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As essential items, and now that the US and Canadian dollar are pretty much on par... lets see how much it costs to survive in comparison.

I believe minimum wage is at $8/hr in BC and they put in a not-so-new-anymore clause that allows employers to hire for $6/hr for the first 500 hours a new employee works. Minimum wages vary from province to province.

In Victoria

Rent/month:

$750 for a bachelor

$850 one bedroom

$1000 two bedroom

$1400 average house

Food:

apples $1.69/lb

head of iceberg lettuce $1.79

english cucumber $1.69 ea

kraft dinner $1.29/box

can of Campbells tomato/chicken noodle soup $.99

can of any other Campbells soup $1.89

box of wheat thin crackers $3.49

average tub of yoghurt $3.99

can of frozen juice $1.79

I'm vegetarian at the moment so I don't know what the price of meat is at but I can look.

koan;829518 wrote: As essential items, and now that the US and Canadian dollar are pretty much on par... lets see how much it costs to survive in comparison.

I believe minimum wage is at $8/hr in BC and they put in a not-so-new-anymore clause that allows employers to hire for $6/hr for the first 500 hours a new employee works. Minimum wages vary from province to province.

In Victoria

Rent/month:

$750 for a bachelor

$850 one bedroom

$1000 two bedroom

$1400 average house

Food:

apples $1.69/lb

head of iceberg lettuce $1.79

english cucumber $1.69 ea

kraft dinner $1.29/box

can of Campbells tomato/chicken noodle soup $.99

can of any other Campbells soup $1.89

box of wheat thin crackers $3.49

average tub of yoghurt $3.99

can of frozen juice $1.79

I'm vegetarian at the moment so I don't know what the price of meat is at but I can look.


Minimum wage is £5.30 / hour

In London, a fairly grot bedsit is £100 pcm (although you can sink to about £70 if you'll share)

1 bed flat £180 pcm

2 bed flat £230+ pcm



Leicester house £450 pcm up

Cucumber £0.80

Tomato / Ox Tail soup £0.75

Wheat Thin Crackers £1.00

Cod / Smoked Haddock £8.90 / kilo

Medium Chicken £3.50

Mushrooms £4.00 / Kilo

Baugette £0.89

Bryn Mawr;830150 wrote: Minimum wage is £5.30 / hour



In London, a fairly grot bedsit is £100 pcm (although you can sink to about £70 if you'll share)



1 bed flat £180 pcm

2 bed flat £230+ pcm





Leicester house £450 pcm up



Cucumber £0.80

Tomato / Ox Tail soup £0.75

Wheat Thin Crackers £1.00

Cod / Smoked Haddock £8.90 / kilo

Medium Chicken £3.50

Mushrooms £4.00 / Kilo

Baugette £0.89Those accomodation prices seem on the cheap side Bryn

Are you sure it's pcm and not week?

Bryn Mawr;830150 wrote: Minimum wage is £5.30 / hour

In London, a fairly grot bedsit is £100 pcm (although you can sink to about £70 if you'll share)

1 bed flat £180 pcm

2 bed flat £230+ pcm

Leicester house £450 pcm up

Cucumber £0.80

Tomato / Ox Tail soup £0.75

Wheat Thin Crackers £1.00

Cod / Smoked Haddock £8.90 / kilo

Medium Chicken £3.50

Mushrooms £4.00 / Kilo

Baugette £0.89


where i live you cant get a one bed flat for less than £450 or a house for less than £550 and thats per 4 weeks

abbey;830273 wrote: Those accomodation prices seem on the cheap side Bryn

Are you sure it's pcm and not week?


Oops - I dropped a bo-bo.

Indeed, they would be pw so :-

Bedsit from £430 pcm (grot from £300 up)

1 bed flat from £780 pcm up

2 bed flat from £1,000 pcm up



There are better areas (by far) but there are also worse.

San Diego CA average rent rate by year. As for the food add at least 30 cents to the price of everything and sometimes more. Gas is going for $3.80 a gallon, minimum wage is $8.00 and hour. Most of the rents are actually higher depending on your location. :-5

Year 1 bedroom

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Price: $856 $1050 $1177 $1094 $1163 $1161 $1182 $1209 $1251

% change: -

22.66% 12.1% -7.05% 6.31% -0.17% 1.81% 2.28% 3.47%

Yean 2 bedroom

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Price: $994 $1245 $1309 $1385 $1429 $1453 $1464 $1484 $1424

% change: -

25.25% 5.14% 5.81% 3.18% 1.68% 0.76% 1.37% -4.04%

koan;829518 wrote: As essential items, and now that the US and Canadian dollar are pretty much on par... lets see how much it costs to survive in comparison.

I believe minimum wage is at $8/hr in BC and they put in a not-so-new-anymore clause that allows employers to hire for $6/hr for the first 500 hours a new employee works. Minimum wages vary from province to province.

In Victoria

Rent/month:

$750 for a bachelor

$850 one bedroom

$1000 two bedroom

$1400 average house

Food:

apples $1.69/lb

head of iceberg lettuce $1.79

english cucumber $1.69 ea

kraft dinner $1.29/box

can of Campbells tomato/chicken noodle soup $.99

can of any other Campbells soup $1.89

box of wheat thin crackers $3.49

average tub of yoghurt $3.99

can of frozen juice $1.79

I'm vegetarian at the moment so I don't know what the price of meat is at but I can look.


Our prices are about the same, the average 3 bedroom 2 bath here is about 1200.00....I am moving into a 1 bedroom apartment garage for $600.00 and that is a bargain...no such bird around here.

