Bellingham vs. Kalamazoo Cost of Living Summary

Bellingham vs. Kalamazoo Cost Breakdown

If you lived in Bellingham instead of Kalamazoo, you would:

pay 13.0% more for restaurants

 
Kalamazoo
Bellingham
Basic meal with drink at inexpensive restaurant $25.00
 
$25.00
 
Fast food combo meal
McDonalds, or similar
$10.00
 
$13.21
 
Bottle of Coca-Cola (11 fl. oz) $2.51
 
$3.19
 

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pay 28.3% more for groceries

 
Kalamazoo
Bellingham
Bread
1 loaf
$2.94
 
$4.82
 
Local cheese (8 oz) $4.72
 
$9.46
 
Milk (1 gallon) $2.82
 
$4.30
 

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pay 5.3% less for transportation

 
Kalamazoo
Bellingham
Gasoline (1 gallon) $3.60
 
$5.31
 
Monthly public transit pass $60.00
 
$30.00
 
New Volkswagen Golf 1.4 (standard edition) $35,866.37
 
$36,318.00
 

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pay 60.5% more for housing

 
Kalamazoo
Bellingham
Internet connection
50 mbps or faster, cable/dsl
$94.65
 
$76.95
 
1-Bedroom apartment in downtown area $1,310.00
 
$1,772.00
 
1-Bedroom apartment outside city center $768.43
 
$1,507.50
 

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pay 39.2% more for childcare

 
Kalamazoo
Bellingham
Private preschool for 1 child, monthly $1,638.33
 
$1,136.00
 
Middle school for 1 child, two semesters $11,136.00
 
$31,129.44
 

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pay 51.2% more for entertainment and sports

 
Kalamazoo
Bellingham
Domestic/local beer (1 pint) $5.00
 
$7.00
 
Cappuccino in mid-range area $5.04
 
$6.00
 
Pack of cigarettes
Marlboro or similar
$8.69
 
$12.56
 

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pay 32.7% more for clothing

 
Kalamazoo
Bellingham
Regular jeans
Levi's brand
$53.33
 
$77.77
 
Regular dress
from H&M or similar store
$21.50
 
$28.50
 
Running shoes
Nike or Adidas
$108.33
 
$110.00
 

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We average the price of thousands of data points entered by users across the world. Sources: MyLifeElsewhere's cost-of-living dataset (prices updated November 2026). How we calculate this

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