Cost of living vs. Mainland? (Kekaha: how much, income, living in)

[nhzero]

We live on the west side of Kaua'i, and we are looking to move to the Oxnard, CA area next year. City-Data has the cost of living indexes for Kekaha and Oxnard at 98 and 153, respectively, but I'd like to know people's thoughts on that.

My personal experience is that I tripled my income from $30,000 in 2006 in Oklahoma City to well over $90,000 here in Kaua'i, yet I feel like I have a much harder time getting by than I did in Oklahoma. I don't see how Kekaha can be considered less than the national average when I'm paying $6 for milk, $5.20 for propane, and $8 for cereal. I was just back in Oklahoma City in January, and the food prices were anywhere from half the price at the high end to 25% of the cost at the low end.

Does anyone have any tips and/or thoughts on why this might be and how to get by when we live an hour from non-confiscatory (but still outrageous) prices?

[hotzcatz]

It sounds like you are comparing apples and oranges to grapes. Oxnard is going to be a lot different than Oklahoma and a lot different than Kauai, too. I don't have any specific numbers for you, but grocery prices are just a small part of one's budget. I would suspect even the things you have to pay for won't be the same list for all three of those locations. Kauai has less heating bills, I'm sure! But, the costs of other things will be much higher so it all might even out. Perhaps the only valid way to compare them all is to make out a budget for each area, what items you would require and how much each one would be then compare the three lists.