What would you choose for

Apartments
Furniture company
Car
Cell Phone plan
Cable/Internet

etc

Thanks!

for the sake of discussion, you're moving back to the NCSU area.

[Edited on June 11, 2011 at 12:45 PM. Reason : a]

6/11/2011 12:42:25 PM

1) Move in with state-side girlfriend
2) Get my shit out of storage
3) Get my old car back
4) Reactivate my phone
5) See #1

Gonna need some more info otherwise. You coming back to Raleigh?

6/11/2011 12:45:15 PM

Pretty much every one of those is going to vary depending on what state you are planning to move to

6/11/2011 12:45:19 PM

Yeah, I'm coming back to Raleigh, I'm pretty sure the apt will be Wild Woods

6/11/2011 12:46:48 PM

1) rent a house
2) craigslist
3) craigslist
4) smartphone w/ unlimited data
5) no tv/tether off the phone

that's what i'd do

6/11/2011 4:14:21 PM

Are you coming back for the long term or short term? Do you have savings/capital? Do you have a job here? etc etc


Car... VW TDI

6/11/2011 5:44:04 PM

obviously, a lot of this depends on your budget. How long ago did you move away?

Any preference on NCSU area vs. N. raleigh, down-town, etc.? I don't know how long it's been since you lived around NCSU... but I was very happy to move away from the Off-Kaplan area to N. Raleigh. Was tired of people asking me for money and to use my phone at gas stations and telling me "they had heat."

How much are you trying to spend a month on housing?

If you're gonna be renting, I'd say probably buy used furniture from craigslist. It will be faster (you may have to wait weeks on new furniture) and cheaper. But definitely check out Sheldon's (i think that's the name) on w. martin. They have a good variety of used furniture, you can go walk around and look at stuff, and i'm pretty sure they have free delivery --- not positive on the last part though.

Car - obviously you have craigslist. used car lots. carmax, etc. --- that's really no different than anywhere else in the country probably. and depends on what kind of car you're looking for too.

Cell -- I'm a fan of verizon in the raleigh area. had sprint for years and didn't have any problems with them. Everyone I know with ATT has had problems in the area.

cable/internet -- depending on where you're at you may not really have options. TWC is the majority cable provider probably. UVerse is available in some areas. and you can get dish or directTV. TWC doesn't have a football package. and they don't have the NFL channel --- if any of that is important.

6/11/2011 6:04:30 PM

"the states"



it's fucking "America"

6/11/2011 7:36:10 PM

it's like an american saying "im going on holiday"

6/11/2011 7:37:08 PM

^^ people say that all the time

Quote :

"1) rent a house 2) craigslist 3) craigslist 4) smartphone w/ unlimited data 5) no tv/tether off the phone"

Pretty much what I did. Stayed with my parents a few months first to get everything else situated in a relaxed time frame.

6/11/2011 8:23:53 PM

Long term (3 years to finish school)

I prefer an apt closer to NCSU, I'll be returning as a student. I got about 15 k to drop on a car and about 6-8k to drop on furniture and other needs

6/12/2011 2:35:03 AM

Also, Smath, I've been OCONUS for 4 years...I can call it whatever the fuck I want.

6/12/2011 7:17:10 AM

no cell phone companies have true unlimted now, so if you use the internet a lot tethering won't work. it will work for awhile, but then you're probably going to get throttled.

6/12/2011 9:05:44 AM

i'd spend half that on the car and only like $2k on furnishing my apt. sit on the rest.

6/12/2011 10:49:17 AM

Caveat to no 5


Tethering from the phone is a dangerous game in that your data cap can quickly be exceeded incurring major overage charges, and you get no warning when you're close to exceeding or have already done so.



Since you've been OCONUS for so long, who cares if the TV programming is older anyway. You'll have some catching up to do, so I highly recommend Netflix. Netflix from wireless on my wii is the best 9bucks/mo I have ever spent. Biggest complaint about Netflix is the programming isn't new enough, but that won't be as much of an issue if you care to catch up on archives.

[Edited on June 12, 2011 at 11:17 AM. Reason : ]

6/12/2011 11:14:29 AM

I've been reading the U-verse thread in tech talk, seems to be a pretty good deal for just internet.

6/12/2011 11:22:41 AM

Quote :

"Also, Smath, I've been OCONUS for 4 years...I can call it whatever the fuck I want."

Fair enough

6/12/2011 11:36:02 AM

^^ that's what we use.

6/12/2011 1:11:09 PM

Cell phone: sprint sprint sprint.

Truly unlimited data, cheap plans, and they roam on verizons network . Plus they have native Google voice integration.

Internet: uverse if you can, Tec otherwise.

6/12/2011 1:25:10 PM

doesn't uverse have data caps now?

6/12/2011 1:33:55 PM

i have truly unlimited data from verizon. perhaps i'm grandfathered in b/c my plan is pretty old idk.

6/12/2011 1:54:19 PM

I say "the States" all the time

6/12/2011 5:47:14 PM

1) warehouse
2) milk crates
3) motorbike
4) don't need
5) fiber internet

6/12/2011 6:20:13 PM

I say OCONUS all the time to make everyone feel I am smarter than they are

6/12/2011 8:16:45 PM

I have no idea what OCONUS even means

6/13/2011 8:49:12 AM

I imagine most people wouldn't - which is funny because bbehe threw it out there like it was playground vernacular

6/13/2011 9:15:10 AM

Apartments I know nothing about, I have lived at two addresses in the last 20 years.

