Does anyone drive to LCOL areas to save on large items?

[clarkfan1979]

We live in a MCOL area about 90 minutes away from our in-laws, who live in a HCOL area. This past week, we paid $500 for a car repair in our MCOL area that costs $1,000 in the HCOL area. My wife got her hair done and spent $125. The same treatment costs $350 in the HCOL area.

We are personally not doing anything special because we already live in the MCOL area in which things are cheaper. However, I was just curious if anyone had any life hacks in which they drive from a HCOL area to a MCOL/LCOL area to pay less for the larger ticket items.

[Morning Glory]

 Sometimes the converse is true: you can get nicer used furniture in an hcol area for the same price as lower quality stuff in an lcol

[Dicey]

I love Winco and Aldi, but they are not in our HCOLA. When we go to our rentals, we always do Winco and Aldi runs. There is a Winco in a lower COLA closer to home. I manage to make it there about once a quarter. Worth the effort.

[dandarc]

I drive about 30 miles to get the cars serviced. No idea if it saves money or not - just the places in our city I've used before all suck ass and the ones in Georgia are a more pleasant experience.

I also wound up buying a car in South Carolina and probably saved a couple of thousand dollars compared to buying same car in our city. Not intentional though - the prior car's dash lit up like a Christmas tree as we arrived at our destination and the repairs were going to be $3500 ($2500 just for parts - BIL was all "c'mon you can get that stuff so cheap online . . . wait no you can't"), plus an extra week at my in-laws waiting for parts to get there so the car could be fixed. Decided it was just time for another car. Of course 8 months after we made the transaction Toyota mailed us a notice that the repair was going to retro-actively be covered under warranty. So, I guess we gotta factor that possibility into the calculus next time.

ETA: Actually when we buy mattresses, there's a store just over the state line we prefer. So once per 10 years or so, we do, in fact drive a reasonable distance to save some money on a large-ish purchase.

[Cassie]

Luckily there’s 2 Wincos in our city and it’s the only place I shop.

[nereo]

Sometimes the converse is true: you can get nicer used furniture in an hcol area for the same price as lower quality stuff in an lcol

+1.
There’s so much money sloshing around HCOL areas that we routinely score gently used expensive items at a fraction of new. Many high earning households seem to value their time far more than getting the most money for their _______ and they turn over their “stuff” long before its useful lifespan. Furniture, appliances, sorting equipment and hobby stuff - often they just want it gone.

Labor seems to be the exception. Our car repairs are all done towards the lower COL area. We live basically in-between: about 15 minutes from the HCOL city but also 15 minutes from some very economically depressed towns.

[dang1]

ammo in reno cheaper than pinole, lol

[MudPuppy]

I get my groceries across the state line when I happen to be out that way anyway. My state charges sales tax on groceries.

[nalor511]

I would but they are too far away 😁

[We be free if we try]

Agreed with the above re used stuff in HCOL. SF has some gold mine Goodwills, clothing-wise, if you don’t mind average mall brands, plus the occasional treasure. Piles of nearly new stuff from Gap, Banana Republic, etc. Goodwill recently raised their prices there but the Salvation Army is still very cheap. And craigslist for furniture. I’ve tried to thrift elsewhere but the thrill is gone.

[Car Jack]

I and many others in my state pay sales tax on stuff.  Next door, in New Hampshire, there is no sales tax.  I used to work in New Hampshire, so firstly, gas tax was much lower back then (no longer the case), so I'd always fill up in NH.  I also bought a roll around compressor at Lowes in NH to save (at the time 5%) the $25 in tax.  Moving up the line, I bought our 2 snowmobiles, 15 years ago in NH for about $10k, saving $500 in sales tax.  We only snowmobiled on the NH trails, so the sleds were registered in NH and we trailered them.  Yes, the trailer was registered in MA with the tax paid.  Lastly, we bought a new boat 15 or so years ago and paid $15k for it at the NH marina where we would be taking the boat mainly.  We registered the boat in NH, which is proper as the registration state is that where the boat will be mainly used.  We used it in NH probably 80% of the time even though we have a lake across the street from our house in Mass.

While we don't drive to lower cost areas to buy stuff, we have hired contractors from Western Mass to work on our Eastern Mass house and they were far cheaper than local contractors.

[RainyDay]

We live close to the county line, so we drive to the next county for gas/diesel, and to shop at Aldi. 

DH drove to NC to buy a work truck and saved probably $3000 or more.  We live in a suburb of DC. 

My parents live in southern Pennsylvania, so when I visit them, I buy lots of plants, organic fertilizers, yard items, etc.  Much cheaper there.

My mom and I once compared house cleaning services.  She lives 2 hours from me.  She pays $70/week, while I would pay $120/week (which is why I don't have them come weekly!).  Our houses are both 3 bdrm/2 bath, almost same square footage.

[GodlessCommie]

No. It all comes down to the value of time. If I traveled to a LCOL regularly anyway, I would do it - but I don't, and nothing that I buy or hire pencils out.

On the other hand, I went to see Dutch Golden Age paintings yesterday. Priceless entertainment, and it cost me a princely sum of zero dollars and zero cents.