High gas prices, crushing inflation, product shortages...welcome to Joe Biden's America.

All that is bad enough, but then look at your Washington household/utility bills and you'll see we are parked right next to the Top Ten in the country!

It starts with a conversation about just what is an essential household expense.  What about streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, or delivery services like DashPass?  How about cable and internet?

Clearly, utilities are essential, services like electricity, water, natural gas, and internet and cable. In an attempt to compare apples to apples when tallying up the cost of living in each state, the information comparison here only includes electricity, water, natural gas, internet, and cable.

The national averages, according to angi:

Gas                    $14.17

Water                  $40.66

Electricity          $118.85

TOTAL              $288.98

The most expensive household expenses are found off the mainland in Hawaii where you pay a price for paradise....Monthly Costs in Hawaii  -  $402.49 -  or $113.51 a month ABOVE the average.

On the low end is Utah where utilities on average total $205 28 which is $197.21 LESS than the national average.

Our neighbors in the Northwest do better than Washington-obviously!

Idaho is just behind Utah with America's second most affordable household costs - $220.48 a month.  Oregon is a respectable and affordable tenth least expensive at $256.44 a month

Washington is the eleventh MOST expense with monthly costs at $310.39 per month...pushed up by the most expensive water.

Monthly water bills range in cost from just $18 per month in Utah to $91 in Washington. Water costs‌ vary based on how much access each region has to fresh, self-renewing water sources, as well as local regulations on usage and billing.

So why does it cost $647 dollars a year less in Oregon and $1,079 dollars a year less in Idaho to have the same basic service?