When I was in the UK doing some grocery shopping for the self catering house we stayed in it was hard no to compare prices against what we have in South Africa. Let us just say they were not in the same ball park and this I kind of knew beforehand. I am always comparing prices and calculating doing conversions which I just cannot help. If you are from South Africa do not read his post lol.
Whilst doing a shop in Tesco's which is the kind of shop I can compare against in South Africa. I do 99% of my family's shopping and I am very clued up on prices. Sadly only two products were the same being bread which actually is wrong because our loves in SA are more expensive and slightly smaller. Bananas oddly enough was the other item that was bang on the same. Yoghurts were cheaper in the UK plus they have a far bigger range with my grandson taking a liking to the Muller corner yoghurts with banana and chocolate cornflakes being his favorite. What we have in SA is boring bog standard and we are paying higher prices.
Meat in the UK is anywhere between 2.5 x and 4 x more expensive with chicken being a staple diet of the poor back home being 4 x more pricey in the UK. The prices of most items had me somewhat puzzled like fruit smoothies being 4 x more pricey as well. It is easy to see how salaries just do not stretch like they used to.
We went out to eat quite a bit and as expected you are being royally screwed over. I still earn GBP, but I can only imagine what it would be like if this was Rand's. This type of trip s not a realistic option for 90% of the SA population and my son mentioned this trip is more of a privilege now.
Paris is no different except they have decent public transport and even then most South Africans would have to walk. Tonight we ate out and 6 tube stops on the Metro cost R600 (34 Euros) for 7 people. The KFC snack last night when we arrived cost 50 Euro's and that was only for 3 of us. Ok there was 5 small bottles of water thrown into that price but that is definitely 3 x more than what we would pay in SA.
The Airport shuttle in SA cost R1200 and here in France cost 130 Euro's which is nearly double. I just don't know how people cam make ends meet any more because prices in Europe are out of sink. I know most earn far more as a monthly salary, but your costs are that much higher for properties and services. South Africa is moving that way slowly, but we are still a way off from what I have seen here thus far. People in Europe are not earning 3 x or 4 x more than what we earn in South Africa.
I read recently that Cape Town was in the top 5 destinations for people to retire due to the cost of living being that much cheaper. For those of us living in South Africa thinking about getting out you need to have another income stream like crypto that pays in Dollars or you have no chance. I could never live in the UK again as the place has changed that much and not in a good way either.
