Bill Carrier

You're outta here.The Grizz petered out. May is over. Heat and mosquitos are here. So. Done.Where you headed? Nashville? Cool. Hope you like staying home.Because without a big raise, Nashville (and Little Rock, and Austin, and Los Angeles, and New York City, and Chattanooga, and Atlanta) is going to take your beer money.New stats from The Council on Community and Economic Research (CCER) rank Memphis as one of the cheapest cities for living in the entire country. Kiplinger used CCER's most-current information to rank Memphis the 7th most affordable city in which to live in 2018.CCER has issued its Cost of Living Index since 1968 and its been widely used for people looking to move and organizations looking to move people."To say that real estate is cheap in Memphis is an understatement.You can buy a home for less than $100,000, an amount that barely qualifies as a down-payment in many of the most expensive U.S. cities you could live in."So, how much would you need to move to Nashville? You'll need about 10 percent (10.77 percent) more. For example, if you make $50,000 here, the index says you'll need at least $55,384 to make it there.The findings also break down costs on, well, a ton of stuff (some of it kind of goofy).Home prices in Nashville are around 28 percent higher. No surprise there.But you'll also be paying more for jeans, frozen corn, potato chips, canola oil, a trip to the optometrist, shampoo, and more.But in Memphis you'll pay more (than in Nashville) for haircuts, trips to the veterinarian, newspapers, toothpaste, potatoes, "2-piece chicken," and a "hamburger sandwich."Want to go somewhere cheaper? Hope you like Arkansas or Texas.On Kiplinger's 2018 list, Memphis was sandwiched between Jonesboro, Ark. (ranked 8th) and Knoxville (ranked 6th). Rounding out the top five were Witchita Falls, Texas; Kalamazoo, Mich.; Harlingen, Texas; Conway, Ark.; and McAllen, Texas.