katybluewater

I feel exactly the same ...its been an expensive learning curve! Cant wait to get back to the UK in June!

jemima55

I`ve said this before so sorry for repeating myself. Even with excellent health coverage we still ended up about $8000 out of pocket last year. We also take several drugs that will be free under the NHS because they are for "lifelong" conditions. I`ll be glad to be out of this potty system too!

sallysimmons

We just got a quote from Utility Warehouse for UK electric and gas for the house we have rented back home. Even assuming that they underestimated (because I like my house warmer than most Brits - i.e. above freezing ), the energy costs are laughably low compared to ours here.

Internet, cable TV and landline phone rates are also much cheaper. Only mobile phones seem about the same.

My property taxes here are also 63% higher than council tax at the new house - and of course we won't have to pay the huge monthly health insurance premiums plus $40 every time we see a doctor and $25 every time we get a prescription and $100 for any tests.

Taxes will be higher in the UK, but only by a little bit and not nearly enough to wipe out all those savings.

shelley748

it is true!

kwazywabbit

I find it lot more expensive here in canada.

Property taxes $3000 a year

Electricty has just gone crazy here! Last bill $177 for the month.

Gas was about $70

Car insurance $108 month

Town utilities $117 month

Tv, phone, internet $170 month.

Just crazy! I find it a lot more expensive here, even though i have a far better paying job?

Dont get me started on the cost of books here! Even though the dollar is on par!

Ethelred_the_Unready

These are mine and my wife's US expenses:

Rent: $1,000
Gas & Electric: $150 approx
Car insurance: $159
Food & general expenses: $1,000
Cable & Internet: $80
Mobile phones: $180
Health insurance: $300 + all the copays & deductibles
Petrol: $250

I've also found vets and mechanics over here are much more expensive and less trustworthy.

Needless to say, I was financially better off in the UK and healthier too.

To be honest, I think the only thing that's significantly cheaper now in the US is petrol, which you don't really feel the benefit of anyway since you generally have to drive much further and cars are stil less fuel efficient.

The US is great if you're in the higher income bracket and will likely pay less tax in the UK and benefit from cheaper property prices, but it's a stressful place to be not so well off or poor.

Bob

Anytime our car needs work on and it's not an emergency, we arrange it when we visit the in-laws up in Maine.

The chap we use up there used to be a head tech at a Saab dealership, so really knows the cars and he's $35hr, versus the local Saab specialist place around here at $95hr, which is still cheaper than the actual dealers at $120hr.

These rates aren't much different from the local garages either.

Oil change up in Maine was also $35 v $80 down here for the synthetic high mileage stuff.

So it's definitely worth the petrol run for us.

Tel8

This thread is really inspiring! I'm on a student budget. (I.e penniless) and yet we still find that things are excruciatingly expensive here. Hopefully I can manage in the UK on my little part time job while I'm at school- I certainly couldn't here! Almost $1000 per month between rent and utilities! It's horrid considering that this doesn't include tuition! I should have tried going back 4 years ago - I could've saved my parents a mint in education costs, health care bills and insurance, not to mention saving myself 1000 a month for a crappy little flat and 3 unruly flat mates!

dunroving

Where in Georgia are you? From prior experience, I thought that generally the southeast US has a reasonable cost of living (especially property/rent), though of course health care is expensive everywhere in the US.

Bob

Had a mate living in Boston say he found a bargain as he was only paying $460 a month, including the utilities.

He failed to mention he was sharing with 8 other flatmates in a 3 bed apartment.

Minging didn't even begin to describe how smelly that place was in the summer

kwazywabbit

Just had the oil done on my F150 $120 thank you very much!

britwhore

Don't get me started! I have a Mini Cooper S. Zoiks! Can't wait to use the tube instead of dealing with petrol and car upkeep.

Tel8

It's definitely more reasonable if you've got a really good job from up north

I'm quite close to Atlanta, about a 30 minute drive, so suburbia, and I'm very close to north georgia for school. The difference is that jobs down here don't pay - it really is next to nothing for anything in your average non- professional range. For people who live AND work down here, it's not much different to living up north, and the closer you are to Atlanta or Savannah the worse it is. My mum brought her job with her from New York (she works from home and travels) and that's why it's been cheaper for us, but to find work down here is next to ridiculous. You make almost nothing- even in some professional industries!

As a student, I can't even find a part time job in the area- there's really nothing available right now. Not to mention even if I did, I'd be making pennies. The rent for where I live in the student apartment complex is about to go up again, not to mention all the additional fees and the horrendous tuition rates here as well. It's not New York no, but if it was I don't think I'd have been able to afford to stay all four years.

kwazywabbit

For sure! I find it crazy that their is no real public transport between the city`s here.
You would have though a country this size they would have a proper rail network. I so cant wait to show my canadian wife the difference! Lol

michael rothwell

Bigmatte I totally Agree I was paying $650 a month health insurance in mass and I had to have a prostate check up which ending up costing me another $1300 where as in uk it would cost zip thats one of the reason's I want to move back to uk