bigglesworth

As so many seem to be um-ing and ah-ing about making the move back, perhaps it would be helpful if those of us who are here (still) posted prices for those doing their sums about returning.
Rent 9 we are paying well over the odds as we have (had) three dogs -1500 per month. Should normally be more like 1200 - prices ARE coming down here Council tax - 4 bed detached 1970 in Kent with small garden 250 per month.
Electricity and gas 150 per month.
Water (with meter) 25 (which is HALF what we were paying one mile down the road) - waiting for sewage.
Monthly season into London 2007 190 - going up to 280 in January.
BT broadband and phone 60.

tomatoes today - LIDL 45 - Sainsburys 96.
These all at Sainsburys.
i/2 lb spinach 1.39
i half size baguette.74
3/4 lb red grapes 1.95
0.9 lb white grapes 1,25
4 grapefruit 1.60
6 Nectarines 2.49
I bottle worcester sauce 1.99
I bottle own label squash .59
I bottle lime juice 1.23
1/2 lb butter 1.23
Loaf of bread at the bakers ( a real one) 1.40

I normally go to Asda for veg - so much better than anywhere else, and cheaper too

pete_l

ok, here's some of my costs in the UK

Sky basic tv, phone, unlimited broadband: £37.80 last month
'leccy: £33.50 / month by direct debit (averaged over the year)
gas bill was £420 for the last year (from Oct 2007-Oct 2008, part of a dual-fuel deal with the electric)
Fully comp car insurance £240(*) for the year
House building & contents insurance £110(**) / year.
Council tax £1150 per year (3 bed- semi)
I would tell you about my mobile phone deal, but I don't want to brag ...

(*) Go through quidco and you can get a £70 rebate off this price
(**) £65 rebate from quidco - though these take months to arrive.

I've found supermarket prices roughly the same between the UK and Spain
for the same sorts of things. Some items are cheaper in Spanish
supermarkets, such as fruit - although in the UK, street markets usually have
seasonaly fruit at roughly 1/3rd what the shops sell it at. (e.g. Pomegranites
in Waitrose last week: £1 each, Slough market today: 6 for £1.50 - OK, 1/4
the shop price )
Beer & wine seems cheaper in Spain - but spirits are about £14 per litre -
slightly more than the spanish prices.
One thing that utterly shocked me was the price of Flora Pro-active margarine.
In the UK, it's about £2.25 for 250g. The local Mercadona was selling the same
product at €3.39 and Consum wanted €3.69 for it!
Biscuits seem much more expensive in Spain

steviedeluxe

Are you sure about that? Sounds an awful lot of an increase.

One thing that concerns me is that food prices are going to keep going up in the UK in the new Year. This is because the fall in the pound makes imports a lot more expensive; and we import 60% of our food I believe.

Yes, I pay 1.35 at our local Bakers Oven for a loaf. It's gone up from 89pence in a year. Still worth it IMO. But still...

steviedeluxe

A bit hard to compare supermarket prices. If you only bought jamon serrano, olives, alubias beans and local tinto you'd obviously save a fortune in Spain. But if you fancy Heinz beans, coronation chicken, pork pie and Carling Black Label it'll be cheaper in the UK. Assuming you can buy them in the other place anyway.

poshnbucks

Do they still sell those big big big........whopping current buns with a pound of icing on the top. bottom left in pic below....... They must be 4 pounds each at today's prices.

fionamw

Belgian buns
actually there's a remarkably similar product - well similar enough for me anyway - in Spain. No idea of price, just taste

lynnxa

which is the point, really, isn't it

there is usually something 'remarkably similar' here - if you just try it






but that's not the point of this thread

bigglesworth

[QUOTE=steviedeluxe;7083233]Are you sure about that? Sounds an awful lot of an increase.

One thing that concerns me is that food prices are going to keep going up in the UK in the new Year. This is because the fall in the pound makes imports a lot more expensive; and we import 60% of our food I believe.

