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Location: The Formerly Golden State-up to our tookas in debt
90 posts, read 221,645 times
Reputation: 187
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I would like to know what the natives-wherever you originally came from-think of the cost of living in Missouri. I don't mean the cooked books of what some Government Worker thinks it costs to live there. I'd like to hear about what the day to day grind costs you.
In California: groceries are fairly cheap, and we have unlimited sources of fresh fruits, vegetables, wines, organic meats, etc. It is also available 365 days a year. Just about every store in the world is here, usually within a 2 hour drive of someone, and you CAN shop wholesale. So, that covers skis, jewelry, cars, furniture, office supplies,et al. Vets are reasonable-for those with pets or livestock. The California State Legislature tried to add taxes on vet services but the public managed to kill that one. There are also lots of vets and veterinary schools. Truth be told, we have lots of....everything. The killers in California are:
1-Punishing taxes on mostly everything
2-Permits, permissions, graft, and all things politically ugly.
3-VERY high utility costs-and with c-x-ap & tax most of us won't be very warm or very cool-ever again.
4-High cost of gasoline-refer to lines 1-3
5-PC and Compassion gone amuk. It has driven lines 1 & 2 to stratosphere levels.
6-Everything on lines 1-5 are driving business (hence Jobs) out of state. I wonder who will soon be left to fund all of this.
So, what do Missourians see as the good, bad, and ugly?
I would like to know what the natives-wherever you originally came from-think of the cost of living in Missouri. I don't mean the cooked books of what some Government Worker thinks it costs to live there. I'd like to hear about what the day to day grind costs you.
In California: groceries are fairly cheap, and we have unlimited sources of fresh fruits, vegetables, wines, organic meats, etc. It is also available 365 days a year. Just about every store in the world is here, usually within a 2 hour drive of someone, and you CAN shop wholesale. So, that covers skis, jewelry, cars, furniture, office supplies,et al. Vets are reasonable-for those with pets or livestock. The California State Legislature tried to add taxes on vet services but the public managed to kill that one. There are also lots of vets and veterinary schools. Truth be told, we have lots of....everything. The killers in California are:
1-Punishing taxes on mostly everything
2-Permits, permissions, graft, and all things politically ugly.
3-VERY high utility costs-and with c-x-ap & tax most of us won't be very warm or very cool-ever again.
4-High cost of gasoline-refer to lines 1-3
5-PC and Compassion gone amuk. It has driven lines 1 & 2 to stratosphere levels.
6-Everything on lines 1-5 are driving business (hence Jobs) out of state. I wonder who will soon be left to fund all of this.
So, what do Missourians see as the good, bad, and ugly?
1) The cost of living is low in most of the state because salaries are also quite low. The lower cost of living works to your advantage if you live closer to Kansas City or St. Louis because of the more diversified job market that pays better.
2) Grocery costs are average in my opinion.
3) Heat is generally cheaper because most houses run off natural gas or propane (mostly in rural areas) Electricity costs are lower, but that comes at the cost of living near coal plants. They don't have those in CA.
4) Zoning is practically non-existant in much of rural MO. That could be a positive or negative depending on how you look at it. Property taxes are very very low across the majority of the state. Car registration fees are also quite low.
5) The unemployment rate in MO is much better than CA, but I tell everyone to line up a job first before moving anywhere in this economy.
6)"PC and Compassion gone amuk" HA HA, you will find that many people in this area are not PC at all. It is the other end of the spectrum in that regard.
Good luck. Pretty much any state is better than CA right now.
Walmart is the biggest grocery store in my rural area. Houston Walmart and West Plains Wal Mart are my closest. There is a limited supply of herbs, but I never used that many herbs in CA. Grocery, we seem to spend about 200.00 every two weeks, or 400.00 a month. That would be including non food items. It would be cheaper if hubby didn't like all his processed foods and junk foods.
Vet care, we just had the vet out for 4 horses, there five way shots for the year and a 60.00 farm visit. It was 330.00. Vets seem to be a little less expensive than CA. I sure did like Dr. Robinson in Placerville though.
Dr. visits, I am going to find me another DR. It is 75.00 for a visit. YUK.
Property tax in my area is really inexpensive, that is why I moved here. Because I am on 80 acres, I only pay 200.00 a year in property tax. I also pay 200.00 a year in personal tax, which includes, 3 cars, 4 horses, a tractor. I use to pay 350.00 a year to the DMV for one vehicle, the truck.
Now when I register my cars it is 10.00 a year.
Groceries seem to be the same price as CA. I am going to try and start a farmers market in this area. It would be great. I don't pay any association dues.
We are taxed on food. I am not sure what the tax rate is, that is suppose to change though. Also, as far as I know we don't have to pay for a building permit to have house built, but I could be wrong for other areas. In CA you have to pay 20,000.00 for a building permit, or maybe that has gone up.
As far as utility bills, way less than CA. My propane, I am paying 1.39 a gallon. I feel up about every 3 1/2 months 250.00, I cook with it and warm the house. Electricity I pay 89.00 a month in the Summer, because we run the air all the time. Hubby likes to be cool. I use to pay 600.00 a month in the summer in CA.
