Time4change Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Is it still walking around??! ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Shell15 Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 what about seafood..? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slean Wolfhead Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Course - apparently cars are ridiculously priced, but hey...maybe we'll walk more, or use public transport. We're only trying to learn....be kind to us :-)) Cars is a different thread, but it needs careful thinking and if you change your mindset, can actually be cheaper. My missus had a car in the UK which was £18K brand new. She earned £35k per year...so the car was roughly 50% of her wage. 50% of her wage in Australia would buy a better car (excluding the Euro imports like Skoda, VW, Audi, BMW which are way more here). It's just a different market with different driving in a different location....so factor those in and where the cars are coming from......it's not as bad as it first seems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fish.01 Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Cars is a different thread, but it needs careful thinking and if you change your mindset, can actually be cheaper. My missus had a car in the UK which was £18K brand new. She earned £35k per year...so the car was roughly 50% of her wage. 50% of her wage in Australia would buy a better car (excluding the Euro imports like Skoda, VW, Audi, BMW which are way more here). It's just a different market with different driving in a different location....so factor those in and where the cars are coming from......it's not as bad as it first seems. The other thing to consider is the cost of a car includes the depreciation. The depreciation is far less in oz so this reduces the total cost of ownership. You're not just buying a car you're eventually selling it as well. Of course you often need to tie up more money than you might like in the car in the first place....though many reports of "some" new car models being the same/cheaper in oz for similarly spec'ed cars so not always worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhampa Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 One quick note on the subject of food. I shall be moving out with a case full of 'proper' cadbury's chocolate. The chocolate in Australia is not good! We were in Melbourne for easter and the brand named chocolate tasted like the cheap stuff you get off the market! Apparently different recipe to stop it melting....but yuk!!! you clearly are a crazy person I could inhale coles mint chocolate bar in about 20sec without taking a breath...... totally amazing.... mind you I grew up in South Africa and thats what it reminded me of.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhampa Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 If anyone read my posts and thought I was dissing Oz, then you have me all wrong. I wouldn't have gone through the last few months and many more to come (I'm sure) if I was not in love with the Great Southern Land. As part of our research I took someone's advice and did the dummy shop. I actually found the basic staples to be cheaper than that in the UK or Spain. I just wish I hadn't mentioned the peppers!! I am going to notice it more as shopping in Spain is cheap, whether in supermarket or local market/shops. It seems to be the same in Oz then, purchasing from the smaller shops can work out cheaper. This is completely the opposite in the UK, the supermarkets have their price wars and do their best to entice people into their shops. If you are doing your research online, all you have to go on is the supermarkets. I might be able to get fillet steak a fiver cheaper down the road at Fred Elliot's Butchers, but unless he has a website, I cannot check his prices LOL. Thanks everyone for the tips, it hasn't put me off of Coles or Woolies, I will just need to look out for the specials. dont know about WA but friend told me if you go to the brisbane markets near there closing time you can grab bargains if you buy in bulk.... might be a bit too much effort though IGA and ALDI worked for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starlight7 Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Get main stuff, fruit, vegies, meat, milk cheese etc at Aldi- top up at Coles for catfood, prawns and coriander. Markets are good if you live nearby or can shop when they are on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johndoe Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 what about seafood..? Some of the (market) butchers do specials on seafood such as prawns for $10 a kilo but you have to buy 5 kilo boxes............the same with fish fillets. Make sure they're individually frozen and not block frozen...............seafood is the main reason I have two freezers as I catch a lot of my own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fish.01 Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 If anyone read my posts and thought I was dissing Oz, then you have me all wrong. I wouldn't have gone through the last few months and many more to come (I'm sure) if I was not in love with the Great Southern Land. As part of our research I took someone's advice and did the dummy shop. I actually found the basic staples to be cheaper than that in the UK or Spain. I just wish I hadn't mentioned the peppers!! I am going to notice it more as shopping in Spain is cheap, whether in supermarket or local market/shops. It seems to be the same in Oz then, purchasing from the smaller shops can work out cheaper. This is completely the opposite in the UK, the supermarkets have their price wars and do their best to entice people into their shops. If you are doing your research online, all you have to go on is the supermarkets. I might be able to get fillet steak a fiver cheaper down the road at Fred Elliot's Butchers, but unless he has a website, I cannot check his prices LOL. Thanks everyone for the tips, it hasn't put me off of Coles or Woolies, I will just need to look out for the specials. Given all the posts I have seen lately on this forum and BE where people have completed a comparison shop and then compared using the 2.2 rate I'm not convinced you couldn't carry on shopping in big supermarkets here if that is what you do back home. They seem to be equally expensive overall. You will save more if you don't, but the prices in the two countries supermarkets from the reported facts seem to work out very similar for a full shop when people don't incorrectly use the current exchange rate to compare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocky123 Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 dont forget that when you get settled you dont notice the price difference as you tend to earn alot more money in OZ than UK which means you end up with more money to spend on food then your budget for food would be in the UK and the quality of food espec meat fish and fresh fruit/veg most of the time is a hell of alot better then you