
Ask HN: Any tips for living cheaply in SF? - mannicken
Hi!<p>I'm a young wannabe-hacker looking to move for a summer to SF area. I'm working on a web project (Rails) and will try to reach ramen profitability over summer. If I fail I'll go back to living with my parents/continue college in the fall.<p>I can't move until June 13 since I'll only be 18 then (and be able to rent). So 2.5 months of living.<p>I already have around $3000 (paid taxes recently) and mainly telecommute part-time on C++/COM gigs. I might continue working with my current employer down there but I don't think I should rely on that. I'd rather rely on what I already have rather than hope I don't get cut off :)<p>Can somewhere answer these questions:<p>a) Will it be easier to pick up some part-time C++/Rails gigs in SF bay than Seattle? I'd really like to have some continuous source of income so I'd have money to come back/extend my runway.<p>b) Is it possible to live on $1000/month in SF? I subtract $600 for transit gas, emergency, etc.<p>For the rest, I summed up rent+utilities to be around $700, $100 for food, and $200 for everything else.<p>Am I correct in my calculations? Is there anything I'm missing?<p>c) How is the weather down there? Is it much hotter than Seattle?<p>e) Am I fucking crazy?<p>Thank you much.
======
swombat
_If 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.

~~~
breck
I'd say it would be 10x easier to do it in SF/bay area. You'll find 10x more
entrepreneurs and hacker types. This will help you learn a lot more in a lot
shorter period of time. And probably have more fun.

I've found job and contract opportunities are 3-4x more plentiful so you could
probably earn a decent income on the side.

I don't think you can live on $1,000/month in SF. The absolute lowest I was
able to live on for 1 month was $1,500. I think $2,000/month would be a much
better min to shoot for. If you're here for 2.5 months, then you only need to
make $2k on the side to have that.

I would recommend trying to get a job or internship and working on your
project at night. If it's a website, it will take time to get users and
crystallize anyway, and you really can't speed that up by spending 60-100
hours a week on it. So why not spend ~20 hours a week on the site and spend
the rest getting paid for things people need right now?

my 2 cents.

~~~
tomsaffell
> I don't think you can live on $1,000/month in SF

I think you can, if you really want to, and it sounds like he does, so I say:
go for it.

You can get a room share for $600. <http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/roo/>

That leaves $13 per day to spend, which is tight, but livable if you really
want it. Suggestions: bring a cheap bike, so transport costs nothing; make
your own lunches; $5 burrito dinners, etc; work from the public library and/or
work from coffee shops and spend as little as possible/nothing; go to all the
free events (there are lots, and some are free for the first x visitors) -
some even feed you for free (saves $5), and give you booze.

And if you do come to SF, I'll stand you one Chicken Shawarma for dinner,
because I think moving to SF for the summer when you're 18 is ballsy, so I'll
put $8 behind that. (I spent the summer I turned 18 alone working in
Scunthorpe, UK - believe me, SF will be better..)

~~~
jf
if you come to SF you can also hit me up for a free dinner.

~~~
octane
It's a trap.

------
notphilatall
Beware that a lot of networking events take place in 21+ places (read: bars)
so that may or may not be a problem.

You're planning ahead a lot more than most kids that move to SF for a summer.
Most end up homeless on haight street before calling their parents for a
ticket home (I've hosted two separate street kids who moved here with starry
eyes and ended up on the street before they went home...) -- so kudos for
planning ahead a bit more than them :)

I moved here with $7,000 + a $2,000/month contract gig and settled in nicely.
You're cutting it close, but it's possible. My $0.02x4:

(a) It's possible once you have the network and people who will vouch for your
skills. Be aware that CL is full of red herrings; people are not hiring as
many contractors in the downturn, but it still happens. Expect to see far less
C++ than RoR/python/PHP.

