Per hour living

It really depends on your particular standard of living to which you’ve become accustomed. In general figure out how much you need to maintain your current lifestyle where you now reside. Add about 30% to 35% to that number and you’ll have a good idea of what it will take to maintain that same lifestyle on most Caribbean islands including the USVI’s.

FYI - Another general rule of thumb for the Caribbean is living expenses are most likely going to be higher and wages for comparable jobs will be lower than they are “back home”.

There are some websites that compare cost of living between two spots. The VI is almost always higher in every area except for clothing costs. LOL

The price of frozen food was unreal to me when we visited lol. I understand it has to be shipped in and frozen...makes sense why it’s so high. But if you are somebody that loves/lives off frozen food you better be rich in the VI to be able to afford it. I was seeing frozen pizzas at like $15-18. Luckily we don’t buy much frozen stuff.

Back in the states we can catch a case of soda for $3 on sale... it was $6.49 a case at every store we went to in STX. Kmart had off brand for $3.

For example bacon was close to $10 a pack and here you can get some brands for $4 on sale.

These are just some examples of higher cost of living we noticed while grocery shopping.

Light wrote:
The price of frozen food was unreal to me when we visited lol. I understand it has to be shipped in and frozen...makes sense why it’s so high. But if you are somebody that loves/lives off frozen food you better be rich in the VI to be able to afford it. I was seeing frozen pizzas at like $15-18. Luckily we don’t buy much frozen stuff.

Back in the states we can catch a case of soda for $3 on sale... it was $6.49 a case at every store we went to in STX. Kmart had off brand for $3.

For example bacon was close to $10 a pack and here you can get some brands for $4 on sale.

These are just some examples of higher cost of living we noticed while grocery shopping.

But Rum is cheap!:@)

We don't have sales tax in the VI but we have a new sin tax on soda and alcohol imports. And yes, certain food items for whatever reason are much higher priced like pork bacon, beef/pork franks, and frozen pizzas, nuts, spices, even boxed cake mixes are high. Milk is $6 a gallon.

But turkey bacon and chicken franks are cheap, go figure. And not all frozen foods are way over priced.

It also depends on how many hours you are willing to work! It's not uncommon to find people working multiple jobs.

Thank fdr. Yes, and not a position I would care to be in for the most part. I do hear it is common to need to hold a couple of jobs in most any such resort area and or to house share but this again is something I would care even less to do.

Thanks Afriend. After having an opportunity to apply for a position I began to look a job site just to get a feel for pay, prices, cost of living in the area. The pay I was finding for posted jobs made it hard to believe people could live off of that job alone. As fdr posted I guess working more than one job or as I have found, sharing expenses on housing is also common.

East Ender, you're leading me to believe it's just a tee shirt and shorts world. LOL

Light, Scubadoo.

Milk, nuts, and spices are pretty darn high as it is.

Tid wrote:
Thank fdr. Yes, and not a position I would care to be in for the most part. I do hear it is common to need to hold a couple of jobs in most any such resort area and or to house share but this again is something I would care even less to do.

After witnessing many interesting experiences that have arisen from shared housing here in the VIs, I'd rather make more money than worry about a housemate's stability (financial, mental, or otherwise).

Keep in mind also that this is a small area with a limited supply of jobs. If your job goes away for any reason, do you have a way to replace that income, or would you have to move off island? I feel better knowing my income comes from several different sources. It's not for everyone, though.

Tid: Not always tee-shirts and shorts, but it's not a designer clothing place. No one makes fun of people for wearing re-sale or K-Mart,etc. And you don't need multiple seasons of clothes. 🙂

The cost of living is something that is of concern. The territorial government has lots of good jobs available in areas like education and health care, but the salaries are too low to attract candidates.