Lower the height of the shower head so the water doesn't have so far to fall.

You can get vouchers here, I don't tend to look for vouchers when I'm on vacation and happen to roll up at places. For example: http://www.vouchercloud.ca/ To do a valid comparison you have to compare apples with apples, not, hey if you poke around on the web you can get it cheaper, that's not a valid comparison.

Anyway I don't get your claim in the other thread that the UK is cheaper in any meaningful way, what has been shown is that it is generally more expensive, especially utilities which are far higher.

The only thing shown so far in this thread to be significantly more expensive than in the UK is bread, as far as I can see.

Why is it not a 'valid comparison'? Everybody I know uses vouchers for eating out, so it's an integral part of the calculation? Otherwise you might as well look at electricity bills without the discount for paying by direct debit - if the discount is a regular use thing and you wouldn't pay without it, then it is a valid comparison imo. As a family of four, we rarely pay more than £30 for a meal out.

Your own post above where you've calculated it fairly precisely, says "Overall though I'd say you'd be hard pressed to say the UK has cheaper electricity, at least compared to Calgary. I accept you might use more here but that was my point originally, that can lead to benefits because you can have a larger refrigerator so you don't have to go to the stores as much." which doesn't say 'utilities are far higher' to me. I didn't actually see your comment about fridges before, but I have a large American style fridge freezer, and I can count on one hand the number of people I know that don't - they're they norm here now. Plus of course nobody I know actually goes to supermarkets, when they deliver for free why would you need to?!?

And car insurance, and alcohol, and cheese, and clothes, and...........

You seem to be selectively reading the responses above Steve to make sure that they fit in with your vision of Canada being cheaper than the UK - this is despite the fact that the vast majority of people on the forum who've recently lived in the UK would say that Canada is either a similar cost of living, or more expensive.

While its fun, frustrating or interesting to compare prices between the UK and Canada its only relevant prior to anyone moving or considering moving. After they have moved its a moot point. Once in the country you have to pay the price of whatever it is you are buying. There are too many variations to get bogged down on. I expect most people do not base their move on the price of groceries etc as its usually their job and salary or significant other that determines that.

Depending on where their income comes from.

When I moved over the £ got about $2.30 (for a short time it almost hit $2.40) and many things seemed cheap.

Do the comparison now (or when the exchange rate was even worse) and things look much more expensive, but the price paid in $$ hasn't changed so much.

Half my income comes from the UK, though, so I have noticed the difference.

On the other hand, because the rate is better than a couple of years ago, I've experienced "cheaper" prices again.

It's relevant if there's UK income involved.

Because in one case you're using a coupon and in the other (Canada) you aren't, ergo, not a valid comparison. Simple as that. You can't just assume that everyone who walks into any given restaurant in the UK has a coupon that lowers the price. And you can't just assume making that assumption that the person in Canada hasn't got an equivalent coupon - maybe they have.

As far as direct debit discounts go, same thing for both countries.

Utilities are far higher in the UK, read the math I did in post #104 for electricity. Also I quoted a website with hundreds of contributions.

Those are both assertions, not facts. I don't agree with you on either point. It is however a fact that the average house size in the UK is smaller than in Canada, so the inference from that would be that the appliance size is usually smaller too. This is why I started the thread, easy to make assertions, back them up with actual facts because otherwise it just goes around in circles. For example, what percentage of households in the UK use home delivery and how does it compare in cost? This says a "few pounds": Grocery Home Delivery in the UK: Big and Getting Bigger. Why Not the US? and on the Tesco website it seems to be saying a few pounds too. Well "a few pounds" is more than the fuel cost, it would have to be to be profitable. The fuel cost here is lower, so factually - it costs less here to go to the supermarket to get the goods you would put in a refrigerator (assuming the same distance).

Well I agree on car insurance and booze, but that assumes you drink and have a car. So narrowly yes, car insurance costs more. Not so sure on cheese and clothes. Cheese maybe, based on the cheese slice figure but I'd need a broader sample. Clothes I doubt it, but I'd have to research it more.

But you selectively read post #104 and also the other responses on utilities. Once again "vast majority of people" - assertion. And my whole point was that it's an illusion not based on fact, which it is. This is a sample of thousands of people: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living...United+Kingdom - perhaps not scientific but if we're going by "people say" - they well outnumber forum posters.

Well it should, it's something like a third of the price or less. I was being polite by using lower usage figures at the end which exacerbate fixed charges but those are unrealistic - at the start I used a realistic comparison figure of usage. Electricity is fantastically cheaper than in the UK when compared to Calgary and other people have posted figures from elsewhere. Seven cents per kWh v. 26 cents per kWh, that's huge, even if the standing charges are a bit more here if you use a realistic usage number.

Anyway regardless of what I say or do in this thread, I'm not going to get to the equivalent of 3,519 contributions to this website: Cost Of Living Comparison Between Canada And United Kingdom and it seems to tally with my own experience, i.e. bread, car insurance, cellphone and booze cost more but everything else is roughly the same or less.

And the level of taxation in Alberta at least is far less so overall the cost of living here is substantially less.

Okay, I'm a little late to the party here but was fascinated to read how much you're paying for your hydro. (Good God, I'm glad I'm not in Ontario!)

Just to give you all utility envy, 2013's gas and hydro expenses for my Kamloops, B.C., 2500-square-foot house averaged out per month to $65 and $20, respectively. All heating, hot water and cooking by gas.

How much is your MSP payment each month?

$69 for a single person.