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hi city girl. I am the wife writing now, so since I am originally from MA, I know of all these places. I have a friend in S. Berwick, ME and we hung out around beaches, shopping, and yes I love xmas tree shops too! You never know what you will find I guess. Yumm legal seafood and kelley roast beef those are great!!
Well I was thinking a long time ago to get allergy shots but never did because of insurance. Hopefully when hubby gets a job there he will get good insurance so that will be ok.
BTW how does insurance work there? when I was in MA I used to go to free clinics (usually held once a week at a church) and they can give you free meds for most things. Or at my doctors I could sign up for free care. This was not Mass Health, but I heard things have changed, so since I am on a lot of meds if I moved to NH what would I do right off the bat with no insurance?
Just wondering if you or any one else knows.
Someone else suggested Merrimack. They all sound good. For now we need an apartment as not quite ready for the property ladder (How DO you know when your ready?) well even saving up for the move, and getting into an apt and things we will need (as all we own is an old computer and a cat who is not so old!) we will need house stuff, so that is enough of a big thing in itself... then hubby needs to take some classes to change his field that he wants to do, so maybe we will look once we are more stable for a house. I guess just the thought of NH seems so awesome and peaceful to me and brings back happy memories, so I feel like I can relax and enjoy it there. That will be nice.
I guess where we live is a matter of where Hubby finds a job (I can work from home so thats easy) and where we find an apartment (I want something with character and features like sort of Victorian, bay window, wood floors and a fireplace maybe if we can find an area that has this kind of thing, but I have found a lot on Realtor.com so far that seems to have this feature but they don't show you each room which is hard when you want to plan from overseas!
anyways we will keep up the search and reading other posts too that may answer the questions.
Originally from Chicago but to NH almost 20 years ago and preferred it over Massachusetts because I felt the people were more down to earth and friendly.
Lived in the middle of no where for a while then moved to Nashua (southern part of NH and finally Manchester because I wanted some of the benefits of big city living - public sewers, city water, trash service - those conveniences. I could never get used to taking my trash to 'the dump' or what are now known as transfer stations, but that's just me.
I've recently moved back to Chicago for a job and I'll tell you after moving away I believe the cost of living is very reasonable in NH. Right now, gas is less and food is less. The housing market is softening so it is definitely a buyers market. There is no income tax, no sales tax so all you pay is relatively high property taxes but I've received a culture shock coming back to Chicago: sales tax, income tax and high real estate taxes. But I'm a big city girl and I like the accessibility and access.
Also, if you are an auto enthusiast there's a great classic british car club. Check out www.bcnh.org
*waving to kscotland from across town* I'm from Exeter too.
Whether you consider the cost of living reasonable here depends on where you're coming from! We moved to the Seacoast (have also lived in Dover) from Boston so it was a significant drop from there, but it's more expensive than a lot of other places. NH has the second lowest total tax burden in the nation. While we have relatively high property taxes (I pay around $19 per thousand, pretty average for the state) the lack of income and sales taxes REALLY drops the total pain down to a tolerable level. We were considering moving across the border into Maine (I was born there and still consider myself a Mainer even though I live in NH) and when we ran the numbers to calculate how the income tax would affect us I stomped on that idea hard! While renters do not pay property tax directly, it IS factored into the rent. If costs are an issue you'll probably want to be looking more up toward Dover and Rochester - watch the classifieds at www.fosters.com (that's the Dover newspaper) to get an idea of what rents are looking like. Fireplaces and hardwood floors and such are pricey amenities, you may have to wait for that until you're on firmer financial footing.
There's a roast beef place in Hampton NH that's ALMOST as good as Kelly's or Nick's in Beverly, O'Grady's on Route 1 across from Hannaford. Yum yum!
