My wife and I moved our family to a neighborhood in Los Angeles called Tarzana.
I thought it sounded like a cool place to live, because it is named after a fictional character in a book. The kids love the movie Tarzan and our new home was named after the guy. It seemed absolutely perfect. My wife accepted a job teaching at a college in Los Angeles and we moved 1400 miles to the west coast. The college paid for our move and they rented a nice house for our family. I was particularly excited to move, because weed is legal on the west coast. California, Oregon, and Washington all have legal recreational weed laws. I have a medical card, but the choices for weed were limited. After moving to Tarzana, I cut my expenses on weed in half. Sometimes I can save even more if I find a great sale. The recreational weed is cheaper, but the services and taxes are not. I had to call a plumber a few weeks ago, when we had a leaky pipe behind the shower wall. I called several different plumbers before I found someone with a same day appointment available. The rates were through the roof. I paid almost $200 just for the service technician to give me an estimate for the work on the bathroom. I couldn’t believe the prices the contractor wanted to complete the repairs. I was flabbergasted until I started calling around and realized that the guy was giving me a competitive price. Some things are cheaper in Tarzana, but plumbing, HVAC, and electrical repairs are not one of those things.