Lotsa Things are cheaper in Maine compared to PA (Bangor: house, excise tax)

[8635angelvalley]

The Trenton IGA aka Carroll's has some great sales on beef tenderloin/meat and fruit and vegetables-check the sign . My friends also say they have the cheapest gas at Carrol's. They also carry Covey's crabmeat which is beyong fab.Get some and make a giant crab sandwich.
Get a Shaw's card for the sale items-everything else is quite a bit more expensive than Hannaford.I much prefer the Ellsworth Hannaford to BH.
Reny's and Marden's have some excellent deals in the food sections. I really hate Walmart so I try to avoid it-the meat is gross and the produce is not as great as it could be.
Also next spring stop in at J&P's farm stand on the way to Ellsworth-he is very nice and has great stuff.Also Caswell's in Waterville is a great place to buy cheap cheap food.

[Three Wolves In Snow]

You are so right, Zarathu.

Before I moved, a couple people tried to tell me I would be destitute, everything was so expensive in Maine, I would be hard pressed to make it, I wouldn't be able to afford to live, etc.

I was also prepared to pay a big whopper in car registration and excise tax and set aside a few hundred dollars for it, based on what I was being told.

Imagine how HEARTILY I laughed!!!!!!!!! when the excise tax came out to $12.

Registration was the same cost as it was in Miami and hundreds less than it was in Seattle, when I lived there.

Car insurance, without even shopping around, I saved over $500 a year. Imagine what will happen when I shop around!

My cable/internet is cheaper, my electricity is WAY cheaper, food is cheaper.

Example: The kind of milk I buy is $1 cheaper at Hannaford's than in Miami. It's $2 cheaper at Wally World than Miami. May not like Wally World that much but considering how much milk I drink, I suck it up and go there for some things. (First time ever grocery shopping at Wally World...an experience so bizarre I can't compare it to anything else.)

Gas is cheaper...meaning from the time I left Miami to the time I got to my new digs, a total of two days, it was definitely cheaper.

Rent is cheaper for way more than I EVER got in Miami or Seattle. What I live in now would be about $3 grand in Miami and about 2 grand in Seattle. It's well under a grand here.

Jobs pay about the same.

Property taxes, from when I look around, are cheaper than in Miami for where I dream of having a home. They are cheaper than Seattle if I compared where I want to live as opposed to where I can live.

Now, I have never had to pay state income tax. Never lived in a state that required it. I've been told...well, not so much words as dramatic expressions and laughs and "wooooah....."

Doesn't tell me much. I'll prepare for it but I'm starting to wonder since I was told everything else was going to be through the roof and it is ridiculously not even close.

[tatans]

Our milk is 3 times more than U.S. prices and the highest in the world thanks to our Government controlled milk board, which thinks it is just alright, U.S. food price are at least double if not more in Canada, our recent trip to Maine convinced us of that, do not complain about your food prices (YET ! ) although we did see products that are not available in Canada, Shreddies, Just Right cereals, J-Cloths, Kraft Dinner (I think you call it mac&cheese) plus your food stores are 17 times larger than our stores here with a greater selection of products. and we tax food here!
for you smokers, cigarettes here are $12 to $15 per pack for those travelling up here.

[Alaskapat528]

Originally Posted by Three Wolves In Snow

You are so right, Zarathu.

Before I moved, a couple people tried to tell me I would be destitute, everything was so expensive in Maine, I would be hard pressed to make it, I wouldn't be able to afford to live, etc.

I was also prepared to pay a big whopper in car registration and excise tax and set aside a few hundred dollars for it, based on what I was being told.

Imagine how HEARTILY I laughed!!!!!!!!! when the excise tax came out to $12.

Registration was the same cost as it was in Miami and hundreds less than it was in Seattle, when I lived there.

Car insurance, without even shopping around, I saved over $500 a year. Imagine what will happen when I shop around!

My cable/internet is cheaper, my electricity is WAY cheaper, food is cheaper.

Example: The kind of milk I buy is $1 cheaper at Hannaford's than in Miami. It's $2 cheaper at Wally World than Miami. May not like Wally World that much but considering how much milk I drink, I suck it up and go there for some things. (First time ever grocery shopping at Wally World...an experience so bizarre I can't compare it to anything else.)

Gas is cheaper...meaning from the time I left Miami to the time I got to my new digs, a total of two days, it was definitely cheaper.

Rent is cheaper for way more than I EVER got in Miami or Seattle. What I live in now would be about $3 grand in Miami and about 2 grand in Seattle. It's well under a grand here.

Jobs pay about the same.

Property taxes, from when I look around, are cheaper than in Miami for where I dream of having a home. They are cheaper than Seattle if I compared where I want to live as opposed to where I can live.

Now, I have never had to pay state income tax. Never lived in a state that required it. I've been told...well, not so much words as dramatic expressions and laughs and "wooooah....."

