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Old 05-16-2011, 05:02 PM
 
101 posts, read 248,463 times
Reputation: 82

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Quote:
Originally Posted by timbo31958 View Post
Thank you for your figures. There will be some who dispute them, I however agree 100%. You can live here just as cheap as anyplace else with some adjustment. Of course there are things here that are alot more than the same thing on the mainland but there are also several things that are cheaper. As far as dairy products, I find them as cheap at Costco or in some cases cheaper than I paid before moving here, and I have been here the better part of 3 years. For example then I paid between 4 and 5 dollars for a gallon of milk, now I pay 4.30, and can sometimes find it for less than 4.00, ice cream is about the same. Alot depends on where you shop, and how close you watch the sale adds.
I agree! You can save so much money by just shopping wisely. Buying things on sale, or in season or in bulk. Growing your own!

For us $4.30 is still a lot for a gallon of milk. We don't drink enough of it to make it worth while. DH will miss ice cream though, so we'll have to hit Costco for ice cream bars when the cravings get too much for him.

The electric bill was a HUGE eye opener for me. I had no idea we use so much! It's cheap enough here that our bills don't seem outrageous. But if I used the same amount in Hawaii I would have a heart attack every time the bill came. Now that we know, we are planning for it by seeking out energy efficient means of handling our everyday needs. Hanging clothes to dry instead of using a dryer. Solar hot water heater. Maybe an LPG stove instead of electric. Turning off lights and fans. If we did those things here our bill would probably drop to nearly nothing (especially if we didn't need these horribly inefficient heaters). Even in my office I can cut back on my usage by turning things off at night instead of leaving them on (even in hibernation mode they use power).
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Old 05-16-2011, 06:45 PM
 
4 posts, read 6,910 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WindRide View Post
The problem with all of these calculators is that they only include the higher priced cities in Hawaii. It's very hard to find one that includes Hilo and I've never found one that included Kailua-Kona. Since the cost of living is definitely different in Kona than Honolulu, it makes a fair comparison difficult. They also don't take into account your lifestyle choices.

You are much better off doing research about the city you are wanting to move to and then compare it to your actual costs where you are now. That is the only sure way to get truly meaningful data for your situation.

Here are some examples of my research:

On one of our trips to Kona, we took some grocery receipts from our hometown stores and then compared prices on actual items with costs at grocery stores (and Costco) in Kona.

We also compared rents for places we would actually choose to live to our actual housing costs here.

I looked up the per kwh cost in Kona, then looked at our actual usage here and did the math to figure out what our bill would cost if we used the same amount of energy there that we do here. Since we aren't very conservative here and we run our heaters a LOT plus my office is in our home, we figure that gives us a good "worst case scenario."

I got actual quotes for both medical and vehicle insurance and compared them to what we pay now.

I went online to the cable companies websites and compared prices for packages comparable to what we have here. Same for internet service.

I looked back at old gas receipts to figure out our gasoline usage and calculated what we would most likely use on the island and multiplied that by the current gas prices (both at Costco and at Aloha). This gives me a rough estimate of what our fuel costs will be.

I'm still getting costs for vet care for our dogs and health care for ourselves.

Restaurant costs are comparable and since that is something completely discretionary I didn't spend a lot of time on that.

Since we are divers and plan to do a lot of diving, we also compared prices for air and equipment to what we pay here. Now we know how much it will cost to pursue our hobby. Surprisingly, it is very little different to what it costs to dive here. Less actually since we need less equipment.



Once I had all these numbers plugged into a spreadsheet, I had a pretty good idea of what our costs would be if we maintain the standard of living we have now. Of course, if our income were to go down, I also know where we could cut costs and made sure that we can still afford to make the move. This takes a little more time that using one of the calculators, but if you are truly serious about moving to the islands, it is well worth the effort.

That is such a great post! This should be posted in every discussion about "What is a comfortable income for Hawaii?" Like others on this post have said, everyones lifestyle is different. I don't understand why everyone wants others to tell them they can afford it or not. Your posts will hopefully open others eyes to do their own research. I have done most of the comparisons that you had mentioned and came up with about the same conclusion as you have. I can afford it but in no way could I tell someone else they could. Hopefully I will be moving to Maui in 2 years so (unforunately) have lots of time to do my own research. These posts are great way to get started! Mahalo!
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Old 05-16-2011, 06:51 PM
 
Location: Moku Nui, Hawaii
11,048 posts, read 23,873,855 times
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Yup, if you don't spend as much you don't have to earn as much so a comfortable income can be a lower number if you keep the expenditures low.

