What is cheap and what is expensive where you live?

[Hula Hoop]

Just wondering what is relatively cheap and what is expensive where you live?

I live in Italy and a lot of things are surprisingly cheap here compared with my native country (United States) but also compared to the Northern European countries I've been to.  The downside is that salaries tend to be very low here and jobs are hard to come by.

Cheap

Food - both groceries and restaurant food is cheaper here than in a lot of places.  At our favorite pizzeria, a one person margherita pizza is Euro 6 and at our local gelato place a cone with three flavors (all delicious) is Euro 1.60.  Groceries here are a lot cheaper than in the US apart from meat.  We don't eat that much meat so that's ok.


Wine and beer - a decent/drinkable bottle of wine here is around Euro 3-4.  The cheap stuff is maybe Euro 1.50 a bottle (and you can find wine for even cheaper if you want to) and the really nice expensive stuff might be Euro 10-15 a bottle.  It would be really hard to find a bottle of wine for more than that price except in really fancy wine stores.  Beer is also cheap.


Childcare - public daycare cost us around Euro 200 a month (it's on a sliding scale according to income) and it was great.  Public school starts at age 3 so i frchildcare is essentially free from age 3 onwards.  The hours were 8.30-4.30.


Property tax - doesn't exist for your first home if you live there.  You only pay property tax for investment properties.


Interest rates - we refinanced our mortgage to less thatn 2% fixed rate for 20 years less than a year ago.


Health care -compared to the US, it's a bargain although quite no frills (generally good doctors though).

Property - cheap compared to most comparably sized cities in Europe although expensive compared to some smaller cities in the US.  People live in smaller spaces here though so it's hard to compare.

Expensive

Cars and driving - cars are expensive here, gas it crazy expensive and insurance costs an arm and a leg.  There is a reason that we don't own a car.  Despite this, Italians love their cars and car ownership is very high.

Taxes -let's not even get started on income tax - insanely high here

clothes - cost a bit more here than in the US.  We buy a lot of second hand stuff or else stock up while we're in the US

OTC medications - for some reason they cost a TON here.  Things like paracetamol, aspirin, cold meds etc. are very expensive compared to the US.  We also stock up on this stuff in the US.

Utilities - very expensive here.  There's a reason Italians don't run their heating in the winter and air conditioning (if they have it at all) in the summer.  People put on another sweater and thick socks rather than crank up the heating in winter.  In summer, we sweat it out.

[OtherJen]

Housing is cheap here, relative to many other places in the USA.

Auto insurance is not. Apparently Michigan has the highest auto insurance rates in the USA.

[Cranky]

I live in a LCOL area, and even our insurance is cheap! But salaries and wages are low, so really, it’s all relative. It’s a very high poverty area.

[gaja]

The only cheap things people come to Norway to buy are diapers (shops are selling them at a loss to get families as customers), and very high end wine. The state run wine monopoly buys in large quantums directly from the vineyards, years in advance. This means they can get hold of very rare vintages at good prices. Their profits are limited by law, and the alcohol tax is based on alcohol content, not quality. Because of this, the cheap wines are very expensive, while the really rare and expensive wines will be relatively cheap in Norway.

One example:
https://www.arendalvintners.com/blog/2018/1/25/5-norwegian-winterdays-for-a-drc-at-3900-euros-by-the-public-wine-monopoly-in-norway

Health and child care are paid through taxes, so the out of pocket is low.

[joonifloofeefloo]

Some specific items of emergency and birthing medical care. That's it!

[BuildingFrugalHabits]

Just wondering what is relatively cheap and what is expensive where you live?

I live in Italy and a lot of things are surprisingly cheap here compared with my native country (United States) but also compared to the Northern European countries I've been to.  The downside is that salaries tend to be very low here and jobs are hard to come by.

Cheap

Food - both groceries and restaurant food is cheaper here than in a lot of places.  At our favorite pizzeria, a one person margherita pizza is Euro 6 and at our local gelato place a cone with three flavors (all delicious) is Euro 1.60.  Groceries here are a lot cheaper than in the US apart from meat.  We don't eat that much meat so that's ok.


Wine and beer - a decent/drinkable bottle of wine here is around Euro 3-4.  The cheap stuff is maybe Euro 1.50 a bottle (and you can find wine for even cheaper if you want to) and the really nice expensive stuff might be Euro 10-15 a bottle.  It would be really hard to find a bottle of wine for more than that price except in really fancy wine stores.  Beer is also cheap.


Childcare - public daycare cost us around Euro 200 a month (it's on a sliding scale according to income) and it was great.  Public school starts at age 3 so i frchildcare is essentially free from age 3 onwards.  The hours were 8.30-4.30.


