Pretending doesn't cut it.

Rich.

I'm a bit lazy about those because I write them off anyway but that breaks down as:

A daughter's cell, $100.00 plan including many minutes.
My cell, less minutes, $75.00 plan.
"Exes" cell, emergency plan only $25.
Another daughters cell, emergency only $25.
OH's cell, same as mine $75
Home phone, quite often used for long distance $200.

Cell phone coverage is a big issue for us. The Bell network in Ontario is pretty crap so the chance of having an emergency in a car and being able to use the phone is minimal. I should really get rid of the $25 plans.

I bin to the west. This is our group on the annual mountain hike. That's the Hermit's Trail, a day and a half out of the Grand Canyon Ranger Station.

Shucks dbd it only made #6.

http://gaylife.about.com/od/gayprodu...tp/gaycars.htm

Interesting description...

"6. The Honda Element - Motorized lunchbox for homos. Veridict: Gay and tree-huggy at the same time. What a bonus. Instead of 1,2 and Drive, gear shift shows Sashay, Saunter, and Skip Merrily.
Mondo gay."

You gonna sell it ? $2k for a service, jeez.

Rich.

Cool. Wrangler-wearing neo-survialist campfire escapism.

I liked your pix of the ghost towns. We'll plan to do the Kootenays ghost towns soon. Will avoid the cultist camps though

Rich.

Our costs per month, small 3bed semi, 2 adults and 1 toddler:

property tax: can't remember, but steep when compared to more expensive property in Calgary
elec: 20
phone: 28 (no long distance/overseas calls, just line rental and local)
mobile: 55 (for 2 phones on best of worst partner plan)
gas: 60 (avg'd over year)
water: dunno
food: 400-500
car ins: 120-ish, 1 car
petrol: 300
house insurance: dunno
extra property insurance: 55

Ah, but on the scale of vehicles for lesbians does it beat the Subaru Outback?
Is anything more dykey than the Outback?















PT Cruiser, perhaps?

Not just yet. Our move is quite a lifestyle change and much as we'd love to dump it there's a lot else going on, so for the moment it's the devil we know. I did take it to the Ford dealer to discusss trading it and was surprised that they weren't bothered about the US spec, they knew all about converting vehicles. If we get to the autumn without going bust it'll turn into a F150.

Thx biiiiink, at the mo it looks pretty comparative the UK percentages, but will be earning a bit more which is good.

Any basic info on federal and provincial tax rates on wages guys??

We're not survivalists, we take collapsable wine glasses. We do camp a lot in Colorado and Utah though. This time last year we were here:

I agree with the previous posters that generally the standard of living between Canada and the UK balance out... the salaries in the UK looked to be huge to me when I moved over, but the cost of rent/taxes/utilities/food has pretty much equated to the same standard of living I had in Montreal pre Manchester move.

The big winner in a switch from the UK to Canada will be property prices. If you manage to find a nice sized (ok probably alot more square footage for average properties in Canada compared to UK and almost unheard of not to have a driveway or garage!) house for a good price and in a good location, your on a winner.

Daily cost of living all depends on how near to town centres you live and how much you have to commute to your place of work every day. I lived in the suburbs of Montreal (West Island) on a salary of about $32,000 CDN full time (45hrs/week) employment which after 6 months provides private health care (for dentistry and the like not covered by Medicare) for about $40/month pay deductions.
Although I wasn't rich, I was able to make ends meet & have a hundred or two extra every month after rent/utilities/internet/cable tv and generally got money back from the govt when filing taxes each year.

Don't know if its the same in BC & Alberta, but one advantage I had as a single woman no dependants other then a cat, was that I could take up residence in 'flats' or apartments. The biggest advantage to that was no snow clearing/lawn mowing responsibilities, no hauling rubish bins to the curb as thats done by building maintenance crew, no municipal/water/school taxes to pay and still able to afford a 2 bedroom, living room, kitchen & full bathroom.

EDIT: One drawback of apartment life is some of the dodgy neighbours you can end up having and that the walls tend to be pretty thin so not a heck of alot of privacy during arguements/romantic liasons *wink* hard to avoid the neighbours the next day in the shared corridors

I refer you to a post I made some time ago when this subject was raised by someone who was too lazy or incapable to research this (not unimportant) information themselves.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...53#post3931553

Hi there,

I have lived in both the SE of England and Surrey (Vancouver). With regards to your cost of living I would say the cost of living depends on your shopping habits and where you shop. I can only offer you my observations.

Groceries are about the same as the UK- this depends on what you buy as UK food stuff may be more expensive (I would shop at Superstore and not Safeway)
Wine and beer are more expensive in BC
Car Insurance in BC can be alot more expensive if you do not have any safe driving, however you do not need to pay any car tax. If you do decide to go to BC ensure that you contact ICBC (the insurance company) to find out how to transfer your safe driving.
Gas, transportation, fitness activities, eating out and housing is approximately 1/2 of the UK
heating and electricity is 1/2 of the UK
Unlimited local calls (land-line $36 per month)
Vacations can be more expensive than the UK, however airfares to the UK are cheaper than from the UK to Vancouver


On a personal note, I have found that my standard of living was quite a bit higher in Canada than in the UK. My salary was only about 5% higher in the UK. I was however educated and trained in Canada.

american gallon is 4 quarts...canadian is 5 quarts. so canadian mileage ratings are on a per gallon basis higher than U.S. cars.

Toyotas are basically bullet proof.