Food & Water Costs

If you live in Christiansted town, you can get city water. Otherwise most homes catch rainwater and store it in cisterns. Some homes have large cisterns others have small ones. You only have to buy water if your cistern runs dry. I have lived here 15 years and have bought water two times.

We live mid island, just west of Christiansted. Our cistern holds 90k gallons.

We generally would buy one or two truckloads of water a year on the East end - we had a 14K gallon cistern. A truckload would fill it about 2/3 full and cost $300.

Live in STT on Crown Mt. - 33 yrs. in this house - never bought water - currently overflowing cistern and disconnected gutters - we drink our cistern water - only been on the reserve cistern once.

We have only had to buy water when our cistern leaked and we emptied it for repair.

food is usually 1/3-1/2 times more. i can get 1/2 gallon milk for 3.50-7.00 depending on what brand. crowley milk is better imo. bread is about 4-5 a loaf unless you do white bread. what food items do you want prices for? maybe that would be better.

right now we use city water and our landlord pays that

Here's a recent cost of living thread:

https://www.vimovingcenter.com/talk/read.php?4,212227,212454#msg-212454

We live mid-island, have two 15,000 gallon cisterns, a pool, 5 dogs, several cats and the two of us.

When we arrived October 2012 our cisterns were low, maybe less than 1/3 full. The people that were here told me there had been a long dry spell after the cisterns were cleaned and resurfaced.,

I'd heard that conservation was the key to making water last, so I instituted water rationing.

Well needless to say my better half didn't buy my regulations and used water as she pleased.

Anyway, around the middle of November thru December we got some much needed rain and partially refill both cisterns and aside from a dry January & February this year our cisterns are full and running over even with a water using wife in charge.

A big part of collecting rain water is the maintenance of your collection system, needless to say.

CD

Juliekay, are you sure about your numbers? 2/3 full of a 14,000 cistern would be about 10,000 gallons. My experience is that $300 buys you maybe half that at best.

The cistern was never completely empty, so yeah. We'd call when it was about 1/4 full-ish. No idea on how much if it was completely empty. Someone else will have to say how many gallons are in an average truck. 😉

A full truckload of WAPA (distilled) water from Marco on STX costs around $350 for 5300 gallons. Well water (not recommended for drinking or adding to swimming pools) sells for about 1/3 less. You can also buy smaller quantities of water - I believe they offer quotes for 3300 and 4300 gallons.

We would buy a truckload of WAPA water from Paradise. My husband just confirmed it was $300. Last time we bought from them was about six months ago. They also delivered our bottled drinking water for drinking and cooking - $7 per five gallon bottle, delivered.

Julie Kay - Maybe your cistern or one of the exterior pipe connections has a slow leak, if you have to buy that much water, so often.
I have about a 15K cistern and never buy water unless time for cistern to be cleaned and water replaced or it has needed repair.
Then it costs about $300 - $350 for a 5000 gallon load/STT. (thereabouts as haven't purchased any for quite awhile)

However, if you are renting, especially a condo you pay a per gallon charge, usually some where between 5- 9 cents per gallon depending on condo association so best to ask.

This can be true too if renting in a privately owned apt. complex or home with rental apts. if water is metered.
If renting where not metered and you run out, the cost of water is usually split between the rentals.

If you have a water filtration system and change your filters monthly plus have a redundant filter for the refrigerator for the ice and water
dispenser in addition to the filter that the refrigerator comes with and add Clorox the cistern water, occasionally, you don't have to buy drinking water.

Food costs here are comparable to prices in San Francisco (tho they have a much larger and much fresher variety) but if comparing to Florida, you'll find groceries, at least, twice the costs and then again not the variety nor the freshness. Find out the days the grocery outlets you plan on shopping at put out their new produce ( I normally shop on Tues, Wed, or Thurs.) as by Fri. and the weekend, everything is picked over, gone, wilted or moldy in terms of the fresh produce.

Yes, Prices have gone up, considerably, IMO, since 2008.

