Shard

How about the snazzy snow mover you acquired last year, has it been put to use this season?

MillieF

Yes, this morning! Quite a lot came down in the night. A bloody good buy! I can really recommend it! It's whipped up and down a few times all ready....other than when we had the 36 hour power cut!

Steve_

Well that's a Toronto to Birmingham comparison, I used to live fairly close to Birmingham, and with Calgary there is no comparison on utility bills, natural gas is about a third of the price here (but you do use more of it) and electricity is definitely cheaper.

And gas/petrol costs way less here. It's about $1.05 here at the moment for premium, if I put in a Birmingham postcode I'm getting £1.18 listed! Yeah, I do use more here, but that's literally twice the price and I don't use twice as much, I'd say maybe 15% more. I dunno how you get to 10% cheaper, I had a diesel when I lived there and it was still a lot more than I pay now.

Anyway, more power to you but I'm never living in the UK again.

Tirytory

You do know that you don't have to justify wanting to live in Canada... You can just like it?

I've only just moved, Mike is living there... I think we're better placed to make a judgement on whether we spend more on household budgets in the UK or Canada... Personally I find Canada a lot more expensive even if utilities "appear" to be cheaper.

MikeUK

Simple a family car here comes in manual with a 1.6l diesel v's a 2.5+ automatic petrol

46mpg v's 20mpg

Travel distances in the UK are generally shorter, which in its self contributes to extending the savings

All I did was total up the usage, for two cars over a year in both locations

Shard

Distance does it!

rivingtonpike

When we lived in London we seemed to spend most of our travelling time stuck in traffic, so the distance wasn't really the issue. I've just paid $1.10 a litre, and it seems to be about 1.18GBP, about twice the price. My car here is thirstier, but not by x2.

Shard

Idling in traffic also uses a lot of gas. About 1.2 litres per hour for a 2l engine.

scootb

You do know that a derv is only making you savings if you drive long distances don't you?
If only traveling short journey's you would be much cheaper using a petrol engined car!
From 1.8ltr manual in the UK to a 5ltr auto over here I am still way better off in Canada.

MikeUK

but the environment isn't ..............

Steve_

I appreciate Mike is talking from his own circumstances, but you can get diesel cars here and plenty of gas stations sell diesel. If you feel the need. VW sells the Golf and Passat as TDIs and maybe the Jetta as well, iirc.

Steve_

I'm not justifying wanting to live here, it's a fact that many things here cost a lot less, not the least of which are gasoline and natural gas. It doesn't "appear" to be cheaper - it is cheaper. I have no idea where you live exactly but the fact is that you can look up utility prices in the UK on the web and mine are not anywhere near them, plus there's plenty of people I know there who I can ask (and have).

You can make the argument you use a bit more here because of distances and colder temperatures I appreciate, but the cost of gasoline is half what it is in the UK and natural gas (at least here) is a third, so you've got to be going some to make up that difference.

All I can think is if you really are paying more, you need to move.

rivingtonpike

We kick this cost of living thing around all the time with friends from the UK and friends still in the UK. Granted we came to Canada from an expensive part of London, but for us, Canada is overall cheaper. That's our experience. Our council tax alone was 3600 GBP a year. Commuting was about the same.

MikeUK

The reason i like to kick it a round is: its so close,
it just depends where your coming from and where your going too.....
and too a point your life style

But.... my major point is.... its not a good reason to justify moving !

christmasoompa

Christ! And you moved about 5 years ago didn't you, so it was really that expensive then?

Presuming you weren't living in central London then if you were having to pay that amount to commute, how come your council tax was so expensive? I thought ours was among the most expensive in the country (big house, expensive area), but it's still over £1000 cheaper than that. Which Council was that?