(b) It will be challenging, mentally and physically, but it's possible if
you're strategic about it. $700 can get you a sublet
__if_you_look_long_and_hard__, but $100 for food is tough. You probably won't
have much of a kitchen to prepare your own food. When I went through
YCombinator I lived off of Vietnamese sandwiches and Dim Sum for days at a
time; you'll get sick of it but $3 sandwiches and $4 for a plate of dim sum is
hard to beat. $7 mission burritos are also a good bet, El Farolito's has
burritos that'll easily feed you for a whole day.

c) SF is going to be cold during the summer. You should have been able to find
this out, it's no longer 1968 ;)

e) You're in high school, you get to be crazy. :)

~~~
rdouble
This is the best advice so far.

I want to chime in and say DON'T move to the east bay or one of the cheap
places on the peninsula. The 'savings' are misleading. There's a good chance
you'll spend as much in transport as you'll save in rent.. For example, from
downtown Berkeley to 16th and Mission is $3.55 each way. If you go back and
forth every day, it's $210/m. Thus if you find a $500/m room in Berkeley but
you still go into the city all the time, it's the same as having a $700 room
in the Mission. Also, there is little chance of finding a cheaper room in the
east bay that is within reasonable walking distance from BART. The east bay is
way more spread out and chances are that you'll have to walk quite a ways to
get to the BART. In fact I'm going to risk criticism and say that anyplace you
find a shared room cheaper than $700 in the east bay is going to be a sketchy
neighborhood. YMMV, but the shady parts of berkeley are the only places in the
bay area I've ever been mugged or physically threatened by people.

I speak from experience. When I moved here in 2001 I paid $700 for a place in
Berkeley, which was about as cheap as it got. I worked on 17th and Harrison in
the outer mission. I had to walk almost 30min to get to Ashby BART each way.
If something happened late into the evening I'd have to crash on a friend's
couch or take a $40 cab ride back to Berkeley cuz the BART stops running at
midnight. It mostly sucked.

I don't want to hate on the east bay, it has it's charms. But unless your job
and social life is all on that side of the bay, it's better to live in the
city. You can definitely find a $700 room somewhere in SF. That's what I paid
for a room in the mission until 2006 (then moved into my own place).

Also don't drive here, having a car is a huge expense in SF. My car was paid
for and it still cost me around $400/m for parking, gas and parking tickets.
You almost always get a virgin america flight from SEA to SFO for $49 if you
travel on any day besides friday or sunday.

If I were doing this I'd bring nothing except a backpack with a few clothes
(you can buy more stuff here if you need it) and a laptop. Then I'd just float
around different cheap places on AirBNB until I figured out what I was doing.

~~~
mannicken
I'm planning to sleep in the car if something happens. And I can't work on a
laptop, I'd have to bring my large 22'' display here, and keyboards, so I'd
end up walking around with a very very huge backpack :)

~~~
thesethings
Yeah, I want to chime in. Not only is having a car expensive, but it even when
you can afford it, it does not make anything easier. You don't necessarily get
parking spaces closer to your destination than where the bus stop is. Often
you're walking farther to and from your spot, than where the bus/MUNI/BART/cab
would drop you off.

Also, in a city, you're always having to move your car even when you don't
need to drive it anywhere for street cleaning days. If you're lucky enough to
have a garage for it, it will be hundreds of dollars a month. You're already
cutting it pretty close with your budget. Really, really, really don't bring
it.

Otherwise, I think your plan sounds amazing, and I hope you post here from
time to time about your experiences.

------
gojomo
I 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?

~~~
mannicken
<http://www.paulgraham.com/startuphubs.html>

This, and "I-really-want-to-try-to-live-Cali-and-get-out-of-my-
parents'-bedroom" reason. I think this is enough to spend $3000.

