By Kenneth Harwood

Economist, Solvang Chamber of Commerce

Santa Barbara County is an expensive place to live, but not the most expensive in California. We rank 16^th in the state for high cost of living, among 58 counties. Forty-two other counties are less expensive. Fifteen are more expensive.

Monthly cost of a couple was $5,219, or $1,232 more than that of one person, whose cost was $3,987. Two parents and one child had a cost of $6,987, or $1,768 more than a couple. Two parents and two children had a monthly cost of $8,033, or $1,046 more than two parents and one child.

Some results seem to stand out. For example, the cost of adding a child to a couple was more expensive than adding another person to a one-person household. The cost of adding a second child to a family of two parents and a child was less expensive than the cost of adding one child to a couple. The largest change was in adding the first of two children to a couple.

These monthly amounts are at neither a poverty level nor a wealthy level. They represent a modest yet adequate standard of living in Santa Barbara County.

The monthly budget for two parents and two children is $1,520 for housing, $817 for food, $1,184 for child care, $1,338 for transportation, $1,109 for health care, $1,122 for taxes, and $943 for other needs. That comes to $8,033 a month and $96,396 a year.

The largest amount in the budget is for housing, and the smallest for food.

The whole budget is 2.5 percent higher in February of this year than a year ago because of the yearly rate of inflation in smaller cities of the West. The increase is $2,410 a year, or $201 a month.

For details, go online to Economic Policy Institute Family Budgets. See online Bureau of Labor Statistics for the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers.