kiwibok

Pretty much the same with New Zealand. A few years ago when we had family visiting they would always say how expensive things are here in NZ. These days they cant believe how cheap some things are.

R40 for a chicken in SA is bloody ridiculous. Especially if you earning ront.

ededed

How is Glasgow? Your prices are not accurate if you are in London.

BK whopper meal at Winchester services - Feb 14th, £6.99. A pint for 2 quid? If you go to weatherspoons and have their homebrew! Smokes? Petrol? Houses? A whole 1.5kg chicken on Pick and Pay's website this morning is going for R28. Tescos selling the same thing for £4.

More myth and spin from the anti-SA brigade....SA has it's faults, but the cost of living 'aint one of them.

Alfresco

Castle Lager SA:

R125 for 24 x 330ml cans = £1.39 per litre

Fosters UK:

£18.49 for 24 x 500ml cans - £1.54 per litre


Chicken: Todays website listings.

Pick 'n Pay SA:

R27.99 kg - R34.99 kg (@ R28 per kg = R41.98 for a 1.5kg chicken)

http://www.pnponline.co.za


Woolworths SA:

R36.78 kg - R36.78 kg (R44.14 for 1.2kg Chicken)

http://www.woolworths.co.za/caissa.a...=2032920000004


Sainsburys UK:

R22.61 kg - R43.74 kg (excluding expensive organic)

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk


ASDA UK:

R20.22 kg - R45.21 kg (excluding expensive organic)

http://groceries.asda.com


Can't check Tesco because I have to register.

Exchange rate used R11.36 = £1 from www.x-rates.com

I have also kept all our till slips from our trip over. I will go through these at some point.

All I'm saying is that S.A. is no longer 1/2 - 2/3 the cost of the UK. It is comparable i.e. very similiar now.

We shop at Sainsburys cause that's what we have close by.

vx999

How was my post anything "anti-SA", I was addressing your blatant untruth / exaggeration, nothing even mentioned about SA.

There are some things that are stupidly expensive in the UK like cigarettes and petrol but as the taxes on them help pay for the NHS it has to be looked at in perspective. How much does a good medical aid scheme cost these days in SA?

But you need to keep to the facts, and buying something from a Motorway Services doesn't bear any resemblance to normal prices. Motorway services are pretty well known as expensive and very few people will go to the Motorway Services out of choice for a night out, or to take the family out to a meal. Thats what towns are for, few of us actually live on the motorway.

This is what the average BK charges:Burger King/

Another normal pub I drove past today has beers at £1.99 a pint (IPA, Fosters, McEwans), a full roast meal on Sundays was listed at £5, and burger, chips and a pint was £3.99.

You shouldn't make up things as "average" when you don't really know what is average. Exaggeration will always weaken your entire argument when found out.

ededed

My bad - next time I will drive my screaming, hungry 12 year old son past the services, 30 miles into a town centre, and pay a couple of quid for parking (or get towed)! So being ripped off is ok as long as it's only in a few places?

My weekly grocery bill is R800. Wife, me, 2 kids, dog and cat. What's yours? My SIL's in Scotland is over double that. What does a meal cost when you go to a restaurant (and not the Harvester)? Sure drinks are cheaper at a supermarket, but in a pub? 2 quid a pint? Please. Can you get world class wine at 2 quid a bottle? (not Blue Nun).

What does a maid, gardener cost in the UK? How much does it cost to heat your pool?? (oh, sorry).

The truth is, I earn rand for pound exactly the same as I did in the UK, and live like a king in comparison.

Yes, medical aid is expensive but don't give me this free NHS is brilliant bollocks. My disabled mum gets pitiful care. She almost died of MRSA after an op which she waited over 2 years to have, having spent 40 years paying NI contributions. I would take private healthcare if living in the UK which costs the same as it does here.

I think there are obvious wins and losses depending on your lifestyle. Of course SA is getting more expensive, that's inflation for you (6%) and the strength of the rand (11.5 from 18 a year or so ago) will affect things if you are a visitor. My personal view is if you are paid in rand and live here, things are relatively (to the UK) cheap.

Here's the Big Mac index comparison from 2009 - this year's data would be interesting and should make things a little closer.

http://www.oanda.com/currency/big-mac-index

kiwibok

You guys are both making the mistake of simply converting Rands to pounds. You have to take into account salary, and percentage of that salary the cost of the Mac.