Basically, I'm making myself a little YC experience :)

~~~
davidw
From what I gather, the 'YC Experience' includes easy access to lots of
people, a big network of founders, pg & company's advice, and a lot of other
stuff - that's why so many people are keen to get in. I honestly don't know
how much of that you can recreate on your own in a short period of time, but
my guess is 'not too much'.

One thing might be to consider a shorter trip down there to see if you can
connect with some people in the course of a couple weeks, scout out places to
live, and so on, and then do a more permanent move at a later date.

BTW, Berkeley might be a better option in some ways - with students leaving
for the summer, maybe you could swing some cheaper housing there. It's not a
bad place, either.

------
TomOfTTB
I’d do it if I were you.

I won’t lie. In my opinion the chances of success are slim to none. But this
is the best time of your life to take a chance. The more adult you get the
less able you are to take huge chances. So as long as you hang on to enough
money to get yourself home should things go bad I don’t see a down side (where
as if you don't you could end up regretting it for the rest of your life)

That said, two pieces of advice....

First, get this book: [http://www.amazon.com/Ask-Moon-Get-Percy-
Ross/dp/0722529465/...](http://www.amazon.com/Ask-Moon-Get-Percy-
Ross/dp/0722529465/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241369356&sr=8-1)

Percy Ross went from nothing to being a millionare and he attributes most of
that to getting help from the right people. In that book he gives his 10 rules
on how to ask for people's help and get it. The most important thing to
remember if you do this is that 90% of the people in the bay area tech scene
have been where you are (aka chasing a dream). If you need help and you ask
right I suspect most will do what they can to help you succeed.

Second, look into hostels: <http://www.hostels.com/us.ca.sf.html>

Hostels are basically cheap dorms for anyone to stay in. They’re not very
popular in the U.S. but in Europe there are tons of them and they serve young
people with little money very well. The bay area has more than just about any
U.S. city so you should be able to find a cheap place to sleep (and most have
free wifi)

Anyway, hope it helps.

~~~
dangrover
I _highly_ recommend the Hostelling International hostel at 312 Mason St. It's
like $25/night, super-clean, and they feed you breakfast, too! I've stayed
there a few times while going to WWDC.

~~~
timr
HI hostels have a maximum stay restriction. I think it's around two weeks.
They certainly don't let you camp out for an entire summer.

~~~
TomOfTTB
I'd assume he has sometime line where, if he doesn't start getting work within
the first couple of weeks, he gives up. The Hostel is just there to give him
the chance to get his feet on the ground and try to drum up some connections

------
notdarkyet
Why? 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.

~~~
dannyr
notdarkey,

Those people who are telling him to do it probably have done it themselves
(that includes me). After moving in the Bay area, I asked myself why I didn't
do it earlier.

I have lived in 4 US cities and no city comes close to the startup environment
in SF. It's like watching the Superbowl in person versus watching it in your
own house. The energy is just different.

He's 18. If he fails, so what. Sometimes, it's better to regret things you
have done than regrets things you didn't do. (Ok that doesn't include
committing crimes.)

------
cog
(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.

~~~
ojbyrne
In response to b, c and e, I have one word. Oakland.

~~~
dmolnar
Oakland is a fine place to live, and I live there, but you have to watch the
transit situation when living there. If you are too far from a BART or an
express cross-bay bus, you will burn a lot of time waiting for bus transfers.
See 511.org or Google Transit when researching potential places to live.

------
geuis
Contact Justin.tv. They're looking for summer interns

------
pz
Living on $1k in the city sounds rough. You'll probably be so stressed for
money and busy that you won't even be able to enjoy it. If you're focus right
now is building your website, don't distract yourself with contract work and
city life. I would recommend just staying with your folks and getting down to
it. Being in the city won't make your website any more successful.

But if you're dead set on coming out here, I would recommend looking in the
east bay or the peninsula. Stay close to a BART or caltrain station so you can
get into the city easily for networking events & to meet with clients.

If you really want to live in SF proper i would recommend looking for a room
in the Tenderloin (despite its rep, its a great place to live, i loved it...
lots of cheap food and close to everything) or in the southern or eastern part
of the mission.

------
neilk
I wish you well, and I don't think your plan is totally crazy, but I think $3K
is not enough runway for SF. $5K is better. But at $3K, everything has to go
right. A single disaster would ruin everything, like:

\- Your freelance gigs not paying you in time \- Finding that your new
roommates are impossible to live with \- Getting tossed out of your new place
when your housemate wants his girlfriend to move in \- Some unexpected expense
(car accident, hospital visit)

Also, you will not believe what some people are offering for those $700/month
apartments. On Craigslist at that price, you might find generally terrible
places with sketchy roommates and your "room" may literally be a former
closet. Believe me, I have seen them. I am very frugal about rent so I have
investigated those sorts of listings. There are $700/month rooms that are
halfway decent but those don't tend to pop up on Craigslist. Working your
friend network in SF might be the best option.

And, your estimates of expenses are too low.

Still, if you are looking to just break even, it might be worth a try. Just be
prepared to go home or try to get a parental loan (if that's possible) if it
doesn't work out.

Ditto on the false economy of living in the peninsula. Unless you are trying
to get a job at one of the Palo Alto or Mountain View area startups.

There are a lot of cool things going on in Oakland so I would consider that as
a possibility, but it's also more complex for a newcomer to figure out a
decent place to live, and transit is considerably more expensive.

------
flipbrad
In 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?

------
thesethings
Regarding 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 barely has winter :D) Bring your
jacket(s)!

