Ok just letting off some steam here!...

My 8 year old needs a fixed appliance in her mouth to widen her upper jaw and make room for the adult teeth to come through. So the dentist calls me this morning to let me know it's going to cost about $900.00!!!! Seriously!!!
It's a bit of metal that she only has to keep in for 6 months!

My eldest has braces which already cost us $5500.00 or something like that!

I tell ya, get your children's teeth fixed before you come here, it's such a ****ing rip-off!

They call it rip-off Britain, but I find everything so god damn ****ing expensive here!

OK now I'm gonna go for a big lie down!

agreed .. but did ya not claim the money for the braces back on your taxes?

Gotta be in one calender year and >3% of income or something. and then its not like you get it all back, just a percentage.


My kids can just learn to live with crooked teeth. Chalk it up to their English heritage or something.


But overall Canada is way less of a rip off than the UK. Yesterday I saw an online review of a digital piano I bought last year. I paid $500 here, the reviewer was english, he paid £600. Just one of many examples...

I put it to you, kind sir, that that is a generalization too far! Some things are cheaper, some way more expensive, let's start with the cost of decent furniture - over to you

That's about $1600 less than DD's appliance she had to prevent her having to have braces when she was older. She is now older and needs to have braces, because we have already done the appliance thing the braces will only (ONLY!?) cost $3000

OMG!!!
Why was her appliance so expensive? and why does she still have to have braces then?

My youngest will also have to have braces when she's in her teens so I guess that will be another $5500.00 for upper and lower!

Yeah furniture here is expensive AND shit!!!

Ikea is Ikea isnt it Wouldnt know about decent furniture.

I find (in general), most stuff like appliances, cars, TVs, just general stuff, is cheaper here. Thats before you get into things like 20%VAT vs 13% HST (although tax an a used vehicle is a bit off!), and the benefits of cross border shopping. Totally random example.... sax reeds. My brand in the UK, £24.14, here $21.

Yes, its a generalisation, but in general its true for me.

The appliance was to help make room for her adult teeth, but he refused to take out one eye tooth that wouldn't move for the adult tooth, so the adult tooth has grown above the eye tooth, now she needs an appliance to bring it down, he would like to do both top and bottom, we are only going to get the top done as the bottoms are OK - no worse than mine and mine had braces. I was told the bottom ones were most likely to go back to where they started, when I complained to my orthodontist that mine had gone a bit wonky again.

Yep our stuff is only 6 years old and is almost 'done', wouldn't mind if it was cheap but we went for the expensive stuff I'd hate to think how it would have faired with a couple of toddlers in the house

My daughter rides horses. The cost of her clothing and tack is astronomical when compared to the how much it cost in the UK and the quality of the stuff in the UK was far superior.

Horses for courses

We brought with us the kids bed from Argos at 100 GBP each. They are probably about 6 years old now and nothing wrong with them!

^ This.

With 4 kids, there is no way I am buying "decent" furniture until they have left home. It isn't that they are particularly destructive or anything, just that kids can be pretty hard on furniture - it gets knocked, bumped, scratched and they colour off the edges of paper...

Our house is furnished with a mixture of Ikea and stuff we got from Freecycle

There will be plenty of time for Mr Chookie and I to get the decent stuff once the kids are grown.

Preaching to the choir on that one

my daughter has a palatte expander and will be having braces fitted next month..total cost $6000...fortunately i get 80% back through company dental plan plus i came claim another 3% of the balance on tax return..so i pay about $1000..far as i know there is a long waiting list in the UK for NHS braces etc??