Granite Staters can expect to have the most affordable Memorial Day Weekend in New England this year, as New Hampshire offers the region’s lowest gas and grocery prices, a Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy review of regional prices shows.
Memorial Day weekend kicks off both summer travel season and outdoor grilling season, and this year families are eager for every opportunity to stretch both their fuel and food dollars. For both budget categories, a family’s dollars will go further in New Hampshire than anywhere else in New England, as well as almost all of the Northeast.
Gasoline
U.S. gasoline prices are up 53% since the start of the war with Iran in February, crimping many family travel plans. Families looking to save a few dollars on travel costs would find the lowest fuel prices not just in New England but in the entire Northeastern United States by vacationing in New Hampshire this year.
Because of its low gasoline tax, New Hampshire typically has the lowest gas prices in New England. That remains true even after the huge increase in gas prices this year.
At $4.48, New Hampshire boasts New England’s lowest average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline, according to AAA, which tracks weekly gas prices.
That’s two cents lower than in Massachusetts, four cents lower than in Maine and nine cents lower than in Vermont.
The highest prices in the region are in New York ($4.61), Pennsylvania ($4.64) and Connecticut ($4.65).
Groceries
The traditional Memorial Day family cookout will also be cheaper in New Hampshire than any other New England state, according to the Cost of Living Data Series published by the Missouri Economic and Information Research Center. The center, run by the State of Missouri, tracks grocery and other prices and indexes them to a baseline of 100.
New Hampshire is the only New England state where grocery prices are lower than the national average, based on the Economic and Information Center’s analysis of 2025 prices.
Grocery prices in New Hampshire measure 0.6% below the national average vs. 1% above the national average in Maine, 2.7% above the national average in Massachusetts and 5.5% above the national average in Vermont.
The only state in the Northeast with lower average grocery prices than New Hampshire is Pennsylvania, where prices measure 1.5% below the national average.
Overall cost of living
In addition to low grocery prices, New Hampshire enjoys the lowest overall cost of living in New England, according to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center.
New Hampshire ranks 38th in the nation on the center’s cost of living index, followed by Rhode Island (39th), Vermont (42nd), Connecticut (43), Maine (44) and Massachusetts (51).
In the Northeast, only Pennsylvania (26th) posts a lower cost of living than New Hampshire. New Jersey ranks 45th and New York 47th.
New Hampshire’s low gas tax and absence of a sales tax help to lower out-of-pocket costs for families. And both contribute to New Hampshire’s low overall tax burden, which helps to keep costs down for businesses and consumers.
