cost of living

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The average cost of the basic necessities of life, such as food, shelter, and clothing.
• noun The cost of basic necessities as defined by an accepted standard.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The average cost of a standard set of basic necessities of life, especially of food, shelter and clothing

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun average cost of basic necessities of life (as food and shelter and clothing)