Most Frugal Cities of America in the Past One Year

Budgeting | September 17, 2009 at 4:49 am

I must say the leading financial website Mint Life comes up with many interesting comparisons that let us know how we’ve been faring in comparison to our neighbors in this nation. This morning I saw this map that tells you about the most frugal cities of America in the past one year and how the spending differs on various categories. You can take a look at the map here. This map has been made after a survey on 1 million Mint members and it has been made analyzing 20 cities over twenty spending categories. The analysts made groups of 5 of cities which were spending less than the national average for the last one year in specific categories in which they were cutting the most. The expenditures shown below are the average monthly expenditures made by people belonging to 5 cities in the least spending categories identified.

Clothing

New York, San Francisco, San Jose, Brooklyn and Dallas are the cities that spent the least on this category. The average New Yorker spent $ 250 on clothing in the last one year, followed by San Francisco ( $ 220), Dallas( $ 200), and Brooklyn ( $ 175 approximately ) which is closely followed by San Jose ($ 173 approximately).

Books

Books have become quite an expensive expenditure and college textbooks have been very costly. Here are the 5 cities that have spent the least on books in the last one year. If you’re from Chicago you new york city might have most probably spent about $ 68 on books, followed by your friends in Austin( approx. $28), San Francisco( $ 27 approx. ), Dallas( $ 26 approx. ) and San Jose ( $ 25 approx. ).

Electronics and Software

In the Electronics and Software area the cities that spent the least were Philadelphia, Houston, Miami, Dallas and San miami Francisco. Philadelphia was the highest spender amongst them, the average monthly expenditure going up to $ 180, followed by Houston and Miami ( $ 132 approx), Dallas ( $ 120 approx), and San Francisco( $115 approx).

Hobbies

The 5 cities that spent the least on hobbies are Houston, Austin, Dallas, San Jose and Seattle. You might have been bored to death if you’re a resident of any of these cities. If you’re from Houston or Austin, you might have spent approximately $ 15 only on a monthly basis followed by those in Dallas and San Jose (approximately $ 12), Seattle ($11 approx. ).

Sporting Goods

Sporting goods were the last category on which five cities were spending the least. Portland, Denver, Seattle, San Francisco and Minneapolis are the ones which had people spending the least on the sporting goods category. Portlanders spent about $52 approximately on sporting goods, followed by those in Denver who spent $ 38, and those in Seattle who spent $ 32. The least spenders were San Francisco and Minneapolis where people spent about $ 28 on an average in a month on sporting goods.

On the whole the cities that have spent the least in the last couple of years are Brooklyn ( -28 %) followed by San Diego(-23 %) , Portland, (-21 %), Miami ( -16 %), and Indianapolis (-14 %).