I would just get furniture off craigslists, no sense in buying nice furniture unless you have a woman around to bitch about how it does not match. Hopefully you still have a friend or two in town with a truck.

I would get a fuel efficient car, especially if you are going back to school, gas keeps going up to $rape prices. A slightly used, but loaded Honda maybe.

Sprint, everything data plan, you probably get a nice discount too. Verizon will cost you a little more, but you can get a better/faster/more reliable 4G connection, they are turning on LTE in Raleigh in the next 30 days. LTE is awesome. With either Sprint or Verizon you can use your device to tether until you get your hardline internet turned on.

uVerse works great, not so sure its the best deal price wise. I would check out all options and go with the cheapest. I have always heard DirecTV is still the best deal but sucks to get installed at an apt.

6/13/2011 9:25:51 AM

Quote :

"I have no idea what OCONUS even means"

IHNIWOEM

6/13/2011 9:52:48 AM

1) dunno because I don't live in Raleigh
2) craigslist
3) craigslist
4) Sprint 4G smartphone w/ unlimited data.
5.1) What channels do you need? If it's just locals, do the digital over air for free. (are you shocked that I didn't say DirecTV?)
5.2) If you live in 4G coverage, tether the phone for the internet. It's just as fast as Time Warner and unlimited. (are you shocked that I didn't say Clear?)

6/13/2011 10:59:43 AM

Quote :

"I imagine most people wouldn't - which is funny because bbehe threw it out there like it was playground vernacular"

To me, it is. So sorry if that offends you.

6/13/2011 11:17:19 AM

Bullshit, you think this is a military message board? You somehow forgot that people wouldn't have any idea what OCONUS meant?

6/13/2011 11:29:17 AM

DoubleDown seems terribly offended by this acronym

6/13/2011 11:37:10 AM

Quote :

"DoubleDown seems terribly offended by this acronym"

IHNIWOEM!

6/13/2011 11:43:14 AM

OCONUS isn't a necessarily uncommon acronym in the civilian world.

6/13/2011 1:45:19 PM

They'd gave to be civilians somehow connected to the military. If you asked ten random people on the street what it meant, I'd wager only one person would know and they'd be connected to the military somehow.

6/13/2011 1:56:58 PM

I hold tww to a higher standard than I do 10 random people.

6/13/2011 3:20:54 PM

add me to the list of people that had to Google OCONUS

6/13/2011 3:25:04 PM

^ +1 i had no clue what it meant. I fucking hate people that use acronyms like this.

this seems like a really stupid topic and you want TWW to do the legwork in getting you set up here in Raleigh.

1. Look up one of the 1000000 threads on apartments
2. Craigslist for used or any of the 8 million furniture stores around if you want something new
3. Craigslist or a car dealership, I think there is a section on TWW devoted to cars.
4. Tech Talk has many threads about cell phone service and plans
5. Tech Talk has many threads about cell phone cable/internet service and plans

[Edited on June 13, 2011 at 3:50 PM. Reason : ]

6/13/2011 3:50:08 PM

add me to the list of people who didn't know what it stood for but assumed thanks to context clues that it refers to the US

[Edited on June 13, 2011 at 4:00 PM. Reason : that's United States for people who are offended by acronyms]

[Edited on June 13, 2011 at 4:00 PM. Reason : that is, sorry, you probably do not like apostrophes]

6/13/2011 4:00:06 PM

I'd be depressed enough moving from Italy to Raleigh that I, too, would probably enlist the aid of anonymous internet folk over having to make no-win decisions for myself like Wild Woods or Dominion Walnut Creek.

6/13/2011 4:06:50 PM

1) Whatever floats your boat
2) Whatever floats your boat
3) Whatever floats your boat
4) Whatever floats your boat
5) Whatever floats your boat

6/13/2011 7:54:41 PM

I'd look somewhere downtown, down oberlin, or towards 5 points, w/ a preference of downtown w/ in bike able distance. Do you really want to be dependent on a car?

6/13/2011 7:56:28 PM

I know I'm military, so CONUS and OCONUS is common terminology, but I'm pretty sure I knew what that meant long before I joined the military. At the very least, I knew what CONUS meant, and would therefore have figured out pretty easily what OCONUS meant.

6/13/2011 9:34:03 PM

how about one of you jerks just spells it out then?


(google is broken on my computer )

6/14/2011 11:07:23 AM

Quote :

"OCONUS (chiefly military) Outside [the] contiguous United States; i.e. Alaska, Hawaii, and all other countries. "

6/14/2011 11:12:28 AM

Thanks

That's one fucked up acronym, btw.

6/14/2011 12:52:58 PM

lol playground vernacular.

6/17/2011 3:33:48 PM

Chembob, are you the Captain of the Enterprise yet?

6/17/2011 3:36:19 PM

not quite.

6/17/2011 3:37:32 PM

Slacker.

6/17/2011 3:38:33 PM