Looking at possible relocation in a couple of years

[Haolejohn]

Originally Posted by WaikikiBoy

Three kids and two adults on one teachers salary is going to make for a very difficult life for the family. And hoping a pig and a garden will help substantially reduce the food costs for 5 people is just not going to be realistic.

I could be wrong, and have been surprised before, but I personally would not want to try to bring a family of 5 to Hawaii on a single teachers salary. I personally would try to put my kids first and move them into the best school district I could afford to move into and spend my disposable income on piano lessons and after school math and language class.

But that's just my thinking.

Explain difficult. We are simple. Will be debt free after this upcoming year.

So...not substantial. Some costs. You might actually be surprised at how much cost one can cut by doing a small garden and a few birds and rabbits and pigs. However pigs would only happen if we were rural Hawaii.

As far as the best schools possible? Sorry. I'm a firm believer that a good education can be had in any school. Wife is a math teacher so no need to pay for a tutor. Piano lessons? Why? My kids will play music if they want to and all three of them already own ukuleles.

[whtviper1]

I think his point was is if you think of your kids first Hawaii would be one of the last places you move since you'd be living paycheck to paycheck at best and he was implying one should maximize income until the kids hit 18 then do the follow your dream things.

I've got to think hunting and quality of life is far better in let's say Wyoming than it ever could be in Hawaii and the kids wouldn't be subjected to an isolated island in the middle of the Pacific.

[Haolejohn]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Figure rent of $1,400 to $1,800 and about $200-$250 for electric, no trash service (you take your own to the transfer station or the dump), cellphone - whatever your plan costs, water should probably run about $50 - $75 per month, cable for TV/internet about $80 - $100.

Food costs can be all over the place, but unless you're buying a lot of stuff shipped over from the mainland, it's not too bad. Not crazy cheap like some areas of the mainland, but if you're coming out of Alaska (am I remembering right that you're in Alaska?), it might even be cheaper. It'd be fresher, no doubt, at least during the winter when things have to be shipped up to Alaska.

If your wife wanted to stay home with the young one, she may be able to make a bit of extra $$ doing a little bit of baby sitting. I think she can baby sit one or two kids without having to get a child care permit or whatever is required to run a daycare center. You'd want to check into that if she was considering it, but if she was going to be staying home with one kid, may as well add in another and get a bit of $$

Thank you. This is what I'm looking for. Our food bill can be crazy if we buy locally. We try and plan our shopping around anchorage trips. It costs about $1k for a two day trip to anchorage and we can get groceries for half the cost as the village. Our protein has the potential to be completely free for the year, but that isn't always the case.

I figured housing would be comparable to what we are already paying and that seems to be the case. Our electric is fairly affordable with our low consumption of KWs and if we go over 500kW then it sky rockets so we are super conservative. Of course as our kids grow all our expenses will grow as well. That is something we have to think about.

We've thought about her watching a kid or two, but our financial goal is to be a one income only home. It's been a long journey but we are seeing our dream become a reality. Lots of cuts, but our quality of life has actually gotten better.

[hotzcatz]

Oh, and you don't have to keep a pig, just let your neighbors who have gardens know that you'll trap the pigs digging up their gardens and you'll be golden. We get as many pigs as we want for the freezer since we have a big pig trap we can loan out. We let folks use it and just tell them when we want a pig and they'll set the trap and call us when a pig is in it. The rest of the time they can use the trap, it's not like it's gonna get worn out or anything. You get much better end results if you are able to get them without chasing them all over the mountainside.

You can do a lot with permaculture, too, but that's kinda hard with a rental since you're generally not gonna be there when the fruit trees are mature. Bananas are pretty quick, though.

I've found raised bed gardens to be more productive than standard gardens. Easier to weed, saves on fertilizer when you're just doing the raised area, saves on water, too. Keeps the string trimmers away, too.