would get in tescos it just takes a good few months to think in $ without doing a conversion to £'s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Burchos Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 The taste and quality of fresh food in Australia is amazing imo. We went to validate in February and shopped in both the local veg shop, butchers, IGA and Coles it's well worth a little extra if that is the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Ropey HOFF Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 I personally like the shopping here in the UK, i do the shopping for the wife, i get some great deals at Morrisons, 2 for the price of 1 deals and the last few weeks i have managed to get £5 vouchers out of the paper to use when you spend more than £40 i used two of them last time and saved £10. I have no problems with the shopping in either country, it seemed just as good in Australia, slightly dearer if i'm honest, but other things were alot cheaper, it was swings and roundabouts to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pablo Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Whiskys dearer,mwah mwah mwah:sad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest17301 Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 I really loved Morrisons. I will go there when we come back, have me dinner in the caff, lovely Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Sigh. This old topic again. I bought three green peppers for a recipe yesterday and spent $1 at my greengrocer on his discount shelf or $3.99 a kilo at full price. Even at Coles and Woolworths green peppers are $4.99/kg and 3 peppers would be probably under half a kilo. (And I just checked to make sure.) Bananas WERE expensive after the Queensland floods and typhoon--but are about $1.99 a kilogram now (and taste a heck of a lot better than the ones picked green and shipped chilled to Tesco). Oh, and we were preserving lemons today for Moroccan food--$2.99 for a kilo of big, sweet juicy ones. Avocados are cheap now though...they're in season and there's a tree on public land near the side of the road near us. We fill a big bag every time we drive by! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eribow Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Have you seen the price of Heinz baked beans? $1.69 a tin. That makes them a luxury item. It could be just the rice for you, then! I only ever buy beans when they are on special...a dollar a tin. That puts them on a par with the u.k. I still can't get out of the habit of comparing u.k. & Aussie prices, although, as has been stated, you generally earn more money here. Although you can get reduced items at various times of the day, if you shop after 3pm you can get items that are still fresh with as much as 80% off. I've got a freezer full of meat this way. There's always specials as well. If you don't mind junk mail, you may get leaflets delivered that show you the latest specials. If you need peppers to add to a curry or chilli...then the jars of peppers are usually very reasonable. Otherwise, most shopping mals have good priced fruit & vegetable shops. There's an art to finding bargain food stuffs. Sometimes (as with the peppers) you just need to do some lateral thinking. Cheers, Erica Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vixxy666 Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Heinz beans aren't cheap in the uk anymore it's horrifies me good old beans on toast cost next to nowt it's weird how things have crept up over the years like chocolate bars but that's life it's always gonna go up I'm going 20 minutes from the coast so I'm hoping I can get lots of fresh yummy seafood. My oh is shopping Coles and woollies and has got some real bargains. We used to enjoy a Saturday morning in the uk having a mooch round all the bargain shops and grocers before doing the big shop so I think I'll quite enjoy all the bargain hunting and I'm definitely gonna have a lemon tree with a knife stuck in it ready to slice them straight into my drink of a warm evening ahhh lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 If you can, go to both Coles and Woolies and buy the specials from each store. When things like Heinz Baked Beans are on special for $1 a can, buy up big. Thats what I try to do - be flexible and buy the specials. The good thing is they are very competitive against each other at the moment so there are lots of things on special. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petals Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 Being only two of us its not worth it, however a lot of families are using Costco now and saving money that way. Another way to save money if you have friends around the area, say people lived in Berwick or Narre Warren here in Melbourne, then get together and buy a case of fruit or a case of veg from Dandenong market and split up. Its so cheap to buy a case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pintpot Posted May 21, 2012 Share Posted May 21, 2012 This is the major difference I've found in Oz, compared to the UK. The Oz shops (where i live) are like the UK 15 yrs ago before the supermarkets destroyed local independents. The amount of local food is amazing and the quality is superb : butchers, bakers, delis..it's outstanding. The one thing i would say is that Supermarkets in Oz are now doing what they did in the UK....positioning themselves to crush the locals. I still think the quality in places like Coles is good, but it has to be while they're still competing. It's only after they've destroyed the locals that they drop the quality to maintain profits. The sad thing is that the same will happen in Oz as happened in the UK. People will go for the supermarkets because of the convenience and the independents will eventually go under. Then the supermarkets drop the quality. I don't think there's a way to stop it, but I'm doing more for my Aussie locals than I did in the UK, just because I realise a lot better how they're worth protecting. Totally agree with you about the trajectory of the way the big two are taking the supermarket business.....it's not just the local shops, it's the suppliers that get squeezed too, and some of them will be crushed I'm less convinced the quality is "superb" - it's all right IMO, not markedly better or worse across the board than the UK, but then we always shopped for quality stuff and used local shops (we were fortunate to still have them in rural Suffolk) back home, too. I do notice that seasonality matters so much more here, principally because the vast majority of fruit and veg is Aus grown rather than imported, but that's also a good thing IMO If people cook and shop more seasonally, and shop around and use local and/or quality suppliers, then that's all good I think. And I would echo the implication of "be careful what you wish for" when it comes to cheap supermarket food; it comes with a lot of collateral damage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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