Tulsa's cost of living

So you've got a big, new job in a big city and you're excited. You've hit the big time, or have you? You might want to check out a web site that shows Tulsa is one of the cheapest places

Monday, May 23rd 2005, 9:51 am

By: News On 6

So you've got a big, new job in a big city and you're excited. You've hit the big time, or have you? You might want to check out a web site that shows Tulsa is one of the cheapest places to live in the country.

As News on 6 business reporter Steve Berg tells us, even big salaries get eaten up in the big city.

Adrienne Sulzycki just moved from Los Angeles to Tulsa where she works in sales. She knew Tulsa must have a lower cost of living, but until she logged onto www.Salary.com, she didn't realize how much lower. "Because when I was moving here, I had no idea and even in the interview process, when you're asked the question, what do you need to make, my standard answer was, I don't know.â€

She found out that in her old home of Los Angeles, she needed to make about $48,000 more than she does in Tulsa to have the same standard of living. In fact, www.Salary.com says Tulsa is the 5th cheapest place to live in the country. Or to put it another way, your salary has the 5th best spending power in the country.

We talked to News on 6 meteorologists James Aydelott, who you probably know is leaving this week to take a job in Fort Worth. Fortunately for him, he only needs to make about a thousand dollars more per year in Fort Worth, to keep his Tulsa earning power.

You can compare about 200 different cities with one another. Just for laughs, we plugged in San Francisco, one of the most expensive cities. You would need to nearly double your Tulsa salary, to have the same amount of disposable income in San Francisco.

After just a few weeks in Tulsa, Adrienne Sulzycki says she noticed the difference. So the moral of the story is if you want to make it big in the big city, better make it really big.