Costs of Basics Where You Live

jnos

jnos

Member
Location
Southwestern Montana
Here's an example. Add things as you wish. I may add more later.

Haircut $10 (senior) at franchises like Great Clips

Oil Change #$30 at franchise auto lube

Gas $1.96/gallon (this has dropped quite a bit recently)

Windshield Replacement $179 (self-pay) at local auto glass shop, with free rock chip repair! Around here that's almost a necessity.
 

"Basics" which concern us are more in the realm of Cost of Living.....Taxes, mainly, though frivolous use of public funds affects certain areas much more than the average. We moved to this area by whim and fancy, more than consideration for everyday costs. Turns out, the Bullhead City area of Arizona has the lowest cost of living index in the entire state, so in that respect we "lucked out".

Income taxes seem to be a real "sore point" for many, thus the well-heeled opt for the Nevada side of the river, no State Income Tax. My wife and I shrug at such concerns, for we avoid income tax no matter where we are: No Income, No Tax! imp
 
Haircut $10 to $15 at the Great Clips, etc.

Gas $1.83 (just filled up)

Windshield for Jeep Cherokee $179 (self pay)
 

Rent in the tri-state area is insane. A studio apartment, that is basically one room with a bathroom...around $900 a month. That is for a neighborhood where you don't walk at night and/or own a huge scary dog. Oh and if you hear a firecracker sound in the night the bathtub can be the safest place.

For apartments catering to the New York commuters the rent can start at $1535 and go way up from there.

Compare that to when I lived in very small town PA ten years ago. Four bedrooms, living room, kitchen, dining room, full of light and nice sized bath. Utilities included.


Want to take a guess???



$350 a month
 
One Hour Full Body Massage $60
Pedicure $22
Great Clip Hair cut $10
1 Dozen Large Eggs $3.10
Loaf of Extra Sour Jewish Rye $2.95
15L bottle of Robert Mondavi Sauvignon Blanc $8.69
1 gal 2% Milk $2.95
 
Fureverywhere, and why did you leave such a nice comfy house? That's what I'd be asking myself?

It might or might not have had something to do with the next town over having the second largest KKK group in the nation.
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Here's a USA...UK (London area)comparison for your post Jnos...




Haircut $10 (senior) at franchises like Great Clips........ Hair cut for a senior (lady ) )not me I'm not a senior so I still have to pay £30 and upwards depending where I go ......but a senior in a basic hair salon would be around £20 = $29 US

Oil Change #$30 at franchise auto lube = I always get my oil changed as part of my annual service ..cost of full service £107... Eqv = $158

Gas $1.96/gallon (this has dropped quite a bit recently)....currently petrol has dropped here also by a lot...so £1.0.01 per litre.. for unleaded ( 5 litres in a gallon) = £5.05 = $ 7.46 per Gallon US

Windshield Replacement $179 (self-pay) at local auto glass shop, with free rock chip repair! Around here that's almost a necessity. ...£70 excess covered by insurance..and free chip repair US equv =$103. US
 
Low cost of living was one of the primary considerations when we abandoned the city, and moved to the boondocks. It's a bit inconvenient sometimes, but we save thousands per year, over what staying in the city would have cost. We have all the basics nearby....I pay $8 for a haircut...and nearly everything we might need within a 20 mile radius. Now, instead of paying high taxes, etc., we have enough money to enjoy things like staying at the casino when we go to the city to visit the kids, etc.
 
I wish I had enough hair to need a haircut! Hollydolly has given fairly average UK prices although petrol is a little cheaper now (99.5p/litre). Heating oil costs about 35p (50 ct) a litre at present.

I have an American friend who lives in the village and although she has UK citizenship, she doesn't fully understand the British way of life. Recently I had a vitreous detachment in my right eye which needed an out of hours emergency appointment and subsequent laser repair. She asked me how much it had cost and was surprized when I told her it was free. That's maybe one 'basic' cost that's different here.
 
Free health care is huge. I had three visits this month at Emergency dep't of our local hospital, three sets of prescriptions each time, total cost zero. Follow up visit at my doctor's office, more scrip, still free. At this point in my life, health care is a basic.
 
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fureverywhere said:
Rent in the tri-state area is insane. $350 a month
Click to expand...

Did a fast double-take at this! At first, I thought, how does a Jerseyite know anything about the Tri-State area? Then it dawned, finally. Our area is described similarly, as the southern "point" of Nevada converges with both California and Arizona, over a quite small land area, the Colorado River determining those boundaries. imp
 
My biggest fret about the cost of living here is the property taxes, which keep going up, up, up.

Food has gone up here lately, too. Utilities are high here as well. Rent seems high, too, as it costs about $900 - $1,000 a month for a "sort of" nice apartment. This is a worry for my sister.
 
Here a senior haircut is $13.95 but we give her a 20 dollar bill and tell her to keep the change. The cheapest place to buy gas was $2.39 a gallon the other day but the lines are bad. I think our electric is one of the highest in the nation. I'd have to go to their website to tell you exactly how much. Our bill was $307 last month so my brother got rid of his electric heaters and bought a nice indoor propane heater. We have 4 pumps (2 on each well) so that can run the bill up sometimes. Ground beef with 7% fat is close to $6 a pound. A health bread with flax seeds etc is $2.95 a loaf. Oil change is just the cost of the oil and filter as my husband does that himself. A little over a year ago he had a new windshield put in a Chevy pick up and it was $300. Bananas are 59 cents a pound. A lot of things I buy only when they are on sale and stock up. 2 large Garbage (1 is for recyclables) cans are $98 every other month. Rent is real high ($900 to $1200 for most places) around here but you can get a 3 bedroom mobile home on about 5 acres for less than $100,000. I think the rent is high as so many people have moved in and used a rental as a drug base (either for meth labs or to have a pot farm) and then stopped paying rent and left the places ruined. They'd strip wiring for the copper and take light fixtures, sinks, all kinds of stuff you wouldn't imagine anyone would want.
 
