Wow! You know what? I understand that there’s this issue going on… cost of living! Have you heard about it? Inflation is at levels we haven’t seen since the early 80s, how does that play out here in the Treasure Valley? Let’s find out!
Calculating Cost of Living in Boise
I appreciate the opportunity to talk about cost of living because as a father providing for children this is a huge topic, it hits me right at home. I imagine that there’s a lot of people out there that are wondering what is the cost of living like in Boise, what do I have to make, what do I need to earn, and what will life be like there for me bill-wise? So I’ve pulled up Dave Ramsey’s cost of living calculator . Let’s say that your current salary is fifty thousand dollars.
Calculating Cost of Housing
Based on your current salary and lifestyle in Sacramento, your Boise salary would need to be $45,862 dollars so the calculator has my monthly housing costs in Sacramento at $1,200.
I don’t think so Dave Ramsey.
I found a one bedroom studio apartment in Sacramento. The lowest my rent could have been is $2,107 that must be like the 18th floor. In Boise, I took a higher end apartment, The Lofts at Ten Mile, if you want a good apartment there you go. Anyways this apartment was listed at $1,759 in Boise for two bedrooms.
Let’s look at some home prices. I have a home pulled up here in Sacramento listed at $530,000 new as of 17 hours ago. I can’t imagine that Dave Ramsey’s calculator is updated every 17 hours. It’s a three bedroom, two and a half bath. Now we have one listed in the Boise area for $536,000. It’s four bedrooms as opposed to just three bedrooms. But it only has two baths as opposed to two and a half, but you also have 2,000 square feet as opposed to just 1,700. It was also built in 2014 and not in 2007.
Calculating Cost of Utilities
Dave Ramsey’s calculator says you save 23% if you move to Boise from California. I’m going to guess and say that it is actually closer to 35% to 40% lower in this area. I actually have a power bill for you to look at. I’ve redacted it just like Trump’s documents, the Maralago documents right? Let’s see, my payment amount for the month of October. Now mind you in the beginning of October I was still running the AC here. My bill came in at $58.64. So what does your power bill look like in California? I’m curious, drop me a comment below.
Calculating the Cost of Food
I’ve heard that the food is about the same, and sometimes even a little more expensive here. However, the milk definitely is less, and I would say that the beef and eggs are definitely less. Farming you know. We may not have happy cows like California, but we do have happy people unlike California.
So I decided to take a trip out to Walmart to really understand the prices and show them firsthand. Dave Ramsey’s price calculator also seemed a little off so I decided to come out to Walmart to see if it really was accurate or not.
Dave Ramsey has a gallon of milk listed at $1.88, but the prices here at Walmart, the cheapest I could find was $2.72 cents, and the most expensive being $5.12 cents.
Alright, so ground beef was listed at $4.54 per pound on Dave Ramsey’s site, let’s see if I can find it cheaper here. Yep, so it looks like it is $3.34 cents per pound.
Dave Ramsey also said that a dozen eggs cost you $1.29. Let’s see how much they are here at Walmart. They are currently $3.79 wow! So they said to save 10% for the “Big Guy” . I think the “Big Guy” is definitely getting more than 10%, don’t you?
I mean he did say, “the economy is up, price inflation is down, real incomes are up, gas prices are down, and need to come down further, exports are all also up, which means a simple thing we’re making a lot of money in America, because of that.”
So, coming out of Walmart I had a question. Dave Ramsey’s calculator showed that beef was more expensive here on his calculator, than it really was. I don’t know where those numbers are being pulled from, I don’t know if they’re being pulled from you know California, or what state, but in Idaho the eggs and the milk were almost double what he was calculating. I’m curious to see based on his calculator where your items stand. Are they double? Are they half? Are they about the same? Let me know in the comments!
Calculating the Cost of Transportation
Dave Ramsey has gas listed as $4.49 in Sacramento, seems a little low. I have this map here which shows all of the gas prices in Sacramento. It shows the cheapest being $4.60 at Costco, and they really do always have the cheapest gas.
Okay, moving onto Boise. $3.55 in Boise according to Ramsey. Average is $4.30 cents in Idaho according to AAA. For diesel on average it’s about $1.50 more in California. Again, I wanted to see for myself if these prices were accurate so I went down the street to the nearest gas station. I’m currently out here at the Nampa Walmart and the gas is just over $4.00 with diesel being $5.33, and then across the street there, at the Chevron the fuel is $4.31 and diesel is $5.43. I’m curious, what are your prices there in California? Let me know in the comments!
Here’s a great resource if you’re curious about living in Boise in general!
In Closing
If you’re thinking about Idaho, maybe it’s a place that you want to check out because you’ve heard a lot of good things about it give me a call or send a text to 208-860-2004 or email our team at info@tresurevalleydave.com we’ve all moved here from someplace else and we’re all so absolutely glad that we did.