Property tax - doesn't exist for your first home if you live there.  You only pay property tax for investment properties.


Interest rates - we refinanced our mortgage to less thatn 2% fixed rate for 20 years less than a year ago.


Health care -compared to the US, it's a bargain although quite no frills (generally good doctors though).

Property - cheap compared to most comparably sized cities in Europe although expensive compared to some smaller cities in the US.  People live in smaller spaces here though so it's hard to compare.

Expensive

Cars and driving - cars are expensive here, gas it crazy expensive and insurance costs an arm and a leg.  There is a reason that we don't own a car.  Despite this, Italians love their cars and car ownership is very high.

Taxes -let's not even get started on income tax - insanely high here

clothes - cost a bit more here than in the US.  We buy a lot of second hand stuff or else stock up while we're in the US

OTC medications - for some reason they cost a TON here.  Things like paracetamol, aspirin, cold meds etc. are very expensive compared to the US.  We also stock up on this stuff in the US.

Utilities - very expensive here.  There's a reason Italians don't run their heating in the winter and air conditioning (if they have it at all) in the summer.  People put on another sweater and thick socks rather than crank up the heating in winter.  In summer, we sweat it out.

Hey Hula! Where in Italy are you?  We enjoy spending time there and my observations are pretty consistent with your although I was unaware of the no property tax thing.  I seem to recall that there was property tax on primary homes but maybe I misunderstood.  I think in Italy it's also way cheaper in the southern regions vs the north.  I think if we were to live there, I would try to go car free in a small city with the thought that we would use a car sharing service or take public transit if available.   Another thing I noticed is that detached homes are significantly more expensive and more rare than apartments/condos whereas where I live in Denver it's the opposite!

[ObviouslyNotAGolfer]

In Southern California:

CHEAP: Life
EXPENSIVE: Everything else (and not only in terms of money)

[Hula Hoop]

BuildingFrugal - we're in a large-ish Italian city.  You pay no property tax on your primary residence so long as you are resident there and it is not a "luxury home": https://www.guidafisco.it/imu-prima-casa-si-paga-o-no-abitazione-principale-lusso-pertinenze-1890.  You also pay a reduced transfer tax (stamp duty) when you buy your "prima casa".  You still have a pay a lot of fees for the notary etc. so it's not cheap but the no property tax thing is great.

Yes - everyone lives in apartments here unless they are truly wealthy.  Detached homes are very rare even in smaller towns.  As I mentioned above, people live in smaller spaces here.

[Imma]

In the Netherlands these things are expensive:
-housing. Property prices and rents are skyhigh and in a bubble (prices going up nearly 10% / year) . Because there's a massive housing shortage, there no sign of the bubble bursting.
- daycare. Even though it's partially government subsidized, it's still really expensive. If you're on a low income or a single parent the cost is low,  which is good, but once the family income rises, the cost rises very steeply. This is one of the many reasons why most Dutch women don't work fulltime.
-Car ownership/driving. I don't own a car so I can't tell you how expensive exactly.

What's cheap:
-Food: produce, staples, dairy. It used to amaze me to read about people making their own yoghurt on MMM as it costs exactly the same as milk in my country (€0,70 per liter).
-Loans: currently mortgage interest rates are around 1,75% and student loans are almost 0% ( this is because the interest percentage is linked to what the government pays for it's own debts, which is nothing). This fuels the housing boom.

[Matz_70]

In Brisbane Australia everything is expensive. We naturally became more frugal due to high cost and comparably low income.
The weather, the natural beauty of the country and the friendliness of people are priceless in return.

[Hirondelle]

To add to Immas list on the NL:

Cheap:
- Flight tickets (Europe in general). It's very common to fly all over Europe for $10-20 one way. I often pay more for the train to the airport than for the flight. These aren't occasional dump-prices, but just the regular price levels. Haven't seen that elsewhere in the world.
- Bikes: it's super easy to get a bike for under $50 in any student city. When I see people on these forums talk about all the expenses to "start biking" I feel like an alien cause I just got myself a cheap bike that included a lock already.. In the USA I also got myself a $100 bike but way lower quality and harder to find compared to what I get here.
- Sports/gyms: $100/month gyms don't seem to exist here. In my hometown up to $35/month is normal unless you hire personal trainers or other special packages. The most expensive gym I can think of in Amsterdam is $65/month. Also sports clubs are in general reasonably priced. 

Expensive:
- Public transport. The 20 min bus from my hometown to Amsterdam is already $4. Other European countries seem way cheaper on this. In the USA I haven't used public transport enough to get a good grip of prices.

