suebrennan

My grip for the day but the above happen to be my favourite food items. On average I am paying $2 for a chocolate bar and $2-2.5 for a banana. Had a binge today and had 3 chocolate bars and 2 bananas. Getting really peed off at paying crazy prices.

And for all you chocoholics out there - get down to Wollies fast as they are selling Mars bars at half price. I can't bulk buy because the bloody things just talk to me until I eat them.

travelbug

glad i'm not the only one that gets talked to by chocolate !!! he he!

sassenach

yes the average house in australia costs 200000 bananas ,

chrispy

Thats terrible... it is not as if it just grows on trees

Why are chocolate and bananas so expensive? I thought the cost of living was supposed to be cheaper in Aus. Thats about twice what you pay here.

Santa

Bananas are so expensive because a cyclone wondered through Queensland several months ago destroying a huge number of plantations. The Federal Government do not allow the importation of Bananas, therefore, market demands ensure we are paying $12.99 kg. Once the plantations can offer more, then the price will fall.
As for the price of chocolate, you'd better ask someone else !

chrispy

Is that to protect the local banana industry or just a general restriction on the importing of foreign vegetable produce.. someone else mentioned on one of the threads how certain vegetables and fruit were hard to find and i guess after the introduction of things like brambles to Aus they need to have restrictions.

Santa

Yep, your spot on. Very little is let in, therefore you'll find that vegetable and fruit prices fluctuate with the time of the year.
There was talk last week of allowing some bananas in, but only to be used for making up processed foods, not for sale to the general public.

suebrennan

Definitely do some more research re the cost of living as per several other posters. The cost of living in Oz has soared in recent years. Now if you sell a house in the UK and walk away with serious equity - then you £ will buy a whole lot of $ but some items including food is very similar and banananas and chocolate are way more expensive. Good outdoor gear is also seriously expensive here as are the majority of imported items. Bear in mind the salaries - and that is where you can really go unstuck. Cost of living in general is close to the UK and salaries are about 1/3 to 1/2 of London wages in many cases so you really do need to weigh that up.

Sue

suebrennan

At the moment a banana costs $2 is that 100K sterling or 200K dollars in which case I think you might need to increase the dollar figure! I think the average house price is $300,000 but I could be wrong!

Definitely thinking about taking this up!

sassenach

200000 bananas in perth i think ,less bananas i think elsewhere ,its enough to make you go round the bend .

arkon

That’s because it's a myth. I too came here with pre conceived ideas about the cheap cost of living and the high standard of living. ALL a total load of bollxxcs. It gets worse after living here for a bit too as everyone, local and poms alike seem to self delude themselves that it isn't really expensive and the UK must be a lot dearer. Worse is when an Aussie who has never been to the UK or Europe insists that the cost of food etc in the UK is dearer than here!

Self deluding is all a symptom of over compensation for making a bad decision IMO. No one ever tells the mother of an ugly baby how ugly it is, quite the contrary they overcompensate by telling her and anyone that will listen how beautiful it is. (Replace 'baby' with 'Australia')

Now back off to hide under my box.....

Nicky & Dave

There you are!!! Not seen you around for a while - better get back under the box pronto!

arkon

I've just calculated that for the cost of Mercedes sports car in the UK you could buy about 272,000 bananas. Here by contrast the same car would get you 50,500 bananas!

Nicky & Dave

You are one sad son-of-a-banana, that's for sure!

arkon

Yea, I know. The flies and the mossies are out now and for the next 6 months so I thought I'd have a look on here while waiting for my site to upload. (Beats watching the hourglass!...just..)