Specific cost of living - Big Island

[Jonah K]

Originally Posted by islandboo

I was wondering about this. I have a Ford Fusion Hybrid that I love and which is giving me about 44mpg right now (it goes down a bit in the winter with the heater use and cold temps) but it does best with flat roads (of which there are plenty here). However, it switches out of electric mode on hills and since Hawai'i Island is kind of the opposite of flat I wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to plan on bringing the hybrid with me when/if we are able to move out there, or if I should plan on switching to a small non-hybrid car.

Do you own the Ford Fusion Hybrid or are you leasing it?

[islandboo]

I own it and I generally hold onto my cars for 10 - 15 years. We are about 3 years away from making the move (waiting for the nest to become empty) so I would be perfectly happy to bring it but if the terrain would render it a poor choice, my son would be more than willing to adopt it from me.

[Jonah K]

Originally Posted by islandboo

I own it and I generally hold onto my cars for 10 - 15 years. We are about 3 years away from making the move (waiting for the nest to become empty) so I would be perfectly happy to bring it but if the terrain would render it a poor choice, my son would be more than willing to adopt it from me.

It would probably be worthwhile to bring it. While some of the roads on the Big Island are a little hilly, many of the roads here are fairly flat.

[hotzcatz]

Well, if the engine turns on going up the hill, it will be off going down the hill so things should even out.

There really isn't any way to come up with a generic cost of living, IMHO. Folks' lifestyles are so different one from another that it's hard to get an average.

We live very inexpensively, however, our house is really old (low taxes) and already paid for. No electric bill since we aren't connected to the electric grid. We are invested in Hawaiian Electric, though and they do pay us lovely dividends.

We are producing a lot of our own foods these days. We no longer buy chicken, eggs, pork, bread, noodles, salad dressing, mayonnaise, green beans, avocadoes or bananas at the grocery store. Most of our vegetables either come from the farmer's market or the Filipino store. We don't drive to town more than once every other week or so. We buy bulk stuff with a food co-op to cut down on prices. We can vegetables and things such as bamboo shoots when they are in season. (Note to self: it's time to make guava jam now.) We drive really old cars that were paid for the moment we bought them. They are only insured for the least amount of insurance required by law. We buy almost no hard goods at retail prices.

We live really well on one mid-range income, however, it's probably not a lifestyle many folks would do. Perhaps they could, but there's a lot of making things and repairing things involved in our lifestyle. Even "living cheap" we probably still spend $2,500 a month on average.

[winkosmosis]

[quote=kani-lehua;1898269]

Originally Posted by MSJones

i just about fainted. i thought it was because it's humid today. but, no, it was because of your post. you won't be hearing any more grumbling from me about this subject !

Yeah, in Texas I was in a 1 bedroom top floor apartment for a while, with an OLD Chrysler AC unit. I paid $250-300 for my electric bills. Much lower on Maui because I hardly use AC.

[hotzcatz]

If you want a true cost comparison on electric rates, compare the cost of one Kilowatt hour and then compare how many kilowatt hours are used. Hawaii doesn't have anywhere near the need for A/C or heating that Texas does so Hawaii households will generally use a whole lot less electricity than mainland ones. If you really want to faint, find your Texas or mainland electric bill and figure out what it would cost if you were paying the same per kilowatt hour electric rate as Hawaii.

If the electrical kilowatt hour rates are that much in Texas, you'd think solar electric would be extremely popular. However, if the high electric bills are because of electricity consumed and not the kilowatt hour rate then you won't see as many solar electric systems since they'd need a huge system to generate all that power and those are expensive. Solar power works in Hawaii because we have high electric rates AND don't use that much electricity overall.

[isabella20]

We live in Hilo and our expenses for two of us are $1,600/mo. That includes just under $500/mo. for medical (premium, co-pays, prescriptions), $450 for groceries, $100 utilities, $30 gasoline, $53 Internet/phone, the rest covers car insurance, house insurance, property taxes, car maintenance and registration and yearly safety check, and all misc. stuff like shampoo, hair cuts, toothpaste, cat food, chicken scratch, soaps,etc. We don't have rent or mortgage.

We live pretty simply. I find food to be very high priced, so I make my own bread and do other things to cut down on the cost. Luckily, I like to cook and bake so it's not a hardship.