UK is way cheaper than the USA
Apr 18th 2012, 6:45 pm
#91
Just Joined
Joined: Apr 2012
Posts: 17
Re: UK is way cheaper than the USA
We have been back home in the UK now for 6 weeks and I find it is lots cheaper than America. Though I read many posts here with people saying the UK is so expensive. I tend to disagree. I live in the city and it is way cheaper than the rural Minnesota we lived in. Let me expand on my perceptions of this.
Utilities costs where near $380 a month in a small apartment in the winter in MN, due to the place having terrible insulation etc. The towns gas was very expensive and water was not cheap either.
Wife and I with health insurance was around $330 per month. Towards the end we had no insurance and I was charged $219 per doctor visit and near $1,600 per month for the medication i need for my spinal disease. All of which i now get for free.
Rent, car insurane, house insurance, petrol ( way cheaper than UK ) etc all added up to a damn expensive living expenditure.
We now live in a Victorian town house with 3 floors and spend only costs around 80 pounds a month in gas in winter, thanks to proper building codes.
We use the city metro system and can talk a ten minute walk into town. Free health care / medication. Internet / TV is cheaper in the UK. 38 pounds a month for Virgin media versus $130 for comcast with less channels etc.
Food has less preservatives and tastes better and is cheaper / around same price for some items. In general cheaper.
We really find cost of living here way cheaper. Though jobs are less paid. IT sector is terrible. I am a programmer and jobs that would be $75k a year minimum are 25K a year here. So that sucks.
This was with us living in rural MN, We did look at living in Seattle / New York etc and cost of living there is just insane.
Britain is the best country in the world. Even if we feel over taxed at times, we do have it good here and our we do have many benefits that americans get screwed over.
Utilities costs where near $380 a month in a small apartment in the winter in MN, due to the place having terrible insulation etc. The towns gas was very expensive and water was not cheap either.
Wife and I with health insurance was around $330 per month. Towards the end we had no insurance and I was charged $219 per doctor visit and near $1,600 per month for the medication i need for my spinal disease. All of which i now get for free.
Rent, car insurane, house insurance, petrol ( way cheaper than UK ) etc all added up to a damn expensive living expenditure.
We now live in a Victorian town house with 3 floors and spend only costs around 80 pounds a month in gas in winter, thanks to proper building codes.
We use the city metro system and can talk a ten minute walk into town. Free health care / medication. Internet / TV is cheaper in the UK. 38 pounds a month for Virgin media versus $130 for comcast with less channels etc.
Food has less preservatives and tastes better and is cheaper / around same price for some items. In general cheaper.
We really find cost of living here way cheaper. Though jobs are less paid. IT sector is terrible. I am a programmer and jobs that would be $75k a year minimum are 25K a year here. So that sucks.
This was with us living in rural MN, We did look at living in Seattle / New York etc and cost of living there is just insane.
Britain is the best country in the world. Even if we feel over taxed at times, we do have it good here and our we do have many benefits that americans get screwed over.
I couldn't agree MORE with you! My husband (English), and I, and maybe my teenager... have also been living in MINNESOTA! We have been closer to Minneapolis, St. Paul, but you can't even begin to explain how incredibly expensive life there is! It is SO much less here (I am in Cornwall now, not London)... but STILL! We are still selling one property, but just the monthly overhead is astounding. I saw someone waiting for an ambulance, and I thought HAH in the US you not only pay $$$ for health insurance, but co-pays and uncovered-- I thought, NO WAY would you put ME in an ambulance in the US unless I can't get anyone to drive me to the hospital, and I"m really going to not make it-- as that'll cost thousands! What a doctor visit for five minutes? Hundreds in co-pays! Just brave it out! The VAT may be there-- but the grass is always greener for those who haven't lived where there's sales, income, local, state, federal, property, association dues, on and on it goes--- they need to look at ALL the COSTS of LIVING before they think that bailing will be better! A man came up to a counter, and hey, at least he probably won't be armed with guns, etc.!
Aug 18th 2012, 3:31 pm
#92
Account Closed
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 71
Re: UK is way cheaper than the USA
Well I'm definately bringing down the neighborhood then with me washing my own windows and screens and doing my own garden work. Yard work here seems to consist of bringing in trailers of noisy tractors, chemicals etc. I'm sure the neighbors don't appreciate my hodge-podge, cottage garden approach to landscaping. Honestly though I've never seen a window cleaning service here. Might be a nice little business though by the sounds of their fees over here!
Same thing in Canada, if you do anything yourself they look at you as if you are poor, I'm not but won't spend money for nothing, and a lot of my neighbors could do with the exercise...
Aug 28th 2012, 2:05 am
#93
Firetrak
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 577
Re: UK is way cheaper than the USA
My gas bill for the past 3 months in the UK was 60 pounds (3 bedroomed detached, 2 people). Okay, we have been through the warmer months but to suggest that the UK is more expensive than North America is living in the past. I went to Canada in 1987 and the cost of living then was half that of the UK but not any more. Often, it is just a case of people trying to justify where they live. Granted, 40% tax after earning 35k is a bit high but that is the cost of the NHS.