[expatartist]

I live in Hong Kong. We're a Chinese territory but not China (yet): we still have our own currency tied to the US$, our laws are somewhat different, etc

Cheap:

* Public transport. A highlight is the Star Ferry that sails from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island, which costs under US50 cents for a spectacular ride. Also the vintage trams of HK Island are about the same price for a scenic ride. For everyday life, buses and the MTR are a great value as well.
* Fruit and veg from China. Frequently you can get pineapples for US$1.50 for 1 or $2 for 2. Passionfruits 5 for $1. Bananas and many other fruits and veg very cheap. Lots of fun for juice shopping. Since everything's potentially been sprayed with elevated levels of pesticides, I only buy peelable fruit and veg and often make smoothies from them.
* Noodles and dumplings and congee, simple delicious foods are often under $5 at mom and pop restaurants
* Dim Sum is relatively cheap and IMO the best in the world
* Very cheap flights to regional destinations, particularly the Philippines, Japan, and Korea
* Young graduates typically live with their families and starting salaries are very low
* Low income taxes
* Subsidized electricity means aircon is used full blast in much of the city, most of the year

Expensive:

* Typically we top the world's highest real estate prices per square meter, or are pretty close. This stifles creativity and many related industries.
* A decent microbrew can easily run US$10/pint. Ditto for most bars. I almost never partake, preferring outdoor tables on the top of the Int'l Finance Center with Victoria Harbor view at night instead
* Foreign restaurants. Bakeries. A full (over 1 kg) loaf of bread at one French bakery can run over US$30
* Vehicles can be extremely expensive

Our wealth gap means it's easy to spend thousands at the drop of a hat, but there are cracks you can maneuver between too.

[Bracken_Joy]

Oregon overall tends to be a little higher COL than the US average (118 on the index vs 100 US average).

Cheaper:
-Groceries are a little below national average. In particular, you can get some insanely good quality meats and veggies direct from farmers for pretty good prices. Lots of CSAs and similar available.
-No sales tax
-I think our utilities tend to be a little cheaper than average? We make a lot of hydroelectric energy and sell it to california. Utility fees are high most places though, but the use rates are low.
-High quality beer and wine maybe? We make a LOT of beer and wine here. Certainly compared to Canada or California it's cheaper. It's pretty easy to go right to a brewery, vineyard, or taphouse, and get decent pricing.

Expensive:
-Income tax. We have some of the highest state income tax in the country. Like 9-10%
-Housing if you're in one of the main cities- Portland (+surrounding), Eugene, Salem. Certainly not NYC or SF expensive, but well over national average prices.
-Property taxes also tend to be high in any of the main cities as well.

If you move to rural Oregon, it's cheap as hell, but there's also very few jobs.

[Hula Hoop]

Hirondelle - that does sound expensive.  A 20 minute suburban bus ride here in Italy would cost maybe Euro 1.50-2.50.

Airfares here in Europe are indeed cheap.  Trains here in Italy are cheap too.  Typical Trenitalia price tickets are Euro 20 per person for a 2.5 hour ride on a high speed train.  You can get the tickets cheaper if you buy ahead. 

[profnot]

WA:

High
housing  (small, older houses start at $300K) (rentals are $1200/mo for a nice 1 bedroom - not fancy)
medical insurance very high
dental costs very high
food - except apples and milk
gas + propane  $3.49/gal here at low cost stations (regular gas)


Low
no state income tax
business tax for small businesses is very low
electricity: water generated
minimum wage is low: $11 an hour. 
  Great if you are an employer.  Lousy if you are an employee.

These prices are a few hours away from Seattle.  Seattle prices are much higher.

Aside from expense: native WA people are not friendly. 

I can't wait to leave this awful place even tho the landscape is gorgeous.

[marty998]

In Brisbane Australia everything is expensive. We naturally became more frugal due to high cost and comparably low income.
The weather, the natural beauty of the country and the friendliness of people are priceless in return.

Housing is expensive Buying or renting, doesn't matter. Electricity is expensive. Childcare is expensive.

I'd argue petrol is still pretty cheap. I could drive from Sydney to Melbourne (900km) on about $70 worth of fuel.

[mizzourah2006]

Cheap: Pretty much everything.

Expensive: Air travel. I guess because so many people travel into the airport for business they just jack up the prices as companies are less likely to resist travel over an extra $1-200 round trip ticket. It was listed by Nate Silver as having the largest markup +$158 of all large and mid-size airports in the US.

