E komo mai!
I'm on Central Oahu and I haven't been over to the Big Island for a few years. However I can point you to even more links:
http://the-military-guide.com/2013/04/15/lifestyles-in-hawaii-hawaii-island-the-big-island/(Also the "related links" at the bottom of that post)
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/tropical-beach-retirement/msg632685/http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/real-estate-and-landlording/cheap-tropical-property!-with-free-lava-tsunami-hurricanes-and-earthquakes/msg392802/And you might want to start following Big Island newspapers:
http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/Anyone able to give me an idea about the cost of groceries, utilities, and such? We are pretty flexible knowing that cost of living will go up and we will have to really revamp our diet and daily life to make the most of what your state has to offer. Just looking for some real numbers to plug into my calculations. Employment is not something we are worried about, so it would just be numbers for expenses.
As you say, the unhappy malihini are those who try to recreate their previous lifestyle. It's expensive to eat Mainland food here, but if you're shopping local then you'll do fine. Vegetarian actually makes it a bit easier because you're not going to buy as much meat.
As an example, I'd suggest that you stop drinking cow's milk and eating boxed cereals. Most of the state's milk is flown in frozen from the Mainland, although there are local farmer's markets that might occasionally have cow's milk. (I don't know for sure, but I think all the Hawaii dairies shut down a few years ago.) Almond or soy milk is cheaper by the gallon when cow's milk costs $5-$7/gallon-- especially when cow's milk goes bad. Oatmeal and Cheerios are cheaper than Kellogg brands.
If I were to go to Costco, how much is a 25lb bag of flour, gallon of milk, 2.5 lb of cheese block, case of TP, jar of peanut butter, lb of ground beef? Are there better alternatives to those things? We have a mostly vegetarian family of 4.
I can look for those numbers next time we're at our local Costco, but I'm not sure about the Big Island. Between Costco and Wal-Mart, as well as customer loyalty programs, your "eating local" food expenses will be roughly the same or about 25% higher.
Other examples of eating local are replacing some bread products with rice, Mainland potatoes with Okinawan or sweet potatoes, peanut butter with sunflower or almond butter, and ground beef with ground turkey or tofu. You'll find all sorts of yummy local veggies. Fruit is easy to grow-- our backyard has coconut, mango (two kinds), bing cherry, tangerine, mandarin orange, lemon, guava, lychee, kumquat, and papaya. They seem to all ripen at 2:45 PM Tuesday, but they're all tasty.
I recently saw lychee for $6/pound but last year I must have given away a hundred pounds from our tree just to keep them from rotting on the ground (or getting eaten by the wild green parrots).
Are there any hunting/gathering/fishing/gleaning opportunities on the big island? Where we are this is a huge part of our life, so I'm just curious.
Yes. If you hunt or fish then get licenses. Hawaii's gun laws are pretty strict but bow hunting is also popular. Wild pigs, feral goat, axis deer, and feral chickens are a pest-control problem. Most of the fishing is open-ocean but there are coastlines that are not part of a marine preserve.
I don't know specific gleaning opportunities, but you'll be able to learn more at farmer's markets. Some of it is "pick your own" while others will barter produce for labor. I think the Big Island is better for this than any of the other islands.
How much is energy per unit and what do people usually use for energy (specifically on the big island in south kona area or Hilo)?
HELCO charges between 40-50 cents/KWHr. It depends on oil prices, although LNG is starting to bring that down a little. You will almost certainly have a solar water heater and perhaps a photovoltaic array. If you live at certain altitudes with your house oriented to the tradewinds then you won't need heating or cooling. But if you're living on a coastal plain in Puna or up in the hills (around Volcano National Park) then you'll use a lot of ceiling fans or wood stoves.
Depending on whether you come here from a cold climate or a hot/humid one, the first year here will seem extremely hot or cold. By the second year you'll adapt and use less energy to maintain your comfort zone. If you live at sea level and air-condition your house to 72 degrees then your electric bill will be $400/month. If you're a few hundred feet higher with tradewinds and open windows then your electric bill will be around $150/month. With a photovoltaic system it'll be under $50/month.