No, we lived out East where it was drier. Just not as much rain. We kept our cistern well maintained.

i live in bugy hole estate mid island never had to buy water moved here from new jersey and every thing here is comperable with new jersey except and there a big except wapa and gas but gas you dont notice because here i drive 5 mins to work there i drove an hour and half my wapa bill runs about 150

I too often thought that food prices on St. Croix were very similar to food prices when I lived in NYC. Packaged and processed goods tend to be the most expensive.

I've lived in both "wet" and "dry" areas of STT for decades and only twice in a commercial building where I operated a restaurant did I have to buy water and that was due to a dreadful leaking roof. Once I got that fixed I never had to buy water again. You quickly learn here to conserve water - sailor's showers, stop and run water for brushing teeth, flushing for only #2, using dishwater for plants, doing full loads of laundry, etc. - but much also depends on the size of your cistern. The bigger problems arise when an original house is expanded and more living space added on.

As far as food prices go, they rise everywhere but I follow stateside prices regularly and the rule of thumb of 30% higher average holds pretty true.

I live on st. Croix. Milk at food town for half gallon has been 1.99 seems for last week now. A gallon of milk is 5.49 and most I have paid is 5.99 for a gallon of milk.

White bread is 3.49 and hamburger or hot dog buns are around 2.60.

Cannot remember the price of eggs but never to bad.

Cost for less has some great deals. 88 cents for chicken quarters if you buy the 35 pound box. So much you can do with chicken if on a tight family budget.

1/2 gallon in STT is $3.99 cheapest unless they have a sale on milk soon to be expired.
18 eggs for $2.99 @ Cost You More.

ikory, you dont buy crowley milk do you? i like to buy crowley because it does last longer than the other milk and i only drink about 1/2 gal every other week, unless i have cookies at the house

The brand name I have in the fridge now is 'flavorite' from food town. Taste pretty amazing. 2 small kids milk goes super quick in this house. Half gallons no longer on sale for 1.99 so sad.

yeah the taste is great if you can use it fast enough, thats my problem. thats why i like crowely. that way i can take my time drinking it. 🙂

btw, a gallon of milk was $5 at Wal Mart in Texas last week.....$5.49 a gallon at Foodtown with all the shipping and refrigeration costs is a great price.

Milk is gross. lol
I too don't think its that much. Was $4 a gallon in AZ.

I find that unless we go crazy at CUL that we pay about the same as we did In Arizona. Sometimes we get bottles of liquor and of course the days where we need the large batches of TP and paper towels its a bit more. For us its averages out to be about $350 or so a month for two people. We get whatever we want and spend a lot on cheese and beer (our staples lol) and usually splurge on one item like fresh berries ($8) or crab legs ($40) on every visit.

Here is some information on the "Cost of Living" thread I just dug up for you OP.

>>Groceries $300-$350 month
Here is what I just bought for $175.00 all at Cost U Less - It filled my fridge completely. I wish I had the receipt I would have scanned it in. I will put what I can remember for pricing.

Steak - nice & big but thin-ish enough for 2 $5
4 Thick Pork Chops $5
2 Large pieces of wild salmon $9
1 lb Lean ground beef $?
2 lbs of bacon $8
Large bag of frozen chicken breasts $20
4 medium heads of broccoli
Box of chicken broth $4
Bag of 10 large flour tortillas $2.50
Container of shredded parmesean cheese $5?
Bag of spinach $6
2lbs of carrots $2
giant bunch of collard greens $2
2 bunches of Kale $5
Good Hamburger Buns $?
1lb bag of smoked ham $5?
3lb tub of cottage cheese $10 (cant live without it lol)
Jar of Mayo
2 red bell peppers $4
2 Green Bell peppers $2
Bag of Gala Apples $6
Bag of Oranges $?
Bag of potatoes $4
Bunch of celery
large bag of black grapes
2 giant Zucchini $?
4lbs of tomatoes
1 Purple and 1 White onion $?
Economy size box of herbed crackers
Jar of lassen pickles.
Gallon of OJ I think it was $7
3 boxes of Ceres Juices $2ea (these are so good - use them in my smoothies)
Large container of 2% plain yogurt
Bag of Muesli $5