[Imma]

Another thing that's cheap in NL is kale! We eat it boiled, mixed with mashed potatoes. It's a very traditional winter dish and it costs next to nothing (maybe €2/kilo, which is a LOT of kale). I just bought kale today for the first time this winter. It's cheap, filling and healthy and we like it.

We all think it super funny that this cheap oldfashioned stuff has suddenly become an expensive hipster superfood. When it is marketed as a superfood in the NL, the English word kale is often used instead of the Dutch word (boerenkool) because everyone associates that with their grandparents.

[mountain mustache]

Cheap: I can't honestly think of anything.

Expensive:
- Groceries, whether locally grown, or at Safeway/Walmart. About 1.5x as expensive as the closest "big city"
- Restaurants- $15-$20 for a meal is standard, and pretty hard to get under
- Rent- anywhere from $1000-$1200 a month for a studio, $1500-$2500 for a 2br, 1 bath
- Houses to purchase- nothing under $400,000k
- Gyms- we have 2, both are $55 a month, both are worse than the most run down 24 hour fitness

Free: incredible mountain views, breathtaking sunrises and sunsets, endless adventures to be had mountain biking, skiing, hiking, rafting. Small town community and adventurous friends.  Worth all of those ridiculous Expensive things, and more.

[flipboard]

Somewhere in the middle of Europe:

cheap:
- yearly passes for public transport.
- taxes
- milk

medium:
- healthcare: insurance is separate from taxes, but cheap-ish (and you don't have to deal with the billing messes that USA residents seem to constantly deal with).
- electricity & telecoms - similar to e.g. US or UK.

expensive:
- one off train tickets.
- everything else - but at least prices are stable. Rents and house prices have gone down a touch recently, and only growing slowly in the past

The salaries are however are high, more than matching expenses. Very low poverty too. And life in general is rather pleasant.

[galliver]

Alt take on Southern CA.

Cheap:
-produce from Mexico/basic food (shop ethnic markets!). Avocados.
-electric/heat: not sure how rates compare, but you don't need it much!

Expensive:
-HOUSING. Looking at 2brs now, nothing <$1.6k, nothing <$2k in decent neighborhoods. 3br townhomes/condos start at $700k-800k.
-services: your hairstylist, waiter, mechanic has to pay rent, too!
-eggs: not actually pricey just more than elsewhere. CA mandates certain amount of space for all chickens.

[Sugaree]

Southern US (Not Florida)

Cheap:

Childcare
Housing

Expensive:

Utilities (specifically cooling during the summer)
Healthcare

[Hirondelle]

Another cheap one I suddenly remember: phone plans! I'm always extremely surprised by the numbers in case studies for phone plans here. I pay a mere $2.50/month for my plan that includes data. It's a minor amount of data, but still $10 would give you an amount that most people could perfectly live with.

Also cheap compared to the USA are the apples! When I lived across the ocean I basically cut my full apple consumption as I paid several times more. Living on bananas instead..

[dcheesi]

MoCo MD USA (DC metro):

Cheap:

• Nothing.
• Seriously though, groceries are relatively inexpensive, in the sense that the difference from my previous LCoL city is less than the overall 20% CoL premium that the moving calculators claim. Of course you can blow your money at any number of Whole Paycheck -like stores if you want, but the normal grocery options here really aren't that bad.
• Ooh! Liquor: The MoCo gov't stores are significantly cheaper for liquor than the ones in my home state, and cheaper than other nearby options. Of course the selection isn't as good as private stores elsewhere.

Expensive:

• Housing (duh): $1500/mo for a 1br apt is a good deal, and it only goes up from there.
  
• Restaurants: A solid 50% higher than my previous location for equivalent restaurant/meal types.
• Beer/wine: significantly more expensive than in my previous state. And unlike with liquor, for some reason the gov't stores aren't even the cheapest. Local private stores are consistently cheaper on many items, even though they have to buy their stock from the gov't distributor and then add their own markup.

[stoaX]

Alt take on Southern CA.

Cheap:
-produce from Mexico/basic food (shop ethnic markets!). Avocados.
-electric/heat: not sure how rates compare, but you don't need it much!

Expensive:
-HOUSING. Looking at 2brs now, nothing <$1.6k, nothing <$2k in decent neighborhoods. 3br townhomes/condos start at $700k-800k.
-services: your hairstylist, waiter, mechanic has to pay rent, too!
-eggs: not actually pricey just more than elsewhere. CA mandates certain amount of space for all chickens.


I've been comparing the relative costs of SoCal where I live now and Utah and North/South Carolina (where I have family).  I think you're comments above are spot on.  Food seems cheaper in SoCal and you're right - while the electric and natural gas rates might be high, if you're within 15 miles or so of the ocean, you don't need to use much of either. 

