Now that our dollars are nearly the same - what are you paying for the following (Aussie cost in brackets) and US conversion (pounds/litres etc) next to?
Cigarettes, 25 pack ($11.50) - This is why I have quit today
Litre of full cream milk ($1.90) .264 gallons
Litre of petrol ($1.80) .264 gallons
Litre of Deisel ($1.90) .264 gallons
Hire a new release DVD ($8.50)
Big Mac ($3.95)
Roasted Chicken from supermarket ($11.00)
Standard can of heavy beer ($2.00 or $64.00 for 48 on special)
30 pack of Diet Coke ($13.00 on special - and not often)
Cauliflower ($4.00 per kilo) 2.2 pounds
Major daily newspaper ($1.80)
Bananas ($2.99 per kilo)
Rent on a four bedroom house in Melbourne ($400 per week)
Rent on a four bedroom house in rural area ($280 per week)
Latest bestseller from book store ($30)
Latest CD ($23)
Loaf of white bread ($3.00)
Let’s see how expensive or cheap it is to live in our respective parts of the planet! Feel free to add any other items to the list.
Litre of full cream milk - US$0.73 (US$2.78 gallon)
Litre of petrol US$1.02 (US$4.07 gallon - price drop from $4.27/gal two weeks ago)
Litre of Deisel US$1.10 (US$4.17 gallon)
Hire a new release DVD US$5.00
Big Mac - US$2.95
Roasted Chicken from supermarket - US$6.00
Fresh five pound chicken I roast at home - US$5.00
30 Pack of Pepsi - US$7.50 (Costco)
On sale 12-packs of Pepsi products (4 packs- 48 cans) - US$2.00 / pack
Cauliflower US$0.60 pound (US$1.32 kilo)
Fresh PNW Cherries - US$1.40 pound ( US$3.08 kilo)
Fresh PNW Blueberries - US$2.40 pint
Watermelon - US$0.39 pound ( US$0.86 kilo)
Major daily newspaper - US$1.00
Bananas - US$0.50 pound (US$1.10 kilo)
Latest bestseller from book store - Around US$12-$15.00 (from Costco)
Latest CD - US$5.00
Loaf of whole wheat bread - US$1.40
One pound hamburger - 12% fat max - US$2.50/pound ( US$5.50 kilo)
One dozen eggs (large) - US$1.00
Wow. We’re paying almost double for daily stuff and our dollars are the same. Mind you - the Aussie dollar hasn’t matched the US since about 1976. Thanks!
I think you need to include wages in that. Things seem much more expensive in Oz, but maybe you make twice as much. I’m a peon credit rep for a large US company. I make $32K/year. I live in Tennessee and own my 14 acres and farmhouse. I pay roughly:
Cigarettes, 20 pack (4.00) - I don't smoke, but this is what the going rate for Marlboros is.
Litre of full cream milk (.85) .264 gallons
Litre of petrol ($.9625) .264 gallons
Litre of Deisel ($1.02) .264 gallons
Hire a new release DVD ($1.00) - Love those Redbox kiosks.
Big Mac - No clue.
Roasted Chicken from supermarket ($6.00)
Standard can of heavy beer - No clue
30 pack of Diet Coke ($7.50) - 2 12 packs and 6.
Cauliflower ($2/head)
Major daily newspaper (1.00) - USA Today
Bananas (.50/lb)
Mortgage on old 2300 sq ft farmhouse and 14 acres - $600 including pricipal, interest, insurance and property taxes)
Latest bestseller from book store ($20) - From bookstore having 20% off on bestsellers, in hardcover
Loaf of white bread ($1.00) - Pepperidge Farm from the remainder store.
Note - All litre price were gallons divided by four for ease of arithmatic.
I’m not sure, but I think your listed rental prices are maybe lower. A 4BR rental house in Chicago, for instance, might be around $600 a week. Ann Arbor, MI here by me shows homes renting for $575 a week, but I’m not sure what kind of prices rural areas have on a house that size.
Small consolation, compared to the rest of the list, but maybe it’ll make you feel a wee bit better?
Duckster, a CD is more than $5 US. At least $10-20 depending on where you buy it (online, reasonably priced store, overpriced store). Unless you’re buying from the bargain bin I’ve never seen a CD for five bucks.
I can’t answer most of these questions for my area except:
Cigarettes: average $3.60
Gas: right now $3.87/gallon
I don’t know how much a “can” of beer is except for 24oz cans (tallboys - about $1.20 or so) but a 6-pack of domestic is $5ish for bottles. Up to $8 for “better” stuff and down near $3 for crappy stuff. And cans are cheaper than bottles.
There’s been a bit of hubris about this in Australia lately, but I don’t get it. The AUD is strengthening against the Greenback sure, but 1 is just a number. We’ve traditionally been about five Hong Kong dollars to one of ours, but it doesn’t mean our currency is five times stronger. I know this is obvious to most Dopers, but I do see people in the real world making much too much of this. Mark Twain wrote something about it once, as I recall…
I have a bunch of relatives in Australia, and every time I go and visit, I just notice how expensive everything is (even when the USD was trading .50 to 1), except rent which seems to be a lot cheaper than New York or Chicago or San Fran (the places I have rented). My uncle’s wife is a doctor and owns part of a clinic, but I did not think that doctors made as much in Australia as they do in the US. They own a two bedroom flat in Sydney and a four bedroom house in the suburbs (by Panthers or Panther’s club or something or other). They send their three kids to private school, and my uncle doesn’t work. He is a retired engineer, who retired when his kids were born (the thinking was that the wife made more money). So, I think commodities are expensive, especially anything made in the US. I remember my cousin telling me that minimum wage is something like $12 or $11/hr.
