We're getting the message loud and clear - look to a state that starts with 'Miss' if you want to be able to get by on a comparatively low income. Missouri is barely any different from Mississippi when it comes to projected expenditure, with only a few hundred dollars difference in the price of essentials. That might be down to the pragmatism of the people who live there - if you want to charge a high price to a native of Missouri, they're likely to demand justification for it!
Missouri's reputation as the 'Show Me' state comes from a sentence uttered by its congressman William Duncan Vandiver in 1899, when he dismissed an opponent's complicated argument and said, 'I'm from Missouri, you've got to show me.' The St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 was a pivotal one in terms of food and drink - both iced tea and the ice cream cone were invented during it.