Healthcare is getting very tough if you don't have insurance. For meds related to female-type stuff you can go to Planned Parenthood and get them free or pay however much you can afford. Your best bet will be to get in touch with the manufacturers of your various medications and inquire about their Patient Assistance programs, which provide meds to patients free or at a discounted rate. Free clinics are pretty much nonexistent, but many doctors will discount their rates somewhat to people who have no insurance and pay cash, and hospitals are required to provide emergency care to all comers no matter what their financial situation. You can sign up for free care when you incur a hospital bill, although that will ding your credit rating pretty hard, and there's no guarantee you will get it. There's good state-funded health care for kids but grownups without kids are as always considered pretty much disposable, it doesn't really matter if we drop dead for lack of health care!
What industry is your husband in, what job skills does he have? He said something about "sales" but that could mean any number of things.
For getting stuff for your apartment, there is a wonderful thing called Freecycle - www.freecycle.org - which is made up of thousands of local mailing lists of people GIVING stuff away. All free. Lots of furniture goes by, appliances, you name it. Of course you can't be picky but well, it's FREE!
SR1220, I lived in Lincoln Park near the intersections of Clark and Lincoln for a little over a year. Lovely city but I am a Yankee gal at heart and just not made for cities.
SR so if you dont live in a bigger "city" you dont have them pick up trash like normal? that is so wierd!
right now what we pay is the equivalent of 1400 on a 30k base as things are so expensive here and to make up they even pay you less! awesome. (NOT) so as you can see that is one reason we are out.... just hubby can expect a 40k base and I am guessing rent for a 2 bed maybe around 1000 or a bit more depending on what we want for features.
I will comment on what you said here Mrs M.
I have allergies wicked bad so I cant have any carpet at all so if I have to pay for wood floors better then being stuck in the ER all of the time!
(and you can always buy those electric fireplaces! It just makes it cozy. I have seen a few apts that have them, they seem more common (sorry the Victorian sort of features) in MA but I am trying to run from there (well I ran far, to London first!) But I want to be near the water, and near the border as my family lives in central MA.
hubby does ad sales for now. He is going to start studying when we can afford it, to be an animator but there are a decent amount of studios he can possibly work in in HN or MA (more in Boston of course) But at least then I can live in NH and it seems so peaceful even just thinking of it and remembering times I have been.
I know in MA you can get free care at the hospital but the doctor I had was able to get me signed up for that as it was part of a hospital? and they were able to help me find affordable meds and things.
(all those allergy and asthma meds among others! so there is no real way you can get situated until you had insurance? I guess I can try to find out the meds company's. I think we are staying with my mom at first, then when hubby has a job we move to NH. so I can go back to my old doctors office and go back on the situation I was On I guess. Or try to have the doctors here give me a few months extra RX to go home with.... and lets hope I don't get sick or anything ..
My mom loves NH too, she has a timeshare in N Conway.
I found a nice apt in Lincoln (online) but it seems a bit far. well it wont be available when we need it, unless someone in another part of it moves out... Its too soon to look anyways as we are waiting on visa, but I wanted to get an idea of the price I would pay.
They seem to range between 750 in Rochester (not sure about how that is but yes its not the seacoast! and 1200 if near the seacoast. Maybe at first we wont be there. My friend is From Dover and another friend in S. Berwick, ME. Would like to be about 30 mins from them.
And SR I don't think my husband is into cars but a classic car show is different . I have been to several. It was fun.
My mom said go to Laconia its near the water (what does she know she is from MA ) SO I will ask here, what about that area, or Merrimack, someone PM'd me about it. how is it compared to the seacoast with affording rent and finding a job (I imagine hubby will need a bigger city) and the commute to MA? we love water, hubby has wanted to get his motorcycle license for a while... but I would not say he is a 'biker' .... any thoughts?
thanks in advance, everyone.
Vanna and Dan
There's a really nice commuter bus that goes from Dover, Portsmouth, and Newburyport MA (which is a quick hop from the towns close to the border) that would bring Boston within reach as a workplace for your hubby. My DH (dear husband, or darn husband depending on my mood! LOL) has done it off and on for several years. The MBTA commuter rail has come to Newburyport too but DH found it less convenient and comfortable than the bus. If any of those animation gigs are in the "495 tech corridor" that's a pretty easy trip, and you could go toward some of the south-border towns like East Kingston, Newton (not Newington), or Plaistow which tend to be more reasonably priced than the towns closer to the ocean, but you're still looking at only about half an hour to hit the beaches. (Seabrook is cheap and right on the water but it's not a town I would want to live in, it's a bit skeevy.) Plaistow is right across the border from Haverhill MA where there's also an MBTA commuter rail station.