Doesn't tell me much. I'll prepare for it but I'm starting to wonder since I was told everything else was going to be through the roof and it is ridiculously not even close.

What do your heating bills run?

[Zarathu]

Originally Posted by Alaskapat528

What do your heating bills run?

That kinda depends on what you heat with, and how big your house is , and how well insulated, doesn't it?

When I was in PA I was in a ndewer house with R-18 in the walls and r-30 in the roof. I know I don't have that insulation now, but the cost for a cord of wood in south central PA was about $240, which is about what I might pay here unless I have logs delivered in the spring or summer. But then you can get partially kiln dried firewood here all winter, and once the wood was gone in PA, about early October, it was simply GONE.

In PA I was heating a full 1600 sq feet with a stove that was no better than about 50% efficient but well insulated. Here I will be heating about 1200 sq ft, with questionable insulation, with a stove which is about 83% efficient. About 1000 sq ft of the house I won't be heating most of the winter.

[Zarathu]

Originally Posted by 8635angelvalley

I much prefer the Ellsworth Hannaford to BH.

Yeah.... But don't you like how beautiful they've made the new store? They went all out with Purrtiness.

[Jellybean50]

I'm coming from Jersey - so I KNOW a couple things that will be cheaper:

Auto Insurance
Property Taxes
(already checked both)

and probably homeowner's insurance

I cant wait...

[Three Wolves In Snow]

Originally Posted by Alaskapat528

What do your heating bills run?

The heat is part of the rent, the landlord uses oil. But, keep in mind that I have done the plastic thingie to the windows, (that stuff you take a hair dryer to), and weather stripped the doors, the upstairs windows are the energy efficient ones and that I keep my heat to about 55-58 degrees which means I don't use much at all. It hardly ever goes on until I can't take it anymore and even then, it's on for about 10 minutes and then I've had enough.

However, she didn't turn it on until the day of the snow on October 29.

Before that I used a space heater. And before that I used a/c in the summer. And I have a separate 7 cu ft freezer I use, (for the pets' food) as well as the regular (OLD) fridge, do three loads of laundry a month, have an aquarium with tons of things plugged in, the laptop is almost always on, the t.v. upstairs never goes off and I have nightlights all over the house...

My last bill was $53.

In Miami, my electric bills were about $100-150 for a 1 bedroom apartment. Here I live in a two story....well, I guess it's like a town house. It's a huge farm house turned in to three units but each unit is like living in a house.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by 8635angelvalley

The Trenton IGA aka Carroll's has some great sales on beef tenderloin/meat and fruit and vegetables-check the sign . My friends also say they have the cheapest gas at Carrol's. They also carry Covey's crabmeat which is beyong fab.Get some and make a giant crab sandwich.
Get a Shaw's card for the sale items-everything else is quite a bit more expensive than Hannaford.I much prefer the Ellsworth Hannaford to BH.
Reny's and Marden's have some excellent deals in the food sections. I really hate Walmart so I try to avoid it-the meat is gross and the produce is not as great as it could be.
Also next spring stop in at J&P's farm stand on the way to Ellsworth-he is very nice and has great stuff.Also Caswell's in Waterville is a great place to buy cheap cheap food.

Wal mart meat is gross?

I can't disagree with you, if you read the labels, most of the fresh meats are injected with a solution to make it last longer- none is prepared on site

The older i get, the less i want to shop in a huge big box store

I like that Trenton IGA also, I've been stopping in for some cooked chicken
and found myself loading up a shopping basket- easy store to shop (not too big, and employees were very nice.

the older I get, the less im going into the huge stores

[Alaskapat528]

Originally Posted by Three Wolves In Snow

The heat is part of the rent, the landlord uses oil. But, keep in mind that I have done the plastic thingie to the windows, (that stuff you take a hair dryer to), and weather stripped the doors, the upstairs windows are the energy efficient ones and that I keep my heat to about 55-58 degrees which means I don't use much at all. It hardly ever goes on until I can't take it anymore and even then, it's on for about 10 minutes and then I've had enough.

However, she didn't turn it on until the day of the snow on October 29.

Before that I used a space heater. And before that I used a/c in the summer. And I have a separate 7 cu ft freezer I use, (for the pets' food) as well as the regular (OLD) fridge, do three loads of laundry a month, have an aquarium with tons of things plugged in, the laptop is almost always on, the t.v. upstairs never goes off and I have nightlights all over the house...

My last bill was $53.

In Miami, my electric bills were about $100-150 for a 1 bedroom apartment. Here I live in a two story....well, I guess it's like a town house. It's a huge farm house turned in to three units but each unit is like living in a house.

Is there any natural gas there? I note that Mainers seem to use oil or wood. Our gas bills aren't bad, usually run around $180 / month in the dead of winter. My family in Ohio complain of 3-400 a month.