ARH

Cheers Steve. Just done a "Guest Browse". I'm re-assured - food does seem generally more expensive, but by not as much as earlier posters to this thread suggest.

SANDRAPAUL

50% is possibly to me about right - eating the same quantity but to us better quality (but be careful where you buy), took us a while. But this is only good if you charge or earn twice the hourly rate. Coming to Canada and earning $15 and hour where you earnt 15 pounds and hour is not going to make a happy bunny. You must look at $30CAD an hour and up. Look at the minimum wage for each country and it will give you an idea of what a survival wage would be. 5 pounds in the UK and $8CAD over here. I would say surviving is easier in the UK. But then again no one in the UK thinks the collossal government debt level will ever affect them - yer like! Anyone can throw someone elses money around - that is easy. Spending wisely is much harder.

Ontario are looking at $10 minimum rate - and they should.

FWIW - we spend $1.50 for a loaf - named brand. But you can get cheaper bread if need be. In the UK we spent about 75-80p on a loaf of equivalent quality. We could have got cheaper if need be again. Depends on your expectations.

dingbat

Chicken is hormone injected shite here, unless you pay for Maple Leaf - six ML breasts will set you back about $30. Sorry to disappoint, but food quality and selection out of major urban centres is generally utter pants. West coast is the worst...I just about had a conniption when I saw what I could get in Ontario compared to here. My staples are the basics - when you are paying $1.69 for a can of beans....you can see the problem. Food and household stuff is very expensive. I am doing a small top-up shop later...will give you the bad news when I get back.

Edited to add: I'm in Ontario as of tomorrow for a week...and comparing food costs will be interesting, given the chunk of my income it represents.

SANDRAPAUL

The average household income in Canada and more particular London Ontario as we live here is approx $50,000. If the average household spent $2000 per month on food after adding tax at 26% as you need to earn money to spend it and the government will have their slice before you take it home, that would equate to around $30,000 of income. So the household is then left with say around $1300 per month when you do your sums (take out tax etc) on the outstanding. That does not happen in your average household. Are there large numbers of people waiting on street corners for handouts - not in London. Most of them are getting a double double.

It is a concern but one must put these things into perspective what you earn, which equates to what you spend and what you spend it on....and that will alter with time.

When you earn large sums you tend to spend large sums. Been there - done that - and got not as much as I thought I would to show for it!

Unless of course you do not need to worry about where it comes from.

SarahBC

Hi there,

I've found the cost of food to be incredibly high in BC, compared to the costs found in e.g. Asda, Tesco etc.

If you are on a tight budget, I recommend:

* Scan the local supermarket flyers every week, and stock up on discounted items.

* Use recipe websites such as recipezaar.com for new ideas for the items you've stocked up on!

* Avoid purchasing chicken breasts and whole chickens - too expensive. We buy packs of chicken thighs and debone for curries etc.

* Avoid ready-meals. A nice one is $10, or you can buy a lot of ingredients instead.

* Learn to bake. Pre-packaged cakes and cookies are very dear - save them for a treat.

* Concentrate on locally produced food. For example, frozen whole salmon is very cheap here, so we eat lots of that.

* Buy all your spices at Dollar Store.

* Use ground (minced) beef in lots of different ways.

* Potatoes get cheaper, the larger the bag.

The cost of food in BC has forced me to be much more creative in my cooking. I didn't even consider that it would cost more than the UK before I arrived. By being very careful, our weekly food costs hover around $80-$100 for 2 adults. I don't know how people on welfare survive.

I should also mention that I'm in a geographically isolated location with 2 main supermarkets. But things don't seem much cheaper when we visit the lower mainland or Vancouver Island.

Sarah

PS. If you are used to gravy, bring containers of Bisto instant gravy. It is not routinely available in BC supermarkets. They only have individual servings in cans.

bad.andy

PS. If you are used to gravy, bring containers of Bisto instant gravy. It is not routinely available in BC supermarkets. They only have individual servings in cans.[/QUOTE]

They sell the old style Bisto powder in the supermarkets here (Campbell River,Vancouver Island), just add meat juices and water - just like mum used to make, lumps and all!

bad.andy