The nice thing about solar water heaters is that they're sized for homes of two adults with three teens. 80-120 gallons at 150 degrees can keep up with just about any teen hygiene. Our water heater is only below 110 degrees for about three days in January.
Anything else we should consider? We plan to rent a place, so hope to have no costs associated with housing upkeep...
Renting is a most excellent idea. You'll want to do that for at least a year (to get to know the neighborhoods) and perhaps for as long as it takes to find a sweat-equity bargain.
Be careful about the geography. Rents in the Puna (southeast) area tend to be cheaper because some of the homes are in lava fields with water-catchment cisterns, septic leach fields, and photovoltaic arrays. Rent is cheap but if the rains stop and you have to have the water truck deliver your drinking water, then the cost of living skyrockets. The Volcano area (in the center of the island) is cheaper but much cooler and with longer drives to Hilo or Kailua-Kona. If you don't need to commute to a job then you might prefer the Hilo area (much like 1960s Hawaii). Rents on the Kailua-Kona side tend to be much higher due to the resort areas, and there's also easier access to shopping. But you might also find it easier to score house-sitting or vacation rental bargains in Kailua-Kona.
5) many of the local stores have two pricing schemes - one for 'locals' and another for 'haulis'. The advertised price is what you will pay, but often the guy in front of you (a large Polynesian-looking guy) will be charged less. It's prejudiced and not-legal, but it is just a fact of life living there. Accept it and move on.
6) if you are white (or really anything other than Polynesian) you will never be "from" there... even after you've lived there for many years. You will always be "from the mainland," even if you have no more roots there.
Let me offer the non-racist interpretations of these observations.
Hawaii retailers give kama'aina discounts to those with Hawaii driver's licenses or state ID cards. Grocery stores (other than Costco and Wal-Mart) also have loyalty cards with a barcode that's scanned at checkout. You even get the "codeword" from the newspaper ads to pass to the cashier for the "secret specials".
The islands have a predominantly Asian culture (American-Japanese) with a large dose of the Hawaiian Renaissance. Family is very important, and when you're working a long week then you tend to spend more time with family than with neighbors.
The state also gets a lot of snowbirds and other transients who move here with high hopes for short terms. A notorious stereotype is the rich entertainer or tech exec who bids up the local real estate prices, frequently buying Hawaii trophy properties as a second home, and attempts to import Mainland culture as "philanthropy". These efforts tend to alienate the long-time residents and leads to what in the military is known as "new guy syndrome". If you've lived here for decades then you're not going to waste your time getting to know the new people until you can tell that they're going to stay here for a while... at least after 3-4 years. If the new people are more concerned with racing around the island for entertainment instead of getting to know the neighbors, then they won't acculturate very well. But if your kids play together, and you walk the neighborhood most evenings, and you ask them about the farmer's market or local festivals, then you'll find yourself among friends.
As for skin color... I know seventh-generation descendants of haole missionaries who are "local" enough to out-pidgin some of their native Hawaiian friends. I also know people of all skin colors who constantly tell us how things are done on the Mainland, and nobody really wants to talk to them.
My parents-in-law lived here for nearly seven years to watch their granddaughter grow up. They were born in the 1930s. During their time here my FIL casually referred to neighborhood adults in their 20s as "kids" and was occasionally overheard referring to his "Jap" neighbors. When he said aloha or mahalo his pronunciation had quotes around them. Whenever my MIL heard pidgin she would immediately make assumptions about the person's intelligence and education level, and start speaking loudly and slowly with simple words. (I'll just skip over the scene where she discovered that her only granddaughter spoke pidgin.) They were perpetually telling anyone who would listen about all the years they'd lived in the Washington DC area and all of the things they'd seen with FIL's job in CBS TV there. They never really made an attempt to adapt to local foods or local music or local TV. They even made fun of the journalistic quality of the local newspapers compared to the Washington Post and the NYT.
After several years they suddenly realized that they didn't have any friends here and didn't get along with the neighbors. Shortly after that they moved back to the Mainland.
If you attempt to adopt the local culture here, your efforts will be rewarded. If you're constantly comparing the island lifestyle to somewhere else, though, you'll be disappointed.