[ChezAloha]

We're currently spending around $700/month for food for a family of four: 2 adults and 2 teenagers (and don't ever let anyone tell you that teenage girls don't eat as much as boys). We don't hunt, fish, or have a garden. We started at $1000 month (for 5) when we arrived, but have been able to bring that down as we built up our food stockpile. We shop at Costco once a month (spending around $450/month or less), go to our local farmers' market every week ($120 - $150/month), bulk order from Amazon Prime for some things (approximately $75-$100/month), and fill in the rest at Foodland, Safeway, Walmart, and/or Cost U Less. We eat very well these days, better or as well as we did on the mainland. We're certainly eating a LOT more fresh fruit and vegetables (we're not vegetarians though). We go out to eat about once a month, but never for more than $50 for the four of us - all of our other meals are prepared at home. Our children take a lunch with them to school every day. It also helps that none of us are big milk drinkers - we maybe buy one or two quarts/month. I look for the best prices, buy what looks good at the farmers' market, and then work my menus around what I have on hand for the month. So, it can be done on less than $1000, but as I said, it took us a while to build up supplies of things like spices, vinegar, sugar, canned goods, etc. We have a small freezer out in our garage, and thankfully have room in the house for pantry storage.

Our income these days isn't very high, but because my husband and I are both retired we have a very low tax burden which wouldn't be the case for you. My big concern about being a one income family here, even if you can fit everything else into your budget, would be the inability to save for retirement. It may not seem all that important now, but the income that you can save/invest now will be golden when your kids are grown. If you can make it on your income alone, great, but I would strongly consider having your wife work part-time for retirement purposes (and I speak as a primarily stay-at-home mom, but one who is very grateful now for the benefits I receive because I did work part time).

I actually think Hawai'i (Kaua'i, at least) is a great place for kids. Our two daughters have thrived here, done well in school, and made good friends. They both rate coming here a positive. They have found the kids here to be less materialistic and overall friendlier than back at their schools on the mainland. In our middle daughter's graduating class this year we know several kids who will be attending good (prestigious) colleges, and they have attended public schools here since kindergarten. Other kids will be attending local colleges, or at least starting out here - they don't want to leave because this is where their family lives, not a whole lot different than it is for many kids back on the mainland.

[Jungjohann]

Originally Posted by ChezAloha

We're currently spending around $700/month for food for a family of four: 2 adults and 2 teenagers (and don't ever let anyone tell you that teenage girls don't eat as much as boys). We don't hunt, fish, or have a garden. We started at $1000 month (for 5) when we arrived, but have been able to bring that down as we built up our food stockpile.

Soooo, you started with five people, are down to four people, and have managed to stockpile some food......


How's the electric bill, or are the freezers on solar?



Uuuurrrrppp,,,,, kala ma i'au

[ChezAloha]

Originally Posted by Jungjohann

Soooo, you started with five people, are down to four people, and have managed to stockpile some food......


How's the electric bill, or are the freezers on solar?

Unfortunately, the one that got away was scrawny. Wouldn't have lasted very long, and would have been pretty tough.

[hotzcatz]

A small Energy-Star freezer doesn't pull that much power, we ran ours on a stand alone solar system for years. Grid tied systems are so much easier, though. An Energy Star refrigerator with the ice maker in the freezer and the freezer on top of 24 cubic feet or less isn't going to ding your electric bill by very much.

Oh, when getting spices, try the health food store in Keaau. They have a huge selection of bulk spices. You can replace your entire spice rack for a fraction of the cost of buying them in bottles. Save or buy a couple dozen small spice containers and then you can keep refilling them inexpensively from the bulk spices at the health food store.

You can also get inexpensive veggies from the Filipino stores when the farmer's markets aren't in session.

We try to plant 'permaculture' sorta stuff. The plant it, forget it and look out later to see 'oh gosh, there's something ripe out there now' kinda stuff. Papayas, bananas, lilikoi, sweet potatoes (although they're not in-your-face-ripe when they're ripe), pineapples, etc. I suppose coffee, tea and mint fit that category, too, although the mint is more in the herb category. Those are out there for when ever we need them in cooking. The mint gets dried for tea as well as used in cooking. Lemons and tangerines are a pretty much out there pretty much all the time ripe sort of thing. Avocados are seasonal as well as oranges. You can get a lot of food out of your yard without much work once the plants & trees are established. Maybe it's only 20 - 30% of your food, but that's still 20 - 30% less that you have to buy.