~~~
mannicken
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.

~~~
MoeDrippins
> 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.)

------
rmaccloy
I moved here when I was 18 (in 2006) with $1500 in the bank (and no parents to
fall back on.) It's tough but doable. I ended up taking a job with an existing
startup, but at the time my first priority was being able to eat :)

If I were you, I would not move here to do the solo founder thing without
having plenty of connections; you need a good support network (which will hook
you up with contract gigs too.) Bring a co-founder or hook up with some people
who are already here and can introduce you.

That said, just being young and having the balls to move out here and give it
a shot will open doors for you. Network aggressively, who knows?

As far as tips go: You can get a room for $500-$700 a month with varying
levels of sketchiness; there are enough hacker houses around that you might
find something helpful if you trawl CL long enough. Food is a matter of how
gnarly you're willing to get :)

Don't bring your car and don't bring a bunch of gear; parking will cost you
upwards of $150/mo and it's never included, and gearwise there's a non-trivial
possibility you'll need to move fast if you're doing a cheap sublet or
hosteling it.

------
zaveri
Check out the Hacker House v2 <http://tinyurl.com/cvtgyu>. Pretty reasonable
rent.

------
wannabetechgeek
Sure you can do it. From 2002-2004, I lived on about that much per month, but
it wasn't easy.

-Rent was under $500 - you can still get these prices. Sublet a room in a house with some other young people. \- Electricity/internet bill - $35. \- Cell phone - $50. \- Bring down your bicycle and bike for transport - Free \- If you cook every day, and eat mostly vegetarian and rice - not just MSG-infused ramen - you can live on $5 a day - that's $150 for the month. \- Give yourself $250 for very infrequent meals out, beers, or BART/Caltrain trips - and surprises.

I'm guessing most of the people who said you can't do it for $1000 never
tried. If you have to, you make it work.

Summer's a great time to live in SF for cheap - lots of free outdoor
activities. 2 months isn't that long to tough it out. Come back again and
enjoy the great city when you hit it big :)