I also noticed that those of us with modest incomes actually have lower income tax rates than Utah and North Carolina (I checked this about 2 years ago, things may have changed since then.)  ACA health insurance rates are pretty low in SoCal as well...relatively speaking.

Gasoline is way more expensive in California but again, I don't use much.

What all this really means is that it takes a bit of research to determine how high cost or low cost an area might be given your own particular circumstances.  Everyone says SoCal is an HCOL area but for me it's really more of a MCOL area.

[MonkeyJenga]

DC

Cheap
Museums
Protests

Expensive
Everything else

[runbikerun]

Dublin region, Ireland:

Cheap-

Education: although students do have to pay a 3,000pa "registration fee", that's about it, and because there are good transport links to the four major institutions, the bulk of students live at home while in college. Student lending is very constrained, and the idea of graduating with debts beyond late fines from the library is relatively rare.

Healthcare: it's not exactly a great system, but you can get by quite reasonably using public healthcare. I fractured a bone a few years ago when I didn't have insurance: I paid a hundred euro emergency room charge, but beyond that the splint and the rehab sessions with the physio were free. I have health insurance now, so that I can get better treatment if I end up needing it, and it costs under eighty euro a month for my spouse and I combined.

Groceries: Aldi and Lidl have taken a sledgehammer to grocery pricing here in the last fifteen years, and control between a fifth and a quarter of the market. The nearest supermarket to our home is an Aldi a mile away, and until recently I worked in a building with a Lidl on the ground floor. I barely bought anything outside those two shops for a couple of years straight.

Travel: we get a reminder occasionally of how lucky we are in terms of travel. If I wanted to experience a new culture at the end of January, it would cost me...seventy-two euro right now to book a weekend in Basel (for flights). Visiting pretty much any European country is an option for a long weekend, and costs very little. Paris, London, Berlin, Barcelona, Rome...I can leave work a little early on a Friday and be in any of those cities in time for a nightcap.

Expensive:

Alcohol: excise duties on booze in Ireland are severe, and getting a beer in a bar for less than five euro is notable. Getting a beer in a shop is also visibly more expensive: a decent craft beer will be two euro per can at a bare minimum.

Housing: thanks to the near-complete collapse of the construction sector and several decades of awful urban planning, we have a desperate shortage of properties in Dublin. We own (albeit with a mortgage) a three-bed semi-detached house in a pleasant but unremarkable area that hovers between the city proper and the suburbs, and our house was recently valued at four hundred thousand euro.

Fuel: this is another area where costs diverge significantly from the US experience. Right now, it's marginally below 1.50 a litre, or seven dollars a gallon. However, Ireland is pretty small, and about half the population lives in the greater Dublin region, so we don't have to drive particularly far in most cases.

---

I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones that come to mind.

[Zikoris]

Vancouver, BC:

Cheap:

Ethnic grocery stores
Outdoor activities
Sushi
The low end of the housing spectrum (basement suites, collective housing, micro suites, co-ops, etc)

Expensive:

Domestic flights to anywhere else in Canada (it's often cheaper for us to fly to Europe)
Normal housing
Secondhand, I've been told mainstream restaurants and alcohol are pretty expensive

I'm not really sure what else, since if something's expensive I don't buy it.

[happyfeet]

Michigan.  Auto insurance is insanely expensive. Vacationing on one of our Michigan Caribbean blue lakes is expensive - as much as ocean front at say, Hilton Head.

Food, gas, housing - all pretty reasonable. Although housing in Ann Arbor is pretty high relative to the balance of the state, waterfront properties aside.

[OtherJen]

Michigan.  Auto insurance is insanely expensive. Vacationing on one of our Michigan Caribbean blue lakes is expensive - as much as ocean front at say, Hilton Head.

Food, gas, housing - all pretty reasonable. Although housing in Ann Arbor is pretty high relative to the balance of the state, waterfront properties aside.

I highly recommend tent camping in the state parks. Last summer, we spent 4 nights on a campsite right on Lake Michigan for $29/night (Wilderness State Park), plus the $11 annual state rec. pass.

[stoaX]

Dublin region, Ireland:


Expensive:

Alcohol: excise duties on booze in Ireland are severe, and getting a beer in a bar for less than five euro is notable. Getting a beer in a shop is also visibly more expensive: a decent craft beer will be two euro per can at a bare minimum.

Yikes - that drop Ireland down a notch or two on my list of dream vacations!

