Okay, can't find it in the forum, please help me and others on cost of living:

[druthb00]

There's a lot of resources to find real numbers that you might not think about:

Pinellas county tax assessor's webite : you can type in any address to get the property tax history for I believe 10 years. Go to a real estate site, find some houses in your price range, and use the addresses.

You can do the same for Progress Energy, and it can be done via email. Email them the property address and you'll get the average electric bill for the past year.

Grocery prices: Go to Publix, Winn Dixie, Sweetbay's websites and look up the current grocery ad by zip code.

Car insurance: Progressive, Geico, eSurance, all write policies and have online quotes. Pick an address in the county and use it for a hypothetical quote. Sure, prices vary by zip code, but not significantly.

Same as above for Verizon, AT&T and (possibly?) Brighthouse.

Originally Posted by skippy1970

Thank you good sir. Exactly what I'm looking for. When it comes to food, it's bad even here (midwest). Hamburger (80% lean) 3.80/lb, whole chickens around $7-8, pork up there near hamburger.....

I'm from the midwest also, and I think you'll find food prices to be close to equal - maybe slightly higher. You can find 90% lean ground beef for $3.99 very regularly and several places, meat markets and regular groceries alike. I recently got NY strip at Publix for $6.99/lb and top sirloin for $4.99. I find dairy to be higher here than in the midwest; $3.80 for a gallon of milk, but you'll find it cheaper at places such as Save A Lot. 8 oz. bags of shredded cheese regularly 2/$5, I know my father still pays 2/$4 and even 2/$3 back home. Fresh seafood and produce is cheaper. Find a good produce market and you'll have it made

Originally Posted by PhotoProIP

It's really not that easy to have exact figures until you move here because:
1. We don't know what kind of house you want
2. What kind of house you want to rent
3. What area you will be in (flooding, sink holes etc)
4. How much you're eating (in home or outside)
5. What your car insurance is going to be
6. What you like to do for entertainment
7. How many Tv channels you like to have...(FIOS can cost over $200/mo)
8. What phones you have and what features
9. How often you shop for cars, clothes, shoes, patio, furniture, beach/pool stuff
10. What kind of pool you'll have + maintenance

..........and the list goes on and on...these COL estimators online are a complete waste of time. Until you actually LIVE here, and know your daily expense in and out, you won't have a correct number.

Utilities depend on how cold you want to keep your house, how many baths you take a month, how much you water your lawn, and how long you run your water heater...how big the house is...how old the AC unit is and so on...My col won't be yours.

The cost of living here is higher than in the midwest because this is Florida! Vacation State! Lots of tourist traps at every corner...but because the wages are much lower, and there are a lot of people working minimum wage in retail, or restaurant etc, car insurance has skyrocketed because these folks just can't afford it...so they get it, register their cars and then DROP IT because not many can afford $250+ per month in car insurance for one person. That alone is the #1 budget drainer here. Then you have high rents, and if you buy and you're not paying attention you'll have high CDDs and HOAs...

You're going to drive yourself crazy if you're looking online. But if you move here and make 6 figures, you won't have a lot to worry about...(unless you overextend yourself).

I would echo a lot of this, except the part in bold. We paid state income tax in Indiana, that's a huge savings here. Winter also does a number on vehicles and causes faster depreciation and mechanical problems. Heating bills can be more outrageous than AC bills. You'll pay through the nose for fresh produce in the winter, too. The wages where we were from were much lower in our case. Our income has more than doubled here. That's not to say everyone will have that experience, since it definitely depends on field, but I think a lot of Midwesterners find higher wages here. We found some expenses to be higher and others to be lower, evening out pretty well, with a nice increase in pay. It was definitely a smart move in our case.

[Cleverbeetle98]

I just moved from Minnesota so here it goes:

1 Br here...can vary greatly, but about $900. Honestly, that's similar to what I would pay in MN.

Insurance - good god! It damn near tripled coming down here! And I kept my same company, I have a good record, ect. I think I'll be close to $2000/yr for that (with renter's insurance)

Food: Prices are similar. They're going up all over the country so get used to it. For name brand products (bread, milk, juice, deli meat, ect) I'm essentially paying the same price. $5/ lb of beef, $7 lb chicken, $3/gallon of milk, $3-4 loaf of bread...roughly. Store brand prices seem to have translated as well.

Gas: I've found it to be slightly cheaper here than there, but still around $3.50/gal right now. Not outrageous.

Utilities: Cable is pretty standard. For a little better than basic around $100/mo. For a 1BR apt, my electric and water are decent. These numbers will vary so greatly with the type of establishment (apt, home, ect) that you live in.

Compared to MN, wages here are lower. They like to tell you that since there is no state tax you'll end up ahead of the game - definitely make sure you run the numbers on that for you personally. Wages, taxes, ect. On the whole, I downsized a little with my living and with a pay cut I'm pretty even. But for me it's the quality of life outside of work that has improved and while I don't see those dollars in my bank account, I know it was a great choice. You need to have an income to live on and do some saving for the future, but Florida is definitely a place about enjoying the here and now - not a lot of people running the rat race trying to keep up with the jones' (in my opinion). If you're going to have to spend all of your time working 3 jobs to pay the bills and get by, well, I couldn't see a benefit in that personally.

[cmjones311]

Great post, druthb00. Also, check gasbuddy.com. When I was in TB in May, gas was 30 cents/gallon cheaper than it was in columbus, oh that week.

For wages, check out jobs on Craigslist that are similar to what you'd be doing, and then go plug in the numbers for Florida at paycheckcity.com to see what the net pay is without state income tax. Of course, health insurance deductions swing wildly from job to job, much less state to state, but at least you'll have a starting point. You can also check out apartments and homes for rent. Use keyword locations of Palm Harbor, Dunedin, and Safety Harbor, and you can figure that costs will be less than those in the rest of the TB area as a general rule.

[kbrkr]

hmmm....I posted this cost of living comparison in a thread a while back.

Family Budget Calculator to compare with Tampa Costs