That's funny imp, I didn't think about that. There's a bunch of places that must consider themselves tri-state. I was referring to NJ, NY and CT
 
Adelaide Petrol prices vary right now ..holiday time school holidays everything go's up :) We are down in the city for a few days Costco fuel $1.03 Ltr about the cheapest in the city.. Most others $1.24 ltr ...Milk varies according to low fat,high calcium home brand and the list go's on HB is $2.30 for 2 ltrs ..I buy a better ,well it tastes better to me which is $3 for two ltrs bread varies as much as milk , you can buy a basic loaf for $1 ,I buy a tiny loaf called cape seed from a bakery costs $5 ,hubby has a white loaf same place costs $4
 
Before I moved back east I got haircuts in Algodones Mex for $3.

Primary reason to go there for most folks was cheap meds and dentists. In the snowbird season it took a long time to come back across the border.
 
Fur, I agree I wouldn't want to live in a place like that either. When we finally could afford to buy our home over 25 years ago, being a biracial family I made sure our kids grew up in a biracial neighborhood.
 
Linda said:
Here a senior haircut is $13.95 but we give her a 20 dollar bill and tell her to keep the change. The cheapest place to buy gas was $2.39 a gallon the other day but the lines are bad. I think our electric is one of the highest in the nation. I'd have to go to their website to tell you exactly how much. Our bill was $307 last month so my brother got rid of his electric heaters and bought a nice indoor propane heater. We have 4 pumps (2 on each well) so that can run the bill up sometimes. Ground beef with 7% fat is close to $6 a pound. A health bread with flax seeds etc is $2.95 a loaf. Oil change is just the cost of the oil and filter as my husband does that himself. A little over a year ago he had a new windshield put in a Chevy pick up and it was $300. Bananas are 59 cents a pound. A lot of things I buy only when they are on sale and stock up. 2 large Garbage (1 is for recyclables) cans are $98 every other month. Rent is real high ($900 to $1200 for most places) around here but you can get a 3 bedroom mobile home on about 5 acres for less than $100,000. I think the rent is high as so many people have moved in and used a rental as a drug base (either for meth labs or to have a pot farm) and then stopped paying rent and left the places ruined. They'd strip wiring for the copper and take light fixtures, sinks, all kinds of stuff you wouldn't imagine anyone would want.
Click to expand...

I hear exactly what you're saying, Lin! imp
 
Kadee46 said:
Adelaide Petrol prices vary right now ..holiday time school holidays everything go's up :) We are down in the city for a few days Costco fuel $1.03 Ltr about the cheapest in the city.. Most others $1.24 ltr ...Milk varies according to low fat,high calcium home brand and the list go's on HB is $2.30 for 2 ltrs ..I buy a better ,well it tastes better to me which is $3 for two ltrs bread varies as much as milk , you can buy a basic loaf for $1 ,I buy a tiny loaf called cape seed from a bakery costs $5 ,hubby has a white loaf same place costs $4
Click to expand...

Most interesting way of defining things! In our area, milk is milk. Price is the same, whether whole, 1%, 2%, etc. Obviously, the fat content removed is used in other products to produce revenue, and evidently, they parcel that into the prices where you live. I never thought of that! imp
 
I won't post prices as it's misleading to give them in British pounds then converting it to dollars. Since I don't pay for things in the UK using $$ it makes as much sense as converting prices to Yuan or baht. It sounds like everything is very expensive in comparison.
 
Capt Lightning said:
I wish I had enough hair to need a haircut! Hollydolly has given fairly average UK prices although petrol is a little cheaper now (99.5p/litre). Heating oil costs about 35p (50 ct) a litre at present.

I have an American friend who lives in the village and although she has UK citizenship, she doesn't fully understand the British way of life. Recently I had a vitreous detachment in my right eye which needed an out of hours emergency appointment and subsequent laser repair. She asked me how much it had cost and was surprized when I told her it was free. That's maybe one 'basic' cost that's different here.
Click to expand...

How long has she lived in the UK? She must have citizenship by ancestry otherwise she'd have to live in the UK 3 -5 years to get citizenship and if she didn't know by then that you don't pay for health care at the point of delivery.....
 
The cost of Petrol ( Gas) is incredibly low in the USA compared to here in the UK...A gallon of the cheapest unleaded here is equivalent of over $7 dollars a Gallon US....I think lots of Americans would be giving up their cars if they had to pay our prices..:(

As for costs of renting a home..in central London a typical private rented basic one bedroom one bath apartment will cost you anywhere between £1700..to £3,000 per month ( $2,500 - $4,500 US dollars) ..ONE Bedroom one bath etc.. have a look here these properties are priced per week... and remember this is pounds sterling... http://www.foxtons.co.uk/properties...bed-properties-to-rent-in-central-london.html




In a rundown area the rents are still artificially high.... one bedroom ''flat'' in a shared house,...in a horrible part of London... at £1200 per month.. US equivalent.. $1775 per month



Look for example at this tiny, verrry basic one bed flat in Waterloo (central London)...l ...and the asking price is almost £3,000 per calendar month because it's 3 minutes walk from the station..... $4430 PER MONTH US Dollars!!

http://www.findaflat.com/flats-to-rent/south_east_london/0/3732182/
 

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