Ad sales, the newspapers and radio stations always seem to be advertising for ad salespeople. Don't know what the pay's like.
One thing not to forget though, if you work in MA and live in NH you still get slammed with MA income tax. Do the math and make sure a higher paycheck south of the border doesn't get negated by the taxes and the commuting costs.
Rochester is still considered part of the seacoast region, although it's pretty much the northern border of it. Still only about a half hour from the ocean though. That's where we're moving to. Housing is reasonably priced there but you really have to watch your neighborhoods, you will want a real estate agent or a friend who knows the city well to help you hunt for housing. It's a hike from the Boston area jobs though, about an hour and a half in good traffic. It would be a good location in terms of bang for your buck and it's close to your friends in Dover and South Berwick. Dover is a really nice town to consider too, I lived there for 12 years and love the town, but it might push the envelope in terms of affordability. Still, you never know what you'll come across.
You can definitely FIND adorable Victorian apartments with hardwood floors and bay windows and all that jazz, just whether it's in your budget range is another factor entirely. There is a lot more demand for "cute and picturesque" over "boring and boxy". You should be able to find something less charming with hard floors though. One thing you might consider doing if you or your hubby are at all handy is seeing if you can rent a fixer-upper house, condo or apartment where you can pull out any carpets and put down cheapie laminate (you can get it over at Lumber Liquidators in Manchester for about 75 cents a square foot), the rent is usually lower and you can trade your labor for reduced rent. Good practice for if you ever buy a house, too.
When I lived in MA we were never able to get free care for me (I got severe CFS and fibromyalgia in 1993 and have not yet recovered), we just either had to suck it up or went into debt if there was no way we could put off going to the doctor. We were living in Lynn on 14k a year, finally made it to 23k a year and paid out 4k a year in insurance but we got out of Lynn and moved to Southie. I was so glad when we moved out of the city and got away from all the pollution. Yeah, things suck pretty bad if you don't have insurance here in the good ole US of A. If we lost ours I would have to stick my head in the oven because my meds cost about 1800 a month and for one of them (the most expensive one of course) it's VERY hard to get on the assistance program! I would definitely contact your old doctor and see what he can do about helping you get over the hump until you can get some insurance arranged. He might be able to scrounge you up samples of your meds too, they get boxloads of them from the pharmaceutical salespeople.
No matter where you live here in New England though, you're probably going to have problems with the pollen, so you'll probably want to get yourself a good rugged air cleaner for your apartment and make sure your car has AC. About the only place I know of where you can really escape pollen is the desert!
Laconia is pretty and there's a nice lake but it's way the hell up in the middle of nowhere! It might be feasible if he found a job in Concord. Lincoln is even worse on the way-out-there scale, it's almost into Vermont! Merrimack is halfway between Manchester and Nashua, which would probably be convenient to your family in central MA, but it would be a real hike to Boston and the better part of an hour to the beaches. Check out Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/maps) to see where towns are in relation to each other.
Hi again!
Thanks for all your great advice, Mrs M.
Well DH (I like that!) had a look on job sites today. it would appear they are saying 30k but he also went on a salray checker and it said 45 - 65... big difference. so lets say he made 30 k. I will freelance so its hit and miss. I have no idea what I will make (starting in a few wks) and at first it will maybe take longer to make $$ as in getting clients and all.
And you bid on jobs, like ebay and hope you win!
I think, given we can maybe afford a car for 3k that will not be good to commute to boston. Maybe when he gets his animation gig in 2 yrs (after studying and looking for it, etc)
we can afford a better or second car then (lets get the first one he he - well we are still in London then arent we.... I am so ahead of myself daydreaming but so homesick (Not for Mass mind you!) just family, friends and clean air. NE may have its pollen but the smog is not there like London! that is big for me!