Ed you probably would be earning more in the UK, and therfore you wasting your time trying to convince us and yourself that things are cheaper in SA. If you are a tourist in SA from the UK, then yes you are probably right. But you not. You living and working in SA, earning Ront, paying high prices for medical aid, security, school fees, house prices (overall they much more expensive in SA btw, work out the total cost u pay for a house over the 20 or 25 years at 15% interest, in NZ although the price is more, interests is just 5%). In fact anything in SA bought on credit in the end probably costs double to what I would pay for the same item here. Even if i bought it on credit here. And how many people in SA can afford not to buy on credit?

ededed

Yeah, good point - especially the interest rates. That is a killer. House prices are still cheaper though, even with the interest rates. You can't deny that. My house here is twice as big and a third the price of my shoebox in the UK.

But I am earning more here.... Why this fascination though with how you think I try to convince myself of certain things? Can't you accept that I'm happy? The point I am making is that I am better off here than in the UK, in a similar level job, with similar benefits and pay, plain and simple. It's probably the single biggest reason to stay. If that wasn't the case, I'd be off....

And I don't buy my shopping here on credit - only a fool would do so.

Anyway - can't stop, off for a Big Mac (which is 32% cheaper than in the UK).

Alfresco

Enjoy! Don't forget to pay the car guard.

ededed

now THAT's value for money....! R2 for someone to watch while your car gets scratched / bumped / stolen and he does absolutely nothing about it - and when questioned, disappears into the bushes...

Alfresco

Cheapskate, it should be R5 now.

It was R2 a decade ago!!!

Yeah, funny how they can disappear into thin air!

ededed

I told you SA was a cheap place to live..... You never see one when you park, but they appear out of nowhere when it comes time to pony up the silver. If you don't have change you get "the scowl".

Daxk

way back in 2002, there was an article baying about how inflation was down.
I hadn't seen any major drop in what it cost me at the till, so I found an old till slip from a monthly shop, as it was December I chosean easy date to remember to check the 22 items on the list, December the 16th and since then Have religously done so on the 16th December every year except last.
these days its easy, Picknpay lets you do an online shop, same products, same brands and sizes, every year.
I did te (belated) "shop" last week,
33% up on Dec 16th 2008.
the average has been 20% per year since 2002..

This is what it costs me as a average white family to shop at Pick and pay,
it involves brand names rather than no-name brands, and its the ruling prices rather than the on special prices.
Its how much more goes into the till, year on year apples with apples.

Ireland is more expensive, however I did the same excercise before the GFC, it averaged 4% pa when the govt was saying 3%.
since the crunch its declined by 5% on last year and that only increased by 1% on the previous year.

The menu is basically the same, the type of shop basically the same, the brand names are pitched at a similar target market and excludes specials.

vx999

That has nothing to do with anything, and nowhere have I stated, or even alluded to SA not being cheaper, I have no issue with that point but do have an issue with you trying to justify why SA is better and basing your justification on untruths.

you said
then when you are pulled, you start prattling that is what you paid at a Motorway services, as if that is the norm for where the average UK person would shop. You are paying a premium for the convenience of a 24 hour shop, 30 miles from anywhere else on the side of a motorway - that doesn't equate to being "astounded at the cost of everything".

And the nonsense about parking charges is just that, a nonsense smokescreen (most people know that the average BK or McD's or pub has its own free car park).

If I found the price for a beer and burger at Sun City, or the Royal Hotel, would you then agree that was the average price for SA?

I have no issues about SA prices, I have no issues about UK prices, I am not trying to compare either, or even whether the £-R or R-£ is better today than it was yesterday, I only have an issue with a person who uses nonsense as a justification for something patently untrue.

ededed

So Daxk - a R24 chicken today would have cost around R6 in 2002? Jeez, things have gone bad!!

Don't forget, pay inflation here is around 12% (at my company, anyway - over the same period) so that needs to be factored. I guess things for me don't seem as expensive here as they do in the UK, despite a rand which is 40% stronger than when I arrived...but I won't argue with facts. I just know I have to save for a month for a trip which lasts a week...!

As for vx999 (whoever you are) I'm not saying SA is better, I'm saying it's better for me. If you are happy wherever you are, I'm thrilled for you. I saw on Sky news today they were forecasting a mini-heatwave in the UK. 24 degrees! The same as it will be here on this chilly Autumn day. Enjoy....

Daxk

Rainbow 2kg pack of breasts R18.99. 2/12/2002.
Country fair 2kg R39.99 last week
Chicken in SA is cheaper than chicken here, thanks to Rainbow and all those battery farms.
I'm glad your Company is rewarding with 12% inflation linked pay increases.

we were paying between 6-10% depending on profits and production before I left.
I gather its been 6% since.
Ed, I'm happy for you.
Congratulations.
but SA is a helluva lot more expensive than when I left, and Ireland does not seem to have increased at the same rate.