40% is the tax paid over a certain amount, please see this link, it explains it better.
http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/17...tes-explained/
Sep 9th 2012, 9:34 pm
#94
BE Reader for years!
Joined: Jun 2012
Location: Orlando, FL
Posts: 131
Re: UK is way cheaper than the USA
I love this thread....but at the same time...makes me sad because I want to go home!!
Sep 10th 2012, 12:40 am
#95
Bon Vivant
Joined: Aug 2008
Location: Nova Scotia
Posts: 2,956
Re: UK is way cheaper than the USA
I don't live in a poor neighborhood and I do almost everything for myself. So do my neighbors. If it's to big a job for one we help each other out. We always have.
Sep 10th 2012, 1:34 am
#96
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Joined: Jun 2012
Location: Orlando, FL
Posts: 131
Re: UK is way cheaper than the USA
I think Brit's in general want to do things themselves and just get on with it and not rely on others...whereas here it is all about farming out the work so you don't have to.
Sep 10th 2012, 2:38 am
#97
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 88,023
Re: UK is way cheaper than the USA
There are always exceptions and generalisations, but I will say that I definitely agree with the previous poster for here in the US, they look down at you if you mow your own lawn or pull your own weeds or even clean your own house. Countless time's I have heard "Don't you have a cleaner? We have one she is great comes in once a week...couldn't live without her!"
I think Brit's in general want to do things themselves and just get on with it and not rely on others...whereas here it is all about farming out the work so you don't have to.
I think Brit's in general want to do things themselves and just get on with it and not rely on others...whereas here it is all about farming out the work so you don't have to.
Sep 10th 2012, 2:58 am
#98
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Re: UK is way cheaper than the USA
Glad you think so. It irritates me, but at the same time, I have found myself saying "I understand why they do it now, it's because we all work our nuts off and don't spend any time at home, always at the office, commuting, travelling for work..that I am not home to do these things myself!"
Sep 10th 2012, 3:26 am
#99
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Joined: Dec 2005
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Re: UK is way cheaper than the USA
Glad you think so. It irritates me, but at the same time, I have found myself saying "I understand why they do it now, it's because we all work our nuts off and don't spend any time at home, always at the office, commuting, travelling for work..that I am not home to do these things myself!"
Sep 10th 2012, 3:30 am
#100
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Location: Orlando, FL
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Re: UK is way cheaper than the USA
Hahahahaha....my father gets that at his house here too, for a while the neighbors thought he was the lawn man! My mother was quite offended!
Oct 31st 2012, 5:30 pm
#101
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Joined: May 2010
Posts: 2
Re: UK is way cheaper than the USA
My husband and I moved back last year after living in the States for 31 years. We have found living here is much cheaper than over there, (Massachusetts). Before that we'd lived in New Jersey. What people seem to forget is the cost of the climate over there. Living without A/C almost anywhere in the States in summer is not an option, and that costs a fortune. Then you get the winters, costing a fortune in heating. In Massachusetts people pay snow-plow drivers to clear their driveways so they can get to work, that can be $15 a time for every 3 inches of snow, and some blizzards dropped a foot at a time. We bought a snow blower for $1600 which at the time was one of the best purchases we ever made rather than snow shovelling. In summer you have to use sprinklers to keep the grass alive so the water bill is $300-400 for that quarter. Our garden is a lot smaller and hence we can do the lawn-mowing ourselves instead of paying a service of landscapers to do it. I had to work for health insurance, otherwise it would have cost over $1000 a month for anything decent. The UK is the best place in the world to live, even with the 'summer' we had this year!
Oct 31st 2012, 5:47 pm
#102
Banned
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Location: The REAL Utopia.
Posts: 9,910
Re: UK is way cheaper than the USA
Im biased but I agree, the UK is the best place in the world to live. Also it is much cheaper than Australia which is a huge bonus 
Nov 1st 2012, 3:42 pm
#103
She'll be right
Joined: Sep 2012
Location: Near the beach, NZ
Posts: 1,498
Re: UK is way cheaper than the USA
How do you know the UK is the best place in the world to live if you've only ever lived in 2 countries? There's almost 200 in the world!
Also the OP cannot possibly compare cost of living in a place that has extreme weather conditions in a rural area with a place near a city and doesn't have extreme conditions. The two just don't seem comparable...
Also the OP cannot possibly compare cost of living in a place that has extreme weather conditions in a rural area with a place near a city and doesn't have extreme conditions. The two just don't seem comparable...
Nov 1st 2012, 4:05 pm
#104
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Re: UK is way cheaper than the USA
The best place in the world is the place we have chosen to live in, I dont find it necessary to live in every country in the world to know that.
