2013 Relocation to STT

gas on stx the other day was 3.98
three bedroom electric for us is about 200 +
we spend between 300-500 a month on groceries-2 people
rent for you could be about 1200 or more-someone who lives on stt will have better info
internet is 50
expanded cable is 100
there is dish network-do not know monthly cost

speee1dy I appreciate the response. Do you know about additional fees that are tacked on to some of these services,. such as internet is your total bill 50 bucks?
The fuel price is lower then I thought it would be. I saw gas in Chesapeake Virginia today for $3.74 and in Moyock North Carolina its $3.79.

Your food bill doesn't seem excessive to me.that's what we are spending here in NC food prices are climbing here.. our electric bill here is much more than that so, what your telling me isn't shocking at all. I hope more people reply to my post

Thank you

What did 1 gallon of gasoline cost on March 5th 2013? $4.60 for premium gas on STT

What is an example of fees charged by the cable company beyond the basic charge for your service? We have Dish network and pay a total of $65/month

What does a family of 2 spend at cost u less for groceries in a given week? Anywhere from $100 - $150 week but we also go to Plaza Extra and K-mart for the things we can't get at Cost U Less. So, sometimes we pay about $200/week for groceries for two people. We never go out to eat and only eat at home for all meals so ours may be a little higher than the average family.

What does a bottle of cooking gas cost on March 5th 2013? We bought our tank of gas about 10 months ago and paid $100. We also have a BBQ grill that we do a lot of our cooking on as well.

What’s the average rent for a 2 bedroom 1200-1500 sq-ft house or condo? I think our place is about 1,100 sq ft Two bedroom and we pay $1,500/month

What does the basic internet service cost including all fees in March 2013? $57.25 total. We have Choice wireless. Not the best service but it's the only internet we can get where we live.

What is an example of an average electric bill without using the Air conditioner? The lowest we've paid is $230/month with no A/C and last month was our highest for some reason at $377/month with no A/C. Still can't figure that one out.

What does a truck load of water cost to fill cisterns in 2013? I'm not sure how big our cistern is, but we paid $365 for a truck load of water and it filled our cistern almost completely. We don't drink our water, only bottle water. Our cistern has a basic filtration on it and I'd rather not take my chances.

paid $4.50 gal. regular on Sat.
pay $108 mo w/ HBO [8] ,Cinemax [8] , Showtime [7] , Flix [4] and about 120 other channels
groceries about $150 week for 1
only use BBQ $20 small cylinder Senior discount
own my house - rent for unfurnished 2 bdrm is usually 1200-1500 looking at Island Trader
$20 mo. for dialup
average 2 bdrm WAPA - $200-300 if conservative
Never bought water in 33 yrs. in this house - drink my cistern rain water - no filters

St Thomas is a popular place and folks say they are going to move here all the time, but some of those people don't do it in the end. Employers usually like to see you are actually on island before taking you seriously about wanting to work for them.

Gas is about $4.50, but you can pay more if you choose.
My cable bill is $85 for basic plus HBO
Groceries, hm, we (two person household) do a once every 3 month run, then supplement, so weekly hard to say, maybe $100-$150? I cook a lot and enjoy gourmet cooking, so you could probably get away with cheaper.
I think propane tank was $92 about a month ago, should last a year. And this is with cooking an average of two meals a day. We also use the grill a couple of times a week. Those tanks are $4 and last 2-3 grillings.
Where I live is a one-bedroom attached cottage (my landlords occupy the rest of the house.) We pay $1100, best guess on footage is 750-800. I'm glad we got a one-bedroom. Love our friends and family, but I know a couple who have friends or family visiting them from the States two weeks out of four. She was complaining that they always want the a/c going and take hour-long hot showers!! She has bad friends!! I can only imagine her WAPA bill and having water delivered must be a giant pain. They have already decided that, once their lease is up, they are moving to a smaller place.
We have Choice for internet, pay $47.25 a month for mediocre service. I don't need the internet to pay my bills, though, so I don't really care a lot about mediocre service.
The last electric bill was $110, but it got up near $300 over the summer when it was so miserably hot that we had the a/c running in the bedroom to sleep.
Our landlords are fond of watering their plants and washing their cars. Thankfully, they don't ask us for any $ for the water, as we DON'T water any plants, nor really care if the jeep is clean. I do drink our water, though I run it through a refrigerator water filter first.

Oh, and good day! Welcome to the forum.

visnorkler, they do have bad friends.

Wow its great that you folks relied to my message. My wife and I are pretty serious about our move. We are just doing our home work.
the rents sound reasonable too. The consistancy of the electric bills is somewaht puzzling? We will be down next month to look at properties and chat with a few business's. Im looking forward to returning.

