Consuming Interest

Living Cheaply in America

By LESLIE ADRIAN ,1` MY own stay in America was rather of the tip-and- run variety, trying to see as much as possible in an inconveniently short time. The know-how on really cheap living in a country, however, usually takes some time to ac- quire; so while I was there I conferred with a couple of young English friends- who have been living a hand-to-mouth existence in the States for nearly two years and seem to be thriving on it. This is their advice for the benefit of anyone thinking of a cheap visit there.

BEFORE You Go See the doctor, dentist, oculist, shoe-mender, camera-overhauler—get everything attended to that needs the human touch. Then get all your prescriptions filled in outsize quantities, stock up with bras, girdles and cosmetics, but DON'T buy any new clothes. (If you do you'll regret it later.) Leave your thick underwear behind even if you're going to the most snowbound States—thick top- clothes are what you'll• need.

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WHEN YOU GET THERE

Travel by car if you possibly can. Otherwise Greyhound bus is cheapest—or sometimes tourist flights at awful hours of the night are worth in- vestigating. Hitch-hiking is actually against the law in some States and is becoming more and more difficult as drivers get warier and warier. There arc people who want their cars driven across the States from east-west or west-east, and if you have time to hang about in a big coastal city you can usually find someone who wants to send his car where you want to go. (Classified ads.) And Detroit, if you can bear it, is a good place to start.

The cost of petrol varies from place to place and State to State. It averages about 30c a (US) gallon. When you find a 'gas war' (neighbouring tilling stations undercutting each other's prices) fill up. A car is not only the cheapest form of transport but it lets you save money by camping.

Camping in America is really quite comfort- able. In the hundreds of campgrounds in National and State Parks and National Forests you will find, always, tables, benches, water, gar- bage cans and lavatories, and, sometimes, hot showers, laundry / tubs and ironing boards. Armed- with your American stove, ice-box and lamp (total cost about 123 and well Worth it) you can camp for weeks and hardly feel it. Don't buy any British camping equipment (except, possibly, army-type tensile camp-beds).

Two people travelling about 200 miles a day in a small car, could live on $5.00 a day if they camped. That includes food, petrol, oil, camp- ground fees—everything. If you stay in a motel you start With a $4.00 charge. for a double room (off season—in season you'd probably have to pay $6.00). Great stamina is needed to save money on motels. You have to go on shopping around till you know you have the cheapest in the area (and a quite pleasant motel may be cheaper than a very nasty one). Many motels have rooms with kitchen facilities—the extra $1.00 to $2.00 charge is made worth-while by what you save on cooking your own breakfast and dinner. Off season, motel-keepers will usually accept up to $2.00 less than they first ask for. In any case, you have to be brazen about saying, always, 'Haven't you anything CHEAPER?'

Never buy a map. The big gas companies issue admirable ones by the armful—free. Ask at any gas station—even if you aren't in a car. Similarly use gas station rest-rooms; they are always free (and clean) and the ones in hotels, etc., are iniquitously apt to cost 10c.

Eating out in America is expensive. Breakfast is best value—you can usually find coffee, eggs, toast and jam for 55c. If you lunch on soup and pie (about 50c total) and hunt carefully for a cheap dinner you needn't spend much more than $2.00 a day. But it is a constant struggle and a bit joyless. Chinese restaurants are good for giving Most for Least, and Southern cafeterias are remarkably good. Don't think you'll save money by eating sandwiches—you won't (unless you make them yourself). Pizza is a much better bet (15c a slice in some places 75c for a whole one big enough for two).

Shopping for food should be done in the very largest supermarket you can find. (Except for bread and meat, if you happen to find a good little local butcher and baker—unlikely.) Over- come inhibitions induced by haughty English greengrocers and indignant barrow-boys and pinch every tomato you select and prune the choicest bananas from half a dozen bunches. Frozen and canned foods are very good, tremen- dously varied and comparatively cheap—frozen vegetables are often cheaper than fresh. Buy the largest size of everything. (The size of packet of detergent that is called 'giant' in England is called 'regular' in America.) Some things are expensive (butter for one), but, on the whole, prices are much the same as in England; 65c a lb. for stewing steak is offset by chicken at 30c lb., and asparagus.(at times) at 2 lb. for 19c.

If you are stationary for anything more than about a week, get a furnished apartment. Cheap- apartment-hunting is one way to see an America that is definitely not as advertised; filth, .broken windows, grease and cockroaches. But if you keep on and on looking you should be able find something quite bearable or even pleasant. Bed-sitter, kitchen and bath cost us $50 a month in New Orleans (plus gas and electricity), $55 in San Francisco (plus electricity) and $60 in Denver (all included).

Never pay the full price for anything M America. If you want a record, a stove, a wireless, a fishing-rod—or even a bar of chocolate—you can find it somewhere at a discount. Use the big stores for clothes—their basement departments especially are full of clothes of staggering variety and imaginativeness for half English prices. (Buy shirts, particularly, male or female by the arm- load.) Watch for 'seconds' and 'salesmen's samples,' discontinued lines,' special purchases' and 'clearances.' American sales are far more drastic and dramatic and generally better value than English ones.

Sears Roebuck is, of course, cheap and good for practically everything—particularly tools, car- stuff and equipment generally. Their catalogue (if you can get hold of one—very difficult) makes a useful check list to consult before buying any- thing anywhere else.

Entertainment is, on the whole, expensive. A seat at the movies is 80c or 90c in the suburbs— and at least $1.20 downtown. Theatre—mini- mum $3.00 or $4.00. Drinks in bars are expensive. But the wines of America are one of her unsung and CHEAPEST pleasures.

The cost of being ill in America is, to the NHS-nurtured, plain terrifying. If you have a car you should take out some sort of coverage for medical expenses arising from an accident— beyond that there are the various health insur- ance schemes. The ,premiums for these are very high if you join as an individual. The best that can be said is 'Don't go to America unless you are very healthy.'

The best way to live cheaply in America is to work there. When you are earning at their rates, you stop translating dollars to shillings the whole time and you can spend at their rates—or, with self-control, save enormously. But the whole economy is geared to make you spend, spend, spend, and it requires a great and conscious effort to hold back, count the cents and not join the credit-happy, spendthrift stream.

A book has just come out with a self-explana- tory title: How to Live in New York on Five Dollars a Day. Among other interesting pieces of advice, it offers the names of several hotels Which cater exclusively for families—one charges, for instance, $5.75 a night 'for,' as the book says, 'as many children as you can stuff in.' This is for a two-room suite, and the price in- cludes the oppressed adults, too.