Tirytory

On household budget...

I'm curious... How much do groceries cost you a month on what size family? Eating out? Utility bills? Cable? And gas?

Everybody says it's cheaper here but we seem to have a lot less spare money than we did back home....husband and I were talking this morning and we probably allow ourselves more money here but seem to have less of it spare - we would usually have spare to cover clothes/shoes/trips etc whereas now it has come to out of the overall pot not the budgetary pot if you see what I mean (self employed thing)... Is this just part of settling into a new country? Grocery shopping seems expensive, and I spend more on Gas. We bought a bigger house but on a smaller interest rate so they work out roughly the same. Cars are the other expense we didn't have back home ie they were paid for...how do I make them cheaper (although sheepishly admit I'm no further along in the car dept than a few weeks ago) ?

Any money saving tips out there?

dbd33

Two people. Semi-rural. No red meat, eggs from the chickens, vegetables in season from the garden. About $200/week in general groceries/household supplies. About $150/week at the LCBO. About $25/week at the cheese shop.

We don't eat out consistently, beer and wings is $60, proper dinner $200, Indian $80, shwarma $20.

Electricity is $140/month. Gas $100. Firewood $40.

We have no cable.

You didn't ask but petrol/diesel is about $200/week, insurance for house+vehicles is about $800/month.

JamesM

It's not cheaper here and people who say that are bad at mathematics or just out of touch with exchange rates and product prices in the UK.

In answer to your question I typically spend $80 per week on lunch and coffee during the working day. $70 per week on groceries (breakfast,dinner and toiletries) and around another $60 eating out (I normally brunch on a weekend and have a burger in a bar). Hydro and Utility is $45 per month. I only need one tank of fuel a month at around $55. So for 4 weeks (close to a month) I spend over $900.

iaink

We are a family of 2+2 kids (8 and 12) and spend on average about $125-150 a week on supermarket groceries/ necessities at the cheapest nastiest store (No Frills) and maybe 25-50 elsewhere (farmers market, local suppliers etc). Having said that overall day to day shopping / mastercard expenses are seldom ever less than $2k a month.

We dont eat out too much, and usually only in places like Swiss Chalet where its hard to exceed $20 a head. More likely to go to Subway and buy $5 subs.

Running 2 cars (a rural necessity, 25km from work) probably averages about $300-400 a month on gas alone (1.8l and 2,5l cars), plus the insurance on top.

Hydro averages about $130, no cable, but phone/ internet is about $90/month and we are on ten monthly oil payments of $225 for equal billing for our primary water and home heating. We also have 2 cord of wood ($170 a cord IIRC) to supplement that over the worst of the winter.

Insurance is the killer, cars and property are pushing $250 a month, plus another $100 between us on term life, so over $4k a year just on insurance Easiest way to lower that would be to buy old beater cars and have minimal insurance, but I cant bring myself to do it. Same goes for moving closer to town, or even in town.

I dont know how that compares with the UK, but I suspect that our main advantage here is property costs, which for us are less than $700 a month for the mortgage and property taxes on our modest place in the country, plus after deductions and allowances our income tax / NI contributions works out at about 16-17% overall, which is better than the UK last time I checked.

JamesM

I'd agree.

Any savings would occur at your monthly property/rental cost or if you are a heavy vehicle user that uses the same sized engine as you did in the UK and covered similar distances then you'd feel a dip in fuel.

mdizzle

Anyone who thinks Canada is cheaper for groceries is either from London or shops exclusively at places such as Waitrose and Marks Spencer's. Places like Lidl are really cheap for most things and actually have pretty decent quality as well. The other major supermarkets in the UK are pretty reasonable as well.

Tirytory

Ok so I'm thinking we're not that bad then...

No cable, internet costs $50
Food shopping $200 a week for a family of 4 although have been entertaining at home so probably spending a $100 on a weekend on that.
LCBO spending dropped substantially since pregnant
Cars $1100 Sure this is where we differ from UK, just don't know how to make it cheaper yet.
Property tax $350 a month it works out, but not really doing that monthly.
Hydro $150 at present.
Last propane was $300 since June.
Mobiles $160 ? Too much for two? Only phones we have..plus I just upgraded!
Gas for two cars... $300.
Mortgage.....on par with UK when we were overpaying.
We used to save regularly for kids and policy in UK- not really happening here.
Haven't paid tax here yet as self employed, and no pension contributions.


There are a few various insurances/business costs which are being absorbed by our current account at present. Need to get on to him but still... Where does it all go? It's hard to tell whether we actually worse off or not.

iaink

I agree, in the UK I would almost certainly chose to live nearer town, and definitely have more efficient vehicles. Rural public transport is also a practical proposition in the UK too.

As it is my daily driver Civic was chosen in large part as one of the most efficient and cheap to own vehicles, and it has a 1.8l petrol engine in it FFS.... Canada does not really do small efficient engines.

Tirytory

It's certainly not my opinion, and I would shop middle of the road at Sainsburys. How I miss internet grocery shopping!

mdizzle

I used to go to Sainsburys but I've only recently been converted. I still go elsewhere to get certain things but IMO it's best value for money.

bats

It used to be cheaper here, food has gone up considerably in recent years. Our outgoings are much on a par with what's been stated already. We don't eat out much mainly as there is only one decent diner in the village and we don't feel like driving somewhere on week nights. When we do its around 100 for two of us. Two courses, booze for one.

iaink

If I had the captains table in my village I would eat out a lot more. And weigh about 350lb!

bats

That's not the diner I meant!
There's a Captain George's in the big town now. A much cleaner environment.

Shard

Now where's Steve to tell you that you're all mad because Canadian groceries are much cheaper than British!

JamesM

Frantically working his way through the mountains of data to try and find something contradictory.