Rent: $1300/mo including water/sewage
Renter Insurance: $49/mo
Transit: $91 my monthly Transit pass and $21 x 2 10 transit tickets booklets for my OH
BCHydro: $80-$90 every two months
Telus Optik TV/internet $136/mo
Cell: $156/mo for two phones on Rodgers
Groceries: $300 ish/mo for 2 people
Beer/wine: $20/mo (I get to go to a lot of events through work and so have booze at those events)

Im not sure we are better off money wise, but we feel better off for being here as we love living here

There was a clause in our contract which said old owners had to pay for their bit, if property was reassessed. We knew where they were so they paid, I felt sorry for them though. If we hadn't been able to find them I think we would have been on the hook for it, thankfully we didn't have to test that out.

That's a relief.

I'm fairly sure this is illegal in the UK and stores get fined if caught out...I think it's still happens though. I remember reading some economics book (a funny one and about marketing) that said you need to read the unit price so like you say it's sometimes cheaper to buy the individual packs rather than a bigger unit on offer... It's an interesting read, obvious stuff I guess but of placement of items like milk and bread right at the back of stores to entice you past the things they really want you to buy. It sort of fits into what I meant on the thread about smartphones- potential customers are just a tool to be manipulated into buying what they want you to...

Certainly on larger priced items - furniture, electricals etc I recall a law that the "was" price had to mean the item had been for sale at that price for 30 days or something, somewhere.

Quite easily got around, I think, but I'm not sure it applied to groceries. I remember Sainsbury's regularly doing BOGOFs where the price was not something they normally charged individually.

Just had a memory of buying a microwave from Currys back in 1984. Seemed a great saving at the time and I just made it by a few days before the end of the "special offer".

I used to pass the shop regularly and thereafter it was NEVER on the shelf for more than I paid.

One of the few things I like about Sears is that if something goes on sale within 28 days of you buying it then they will refund the difference. But then who goes back in to check?

Based on the number of times I have had to wait for ever at the checkout while the person in front of me tries to claim the sale price on an item they bought before the 28 day deadline, I would say quite a few people do.

Wal-Mart is very tricky. I've noticed they put things on the end of the isle with the big red and yellow signs above them to make it look like the item is on sale, when it's not as there is no previous price listed.

Also the same with the "sale" freezers/chillers. They pull stuff out of the regular freezer/chiller and put them in the ones that usually have sale items in. Not every item is on sale in there though, so again, unless you pay attention to the regular price, you can grab something you believe is on sale but can actually be at a higher than normal price. I nearly got caught out with Magnum Ice cream that way - One week in the sales freezer for $4.95 a box, next week still in there but at $7.95 per box when before the sale they were something like $6.49!

Another thing is that people seem to assume Costco is always cheaper for everything, when really it's not. You have to do your homework and work out if you will shop there enough and save enough to justify the membership fee. I get my fuel there so it's well worth it.

I'm not much of a comparison shopper but I have looked at the items we buy at Costco (I suppose $300/month worth, so a few things). They were all cheaper than Loblaws except Ginger Ale which was the same price. Where one can lose by shopping at Costco is buying too big a bag of perishable stuff or by picking up another television or speed boat on the way round because it's there and looks cheap. It's not cheap if you already have enough televisions and speed boats.

It's not being 'tricky', it is merchandising, space planning and good business practice. WalMart use an Everyday Low Price strategy (EDLP), hardly ever so their prices end in a 9. The apparently random (which they are not) pricing with odd numbers make it much harder to price compare by memory, unlike stores the end everything in 9, which is mentally rounded up.

Costco don't always sell at a lower price, items can be same price is regular retailers with added value items included or multiple packs to bring the unit cost down.

I think consumer marketing is an endlessly fascinating topic because it is all about the foibles of human nature. Prices ending in 99 cents is one example. In our rational mind we see $39.99 and say that's only a penny short of 40 dollars. Who are they trying to kid? At an emotional level we see $30.00, and most purchase decisions are made at the emotional level.

I agree with this completely. I'm an emotional shopper.

I certainly find Costco to be cheaper if you're happy to buy in bulk. We buy big trays of meat and fish then portion it, ziploc it and freeze.

Going OT now but one of my favorite consumer marketing stories was of a fast food chain. A couple of decades ago people were becoming increasingly aware of the health risks associated with eating too much deep fried food. They noticed that sales of fries were dropping.

They had three different serving portions which they called regular, medium and large. A genius in their marketing department suggested they renamed the regular portion as "small." Exactly the same size and unhealthiness as the previous regular portion, but sales went up 40% overnight.

I've never been to Costco but from sample prices I've seen I'm unconvinced.

It may be that their "normal" prices are less than other stores' normal prices, but with competitive pricing available at the stores available to me, I rarely pay "normal" price.

I have a meat and general store up the road that sells packs of lean burger patties (4 x 4oz) for $3-$3.50. 24 would be $18 to $21.

The Costco website is advertising 48 x 2oz ones (the same total weight) for $89.99. I'm quite prepared to accept they are leaner but more than four times the price?

The Costco site has K-Cup dark roast coffee for $49.99 for 96 pods. 52c a cup. I can buy PC's dark roast at the "overpriced" Shoppers Drugmart 40 for $17.99 this week. 45c a cup.


Costco 900g coffee $21. PC dark roast between $8 and $12.

Maybe I'm looking at the wrong examples.