The electric bill is simple - the more you use the more it costs ;)... sorry I'm snarky today lol! We are like ViSnorkler, very similar in all our costs. We are VERY conscious about what we use for electric. Only one small lamp on in the room we're using, led TV, gas stove, laundry on both electric W/D once a week, smaller size water heater (quick showers but super hot). No fans yet as its chilly at night here still (in my ex AZ opinion lol), Internet router, laptop & iPhone chargers X 2, once a day. We also have everything on power strips and if we're not home their all off. We never got out first bill so I'm going there tomorrow to try to pay it (yea - insert WAPA joke here). I'll let you know. In AZ we had $300-$400 bills so used to that bill being a lot I guess. I bet y'all long timers never heard someone say that their bill was LESS here lol! Oh AZ how I don't miss you one bit!

It's funny - again why I consider it more "simple" living - we have less monthly costs here than back home. No water bill, and cheaper insurance. Both a huge savings for us compared to AZ. About $400 a month actually. Water in the desert is like electricity on the islands.

It's funny - again why I consider it more "simple" living - we have less monthly costs here than back home. No water bill, and cheaper insurance. Both a huge savings for us compared to AZ. About $400 a month actually. Water in the desert is like electricity on the islands.

I agree with both VISnorkler and AandA2VI - our costs are almost identical in most regards, except...
We have an Internet/Cable/Landline package with Innovative (only internet available where we live) - costs about $150/month
and
We OWN our home instead of renting. Our insurance is WAY WAY WAY more than in the states. Used to pay $1600/year, now pay $9000/year.
Lesson (said many times here): Rent before you buy

We have no intention on buying for a good while if ever. Because the insurance is so high it makes it a no go for us. Now maybe if it has an attached apt to generate income it would be worthwhile.

LOL, the consistancy of the electric bills is quite puzzling to us, as well! One bill will be for 35 days, the next one will be for 27 days, who can figure it out? Not me and I doubt WAPA either.

We have no intention on buying for a good while if ever. Because the insurance is so high it makes it a no go for us. Now maybe if it has an attached apt to generate income it would be worthwhile.

Many homes on the market do have apts. to generate income.

The other reason is the advice of all you guys too. Rent for a few years to make sure the island life is suited to you. :@)

AandA2VI, thanks for replying, I have a question did you already have employmemt set up when you arrived in the VI? whats your success story for your relocation. Thanks again.

What is the average auto insurance running on the island, a better question could be what are the insurance rules, I might be shipping my 2003 F-250 super duty. only because I think it could be useful with its 4wd and large hauling capacity. I can only guess that it will be expensive. We also have a couple of VW's but I think the duty might cost us a good chunk of change. Anyway if anyone has any other info on the cost of having a vehicle on STT that would be great.

Thanks

2usvinuts, old VW's?

My boyfriend works for OfficeMax, has been for 13 years as store manager in AZ and was transferred here as a secondary store manager to help get it running smoothly again. I've heard/read that it's getting there. I too worked at OfficeMax as the impress manager/graphic artist. I can't work at the same store because let's face it - I'd be telling HIM. What to do all day lol!!

I think we've been successful for three reasons: (only 2 months in so stay tuned 😉 )

1. I'm an OCD planner and highly organized.
I planned everything out and researched online facts and figures until I thought my eyes would bug out. I also had a spreadsheet (yea im a nerd) with our AZ costs vs Island costs to see how comfortable we'd be financially. Did a PMV to STX and as we suspected it was our idea of LIVING! I had a 4 inch binder that had every fact and figure from WAPA costs, detailed maps of the islands and even what stores were on island. It was intense lol! It also really helped the year fly by - .html many thanks to this board for helping in the creation of my binder 😉

2. MONEY HONEY!!
Its no joke when long timers say bring a suitcase full. Along with my OCD planning I also manage my money in the same fashion. I purchased a short sale home in AZ 4 years ago for a hell of a deal. $300k home for HALF and then I put my savings on it of $50k. That resulted in a mortgage of only $600 a month for a GORGEOUS 4bd room house in a very nice area. house. We cut way down on going out so much, downgraded some of our services and rented out my house and make a decent profit. That income plus selling a few of my photos, some freelance graphic design and making "green" recycled coffee tables - I don't work just yet. I'm gonna start looking for a part time gig now that I finally found a car. Sorry - back to the money.... Based on the board members pricing on stuff and my research we said we needed 10k to move. We knew this would be gone in the forst 3 months - cars, deposits, rent etc. My boyfriend and I socked away half our paycheck a every two weeks into a joint STT fund (at the time it was the STX fund) sold my big truck and boat, boyfriends car and all of our stuff and made another 20k plus $10k for a get out of town emergency fund. If something horrible happened like a bad accident and had to be flow to the mainland or who knows we would be able to put it on our bank card. since we ended up renting an unfurnished place and didn't bring our cars we've spend just at $10k so right on track even thou its a bit scary to watch it go.

