Enough to cover first and last month of rent plus deposit and enough to cover the first couple of months of rent. I had a bunch of canned and packaged food to last for several months as well. Plus I had enough gas money to last until my first couple of pay checks. Then I played a trick with my bank account. I would always round up when writing a check or using my debit and record the rounded amount in my checkbook. That way I had extra money in my account that I pretended wasn't there. By the time I moved back down to New Mexico, I had over 2,000 dollars extra in my account. Came in real handy.