Cigarettes, 20 pack (3)
Litre of full cream milk (about .75)
Litre of petrol (about $1)
Litre of Diesel (about $1.10)
Hire a new release DVD ($4.50)
Big Mac ($2.99)
Roasted Chicken from supermarket ($5.00)
Standard can of heavy beer (Around $1.25 for a 12oz bottle. Cheap stuff can range down to 40 cents a can)
24 pack of Diet Coke (6.99 on special)
Major daily newspaper (.50)
Rent on a four bedroom house in rural area ($800 per month)
Latest bestseller from book store ($15)
Latest CD ($12)
Gas and cigarette prices vary by state, because of state taxes. According to this chart, there’s a 7-cent tax in South Carolina versus a $2.57 tax in New Jersey. For gas, This pdf shows taxes from about 32 cents to about 75 cents (not counting Alaska’s 26 cents).
Then, for any goods, you pay different sales tax rates on top of what the pricetag says. This also varies by state. Even what is taxed and what is not taxed varies by state.
How does this state tax system compare to other countries, like Australia?
Also, doesn’t the Big Mac cost like 49 cents right now or something, because it’s the anniversary of the Big Mac?
Australia has a federal Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is a value-added tax at 10%. The states in Australia cannot impose any kind of sales tax, including on cigarettes and petrol, because it’s forbidden by the Constitution. They could, in theory, impose an income tax, but they haven’t since World War 2.
In Australia, since the GST is uniform across the whole country, it’s included in the price tag. Your receipt will show what part of the price was GST (e.g., “Total $15.00 includes GST $1.36”). So when Australians think of prices, they think of the GST-inclusive price.
How much does Australia produce its own food? If a lot of what you eat is being shipped or flown in from other parts of the world, that could explain some of the higher costs there.
Australia is a major food producer, and exports about 80% of the food it produces ( Agriculture in Australia - Wikipedia ), but it also imports some food. One issue with food imports is that they are subject to strict quarantine, to prevent the importing of plant or animal diseases that might damage Australian agriculture, so that limits the fresh food that can be imported.
The Shearing of the Rams by Tom Roberts is a really wonderful painting (the original in in the National Gallery in Melbourne, Victoria). And the technology of sheep shearing hasn’t changed that much in over 100 years: the biggest difference these days would be that the shears would be electric-powered, so you’d see the cables linking them to rthe ceiling in today’s shearing shed. The shearers still hold the sheep between their legs to control them while they shear them.
We grow a lot of our own produce where I live in Northern Victoria, especially fresh produce like citrus (our orange juice is awesome), grapes, avocados, tomatoes, pumpkins, cabbages, carrots, potatoes, corn etc etc so really fresh local produce is quite affordable. Also, we run a lot of sheep, so a tray of lamb chops (16) is about $15.00. Beef is also reasonable but chicken for some reason is exhorbitant! Also fish is quite cheap, but a lot of supermarket lines are imported.
I know it’s not the USA – it’s Canada, southern Ontario to be precise – but I thought it would be interesting to compare:
Cigarettes, 25 pack ($11.50)
Here: $7.50-8.00 for budget brand, $9-10 for premium. I know they’re over $11 in Vancouver though.
Litre of full cream milk ($1.90) .264 gallons
Here: About the same for regular stuff, $2.80 for premium filtered
Litre of petrol ($1.80) .264 gallons
Here: Hovering around $1.35-$1.40 presently
Litre of Deisel ($1.90) .264 gallons
Here: $1.40-50 or so.
Hire a new release DVD ($8.50)
Here: $5
Big Mac ($3.95)
Here: Same
Roasted Chicken from supermarket ($11.00)
Here: $7-9
Standard can of heavy beer ($2.00 or $64.00 for 48 on special)
Here: Never seen 48-packs, but 2-4s are $25-35 depending on brand
30 pack of Diet Coke ($13.00 on special - and not often)
Here: 24 pack is $8 regular-priced, but specials here can snag you 12-packs for $2-3 each.
Cauliflower ($4.00 per kilo) 2.2 pounds
Here: They’re sold by the head, and generally sell for about $3.50 a head, but the price varies by season and availability.
Rent on a four bedroom house in Melbourne ($400 per week)
Here: $400-500/wk (though rent here is generally paid monthly), but as with any area there are rich areas and poor areas where rental rates fluctuate wildly.
Rent on a four bedroom house in rural area ($280 per week)
Here: Maybe remote areas without all the fancy-shmancy city services like public transit or garbage pickup.
Latest bestseller from book store ($30)
Here: Hardcover: $30-40, softcover: $10-12
Latest CD ($23)
Here: Usually $14-16 for new releases at places like Future Shop. Catalogue titles can hit $20 or more though.
Loaf of white bread ($3.00)
Here: $2.49 regular priced for the premium stuff (Dempsters or Wonder), $2.19 usually for budget brand, cheaper still if you buy “off the rack” (store-baked, unsliced, simple paper sleeve)
[QUOTE=Mindfield]
I know it’s not the USA – it’s Canada, southern Ontario to be precise – but I thought it would be interesting to compare:
Rent on a four bedroom house in rural area ($280 per week)
Here: Maybe remote areas without all the fancy-shmancy city services like public transit or garbage pickup.
Oh yes - God forbid that country dwellers might believe that they’re entitled to public transport and having their rubbish collected. Sounds like the political mindsets aren’t too different, and interestingly, not a huge difference in what we’re paying in Canada and Oz either. Thanks - that’s enlightening!