~~~
timr
Prices have gone up a bit since 2004. The cheapest shared living situations
I've heard about here are in the $700/month range, and those tend to be dicey
and hard to find.

~~~
smokey_the_bear
Sometimes you can find a shared room for less, especially in the Haight. Those
old houses have huge attics often with 3-4 hipsters in them. Would make it
hard to work from home though.

------
ashishk
"a) Will it be easier to pick up some part-time C++/Rails gigs in SF bay than
Seattle? I'd really like to have some continuous source of income so I'd have
money to come back/extend my runway."

\--Probably. As a rough lithmus test, you could run searches on startuply/
craigslist for both cities and compare the number of returns.

"b) Is it possible to live on $1000/month in SF? I subtract $600 for transit
gas, emergency, etc."

\--It's possible. 100 for food seems low ($3 per day). A big expense is rent;
if you could cut that down you'd be better off.

"c) How is the weather down there? Is it much hotter than Seattle?"

\--Not sure, I'm from NYC =)

"e) Am I fucking crazy?"

\--No. And keep us in touch!

------
dmolnar
Suggest working on how you're going to meet people now -- figure out which
events you'll want to go to, which places to hang out, etc. That will help
with contacts, which in turn should help with picking up consulting or a
formal internship. You can then use this to help plan where you want to live
and whether you need a car. Also, as pointed out in the thread, some venues
are regrettably 21+.

In particular, a lot of events happen on the peninsula in the Palo
Alto/Mountain View area. For example, SuperHappyDevHouse is something you
probably want to attend, and it's recently been at places like Sun. While
getting there by CalTrain is possible, you can't stay late without being badly
stranded. So if you find yourself wanting to visit places in that area, you
will want access to a car. Bringing your own is an option, there's also car
sharing services like ZipCar or CityCarShare.

You might also find it fun to drop by Noisebridge, a hacker space near 16th
and Mission, to see what's happening. Circuit hacking every monday!
<http://www.noisebridge.net> (disclosure: I'm the secretary and a member)

Overall, you are not crazy, but do some prep work by reaching out to potential
contacts, setting up meetings, and figuring out the right events now. While
the Bay Area _is_ the kind of place where you can walk into a cafe, meet
someone random, and then walk out with an incredible conversation that leads
to your next opportunity, you will get a lot more out of your summer if you
work it ahead of time. Posting here is a good start, but you probably want to
do some investigation more closely targeted to your web project idea.

------
AmericanOP
I'm a SF res about to graduate university. If you make it down here I'd be
happy to help you survive/show you where locals have fun.

That being said, another student programmer and myself are working on a
startup in Ruby. Interested angel, that kind of thing. If you think you can
contribute, I'd be willing to pad your ramen budget. Added bonus: one of our
early target markets is Seattle, maybe something will come of that.

email is dp4man@gmail.com

------
malbiniak
live in the east bay (oakland, berkeley, alameda), not the city. look for
roommates, not a studio. move near a BART station. whenever someone starts the
sentence with "hey want to go..." involuntarily say no.

------
dangrover
I think you can totally live on that budget, if you play things right. You
might also look into living in some neighboring cities that would allow you to
commute for events, but you could live on that budget in San Francisco proper
if you were careful.

I think you should just plan on the 2.5 months though and go to school
afterwards.

I'm in a very similar situation. I'm taking a break from school (college), I
have a bunch of savings built up, and I have a business that makes about
enough for me to live off of.

I'm sharing a place now with some other hackers (we were in Palo Alto for a
few months) and it's come down to $500-$900/month for rent depending on who
gets a roommate. Not too shabby.

Coming from Boston, I thought it was really lame that there wasn't a central,
unified subway system. But the busses here are just as good. There's one route
that comes by my place every 5 minutes.

Also, I never realized how much the weather affected my emotions. I love how
sunny it is out here.

------
sgharms
A) Extend your runway – heh you may just find a reason to never leave, happens
often there.

B) I don't know what your transit costs are going to be, SF has wonderful
transit. You could make the investment in a Muni pass and be able to explore
one of North America's most beautiful cities.

Many SF apartments include some of the utilities in the rent, just be savvy.
SF, being an incredibly choosy market often forces 6-month or 12-month leases:
this doesn't apply to you. You probably need to plan on getting a room in a
house with some like-minded hackers

C) As Mark Twain said: The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San
Francisco. Think LAYERS.

D) Where's D go?

E) Absolutely not. Take a risk, work hard, and meet dangerous fun people. You
can live a lot of fun in SF on the cheap because, well, not everyone can be
rich as Lergei.

------
thesethings
I would really try to get a little bit of additional income, your numbers are
very tight. Plus, you don't want to move to another city to stay in your room
the whole time because you're broke, you want to enjoy your time in SF.
$700/room is doable but still quite rare (especially without strange catches,
like "3 bus rides away from X.") I'd put a bunch of energy into finding the
room before you take off, maybe check out AirBNB? Have a separate post about
housing hookup?

------
ashleyw
I 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?

