How much breakfast costs depends on where you live. While Tucson has a relatively low overall cost of living compared to other western regions, a “rise & shine breakfast” is a bit more costly. A rise & shine breakfast, for the purpose of this article, consists of two eggs, toast, sausage, home fries, fruit, coffee w/milk, and juice. In 2014, the cost of the rise & shine breakfast ingredients in Tucson resulted in the fourth highest price when compared to 11 other urban areas. Tucson’s index value of 103.4 implies that a rise & shine breakfast cost 3.4% more than the U.S. urban area average. Tucson placed just above Phoenix, which had an index value of 101.3. San Diego, with the most expensive rise & shine breakfast, reported a price that was 17.4% above the U.S. urban area, while Albuquerque was 10.3% below.
The price of the ingredients that comprises this breakfast can vary substantially between urban areas. The rise & shine breakfast is just one example of using cost of living data to compare urban areas. A broader range of goods and services are included to compute an overall cost of living for a region. Tucson ranked fourth among its 11 peer metros, 3.0% below the nation in cost of living according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. To learn more please visit the “Cost of Living” indicator.
The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) provides average price data for urban areas across the country on typical household items. The average price data for C2ER is collected by survey where the price of a specific item is reported. For example, whole milk is reported for the least expensive ½ gallon at a grocery supermarket only. The breakfast reported here has been scaled to reflect a typical breakfast. This particular scaling results in a breakfast that has 797 calories. The ingredients that went into the calculation of this breakfast include: ¼ pound of sausage, two eggs, ¼ pound of potatoes, one slice of bread, three ounces of peaches, one tablespoon of margarine, one ounce of parmesan, four ounces of orange juice, six ounces of coffee, ¾ ounces of milk, and one teaspoon of sugar. The ingredients used were limited to the items included in the C2ER survey and reflect the cost of making a rise & shine breakfast at home.
