Hello turds Went 'virtual shopping' in Loeb, a big food store in Ottawa last week while we were there. I have no idea if it's a up market or low market food store but here we go...

My shop in the UK for a week costs us £140 on average, that's for 4 people, my kids are over 18 and eat more than we do so I count them as adults.
I went round with a calculator and simply added the price of every item as if we were buying it in the UK without worrying about the cost, just like we do in the UK. Someone actually come up to me and asked what it was we were doing, I simply said I was English and he seemed ok with that and walked off. I got away with a lot of stuff by doing that.

We bought all the usual stuff we would buy here, like spuds, bananas, other fruit and veg, minced beef, chicken breasts, pork chops, 4 different types of cheeses, breads, frozen veg, cleaning stuff, washing powder, magazine (they ARE expensive) and so on and so on.

And it came to, wait forrrr iitttt..... $304.23 which at the time of purchase translates into £142.29. So there you go, a weekly shop for us would be no difference in costs than here. Mrs. steve666 who has a job when we get there in September is on half the wages she gets here for the same job, in fact she has more responsibilty. She did bring up the issue of "is it cos i am a lady", but he assured her that there are guys doing a similar job on less salary. So there you go, the Canadians (well in Ottawa anyway) are poorer and they have to spend the same money to live as we do. So if you're coming over for the cheap living don't bother. Restaurants are cheaper though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve666

Hello turds

Eh...excuse me??????

I wish your shopping was double after that opening comment

Will you be my personal shopper then? Are you ginger - I want a ginger bloke to follow me round, just like Posh has.

Oh, well that's okay then. If restaurants are cheaper I won't bother with a cooker

We didn't cook either, just went out every night.

GINGER!!! Get off my roof!!

Ill lend you out my other half if you like - he's very good at negotiating bargains with middle-aged female sales assistants!

I've done everything 'virtually' I've bought a house, bought a car, insured both and done a weekly shop at Sobeys, plus others all on-line just to give me an idea about living costs etc.

Very interesting it was too, but then I live in the sticks so anything vaguely like interaction is to be appreciated....

Loebs is not the cheapest of the Loblaw group stores, thats for sure.

Did you also figure out which of those weekly staples incur sales tax here, its a bit of a surprise, and all a bit random as far as I can tell?

My weekly shop at "no frills" (the cheapest store around here that still has veg you wouldnt mind eating) for 2 +2 small kids averages out at about $150ish a week. By the time you add on stops at the IGA for stuff that wasnt on the list, we probably spend about $200 a week on groceries.

We were reminded on a recent return to the UK how cheap some of the packaged / dry goods stuff was there compared to canada, but there are no hard / fast rules, some expensive UK stuff is cheap here (like steak), and vice versa (chicken). Bread milk chicken, canned goods, all seem expensive here in Canada by comparison.

That would pretty much tally with our own experience. After a few weeks of shopping you discover cheaper Canadian alternatives to things you used to buy in the UK so with practice you could probably get it down to around the $1.50 level (for every GBP1 you used to spend in UK) but never the same in dollars that you used to spend in pounds.

Last week in the UK we wandered around a couple of Tesco's marvelling at the cheapness and variety of goods. However I suspect that for us we would have a similar experience wandering round a Loblaws/Safeway etc in a larger city in 'mainland' Canada as it's the logistics of getting stuff to the Rock that drives prices and availability.

F'r example back in June I saw fresh locally grown Asparagus at $0.75 a bundle in Byward market, Ottawa. In the local Dominion (Loblaws) this week it's $4 a bundle!

Thanks for the reminder.

I'd forgotten about the monthly grocery price comparison for Calgary.

I take no responsibility for what is or is not on the list.

Cheers
Steve

I don't like interaction, unless it's physical.

I've never done it online, it's never the same...

I agree with everything you've said. Unless it's done on a long term basis you can't really know the costs involved anyway. I did find products more expensive and some cheaper than the UK, overall It seems to be that living costs, food stuff that is, would cost you pretty much how it does here. Live cheap in the UK you can do the same in Canada. I was more interested at the time how much different it would be for us 'personally' if we bought exactly, or as close to, in Canada what we buy for a weeks shop here.

My point was that you cant just go by adding up the sticker price on the shelf like you can in the UK, there is often at least some tax to pay on top of that, especially if you buy a lot of processed or luxury foods.

I guess the general point here is that if you eat out as a visitor in canada, you might be lulled into thinking that grocery shopping must be cheaper too, which it isnt, so at least you are doing your homework the right way.