions.






I won't go so far as to say GG was specifically calling me a 19-year-old, but I find it generally a pretty offensive comment to snidely characterize most regular commenters on this forum as "19-year-olds". I personally am a little over twice that and given most of the regular commenters speak about the houses they own I'm willing to bet they are not "19-year-olds".






For the OP - let me offer a potential reasonable budget for Minneapolis:

Rent - $600
Groceries for 2 - $400
Electricity - $30
Phone (you could get a basic landline) -$40
Auto insurance - $100
Gas for auto (based on $3.85/gal, 1000 miles driven a month, 22 mpg) - $175
Personal items such as T.P., soap, etc - $100
Bus pass - $85
$ towards school expenses (let's average it out for our purposes) - $200
Entertainment - $ 150 (not extensive, but gets you to the movies once in a while, and there's plenty of free stuff to do)
Let's say you purchase health insurance (which isn't yet required by law) - $200
Miscellaneous fund for unusual expenses such as a car repair - $100
Total = $2180.00

That is below the $2500 monthly income I suggested the two of you could make on those $12/hour jobs (and on my take home number I took 1/3 of gross pay to try to factor in some insurance premiums). Therefore, your hubby could work less than FT if he desired, or you could have extra income now to save or otherwise spend. Furthermore, play around with these numbers and you could reduce your expenses (i.e. park the car and buy another bus pass, would reduce your expenses about $190, or spend less than $150/month for entertainment)

Furthermore, what is to say you couldn't find a roommate to split expenses and rent? Perhaps not ideal, but could reduce your rent if desired.

My point is this: GG is correct you'll likely have lower expenses in a smaller city or town, and you could find jobs if desired. This would allow you to do what you want and perhaps have more cash. However, if you want to live in Minneapolis it is possible and you could achieve what you want without taking on lots of loans that will straddle you later.

The part GG seems to forget is there are plenty of people who do it everyday and live just fine...

This is very accurate information.

[Melissa82]

Very good points here. I am now considering actually living in Minneapolis rather than Rochester but I'm still looking at options as we have 9 months or so to go until move time.

[GBCommenter]

That's good to hear, not only to save money but also let you really browse and get a feel for what $600 buys you, what $650 buys you etc. That way you can really think about what is most important in your big move - extra variety and options of the big city but smaller apartment and perhaps less money to save, or smaller city of Rochester but either more money, larger apartment, or both.

If you happen to use Craigslist, be sure to watch for "too good to be true" ads. You may already know, but "if it's sounds too good to be true, it probably is...". For example, this ad: Beautiful Landscaped House (http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/ram/apa/2584210709.html - broken link) seems like something is off. That house looks too big for $650/month. Maybe it's not really in Minneapolis but rather further out. Or maybe it's an outright fraud. In any case, definitely send no money and be careful on what info you send someone you don't know. There have been cases of people thinking they're getting a great deal and wiring money to someone far, far away. Doesn't take that much to copy pictures off the internet...

Craigslist themselves have a caution page to watch for scams: craigslist | about > scams

[plain and simple]

Melissa, I think you would enjoy Minneapolis. It's a cozy big city, for the most part. But, since I like knowing my options, I hope you don't mind my recommending one that's been helpful to me.

If you go toModerator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed, they have a really fun, very specific quiz that you can take to help you find the best place for you to live. The questions get very specific and you can automatically select (or close off) certain areas of the country (like the south) that you don't want them to consider in the list they give you.

Your results are fun to look at and include pictures. It may not be the MOST updated information, but it's still really, really helpful. Heck, I still take the quiz periodically for fun! (I'm a Montana/Wyoming/Idaho kind of guy. I like my population to be in the hundreds, not thousands!) To get your results, the website may ask you to register but it's very easy to get around that, too. I just typed in all false information and they give me my results immediately.

If you try it, I'd love to know what your thoughts are. I recommend this site a lot and I'd say that 8 out of 10 people found it helpful.

[Azul91]

Southdale center is being redone and Herbergers is opening, soon. So, I am sure they will be hiring.

[Melissa82]

I just want to say how great everyone has been and how helpful you are. Moving across the country is not easy, especially when you know nothing about the area. Since I come from a cold climate, I'm not worried about that aspect. I just want to make sure it's a good fit for college and working. Times like this are scary, considering the state the economy is in.

[plain and simple]

Originally Posted by Melissa82

Times like this are scary, considering the state the economy is in.

I agree. I tell people who wonder out loud if they want to move to a new house, apartment, city, job and/or state. I tell them, "Figure it out now and move quickly if you're going to do it. Get things settled and in order now because the economy isn't going to get better."

I'm not a pessimist by any means. But, I am a realist whose head isn't buried in the sand.

There are things about Minnesota and Minneapolis that I definitely don't like. (A couple things that I absolutely hate.) But, even in spite of those things, this is a very good place to live that has, so far, had a magic bubble around it, protecting it from a lot of the really difficult trials other states have been going through.

You have my sincerest wishes for a successful transfer!