What's the British standard of living like in 2008?

Oh come on, you know it’s true :stuck_out_tongue:

Why for a few quid more they’d throw in the pier and Wigan FC

True, but the vast majority of in-town supermarkets don’t have that much selection. Sainsburys has like 3 brands of bread other than their own bakery breads.

There are 3.7854 liters per US gallon, not 2.2. And the exchange rate is 1.9725 at the moment.

So: £1.39/liter * 3.7854 L/gal * $1.9725 = $10.38/gal.

Last week in the Isle of Man I paid $10.03 so it has gone up a bit.

Jesus, what a long day already - my brain ain’t back up to normal yet from the long weekend.

Your math is right, mine’s wrong, sorry about that.

Yes, GBP 1.39 is very high for a litre of unleaded. Around here it is GBP 1.169 at the moment. (Still bloody expensive!)

But the vast majority of supermarkets are out of town.

ETA and Sainsbury’s is doing petrol at £1.14 a litre.

That was at motorway services on the M6 on Friday, so maybe they bumped it up for bank holiday rip-off.

It was a Little Thief, though :slight_smile:

Yeah, my in-town Sainsburys offers mainly Warburtons, Hovis, and Kingsmill in addition to own-brand.

But each of those brands offers a full variety of bread types.

How many types of bread offerings do you need, anyways? :wink:

No, the vast majority of superstores are out of town; I shop at Sainsburys in Kingston or Waitrose if I’m feeling rich, and whilst both are ‘supermarkets’ neither of them are ‘superstores’ like you’re describing. Brand choice is limited to 1-2 choices per item, or maybe 3.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m not bitching about the choices, I think the selection is fine and don’t really care if I get Warburtons, Hovis, Kingsmill, or Own Brand as long as it’s what I want - multigrain seeded usually. It’s just very different from shopping in the US - you walk into a Safeway in the US and you’ve got like 20 different brands, even before the type of bread to choose from. The same goes for lots of other products in the US - you’ve got tons of brands doing the exact same product, then you’ve got 15 varieties for each brand.

The house I am renting now (terraced) is just under 9ft wide…

I think I’d get shopping-paralysis if I had that much to choose from! :smiley:

This is the only part i’d quibble with. London Transport isn’t actually very expensive and is incredibly good in terms of frequency in comparison to the majority of major cities and particularly in comparison to elsewhere in the UK.

A lot of people forget how close things are together sometimes, and that the tube isn’t the only part of the London Transport Network. If you get to know the various parts of the network and do a bit of forward planning (and lateral thinking) you’ll often find you can get around far cheaper than you’d think, particularly if you don’t focus solely on the fastest possible route.

By way of an example, here’s my daily commute:

Live in: Hackney, E5 (East London)
Work in: Ladbroke Grove W11 (West London)
Duration: 1:15 (approx)

Total Daily Cost: £2 (£1 there, £1 back)

I use the TFL network, have no special discounts, have a pay-as-you-go Oyster Card, and don’t cheat fares to do that. It just required a bit of lateral thinking and a quick glance at the London A-Z.

Any guesses? Answers on a Postcard… :smiley:

London sure seems expensive for transport to me. In Prague a 3 month unlimited pass for all public transport is £38.

Queen’s Park?

Also, congrats to you and Becks on the wedding!

I too don’t think garius is right. Surely London’s transport is expensive, when compared to places such as New York? (How it compares to Japanese cities would be interesting.)

As for the difference between London fares and those of other cities, this is probably true, although in most, that 8 mile commute would take you straight through the entire city rather than from east-of-centre to west-of-centre. For a comparable journey elsewhere, you need to look on an equivalent scale, not an another 8 mile journey, which would take you all the way from Manchester out to commuter-suburb fake-Cheshire Altrincham. Or only two miles more gets you from Leeds to Bradford. Those journies are quite reasonably more expensive than an inner-London trip.

My questions would be “what does that include?” and “what is the relative cost of living in Prague?”

Don’t get me wrong, i’m not saying that London transport is cheap, i just think that objectively speaking its not particularly bad value at all.

Close :smiley:

I use the Overground from Hackney Central -> Kensal Rise, then walk down (which takes about 20mins or 15 if you’re in a hurry).

Means i never leave Zone 2.

Fantastic restraint shown by the Mornington Crescent fans, there

I was tempted. But now you’ve opened the floodgates, Snaresbrook. :smiley: