Today I went to the BRM factory shop and purchased 20 x 1kg packs of ribs which cost me R1380 or $72/£59.30 which if bought in the States or the UK would cost far more. I checked some quick pricing and I would guesstimate 2.5-4 x more.
When I was living and earning a salary in the UK it didn't really matter where you travelled too it was more often than not cheaper than the UK. Living in the UK was definitely not cheap and you needed to earn a decent monthly wage to come out on top.
I was bought onto this topic by a post I commented on yesterday where they mentioned that living in Thailand was so much cheaper than in the US. If you re on holiday that is correct but if you are living and earning in Thailand then it is not the same as the salary is in line with the local prices. This is why comparing what you earn with another country gives you a false sense of security and judging whilst on holiday is rather dangerous. You have to live it to understand how cheap or not so cheap a place really is.
This morning I went and bough spare ribs from a direct butcher factory outlet and paid R69/kg which is cheap even by our standards here coming in under less than $4 per Kg. This is rare though as a branded supplier these would cost closer to $10 in a retail environment and why you have to shop around. Certain items are still cheap ,but they are diminishing quickly for the locals.
When I lived in the UK the exchange rate was 10 Rand's to the Pound and now 19 years later in is 23.27 to the Pound. If I was coming here on holiday it would be so cheap, but earning Rand's it is no longer cheap. I am fortunate as I still do earn Pounds and I always convert in my head which gives me a sense of where the prices really are and even what we used to be able to get for a Pound the value is definitely slipping away even though it is 2.3 x stronger than what it was 19 years ago.
Later this year or in January next year I am going to the UK and I am dreading the prices as I know how expensive public transport is. back in 2004 for my family to go into London for the day which was only a 1 hour train ride it cost more than 100 Pounds so I hate to guess how much this would be now. This is roughly 25% of an air ticket flying return from South Africa to the UK so it makes very little sense really.
I do firmly believe you have to be earning Dollars, Euro's or Pounds no matter where you are living or otherwise you are just falling behind due to the devaluation of your local currency. At some point you will be trapped not being able to afford a holiday outside of where you live due to the gaps in currency values. This is an ever increasing gap growing wider at an alarming rate.
I wasn't going to mention crypto ,but having crypto is the true leveler as it is all valued in USD and bypasses the conversion rates. $1 today is worth R19.05 and has nearly halved the Rand value in the last 10 years. At the same time I would guess the cost of living has doubled in price over that period which makes the local currency a losing asset depreciating consistently over time.