I'll convert to pounds weight and dollars for simplicity. Everything in the list is converted to per pound. This is all from last week's shopping receipt.

Long grain rice is $0.40, dry pasta's $0.34.

Canned sauce (mostly tomato and onion) to put on the rice is $0.06.

Canned grapefruit segments is $0.50 (still per pound), canned mandarin orange segments is $0.20.

Loose apples are $0.52.

Shampoo $0.25, conditioner $0.45.

Ground coffee £3.20

Clothes washing powder $0.44.

Natural yoghourt $0.80.

Furniture polish (aerosol) $0.30 for a 10 ounce spray.

Shopping isn't my favourite sport and I'm not very good at it.

spot;831558 wrote: I'll convert to pounds weight and dollars for simplicity. Everything in the list is converted to per pound. This is all from last week's shopping receipt.

Long grain rice is $0.40, dry pasta's $0.34.

Canned sauce (mostly tomato and onion) to put on the rice is $0.06.

Canned grapefruit segments is $0.50 (still per pound), canned mandarin orange segments is $0.20.

Loose apples are $0.52.

Shampoo $0.25, conditioner $0.45.

Ground coffee £3.20

Clothes washing powder $0.44.

Natural yoghourt $0.80.

Furniture polish (aerosol) $0.30 for a 10 ounce spray.

Shopping isn't my favourite sport and I'm not very good at it.


If you can get 1lb of pasta sauce for £0.03 and a pound of tinned grapefruit for £0.25 and a pound of shampoo for £0.12 then you're magnificent at it.

Sainsbury's Basics Broken Grapefruit Segments, 539g tin, 30p, £0.56/kg

The shampoo's 27p per litre but I put it into a rather snazzy Pantene Pro-V container because it has a better je-ne-sais-quoi. Grip. Flip-top.

The sauce, admittedly, was on offer.

I prepare a shopping list before I go, the online search at each UK supermaket chain is very useful.

spot;831558 wrote: I'll convert to pounds weight and dollars for simplicity. Everything in the list is converted to per pound. This is all from last week's shopping receipt.

Long grain rice is $0.40, dry pasta's $0.34.

Canned sauce (mostly tomato and onion) to put on the rice is $0.06.

Canned grapefruit segments is $0.50 (still per pound), canned mandarin orange segments is $0.20.

Loose apples are $0.52.

Shampoo $0.25, conditioner $0.45.

Ground coffee £3.20

Clothes washing powder $0.44.

Natural yoghourt $0.80.

Furniture polish (aerosol) $0.30 for a 10 ounce spray.

Shopping isn't my favourite sport and I'm not very good at it.


how much for ones with morals??

There's no such thing as a prim apple. Who'd want one that wasn't juicy?

Pinky;832348 wrote: Really? London is cheaper than the sticks then...how is that possible?

A one bedroom flat here goes from anywhere between 320 - 410 a month...a three bedroom house is around 580 - 700!


Easy - with me typing the figures there's no difference between a week and a month :wah:

I really ought to engage brain before typing posts.

Pinky;832375 wrote: Ah, ok!!! No, it's probably me that needs to engage the brain, been making stupid mistakes all week!:-3


Tell me about it - I went to work today, big mistake!

if you have good financial tips - you should add them to the Scott Common Sense community tip base - I always find really neat ideas here, such as this one to save $$ on annoying things that always take up a ton of cash like Draino - here is a way to make your own drain cleaner:

http://www.scottcommonsense.com/tip_det ... tipID=6802

We avoid costly, toxic drain cleaners by using a cup of bleach followed by a cup of hot water every three months in our bathroom drains. We use a cup of vinegar followed by a cup of hot water in the kitchen drain. No fumes and clean drains!

I'm still freaked out about the cost of dirt here in Victoria! :wah:

koan;829518 wrote: As essential items, and now that the US and Canadian dollar are pretty much on par... lets see how much it costs to survive in comparison.

I believe minimum wage is at $8/hr in BC and they put in a not-so-new-anymore clause that allows employers to hire for $6/hr for the first 500 hours a new employee works. Minimum wages vary from province to province.

In Victoria

Rent/month:

$750 for a bachelor

$850 one bedroom

$1000 two bedroom

$1400 average house

Food:

apples $1.69/lb

head of iceberg lettuce $1.79

english cucumber $1.69 ea

kraft dinner $1.29/box

can of Campbells tomato/chicken noodle soup $.99

can of any other Campbells soup $1.89

box of wheat thin crackers $3.49

average tub of yoghurt $3.99

can of frozen juice $1.79

I'm vegetarian at the moment so I don't know what the price of meat is at but I can look.


The food is exactly the same for the part of Northern California that I live in. Add 10& more for the rents.

Loose apples are $0.52.



sunny104;831769 wrote: how much for ones with morals??




:wah::wah: Good one sunshine !

It is awful! I am trying so hard these days not to fall into debt! I try to follow some of these rules so I don't! Rent for the house is about $1,000 right now plus utilities and I spent over $130 dollars at the grocery store last week! Everything is so expensive! Ahhh!

[Self Promotion Link Deleted]

in Ontario: minimum wage is now 8.00 pr. hour

one bedroom apartment, 800-900.00-rentals

two bedroom up to 1100.00-1200.00-rentals

utilities not included

homes now range from 350,000 and up to buy. mortage rates are 5.5 for four years.

to rent a house is 1600.00 plus utilitilies

lettuce, 179

kraft dinner, 1.39

instant coffee, well over 6.00

gas, is now 1.38 per litre

cookies, 3.59

toothpaste, 2.99

milk, 4.50- 6.00 for the 4l bag

now we shop wisely and do not pay these prices for foods.