canuckypom

It obviously depends on the kinds of food you buy - our situ is we buy a fair bit at the farmers market here in England but we do this about 1/month. Semi-regularly we buy fresh local meat at the local butcher and every now and again buy direct from a farmer. Otherwise we buy at a local green grocer and I stop into tescos semi-regularly towards the end of the day and pick up all manner of things for pennies (2 bags of 2pak choy today - 19p a bag, totally still fresh and means it was a stir fry dinner :-). Of course that's serious discounting but I find that pretty commonplace and it's totally possible to shop this way. Combined with our more luxurious shopping patterns (staying away from the chains) we still manage to spend not that much on groceries.

Take away the discounting (which doesn't involve chasing down flyers), we buy very few canned foods but try buying a can of beans in Canada for 19p (or 34cents). 3 peppers (red, yellow, green) in a bag at Lidl - never more than 99p, 3 peppers in a bag (probably same bag) at Loblaws.... $4? $5? For us there's a definite and significant difference in the cost of groceries. We too will be gardening in Canada (and buying local) - which is not a bad thing!

Rossco84

I’m not sure I can continue with my move to Canada after hearing about the Lobster and Cheese….
Next thing you will be telling me is they don’t have corner shops selling Happy Shopper brand and the street aren't controlled by Constable Fraser

Lvh76

I totally agree although I've been told sobeys is one of the more expensive supermarkets. We are going to start getting our basics from No Frills and meat and fresh stuff from Loblaws. I used to go supermarket shopping back in the uk with no fixed budget in mind and now I'm planning meals a week in advance and not straying from the list. Prob a good thing.

beautiful050278

I would never shop in Sobeys its just like Marks & Spencers and I could never afford to food shop there (bit extravagante for what you are actually getting). We find the Supestore to be acceptable probably on par with Sainsburys, just more choice especially if you like to cook Asian food. But I guess it also depends on the size of the store too.
Just buy in season food and veg and you should be ok.

dgagitw

Stoke on Trent and Swindon don't have jobs that pay what Bay Street jobs do though. My take on this is that you have to factor in pay rates, niceness of area and time to commute. If you do that, Toronto wins over London (or New York) even though the pay is a bit less on the whole.

I swapped a 1.5 hour commute to the City in the UK for a 15 minute commute in Toronto. I earn about 20% less, but I also live in a much nicer house than the one I had before and spend almost nothing on travel. There's no way I could afford to live that close to work in London unless I was prepared to live in a small flat in Whitechapel.

dgagitw

The cost I get, but the variety must vary by province or something. In Toronto I have found just as much variety as I ever did in the UK (and I'm a bit of a cheese freak). Admittedly I go to speciality cheese shops but the Loblaws on Carlton and Church has at least as wide a selection as I ever found in Waitrose or Sainsbury's.

Lvh76

Same as our story!

dgagitw

You me and half of Bay Street I think! I've lost count of the number of Brits I've met here who've made the same trade.

el_richo

My friends did the same thing. They moved from London back to Yorkshire so they can afford a nicer house, have a shorter commute, and their earnings dropped by a similar amount. Plus they didn't have to travel half way around the world and great expense to get it

Granted they don't have the same high population density, freezing temperatures or humidity as Toronto but i guess you can't have everything

dgagitw

Had there been suitable jobs in Yorkshire then I might have considered a move there myself. Without saying too much about what I do though, the reality is that there's only a few places in the world where I (and many others) can do what I do for a living and, out of them, Toronto offers one of the best standards of living for the money on offer. In my case, the moving costs weren't relevant as my employer paid and, anyway, moving 3500 miles is far more fun than a 3 hour drive up the M1 would have been.

el_richo

Oh i agree. Plus their kids have to spend time with their doting grandparents and other family members and close friends, giving them proven, beneficial, added value and experience which they'd not have to suffer through if they'd just moved across the world to get the bigger house

To make matters worse, they've started doing long weekend trips to France, Germany, Spain, etc now the kids are old enough to enjoy the experience

dgagitw

At no point did I say I moved half way across the world just to get a bigger house, that you choose to infer that says more about your motivations than my own. Also, you know nothing about my family situation, so what's with all the grandparents and trips to France stuff? As it happens, I moved for a great job opportunity, the house and shortened commute were an unanticipated added benefit.

el_richo

You confuse my intentions. I'm agreeing with you

ultrarunner

What...you got a problem with Whitechapel then? I hear you though and concur with what you said.

Boy d

my brother was just over from the north west. He say's it's very grim work wise....very low paying jobs (avearge under 20 k, closer to 15 k)....he is a store manager for asda and says no major retail stores are hiring anyone full time, only part time at min wage.

My friend in Manchester, a glaser, has had no real sniff of work in close to a year.

Grim.....