I will get an air purifier. thats a good idea about fixing up a place... and yes I absolutely have to have a pretty place. I have lived in a craphole over here far too long and the equivalent is $1600 for a tiny bed and ghetto living area. thats not bigger than most studios, and the 3 of us (cat is the kid for now!) have a hard time, mostly me as I am a designer so therefore like to decorate as a hobby and you cant make a place look so great if what you have to work with looks like crap. so I guess I am being picky, sorry!
to ask you about where to find the apts for victorain and all that jazz what cities / town are more likely to have them (I know Boston would have the most because of when everyone came from england to begin with where did they copy the architecture from? well being around it but not allowed to live in it makes me sad! I had a place in Worcester (MA) for $500 a few yrs ago with all that jazz and it was really cute and fireplace, wood floors, bay window, you name it. So that is why I am into that ever since. Yep I am a pain - then again I have to work from home so I better like it ya know? Being that I will be there almost 24 - 7!
But we have some friends, relatives who may know someone or maybe meet them on here for what we are looking for...
How much income tax do you guys get in NH? for ma it was around 25% less if you had a dependent (as in DW/DH!)
just a bit. how does that compare if you know?
If he ends up with a job in a NH city we can live a bit higher and save rent for now and when he gets his animation job maybe we can save up for a house (not sure how this property ladder even works, read on here somewhere you can put down less to "lease" or rent to own and use the equity as a down payment. Have to find that post and ask them. that would be wicked cool.
I always thought the bits of Dover I have seen where sketchy. Maybe it has changed. its been quite a few yrs! (Her mom lived there so once she moved out I no longer needed to go there, but she moved back and I have been across the pond ...
I cant believe they did not give you free care. I had NO job though after and during college so I got it and I have some issues but not too major, like depression = psych , allergies/asthma = allergist , colds & checkups = normal doc! so if you have Fibromyalga (my mom does too, that sucks sorry to hear that!)
You should have gotten it. MA is mean like that!
How did you ever afford the near boston area on that salary? then again in 93 prices maybe were cheaper. I was 13 so I dont know!
funny thing about my old doctors office, they dont have samples because they wont deal with the sales rep. although hubby is movign jobs now to selling medical stuff, (I think just meds not sure he hasnt started so I dont know or dont pay attention ya thats more like it , sounds boring... I am so not nice. Guess I am a darn wife ! I will when he starts and understands it himself. although one of my inhalers, advair, is on the top 10 widely used list... so it must be meds...
I have checked out town but they didnt seem so far. then again its a map (I cant find my way out of a paper bag! LOL
I will have to mapquest each and every town. And I wont be visiting family every single week. Just want to be near s. berwick. and near enough to MA for the now and then .... point of growing up and moving away is for just that! he he!
well every now and then we may get together but we are more the holiday sort. sad really I wish we were closer. Maybe I can find a town that has people our age (I know that is hard to predict or find a way to meet them. we are mid 20's ish... so give or take a few yrs. Or find some neighborly things to do ? I don't know... we will figure that when he gets said job in said town but he wants to be remote for a while at least till animation gig happens so that gives us a few yrs of peace.
thanks again and everyone else in advance
PS where can you NOT get decent internet so we avoid that? (working at home and such?)
thx
Good morning! Sorry I just got your message. I work nights and I took tonight OFF for a change, I deserve it, don't you think? I work seasonally and it was time for a night off I do believe!
If you want a cute, nice, funky apartment with hardwood floors, exposed brick and an updated kitchen. I think your best bet would be Portsmouth. I saw a few really cute apartments for under 1400 a month with heat and hot water included, so remember that. Just go to this site:
Click on Marketplace, then click on Homes and Rentals and plug in Portsmouth, NH and you'll see them all, patiently go through them all. At first they are outrageously expensive, but keep going from page to page and you'll see what I mean.