3. Our ability to go with the flow.
My boyfriend admittedly is WAY more chill and easy going than me but I always try to be positive - be smart - and be NICE! I think I am highly adaptive and I LOVE LOVE LOVE nature! Bugs and critters of all kinds fascinate me, so a tropical locale was what the dr ordered. I also kept reef aquariums for over 15years so my love for all things under the waves is what originally drew me to moving to an island.

We're still in the honeymoon phase but so far even with some pretty annoying complications like not being able to find a car for over a month, the juice is worth the squeeze. Good luck on your relo, it's unlike anywhere else and we love it.

What is the average auto insurance running on the island, a better question could be what are the insurance rules, I might be shipping my 2003 F-250 super duty. only because I think it could be useful with its 4wd and large hauling capacity. I can only guess that it will be expensive. We also have a couple of VW's but I think the duty might cost us a good chunk of change. Anyway if anyone has any other info on the cost of having a vehicle on STT that would be great.

Thanks

Have you been to STT? Not saying that you can't but I'd really rethink that big ol truck. Not because gas is 4.79ish but because the roads are NARROW in most spots and trying to turn that around would be a nightmare, parking could be a real issue too. I see trucks like that here but I sold my Chev 2500 HD before we moved because after the PMV in STX I knew it would be way too scary. That said I've seen a few trucks like that here thou. I'm still AMAZED at the water truck drivers... Those guys are NUTS! Just something to think about. IMO, a 4 dr Suzuki - Honda or Toyota seem to be most popular and usable here... In that order. Those are also pretty hard to find unless you want to spend 10k, then it's no problem.

I read once that sometimes you an sell a big truck down here for MORE than you would get stateside because they are wanted for work trucks, something to think about too.

Insurance for a year for liability runs from $220 to $350 depending on what you get and it seems age was a factor. BF car was $260 and we put mine under his name for $220 today. His is a 00 Suzuki 2 dr and mines a 97 CRV. Hope that helps. IDK about full coverage, I'm guessing not too many have it because most people aren't driving around $50k cars and don't care if they're banged up a bit.

2013 passat and a 2013 CC both new.

Nice, but pricey to import I imagine.

Customs: Clearing customs and paying duty is usually done at an office close to the shipping dock. The duty collected is based on country of origin on the car and is calculated using the book value or Bill of Sale, whichever is greater. The VIN number is used to determine origin: if the first digit is 1, 4 or 5 it is a U.S. car and there is a no duty owed. Vin’s starting with 2 or 3, there is a 6% duty. Vin’s starting with 6 or with a letter it is 3.5% duty. The U.S. Customs Office will accept personal checks, cash, certified checks and money order. You can call the Customs Office at (340) 714-1600 for more information.

This page tells all, of course get shipping cost quotes from lots of people.
https://www.vimovingcenter.com/car/

Find put the details too of you've leased or have loans, there's something to that too.

AandA: I still remember our first month of STX. We had about $12,000 in cash and I had my pension so we thought we were in good shape (and we were). But that first month, watching our $$$ just drain away was very scary. Between first, last, and one month security on our rental and the utility deposits and getting the two cars shipped, almost $6,000 was gone in a matter of a week. It slowed down after that, but until Ric and I both found jobs, it was stressful.

AandA2VI
OK fist of all I was just working on my spread sheet. ha ha. I'm retired from the US navy and I was stationed in Puerto Rico for several years before the naval base closed. But since 1987 I would say that I have been to Saint "T" maybe 20 or 30 times. I remember providing humanitarian assistance after I cant remember the name of the hurricane. anyway it was a pretty bad storm, you can ask around about the coast guard ship that was put up on the road in front of the green house. I'm sure someone took a photo.

As far as my truck goes you hit the nail on the head that truck will never come back to the mainland! My intention would be to sell it and get two cars and pay for the shipping of the truck. I think!?? we have started to look at costs and what we will need to make to cover everything including our home in NC. We too bought a foreclosure which is "huge" 5 bedrooms plus a super large room over the garage and a big in ground pool ect. Our intention is to rent it out too! But we know we will need to make enough in STT to cover the mortgage between renters. The hard part here is finding good jobs. My wife is a hotel manager and she is applying, I am a project Manager and teach water borne security for the US navy. But I think I would like to utilize my business degree and move into a job that will utilize my management background. so if you hear about anything please let us know. we will be down in April for vacation and more research.
We appreciate the information you are giving us. so if you can think of anything else that might be useful please do not hesitate. My next project is getting a shipping quote for household goods.

yes our cars are leased, so we think one or both may be turned in early and the penalty paid. we will have to see. But we do like our new cars. I think i can do without a car if i have an American made Ford truck. so i think we may have to buy my wife's car and tun mine back in. to the dealer. that aught to be fun!