~~~
mannicken
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.

~~~
smokey_the_bear
I really wouldn't bring your car. There are no places to park, and you'll get
parking tickets unless you're really good at getting up at 7:45 am to go drive
your car until the street cleaners have passed. There's cheap airfare, amtrak,
and craigslist rideshare to get down there.

Also, I generally found while looking for a place on craigslist, that while
there are a lot of cheap places listed, they're heavily competed due to rent
control. Places with a room for 500-600 will get hundreds and hundreds of
responses, and you'll have to do an awkward interview for the room, which is
like a combination date/job interview. It will take time to find a room.
Nearly everyone I know that has moved to the bay area has crashed on a
friend's couch for 2-3 months, or take an expensive, short term sublet.

------
natch
e) Am I fucking crazy?

Maybe yes, but taking a leap into the unknown is the kind of crazy thing that
more people should do. Progress, unreasonable man, and all that. Go for it!

------
gtani
Random thoughts:

If you're looking for summer sublets around universities, have you considered
Davis? It's an hour and some away with no traffic, but cheaper, and uh, a lot
hotter. I don't know anything about the department but I've been impressed by
UC Davis recent grads in CS /EE i've worked wtih.

people start hacker houses at random intervals

<http://searchyc.com/hacker+house>

------
newy
On a related note - anyone familiar with the Berkeley area care to share some
tips about housing (places/buildings to avoid, where all the free-wifi coffee
houses are, etc)? Please drop me an email at me [at] euwyn.com

------
csomar
you still have few time, if you are capable work hard on sites like rent a
coder and make some extra cash.. but I'm against going with $3,000 it's way
too little and no one knows what may happen

~~~
anigbrowl
LOL, no it isn't. I moved here from Europe with half that amount, twice. If
you want to have your own apartment and stuff, then you need $1500/mo unless
you get really lucky. If you're OK with roommates, you can do it for $1000/mo
and have money left over for entertainment/parties/fast times.

Besides, the point of moving to a cool city at the age of 18 is to get into
trouble, no? Look after your property, don't be too trusting, practice safe
sex and and avoid over-friendly strangers whether on the street or behind a
desk etc. etc.. Don't assume that coming to Sf will launch your career or
you'll find a pot of money, treat the $3000 as the price of a useful learning
experience and if you do luck out regard it as a bonus.

------
mr_cheese
a) probably -- SF is full of programming jobs b) maybe -- rent isn't cheap
(unless you live in a scary neighborhood) and finding a room to rent might be
tough c) it's rarely hot in SF -- it's usually mild to cool during the day,
and often cool to cold at night e) nope -- you should have a good time,
especially if you live in a fun neighborhood (like the Mission)

------
peterbraden
you can get pretty cheap rent if you don't mind living in sketchy areas. I
lived on treasure island for a few months, and besides feeling like the set of
a zombie film, it was alright living for ~600pm

I lived in the mission for a little more. Definitely try the east bay for
cheap rent- if you don't mind getting the bus/bart into the city the rent is a
lot cheaper.

~~~
rms
The catch of treasure island is that in an earthquake, it is at very high risk
of liquefaction. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_liquefaction>

~~~
malbiniak
that, and the high density of crack/meth heads on the island. i checked a few
places there that made me feel like i was living the american version of
trainspotting (down to the baby scene).

i'd recommend avoiding treasure island.

somewhat related, scratch the north bay off your list. i never was able to
find a cheap way to commute from there.

------
fourstar
LOL. Good luck. SF is expensive. $100 for food? Yeah if you are a 90 lb asian
female.

No the weather is not hotter than Seattle. It's cold here. Also, good luck
trying to live off of $1,000 per month. Rent alone will be close to that.

It really doesn't help to live out here despite what everyone else says
regarding the "networking abilities".

An 18 year old has no place in this city, tbh.

~~~
octane
I upvoted you because this is a straight up reality check.

------
trekker7
Live near UC Berkeley instead, and take BART to SF whenever you want.

------
jf
b) Inside San Francisco proper, probably. Outside San Francisco, possible for
sure! (I suggest living near BART or CalTrain so you can get around without a
car.)

------
villageidiot
No, you're not crazy. Give it a shot. What do you have to lose really? Whether
you will actually be able to find work is a question mark but as long as you
have enough money so you won't be sleeping on a park bench, why not? Ah, to be
18 . . . worst year of my life . . . hope you make a better time of it than I
did.

------
octane
$3k isn't going to last you very long in San Francisco.

------
octane
My honest advice to you is go to college and do drugs and drink booze and have
sex, 3 things you've probably never done before in your life. College is an
excellent place to do all those things for the first time. The corner of Geary
and Polk is not.

Get that shit (into and) out of your system before you move to SF or you'll
never make it out alive. Trust me on this one.

SF is a fucking dangerous place if you go there without your adventure meter
properly calibrated.