[rdaneel0]

NYC

Cheap- lots of excellent cheap restaurants, transportation is affordable, discount clothing, lots of cheap live entertainment, free concerts/entertainment

Expensive- thrift stores, housing, movies, alcohol, coffee, groceries, household items (like stuff people in normal cities buy at target or home depot), decor, furniture, personal care/pharmacy items

[Irregular Joe]

I live in New York City. Before that I lived in San Francisco.   I'd love to live somewhere like Pittsburgh but my career chains me to ultra-high cost of living cities.

Expensive:  the extraordinarily expensive line items we can't seem to reduce are (1) Housing, (2) Healthcare, and (3) Childcare.  Projected healthcare and property tax costs also add many years to my future retirement date.

Cheap... public transportation, at least in New York.  It's really nice to not own a car.  Otherwise not much else in NYC.  The parks are free and nice.

[MishMash]

MoCo MD USA (DC metro):

Cheap:

• Nothing.
• Seriously though, groceries are relatively inexpensive, in the sense that the difference from my previous LCoL city is less than the overall 20% CoL premium that the moving calculators claim. Of course you can blow your money at any number of Whole Paycheck -like stores if you want, but the normal grocery options here really aren't that bad.
• Ooh! Liquor: The MoCo gov't stores are significantly cheaper for liquor than the ones in my home state, and cheaper than other nearby options. Of course the selection isn't as good as private stores elsewhere.

Expensive:

• Housing (duh): $1500/mo for a 1br apt is a good deal, and it only goes up from there.
  
• Restaurants: A solid 50% higher than my previous location for equivalent restaurant/meal types.
• Beer/wine: significantly more expensive than in my previous state. And unlike with liquor, for some reason the gov't stores aren't even the cheapest. Local private stores are consistently cheaper on many items, even though they have to buy their stock from the gov't distributor and then add their own markup.

Also going to add for the area, AWESOME cheap or free entertainment, museums, concerts, parades. 
Tons of free or low cost parks in the NoVa/DC/MD area.
Cheap food, honestly cheaper then the commissary.


Expensive;
Personal property tax, like seriously you don't the crap out of my house and everything I buy already?  Do we really have to pay YEARLY a HUGE tax bill on our cars, boats, trailers etc (this is on top of the sales tax and registration fees).  And even for used cars we aren't talking 100 a year, we are talking thousands. 

[Erica]

Expensive

Housing
Utilities
Internet
Business line
Food whether from a restaurant or grocery store
Clothes

Cheap

Auto Insurance (capped in Calif so I assume it's less expensive)
property tax (capped at 1% in Calif so I assume it is less expensive)
Skiing at Boreal is cheap
Riding a Bicycle- So far no requirement to buy insurance though it's been on the table for a while
Mtn Biking- Training for the local Mtn Biking Races

Since I live in a rural town surrounded by National Forest and known for it's hiking and Mtn Biking, the internet is expensive.
It isn't necessarily expensive in other larger towns just a few hours away. Housing is a bit higher than most of California but it's not akin to the the Bay Area/Southern Calif so I feel fortunate.

[Erica]

In Southern California:

CHEAP: Life
EXPENSIVE: Everything else (and not only in terms of money)

Your utilities are dirt cheap. Though you use Northern California's water, we pay double what you pay for both electricity and water.
Food is cheap where you are too

[Linea_Norway]

Living in Norway, native Dutch.

Cheap:

Electricity here used to be cheaper here than in the Netherlands. They on the other hand (used to) have cheap natural gas.

Wood for the wood stove. Just chop some trees in your garden. Don't try to do that in the Netherlands without a wood chopping permit. On the other hand, if you pay someone to chop it for you, then it costs a lot more.

Fish that you catch in the sea for free

Berries and mushrooms that you pick in the forest for free.

Hiking trips. Just go out and do it, often close to home. Sleep in a tent. Free camping is allowed for 2 days in a row in the same place, in unfenced and incultivated areas.

Groceries are not cheap compared to other countries, but reasonably priced compared to income. I once read that we spend the lowest percentage of our income on groceries compared to other European countries. But we probably pay the highest price in total.

Some clothes are just very cheap, if you don't care about brand names.

Seasonal stuff on sale. Things like skis, bicycles, goretex coats easily become 50-70% cheaper at the end of the season.

Electrical cars, compared to normal cars. Cars in Norway are expensive because of the taxes. The electrical cars are tax free, so they cost a lot less than the original petrol model. In other European countries the electrical version is often more expensive than the petrol version. A fancy Tesla hare costs my yearly brutto, fulltime salary. But it would have cost twice that much if it had the same horsepowers and ran on petrol.

Houses in places where people move away from.

