Ask HN: A basket of goods

[czcar]

HN,

22yo Kiwi here, planning to move to the Bay Area next year ( earlier the better ) and am trying to work out how much to save to get to US, ie. how much the average month in the Bay Area costs.

These are the numbers I am thinking: Rent at $1500-2000/month Food - no idea - $80/week? Transport - $20 (bus or bike?)

Uhh, thats about all I can calculate from afar, how hard is getting an apartment, are there ridiculous bond and prepayment costs?

Also how is job hunting? - (degree is in finance and marketing and am currently working as one man band web developer/marketer for a company managing a sub $2m e-commerce site)

Really appreciate any responses - have been searching and some of this info is difficult to guestimate.

Thanks

- Cameron

[mahmud]

Rent can be as low as $200/mo if you're willing to share a room with someone.

Food is expensive if you don't have a kitchen, but generally America is cheaper than Australia for everything with a GST (not sure how similar is NZ to OZ)

Jobs are trivial to come across and Americans will not ask you for visa/ID, etc.