I get a lot of free food here, someone is always having a pot luck or a barbeque.
Location: The Formerly Golden State-up to our tookas in debt
90 posts, read 221,645 times
Reputation: 187
Thanks for the reply. Let me add to my orignal thread. Has anyone built a new house in Missouri? What did you pay in permits, maybe zoning, traffic mitigation,etc.?? Where I live in California-despite the fact that we have extremely high foreclosure rates, a permit to build a house is anywhere from $29,000 to $60,000. There are traffic mitiigation.utility hook ups,school impact, environ-mental. and zoning permits. Then there may be a home owners association to deal with, a community services, or resticted area permission. If you/your contractor/architect needs to block traffice for a delivery, or will have to slow-haul something up the road, you will need extra transportation permits. You cannot impact any neighbor, and if said neighbor complains, you can & will be visited by the county/city/state ispector for said violation. (prepare to pay$$$). I figure that if the trend keeps up, California will be the RV capital of the nation. So, please share your experience building "Mr. Blandings Dream House".
If you read my reply, my MO living experiences are in the KC area, and not rural MO. I imagine rural MO to be very cheap in terms of overall cost, especially if you are retired or on a fixed income.
Southern rural Missouri, 3 miles from city limits:
Electricity inexpensive, yes.
Propane, well the price fluctuates and will get what the market will pay.
Property taxes, inexpensive BUT this is rapidly changing. Looking
at homes we've seen a huge increase in property taxes in the past
five years.
Personal Property taxes - never had this where we used to live, so
it is an added expense for us.
Groceries - very inexpensive if you bargain shop and pay attention.
I do not feel our Wal-Mart is inexpensive, I feel they are high in
comparison to other Wal-Marts on certain items, such as meat.
But there are other grocery stores.
Gasoline is cheaper BUT take into account the ethanol added and
the lost mileage on the vehicle because of this and it isn't quite
as cheap (but still cheaper than CA).
Living in the county here there are no permits, regulations, etc.
for building a house. Not unless you buy into a restricted subdivision.
There are no building codes, regulations, etc.
Vet care - I'm sure compared to bigger cities it is reasonable here.
But it is still a lot higher than what I was used to paying.
Dental, medical - The same everywhere it seems or in the same
market. They are expensive.
Take into account also that you will pay more for certain things,
or at least the same (vehicles for example tend to run higher due
to the transportation costs to a small community).
Insurance - vehicles much cheaper than what we'd been paying.
Home owner's higher.
Internet - higher than those in bigger cities would pay for.
Restaurants - Some are very good quality and low prices, some
are not. It's just something you have to experience yourself.
Also take into account you get what you pay for in many instances.
Instead of bridges on county roads, most have 'low water crossings'
which flood during heavy rains. I don't mean this as necessarily
bad, but they just don't want the expense of building bridges. Also
on four lane highways you'll suddenly encounter traffic lights, because
they don't want the expense of a bypass. Stuff like that.
Thanks for the reply. Let me add to my orignal thread. Has anyone built a new house in Missouri? What did you pay in permits, maybe zoning, traffic mitigation,etc.?? Where I live in California-despite the fact that we have extremely high foreclosure rates, a permit to build a house is anywhere from $29,000 to $60,000. There are traffic mitiigation.utility hook ups,school impact, environ-mental. and zoning permits. Then there may be a home owners association to deal with, a community services, or resticted area permission. If you/your contractor/architect needs to block traffice for a delivery, or will have to slow-haul something up the road, you will need extra transportation permits. You cannot impact any neighbor, and if said neighbor complains, you can & will be visited by the county/city/state ispector for said violation. (prepare to pay$$$). I figure that if the trend keeps up, California will be the RV capital of the nation. So, please share your experience building "Mr. Blandings Dream House".
Hello, SG, and welcome aboard. If it was your intent to highlight the differences between California and America, you did it well.
We are moving in three weeeks to a house in the Ozark's lake country we purchased last week which will be a great change-of-pace from California at large and Sacratomato in particular.
It's both a blessing and a curse that in the SW MO county where we purchased there are no building codes. Therefore no inspections, delays and attendant additional costs. That's the blessing. The curse, of course, is that there is not a standard for safety and longevity of a dwelling. However, as part of the mortgage approval process we had the house thoroughly inspected by a recently retired fire marshal who is a certified inspector. Looking at his report it would be a wonder to find a house as much "up to code" in CA as this one is and CA certainly couldn't touch the price for a house on the lake..
MO is wonderful in that the Show Me State and its denizens don't cotton to goverment intrusion, interference or bureacracy. They want government to stay out of their homes, out of their lives and out of their wallets.
As a native of CA I find it over-lawed, over-regulated, over-controlled and WAY over-priced. It has it's beauty and benefits but to us, they no longer make up for its draw-backs.
MO is wonderful in that the Show Me State and its denizens don't cotton to government intrusion, interference or bureaucracy. They want government to stay out of their homes, out of their lives and out of their wallets.
Then what's up with this "personal property tax" nonsense?
I'll assume that most Missouri folks will accept and faithfully fill out the privacy intruding, personal security threatening, anti-freedom "census" survey next year too.
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Cost of Living in MO
