Cost of living in Canada?
#91
Forum Regular
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 55
Re: Cost of living in Canada?
Our experience:
Last year in London we spent about £60 a week from Sainsburys. After moving to Halifax, we shop in Superstore or Sobey. It costs us $150 - $170 a week. It is not just cheese more expensive. I think all vegetables and fruits are much more expensive except blueberry! So now we are gardening. :-)
Last year in London we spent about £60 a week from Sainsburys. After moving to Halifax, we shop in Superstore or Sobey. It costs us $150 - $170 a week. It is not just cheese more expensive. I think all vegetables and fruits are much more expensive except blueberry! So now we are gardening. :-)
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!
#93
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 256
Re: Cost of living in Canada?
Our experience:
Last year in London we spent about £60 a week from Sainsburys. After moving to Halifax, we shop in Superstore or Sobey. It costs us $150 - $170 a week. It is not just cheese more expensive. I think all vegetables and fruits are much more expensive except blueberry! So now we are gardening. :-)
Last year in London we spent about £60 a week from Sainsburys. After moving to Halifax, we shop in Superstore or Sobey. It costs us $150 - $170 a week. It is not just cheese more expensive. I think all vegetables and fruits are much more expensive except blueberry! So now we are gardening. :-)
#94
Forum Regular
Joined: May 2012
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 213
Re: Cost of living in Canada?
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.
Just buy in season food and veg and you should be ok.
#95
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Joined: Jul 2008
Location: Toronto
Posts: 534
Re: Cost of living in Canada?
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.
#96
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Joined: Jul 2008
Location: Toronto
Posts: 534
Re: Cost of living in Canada?
$20 of cheese purchased in Canada is a nigardly amount. A slab of Baldersons Cheddar perhaps. $20 in Waitrose or M&S is a couple of pounds of assorted cheesy delights including cheddar, stilton, red leicester etc. It is both the cost and variety of cheese available that makes it worthwhile IMHO.
Last edited by dgagitw; Jun 7th 2012 at 6:24 pm.
#97
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 256
Re: Cost of living in Canada?
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.
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.
#99
Re: Cost of living in Canada?
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.
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.
Granted they don't have the same high population density, freezing temperatures or humidity as Toronto but i guess you can't have everything
#100
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Joined: Jul 2008
Location: Toronto
Posts: 534
Re: Cost of living in Canada?
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
Granted they don't have the same high population density, freezing temperatures or humidity as Toronto but i guess you can't have everything
#101
Re: Cost of living in Canada?
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.
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
#102
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Joined: Jul 2008
Location: Toronto
Posts: 534
Re: Cost of living in Canada?
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
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
#103
Re: Cost of living in Canada?
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.
#104
Banned
Joined: Dec 2010
Location: Durham Region Extension
Posts: 3,342
Re: Cost of living in Canada?
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.
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.
#105
Banned
Joined: Jul 2011
Posts: 1,088
Re: Cost of living in Canada?
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
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
My friend in Manchester, a glaser, has had no real sniff of work in close to a year.
Grim.....