I guess hospital use is inexpensive. We do have to pay our own share for each visit, but we don't need to pay for a health insurance. The own share has a maximum.

Expensive:

Alcohol!!!!! I just heard that in next year's state budget, the taxes on alcohol go up even more.

Cars and car repairs

Fossile car fuel

Groceries, in total price. Shopping in Sweden is much cheaper and the rest of Europe is even cheaper than that. Espscially meat and candy pays of to buy in Sweden.

Any service that you pay someone to do. Hourly rates are very high. You better DIY whatever you can.

New price for articles that many people want to buy new and are willing to spend money on. Like new skis. Last time I looked for new skis, I found that they cost 5500 norwegian crowns on average. We waited for the sale some months layer and spent 1300 crowns for a good pair.

Public transport. I get amazed every time I use public transport in other European countries. They have just as good transport as we have, but it costs a fraction. The only cheap option in Norway is when you buy long distance train tickets very early. Then you can get a good price. But those tickets are not flexible at all.

Roads. Many roads are now improved by tunnels. But those improvements are often financed by toll money.

In many communities, property. Many places have introduced a property tax, who h can be quite substancial. I am lucky to live in a big house in a community without property taxes.

[Linea_Norway]

The only cheap things people come to Norway to buy are diapers (shops are selling them at a loss to get families as customers), and very high end wine. The state run wine monopoly buys in large quantums directly from the vineyards, years in advance. This means they can get hold of very rare vintages at good prices. Their profits are limited by law, and the alcohol tax is based on alcohol content, not quality. Because of this, the cheap wines are very expensive, while the really rare and expensive wines will be relatively cheap in Norway.

One example:
https://www.arendalvintners.com/blog/2018/1/25/5-norwegian-winterdays-for-a-drc-at-3900-euros-by-the-public-wine-monopoly-in-norway

Health and child care are paid through taxes, so the out of pocket is low.

For me wine is expensive, because those exclusive wines are far outside my wine budget.

Lots of foreigners come here for catching fish for free in the sea and others for free mountain hiking and wild camping

[Linea_Norway]

Another cheap one I suddenly remember: phone plans! I'm always extremely surprised by the numbers in case studies for phone plans here. I pay a mere $2.50/month for my plan that includes data. It's a minor amount of data, but still $10 would give you an amount that most people could perfectly live with.

Also cheap compared to the USA are the apples! When I lived across the ocean I basically cut my full apple consumption as I paid several times more. Living on bananas instead..

In Norway I pay 12 dollars a month for free phone and SMS and half a GB of data. For 30% more, I would get a whole GB of data.

I have also bern baffled at US phone plan prices. But also at my colleagues who have their mobile data on the whole time and therefore need a 5 GB data plan.

[joonifloofeefloo]

Some specific items of emergency and birthing medical care. That's it!

Nope, found one more item! Music instrument rentals. Of all things, hey??

[MsPeacock]

Washington DC area here:

Cheap:
Many museums and activities are free
Groceries (if you shop at Aldi or large chains, not Whole Foods)
Gasoline is very cheap compared to Europe

Expensive:
Housing is nuts - rent, mortgage, whatever - very HCOL here
healthcare/health insurance
Dining out
Non-free entertainment (e.g. tickets to concerts, etc.)
I think cell phone service is expensive compared to Europe

[EvenSteven]

St. Louis

Cheap:
Housing- In north STL city there are many houses under 10K, and some neighborhoods its hard to find a house over 50k (seriously, pull up Redfin and take a look at housing prices). I live in a nicer area, but still bought my house (3bd, 2bth, ~2k sqf) for under 100K.

Expensive:
Education- The public schools in the areas where housing is cheap are generally Not Very Good. If you want better public schools in the county, you have to pay a premium for the house.

[runbikerun]

Dublin region, Ireland:


Expensive:

Alcohol: excise duties on booze in Ireland are severe, and getting a beer in a bar for less than five euro is notable. Getting a beer in a shop is also visibly more expensive: a decent craft beer will be two euro per can at a bare minimum.

Yikes - that drop Ireland down a notch or two on my list of dream vacations!

Yup - we're surprisingly expensive, and the government has recently introduced a minimum alcohol pricing law. It's quite frustrating to go on holiday and see superb beers being sold for less than it would cost me to buy the very worst back at home. We stayed with friends in Chicago during the summer, and it was shocking to see a 12-pack of All Day IPA for fifteen dollars - it's thirty euro here for the same thing, and there's not really much of a discount if any for buying local beers.