Any time electricity is used to heat things especially water heaters, clothes dryers and stoves, it is brutally expensive. Air conditioners also use a lot of power.

We've switched every single light bulb in the new house to a curly bulb, but that's mostly because the schools just had a light bulb drive where they would switch an incandescent bulb for a curly bulb for free. It didn't even have to be a working incandescent bulb. The curly bulbs use between fifteen and twenty five watts per hour so that will save lots of watts on the electric bill. The house already had a solar hot water heater and even though it has an electric water heater as backup, we haven't turned that on. Nor will we, it's better to have cool showers than huge electric bills. We will see what the electric bill will be, the next one will be our first full month in the new house with an energy efficient mid-sized refrigerator, washing machine, computers and lights. Stove is propane, water heater is solar, all bulbs are curly, clothes dryer is solar, too. "Solar clothes dryer" just sounds so much more eco-green than "clothesline" don'tcha think?
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Old 05-16-2011, 10:21 PM
 
98 posts, read 238,673 times
Reputation: 65
Asking for approval? lol. No, I'm not asking for approval. We can easily afford to live there. But I will only consider moving to Hawaii if I become a single parent. I thought I would ask what people consider comfortable income. A friend of mine (who used to live in Hawaii) would turn down a $150k job in Oahu because it's not going to make him rich considering the cost of living.
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Old 05-17-2011, 04:15 AM
 
8 posts, read 11,884 times
Reputation: 10
Quote:
Originally Posted by timbo31958 View Post
reps to you Hotzcatz, that is another one of my exact points I have tried to make. If one has a large income, good enjoy it. If one has a small income, budget for it, and enjoy your life here. If one cant seem to adjust to lifes changes and challenges here then instead of complaining about it do something about it. It does no good to get on here and **** and moan about life here in Hawaii if one has that much of a problem then just move. Have a nice day!!
Amen to that! After living there a couple years I realized there were SO many factors I hadn't considered, beyond cost of living. Actually I made 65k, single with no kids... I was comfortable.
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Old 05-17-2011, 10:28 AM
 
101 posts, read 248,463 times
Reputation: 82
Quote:
Originally Posted by hotzcatz View Post
Stove is propane, water heater is solar, all bulbs are curly, clothes dryer is solar, too. "Solar clothes dryer" just sounds so much more eco-green than "clothesline" don'tcha think?
I DO! I will use that term from now on myself.
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Old 05-17-2011, 04:20 PM
 
Location: Makaha/Waianae, Oahu
159 posts, read 365,785 times
Reputation: 107
Hmmm, wonder what the Makaha Valley Tower Association will think of me using the Solar Clothes Dryer system when we arrive in 3 weeks. ; P
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Old 05-21-2011, 05:22 AM
 
Location: Fort Worth Area, Texas
119 posts, read 346,774 times
Reputation: 26
Plan to work 2 jobs each, just to make ends meet. Its a reality out here. Everything has it's price.
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Old 05-21-2011, 09:49 AM
 
21 posts, read 58,317 times
Reputation: 19
Default Counterproductive...

Quote:
Originally Posted by JustDeb View Post
Plan to work 2 jobs each, just to make ends meet. Its a reality out here. Everything has it's price.
Please be more specific. Are we talking $40 hr or $9 hr? How far apart are your ends that it takes $6400 a week to make them meet?
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Old 05-21-2011, 02:14 PM
 
Location: Kailua, Oahu, HI and San Diego, CA
1,178 posts, read 5,927,427 times
Reputation: 802
Quote:
Originally Posted by muochoir View Post
Considering that I'm not counting on SS to be there in the future,
I've seen some pretty reasonable projections recently that say that even if we (the country) don't get our act together for many more years, Social Security will still exist - it just won't be able to pay as much as it does now. Projections say maybe 75%. And the changes won't happen all at once - there will be notice. With that, one can plan how much and how long to save.
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