BristolUK

Right, I'm adding pork cold cuts to my list for tomorrow. And Pickles - which my stepson could eat for ever. I'm less keen but they do freshen up a sandwich.

Not the salami though.

caretaker

Since tomorrow is National Pig Day it doesn't hurt to be prepared. All I'll have to do is take the leftover roast pork out of the freezing compartment and that will give me several choices. While I still have ham and Swiss cheese I could get dill pickles today and have a Cuban sandwich, but lst week I made a couple of variations of Mexican bbq and carnitas that were pretty good, and since I still have the stuff for salsa fresca I could either buy or make some tortillas and call it Mexican night.

scrubbedexpat091

Lobster tail $4.99 out here in the deserts of California.

I forgot how cheap food is here.

Dozen eggs 99 cents, cheese on sale 500g $1.99, cream cheese 1.99, butter 2.99, cereal boxes for 1.99 to 2.99.

My mom spent $100 and got close to twice as much food as $100 buys in Vancouver and so much more selection of food, so.much more.

caretaker

While replenishing some spices at Olde Fashioned Foods I picked up some smoked paprika (first time), and it's certainly fragrant! I'm cooking chili and will see if it makes any appreciable difference vs the Hungarian paprika I usually buy.
Edit; it is quite prominent, but nice; however instead of the tsp I normally use when I add the meat just after the onions and garlic, in future I'll try a half tsp of smoked and half of regular, so it isn't so dominant.

Paul_Shepherd

That is super cheap! Canada is expensive now....when I first moved here it was cheaper than the UK....not anymore.

BristolUK

Is that down to changes in the exchange rate?

When I moved it was around 2.15 to a £ and eventually fell to around 1.50, creeping back up ever so slowly to the 1.75 or so now. That certainly makes it appear more expensive and given half my income since 2007 comes in ££, in my UK reality it's more expensive.

In my Canadian reality, however, I can still buy many things for the same price I was paying in 2005 although I have more money to spare now so I tend not to buy the beef/steak @ $2.99/$3.99 (preferring prime rib and tenderloin, but only when on offer), but I still stock up on Pork Chops/Hams @ 99c, Chickens @$1.99.

Our freezers are better organised now.

Paul_Shepherd

Maybe partly to do with exchange rate, yes. But groceries just seem more expensive, my money doesnt seem to do as far, unless I am being more extravagant with food, which could be a factor too!

I have noticed the price of chicken creeping up, however beef steaks are still at a decent price if you go to the right place....markedly cheaper than the UK. As we all know booze and cheese is a rip off.

However I should never complain about prices of booze again after I saw what he poor Newfies are subjected too! the price of booze there is just SHOCKING!!!

JamesM

The UK is cheaper for groceries and has been during my 9 years living in Canada when ever I've gone back to Blighty and compared.

This is down to competition in my opinion. The UK has a variety of competing stores one can buy groceries where as in Canada it is controlled by an Oligopoly- much like telco and utilities.

Vulcanoid

Not just competition I don't think - just sheer logistics too. It's more expensive to store and distribute things over a continent-sized area with only 30m people to pay for it, than it is to cover an area 1/3 the size of BC, with 60m to pay for it. (Also goes for telecoms). UK definitely cheaper for food (quite dramatically in some genres, less so in others), but there are reasons for it. (Mostly. I have yet to figure out why Canadian flour and Canadian cheddar is cheaper in the UK after being shipped across an ocean. That could be loss-leading there, or just what the market bears here).

BristolUK

In a lot of cases it's hard to tell because of things like shrinkflation - most previously 2L pots of ice cream are now anything from 1.5 to 2L. 500g packs of bacon are now 375g. So you may feel you are paying the same as years ago, or only slightly more but getting a smaller quantity.

But the huge variation in prices - not just seasonal, sometimes just because there's an offer - makes it hard to tell too. I mean one week a Cauli will be $5 but the next week $2; A nice sliced loaf around $3.50 in one store/one week but the same brand $1.80 in a different store; Bacon $5.99 at the main supermarket but $3.49 at Shoppers which also sells eggs for $1.88 on weekends instead of around $3.50 at the supermarket.

Lidl and Aldi have probably made a big difference in the UK.

I've not been back to the UK but I have looked at Tesco and Sainsburys websites and the sort of deals advertised now, and on multiple products too, not just a loss leader, I never saw when I shopped there.

scrubbedexpat091

Yeah food is getting pricey here. I was amazed how much food my mom was able to buy for $100 US, things like soda cost about the same there, but meat, fruit, vegetables were all far lower cost wise.

Need a job that pays in US$ lol

Siouxie

I've found prices have gone up considerably, whereas 2 years ago I could do a 3 week 'big' grocery shop at Walmart Superstore and spend $160 today it was double that - and I'm not buying even 1/4 of the meat and cheese or biscuits etc., that I used to.

BristolUK

Do you buy different stuff now though?

CanadaJimmy

I'm always a little skeptical of the population density argument. Urban areas are served the most affordably in Canada for groceries, and outside of large cities you start to see significant price increases on food, so while the city prices might be subsidizing rural prices to an extent, it's not really done in a universal cross-Canada way. For Telecoms, we certainly do get gouged as Australia gets far more affordable cell phone plans, despite having similar geographical issues.

Dorothy

We do. I have a Canadian SIM card that I keep adding to whenever I get back to Canada. I find it ridiculously expensive to use. In Australia we have an area code specific to mobile phones so there's none of the silly long distance charges. I can call/text my friends on the east coast on a mobile for free. In Canada I have to pay long distance fees to call Stoney Creek from Burlington.