Are things expensive?

Before we left Australia we were wondering the answer to this question, and it is an interesting thing. There are things here in the USA which are MORE EXPENSIVE than back home in Australia. By in large though, things are cheaper in general.

One thing that is definitely different here, is that often although items appear more expensive, they are quite often larger. As an example, coffee from Starbucks. (Only a fair comparison, being that Starbucks exists in Australia as well as the USA.)

A VENTI sized coffee (cappuccino or latte) here is nearly $4.00. In Australia, you could not get that sized coffee before we left, and the largest was around the same price.

However, when you look at grocery items, it is a little different. Take milk for example. We buy 1 Gal of milk here (3.78 litres) - we have been getting it on special lately, and it costs $1.99. (Both full cream, and NO FAT varieties.) 4 loafs of bread (637g each loaf) for $1 this week in Safeway. Eggs are also relatively cheap, when you buy 18 eggs in a carton here, at around $1.89. (Quite often there are specials where you can get 2 for the price of one, which basically means 36 eggs for $1.89!)

Fruit and vegetables in most cases are cheap. Bananas here are around $0.40 - $0.80 per pound. We saw a large tub of "grape" tomatoes for $5 the other day. (about 4 times larger than a punnet back in Australia)

A 24 pack of Coke cans here is $4 at the moment, that works out to around $0.16 per can!

Electrical goods seem to be cheaper here, again depending on brand. Some items are not so cheap, probably because they are not commonly used here. (e.g. a Kettle here costs around the same as in Australia $ for $.) I can get a 60" (152cm) Rear Projection TV here for between $2000 - $6000, depending on brand and technology.

Computer stuff seems relatively cheap, although I have not really been looking much. The PSP for example is less than $200 here, where as it is just less that $400 in Australia.

All in all, you are able to get a bargain here relatively easily. Many things here are different to home. The US version of Coffee is something that needs getting used to, bacon here is skinny, and full of fat. (We are going to look at Canadian bacon, as this is primarily the meat without the fat.)

We had dinner in an well known American restaurant the other evening, when the four of us ate a main course each, I had desert and a coffee. I had two glasses of beer, and we paid around $60 (including 15% tips). The meals were not massive, but it was definitely enough for all of us. We felt that was quite reasonable.

Tara has found some places where she can get Chinese vegetables, and sauces, etc. It is difficult for her to gauge if they are cheaper or not, as the measurements are different. (e.g. lb instead of kg, etc.) It still appears to be relatively inexpensive though.

One last note on this topic. If you don't have a membership card, you don't know what you are missing out on. It seems that every place you go, there is some form of membership rewards card. Usually giving discounts not given to you unless you have the card. We found this out pretty quickly at Safeway, and saved ourselves around $20 on our first purchase of groceries.