You definitely wouldn't want to live in Seabrook OR heading west toward Nashua I wouldn't think. In fact, take those towns right off your list of places to live while you're dreaming right now any way! As one of the previous posters mentioned? Seabrook is definitely kind of "yucky!" I shouldn't say that, because the beach area? Is absolutely STUNNING and I'm not kidding you about that, it's JUST gorgeous, SO many magnficient homes now being renovated and built all through the beach area. These homes are positively out of this world too, they're peoples year round homes though now more and more. A lot of them aren't for rent or anything like that and if they were? They would most likely be seasonal where you'd have to get out of there after so many months. So forgettt aboutttt it! The beach area of Seabrook is completely different from the town precinct any way and it basically always was completely different. We always used to say that they should think about annexing themselves and make themselves a separate entity all together!!! That's how different they are! It's like night and day when you see the beach and then drive over by the town itself!
IN any case, I think you'd love Portsmouth, NH. If you end up in Massachusetts? Check out Amesbury! I'm not kidding you either. It's near Newburyport and that city is quite a lot like Portsmouth only WAY more expensive to live. SO as an alternative? You have to check out Amesbury, MA. It's awesome there. You'd love there Market Street area. They have the most amazing little shops and restaurants there now. Gorgeous old New Englanders and Victorians all through the town. Take a ride through there some day and you'll see what I mean when you're looking for places to live. It's up and coming and it's quite nice to see all the homes being renovated. It's actually a hot place to live now! They have an amazing Italian restaurant in the center of town called Ristorante Molise. There's one in Wakefield and then the owners about two years ago opened this one. It's absolutely awesome here. Check this town out when you're looking for a place to live! Nice, funky apartments could be found here with hardwood floors and all that.
One day we drove from Amesbury in to South Hampton, NH. Have you ever heard of that town? Well believe me, I lived on the seacoast of NH for well over 20 years and never saw this town. It's BEAUTIFUL. Take a ride through there some day when you're in New England and you'll see what I mean. It's right over the border from Mass. It's a hop, skip and jump to the ocean from there. It's rural, it's quaint AND let me tell you? It's even got a vineyard there, that's how we came upon this lovely town. You'd love this whole area, I guarantee it! Check out the vineyard, you'll see what I mean...
Well that's about it for now. Hope you find JUST the right town to live in. I think you should go with either Portsmouth or Amesbury when you're looking for an apartment THEN when things get rolling with the jobs and all that? What the heck, buy the house in South Hampton right near this vineyard!
Good luck and hope you luck out soon with your dream, you'll be here soon, I can tell, you're determined and that's all it takes!
theshewans, pretty much every town around here has its sketchy bits - even the slightly snooty Exeter and Portsmouth have their iffy neighborhoods. And the towns with slightly dubious reputations like Rochester have nice neighborhoods, I was househunting there just yesterday. That's why you need someone to help you weed out the listings who knows the area well, they can tell you "no, don't even think about it" or "that neighborhood looks a little tatty but is actually quiet and calm". Dover is pretty affordable and does have a lot of the lovely old houses that have been divided up into apartments - it was settled in 1632 for pete's sake! I absolutely LOVED living in Dover, I wish we could afford to buy a house there but it's just gotten too expensive, and it's almost impossible to rent a place with a dog bigger than the average rat! LOL Somersworth has a lot of nice areas too and the apartment that would cost you $1200+ in Portsmouth would cost you $900 there. Since you're only going to have one car you might want to look for apartments that are close to the COAST bus line so you can get around while your hubby is not home, it really stinks to be trapped out in the boonies with no way to get anywhere if you need to. Their website is at http://www.coastbus.org/ Portsmouth is indeed gorgeous but good heavens the parking bites downtown, so if you are looking there make sure you get something with offstreet parking! Having a cat will limit the selection of apartments drastically, I had figured you didn't have any pets since you had such bad allergies! (I am mom to a 6yo rescue dog and a 12yo kittycat.) Anyway, another good place to watch for apartments is Craigslist, website nh.craigslist.org.
