Embodiments of the present disclosure include a system for managing cost in a wireless enabled advanced metering infrastructure (AMI). The system includes a remote server, a wide area network, and an access point device. The system further includes wireless enabled meters coupled to each other and to the access point through a neighborhood area network (NAN). The system includes datasinks. Each datasink is a wireless enabled meter capable of being a data coordinator and capable of receiving metering information from the sensors, processing metering information, and transmitting metering information to the access point. Moreover, each wireless enabled meter is capable of being a routing node and an endpoint node. Also, a first set of wireless enabled meters are configured to be routing nodes and a second set of wireless enabled meters are configured to be endpoint nodes based on a graph theoretic algorithm to reduce the cost of the AMI.