jad n rich

Def update costs from 18 mos ago, food is worse it goes up every week, if people dispute that start keeping your docdets, some stuff has gone up 7 times this year! eg bread we buy nutritious stuff not white bowel clogger is now $7.60 for 2 loaves. A year or so ago it was $5!! Yogurt twin pack was $1.99 now its $2.65. Tin of doggy food, 99c now $1.49. Petrol was up 30% at one stage. Private health cover went up $220, airline taxes on a UK airfare were around $200 in 2004 now its $360. It just goes on and on.

Melburrrrnnnn

I left Melbourne in early 2000. I was on $35,000 which at the time was an okay salary and did okay. My brother works for an aid agency and his wife is a youth worker. They do fine. Cash is a bit strapped but they still enjoy doing most things in Oz that we can't do here due ie. eat out at decent restaurants that don't ask for your arm and you leg at the door. They are raising a baby and paying a mortgage.

My sister and her hubby have survived on his single wage for years. They live in a great house in Ascot Vale. Sure they have struggled and holidays are minimal but they have 2 kids, eat out with kids in tow, shop at markets and fruit and veg shops (seriously, unless you live in the sticks its not THAT hard to shop around - and what is the constant complaints about distances you have to drive??) and travel interstate twice or 3 times a year.

Lots of my friends are in similar situations either have kids or are living on one wage and they do great. Don't be put of Australia people. If you want a replica of your life here - then don't go over. If you want Europe and cheap holidays on your doorstep, stay here. If you want a Tesco on every bloody corner, for goodness sake, stay here.

Going to bed now as I think I've said enough.

Dinnie

Melburrrrnnnn

Its the same here!!! Air fares are up all over the world - its called a fuel surcharge and hubby and I paid £170 pounds EACH on our flights to Melbourne.

Bread here is expensive - buy a breadmaker, better for you and loads cheaper.

Yoghurt - okay, that varies depending on what brand you buy and given the big supermarkets buying power and absolute monopoly they can charge 12p if they like and still make money.

Dog food - no idea. Dogs and cats make me sneeze.

If its so bad ....

Dinnie

Melburrrrnnnn

Damn.

Came home, logged on and flippin' well posted as my husband.

Bollocks.

He had no idea who I was on the board.

Now he is going to read my rants and flog me!

::sneaks off the bed in the hopes he won't look::

Dinnie

jad n rich

Now go and price check a UK to OZ fare take same airline and price check it on a OZ site, dont forget to add taxes here, in uk say expedia the are included, we pay more here for same thing.

We have a supermarket monopoly and pay $1 a yogurt not 12p, a monopoly is 2 players in OZ, what do you have in UK about 10 supermarket leaders? I's suggest thats competition not a monopoly. Thats why your prices are lower.

Breadmaker, no thanks, read the climate thread to explain that one

Melburrrrnnnn

I can't explain why air fares from Oz are high. However you were talking about an overall rise in fares which is what I commented on. The fuel surcharge was explained to me by Singapore Airlines as being a global occurance enforced to somehow compensate for fuel emmissions.

I think you'll find that the main supermarket giants being Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsburys between them constitute a fairly large monopoly. I realise a monopoly means a single player however with the recent acquisition of Safeway by Morrisons, the closure of small, independent grocery stores a daily event it won't be long before the only place Brits have to buy anything is from a supermarket.

My 12p comment was a joke. I'm not going to get my docket out to check how much I've paid for a tub in recent months but as I said, prices vary from shop to shop. But who has time to drive around ... irony.

Like hubby just said, if you are so concerned about the environment (if that is what you meant by your climate comment) then why are you not shopping at markets where food is sourced locally and why are you flying so much.

Find a little bakery somewhere and avoid buying that preservative crap all supermarkets sell anyway.

Dinnie

ABCDiamond

On two wages, life here would be doddle for us We live pretty well on one wage, but that's Brisbane Bayside, not Melbourne ( Have I said that before ? )

Buttercup Multigrain Bread for $1.00 a 700gm loaf (it was only 85cents recently, but it went up)
Milk $1.85 for 2 litres
Yoplait Yogurt $4 for 1.2kg tub
Yearling Rump Steak $5.99 per kg (Bought per rump & sliced free)

and with Petrol back down to 94c yesterday..........

Not everyone pays those prices, but they are available once you know where to go, unless of course you live out in the sticks, or you shop at Woolworths

Woolworths prices are:
Buttercup Bread Wonder 700g $2.99
Woolworths Milk Whole 2l $2.67
Yoplait Yogurt 1kg $4.69
Rump Steak $14.89 per kg

Total $25.24 compared to my local butchers $12.84 (about 50% saved)

I must admit that if we did our main shopping at the supermarkets I probably would have to get a job again But I don't, so I can take it easy

MartinLuther

The UK has one dominant supermarket - Tescos.

Melburrrrnnnn

Something I took for granted and assumed everyone knew about in Oz is that prices vary depending on where supermarkets. i.e. never buy from the Safeway in Toorak for example - not that one would mind but as an illustration it works. Basically, if you live in a well to do area, shop in the next suburb if you must go to the supermarket.

There used to be a petrol station on Toorak Road when I last lived in Melbourne that didn't even have signs up to say what petrol cost per litre as they assumed if you lived on or around that road you were too rich to care. Shocking :scared:

Why on earth is Woolies so expensive? Actually, why is there still a Woolies in Oz?? I thought they went bust years ago!

Dinnie (posting on her hubbies login cause she's an idiot)

Melburrrrnnnn

MartinLuther - I must ask, where the heck is Wittenberg??

Shellfish

Bread is cheap in the UK because it's sold at below cost - extremely clever marketing, if you can get people in for the staples they will spend on everything else. I do agree that Australia doesn't have enough competition in terms of supermarkets. They can charge what they like and there isn't a whole lot you can do about it.

Centurion

Agreed completely. Be very careful with supermarket shopping in Australia. Convenient it may be, but cheaper it is not.

I think that getting your head around the fact that shopping differently is really the way to go. Dont come to Australia expecting to translate the way that you shop directly. You will pay similar to UK prices if not more for some items.

Local economies are important to Australia and whereas in the UK small producers are pushed out of the market, here they thrive and are very competitive indeed.

Shellfish

That's true. We moved to Kew two weeks ago and I found the Safeway to be dearer than where we were before

ABCDiamond

Unfortunately they don't. It's only the locals that know this

jad n rich

Thanks for the tip but we already do, thats why our food bill for 4 is around the $230 plus another $50 for more milk, salad, fruit etc. Going on ABC's prices if we shopped totally in the supermarket we would spend double that :scared: and I dont doubt it.

Bread all has mould inhibitor here, climate, what I ment by climate is when its 33 with 95% humidity you dont feel like whipping out the breadmaker.

As for flying we dont do much of that either, last trip to UK cost us $9000 in airfares alone, that was low season, februray in 2004.

I would agree with you OZ the one you described 5 years ago was cheap, most stuff, houses, petrol, food, health insurance etc, have all doubled in that time, I am glad we arrived then if we arrived now i would have got one hell of a shock!