NH has no state income tax or sales tax. At 45k (giving you a hopeful estimate) expect to lose about 18-20% to federal taxes/medicare/social security. If your DH works in MA you will have to pay MA state tax even though you live in NH (although it does increase the standard deduction to 7700 to file as married filing jointly, you are not a dependent unless you are legally 100% disabled)... same goes for ME. You will need to crunch the numbers to see if a bigger paycheck in MA is worth the tax hit and commuting costs or if you will actually do better on a smaller paycheck working close by in NH. Maybe you're more comfortable living tight to the edge than I am but with a monthly takehome in the area of about 3k (assuming working in NH so no income tax) I would be looking at rents under 1k. Gas is getting pretty expensive in the US, although not as expensive as it is in Europe, so is food, and there are those darned medications. (Even if you get insurance there are still co-pays. A lot of meds have gone to generic in the last couple of years though, that might help, and as I said check into those patient assistance programs. Your pharmacist can tell you who makes all of your meds and you can find their websites. Also look at the Partnership for Prescription Assistance at pparx.org.)
I am a total decorating nut too, but I have often enjoyed the challenge of making a place that was not so nice to begin with into something nice. Mostly because usually I couldn't afford something nice so I had to make do! There are so many more resources now for getting good things cheap or free, like Craigslist and Freecycle and eBay. I have a lot of beautiful things in my home that I got totally free from Freecycle! I am also into Victoriana and am looking at Victorian houses up in Rochester... small ones though.
Just about everywhere that has cable has good internet and it is mostly just the very rural places that cannot get cable; most places have DSL if you prefer that and we even have FIOS (fiber optic) in some areas.
As for young people there is a big university in Durham which is right nearby (two towns over from Dover, or "ovah from Dovah" as we would say here!) so the students live all over this area, and there are lots of young folks in Portsmouth too, especially the "artsy" and "alternative" types like Portsmouth. We are getting old in our mid thirties now There is lots of stuff to do around here, this is not a place where you will get bored unless you want to!
As for your question about how we managed in the city on so little money... When we lived in MA we were dirt poor even though most incomes were lower then; in Lynn DH brought home just about $200 a week and we lived in a tiny, tiny apartment for $395 a month in a building that had rats both two-legged and four-legged. When a drug dealer was shot in the hallway literally three feet from our door we decided it was time to get out of there! We had no car and did not go out to eat or to the movies or anything like that. I dumpster-dived magazines and clothes and things for our apartment, I was never brave enough to dumpster-dive for food although other people I knew did. I grocery-shopped each week with a calculator in my hand and if we went over $25 we put things back. I splurged on an Internet hookup for $20 a month and boy was that a scrape! We went to the state assistance office to ask for help to tide us over until DH could find a better job and so that I could see a doctor and get started on disability paperwork, and they told me if I had a baby they could give me all kinds of money and food stamps and so on but as a married couple with no children we just had to make do as best we could. So I became a "black belt tightwad" and squeezed every penny until Lincoln screamed! DH eventually found a slightly better job and we moved from Lynn to Southie to a little better neighborhood but it was next to the projects and on the third floor of an old, old building that listed to one side so the rent was pretty low for the area, but it was still 2x what it was in Lynn so we didn't get much ahead. Again we did not have a car, did not go out, our idea of a big treat was $5 worth of Chinese food from nearby Chinatown. Didn't want to know what they put in it, probably ears and tails, but it was yummy. We were pretty happy though, we had each other and that was what's important. We scrimped and saved and moved out of the city to Gloucester but only stayed there a couple of months because DH was offered a job in Portsmouth that paid well so we moved to Dover! We could rent a decent condo for what we paid for that ratty Southie apartment and he was making more up here so we were finally able to get ahead some. We have lived up here in NH ever since and hope we never leave.
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Ooooooh, New Hamsphire is for you!
You should be able to find something less charming with hard floors though. One thing you might consider doing if you or your hubby are at all handy is seeing if you can rent a fixer-upper house, condo or apartment where you can pull out any carpets and put down cheapie laminate (you can get it over at Lumber Liquidators in Manchester for about 75 cents a square foot), the rent is usually lower and you can trade your labor for reduced rent. Good practice for if you ever buy a house, too. 
For theshewans