[Imma]

Dublin region, Ireland:


Expensive:

Alcohol: excise duties on booze in Ireland are severe, and getting a beer in a bar for less than five euro is notable. Getting a beer in a shop is also visibly more expensive: a decent craft beer will be two euro per can at a bare minimum.

Yikes - that drop Ireland down a notch or two on my list of dream vacations!

Yup - we're surprisingly expensive, and the government has recently introduced a minimum alcohol pricing law. It's quite frustrating to go on holiday and see superb beers being sold for less than it would cost me to buy the very worst back at home. We stayed with friends in Chicago during the summer, and it was shocking to see a 12-pack of All Day IPA for fifteen dollars - it's thirty euro here for the same thing, and there's not really much of a discount if any for buying local beers.

Which is why all those Irish stags book cheap Ryanair flights and go boozing on the continent. Well, at least I guess drunk Irishmen generally behave better than drunk Englishmen.... and post-Brexit none of them are going to be able to afford to visit the Eurozone.

[Arbitrage]

In Southern California:

CHEAP: Life
EXPENSIVE: Everything else (and not only in terms of money)

Your utilities are dirt cheap. Though you use Northern California's water, we pay double what you pay for both electricity and water.
Food is cheap where you are too

Utility *rates* are certainly not dirt cheap where I live in SoCal.  Electricity, though it is tiered, rises very quickly to 25 cents per kWh, where it remains for most users, but rises to 28, 31, 34 cents per kWh.  This is 2.5-3 times the national average, and higher than any state except Hawaii.  Some of the hotter areas do pay less (the tiers are much larger).  Because of the tiers, I don't pay quite 25c per kWh, but it's not cheap.

I don't have much perspective on my water rate, I admit.  The last time I checked, it was about $3.60 per CCF, though there are a lot of fixed fees on top of that.

My utility bills are relatively low due to low usage, which is certainly enabled by the climate, but that is not equivalent to saying that we have 'dirt cheap' utilities. 

[OtherJen]

It’s autumn, so local apples are cheap. I just bought 3 lbs of Gala apples for $1.39.

[Hula Hoop]

It’s autumn, so local apples are cheap. I just bought 3 lbs of Gala apples for $1.39.

Same here.  A friend of ours is going to come over this weekend with an enormous bag of (FREE!) apples from his family's village a couple of hours from here.  He'll probably bring us a huge amout of walnuts too.  When it's potato season he brings us potatoes.

In exchange we give his daughter our kids' handmedowns.

[Stash Engineer]

I'm in North Carolina for now.

Cheap:
Fuel - Although its been slowly on the rise, it's still cheaper than most places at $2.69 per gallon.

Groceries - Our groceries are pretty cheap and quality is good.  Only complaint is the limited selection of fruits in the winter.

Housing - Housing is pretty cheap.  It's been harder to find good quality cheaper homes since the bubble is building again, but previously I've purchased 3bed 2bath homes for under $140k. 

Taxes - Generally these are low compared to the rest of the country.  The county I live in is one of the higher taxed in the region, but still comparatively cheap. 

Expensive:
Healthcare - Its ridiculously expensive and double billing is common.  Have a child that needs immediate care on Sunday afternoon?  You're going to the emergency room and will be paying $1000 out of pocket minimum.  Need a few cavities filled?  That's another $1000.

Air Travel - I don't know why, but flights seem to be more expensive from here.  It's hundreds of dollars to fly anywhere domestically in the cheapest seat available.  I'm jealous of the Europeans on this one!

Education - The public school system here is pretty poor quality compared to the rest of the country.  Private grade school is $20k-$40k per year.  University is $$$.  I think NC State University in-state tuition is about $15k per semester and out of state schools are easily $25k per semester.  Our university system is broken in this regard.

[Hula Hoop]

Stash - as a Europe dweller I guess I should add that health care here is cheap, air travel within Europe is cheap and so is education.  Our kids go to public school which is not exactly perfect but there is no way we could afford private school so public it is.  For university, our kids can go to any university in Europe (so long as the EU still exists when they go to university) for the local tuition price as they are EU citizens.  We might send them somewhere here in Italy or maybe outside Italy - we'll see. They're bilingual in Italian and English so they shouldn't have any issues studying in either language.  There are private universities here too but they cost around Euro 10K as opposed to less than Euro 1K for public university.

We've taken our kids to the ER on a weekend for stitches and things like croup and it was free.  Emergency care is always free here in Italy - I've been told that it's a constitutional right. 

[dude]

Boston-area suburb:

Housing -- Expensive!

Property taxes -- very reasonable (ours is @$3400/yr for a property with a market value @$720k).

Everything else is sorta moderately expensive.