Sorry Stdvie, you are right.I was comparing 2006 Hildenborough. Increase in January is 11.5 percent, last year 12 percent.

Fruit = yes I agree. But most staples will suffer from the same fact - we import rice, pasta and a lot of flour. Also a lot of our vegetables as well as chicken, pork etc. Britain is not designated as a primary food producer in the EU.
Not in fact as much of anything but a cash cow for the other members.
But it has been announced that we are allowed to catch more cod! If we can find them as there are hardly any left . But not haddock which are quite abundant now. What a crazy world.

leighbloke

£18,000 a year in rent!!! - You could quite easily cover ALL your living costs - including your annual holidays and saving some for a rainy day in any area of England north of Warwick on £18K a year - as that equates to give or take the UK average take home wage that would mean over 80% of the country earn this or less.

bigglesworth

Average UK take home pay 2007 (ONS figures) was, I seem to remember, 26,000. Strangely - ALL income figures have now been removed from the ONS site. Perhaps they dont want us to see the contrast with 2008 and 2009.
But the point of this thread is to show the prices returnees may have to pay - and the different rents in different parts if the country are an important element. Plus our rental is supposed to be 6 months or so only until we move - (although the longer Gordo stays the more questionable that must become.) The point there though is that, having sold our house, we had to find somewhere fast. We were forced to pay somewhat more than the market because of our dogs, and because the present glut of rental property had not appeared. That glut will not last for ever, and although some further downward pressure on rents is likely, it may well not continue after next year

steviedeluxe

Rent (or indeed house values) are very much dependent on location. It makes me laugh when I see a 2 bedroomed terrace house on sale in East Oxford for 230,000, or a similar house for rent at 900 a month. You only need to go to the north of the county (15 miles or so) to get a far better house for 80k less.

leighbloke

You've read the figures wrong, the UK average wage before tax is give or take a quid or two £25k, I wouldn't have said £18k a year is more than the majority of the UK workforce bring home if it wasn't true now would I.

If £26K is the ave take home - by my reckoning that would mean the average was in the upper tax band? I thought only about 10% of UK tax payers are in the that??

jurdyr

yes the cost has gone up on most goods , 99% but not due to the fall in the pound makes imports a lot more expensive; (and we import 60% of our food I believe) . its more down to fuel and wages incress in the last 12 months
, the rate fall off GBP dosse not help aswell , but more to wages and fuel going up

bigglesworth

I don't really know what this conversation is about. At the beginning of the thread I said we knew we were paying over the odds. And the world and his uncle knows the south east is expensive. Every headline for several years has screamed that property prices ( and rental prices) are forcing all but the super rich out of the South East. So I do not see where you are coming from and cannot really see what relevance a temporary rental has here.

But again off the top of my head as the figures have gone, there are two numbers published, the first before allowances and the second after.

I cannot remember the percentage off the top of my head but I know it is about 4 million people who pay higher rate i.e over 50 percent - and there are only about 23 million people in the UK who pay basic rate tax. (I don't know if that number includes higher rate taxpayers, who of course do pay basic rate as well). There are just over 28 million people in work. Population is about 62 million.
So 15 percent roughly of workforce. or 7.0 percent of population.

But personally, I do not class taking a THIRD of my income as basic rate tax. I regard it as highway robbery

leighbloke

My point was to point out that the rental costs you gave - (in a thread intended to inform people in a foregn land unfamiliar with the current cost of living in the UK) - were on their own sufficient to live off very comfortably in most places of the UK - and to use the average wage in the UK to demonstrate this to be the case.

You then said I was wrong, I corrected you, you confirmed my correction and asked why we are talking - this post is intended to clarify to you why we are toing and froing forum postings - if you can't keep up maybe an afternoon nap is in order??


oops - forgot - Think the income average includes pensions and benefits so the overall number of peeps considered in the figures would be nearer 40 - 45 million