Cost of LIVING (Seattle: sale, coupons, rent)

[Theroachcoach]

Just curious about the general cost of living in seattle area, how much does a cart of groceries cost ya?? Full tank of gas? What about realistic travel time???

Considering a move, looking for some help. Thanks all!!

[jenlion]

Where are you moving from??

For cost of groceries, check out fresh.amazon.com. I get my groceries there and find that they are priced similarly to what you'd get in a regular grocery store. The difference is that there's no store brands and no coupons, and you never accidentally walk by the display with boxes of Pilsbury brownies on sale for $1 each for you to stock up on. Other than that, the prices for milk, bread, etc, etc is pretty much what I see in regular grocery stores. Only way to get much cheaper is to go to Costco.

Groceries do cost noticably more here than in Dallas, where I moved from almost 2 years ago.

Gas is more expensive here than in some parts of the country. I have a 15 gallon tank and it's typically
$45 to $55 to fill it.

Travel times we'd need more detail on. From where to where? Traffic gets pretty ugly. If you're on the Eastside (of Lake Washington), there are two bridges to cross into Seattle. They get bad, especially the northern bridge (520). You can go around the lake, but those routes get pretty slow too. I-5 is often at a standstill. Traveling long ways during traditional rush hours can be pretty rough. You can look at maps.google.com and look at traffic, then change the slider to look at certain times of day and days of the week to estimate how bad traffic "usually" is. Then double it, because I think Google likes to mess with us, being near Microsoft, and doesn't tell the whole story.

If you tell us where you are, and what part of town you think you'd live and/or work in, we can be more specific!

[Radnor]

Amazon Fresh is awesome. Shipping is only $5 if your order is under $75; anything over that and it's free. Spend over ~$300 in a month and next month they lower the bar to $30 for free shipping. It's great to be able to order online and have them sitting at your front door when you wake up the next morning. The bins the groceries come in are big and colorful.



There's also QFC, Safeway, PCC, Trader Joe's, Uwajimaya, and probably a few others I'm forgetting. If you're smart you can use coupons and club cards to get things really cheap. I love getting a 1/2 gallon of OJ for $0.99 at QFC and Safeway. Milk is usually $2 a gallon.

Gas can be cheap if you search around with something like gasbuddy.com to find the best prices. I agree that it is more expensive here compared to other places around the US.

[JesseJames34]

Originally Posted by Theroachcoach

Just curious about the general cost of living in seattle area, how much does a cart of groceries cost ya?? Full tank of gas? What about realistic travel time???

Considering a move, looking for some help. Thanks all!!

People will generally tell you the costs of living here, but what about the cost of not? Really, Seattle/W. Washington is really the best place in the country to me in terms of weather, economic activities, unparalleled nature, food, and others. If you decide elsewhere, I'd say those are your costs of your decision.


RELATIVE to what I'm used to, I'd say gas is a little more and groceries are much more. Gas is $2.65/g or more, as far as I remember. To be honest, I rarely keep track of this as I'm going to get gas no matter the cost, but that's what the closest gas station to me is selling it for. As for groceries, I can tell you I'm used to seeing tropicana/florida's natural OJ on sale 2 for $5, but here it seems to cost 2 for $7, or something like that. That's just one example...

What's travel time? Commute time to work? It pretty much sucks here. Sometimes it feels like there is no consistency to the traffic. The good news is that it's so gorgeous here at times you don't mind being stuck in your car. I feel like the distance/miles to my destinations are relatively short, it's just usually congested and at times painfully slow(good for safety though)...

Though you didn't ask specficially, I'd be deceiving you if I failed to mention the high housing costs here. Pretty much what I consider a decent house (area, time/distance to work centers, etc) are at least $400k and usually more. Tiny 2 bedroom condos $220k at least with $250/mth or more HOAs and 1%-ish tax. However, the latter is offset by the fact there is no state income tax here.

Rent is fairly cheap. Probably look to spen $800 or more for a 1 bedroom in a decent neighborhood. Two beds are suually at least $1100/mth or more. Of course there are cheaper and more exenpsive places....

[Theroachcoach]

Thank you all for the helpful info!

I currectly live in Marquette,MI
Originally from California


As far as where i might end up, i was kinda thinking maybe on the out skirts or a suburb of like renton, des moines,bellevue, shorline etc..
I would be attending Seattle community college central campus, my partner is an RN looking for something possibly at Seattle childrens hospital.
I wondering if we were to spring for s suburb to save a lil on rent am i going no basically waste that saving on gas sitting in stopped traffic... Specially with the travel time to the seattle college campus several time a week.

I have always wanted to live in Seattle and i think it really has lots to offer, I think it will fit us perfectly. Though i know the cost will be a little sticker shock.



Thanks again guys for all the help, and i love the grocerie thing, very interesting!

[Tiger Beer]

Personally I think somewhat higher wages makes up for gas that costs 10 cents more or juice that is 10 cents more, etc.

The real difference for 'cost of living' purposes is housing. Is the housing within a person's salary range to afford, and what kind of housing would you afford? This seems to be where Seattle doesn't score very well. I could live in a very desireable area of Pittsburgh for about half the cost than it would be to to buy a house on the periphery of Seattle in an undesireable area.

I think that is where the real 'cost of living' means something.