All About Money

The topic of money and the cost of living is always discussed here. People talk about it with each other and it is on the news a lot. Someone told us on the plane ride here that they wish they could see our face when we went shopping for the first time here to see what we thought of the prices. Well the other day I was looking and found the official “2012’s Top 100 Most Expensive Cities To Live In, In The World”. Here is the list below. Take special notice of #23.

The world's most expensive big cities in 2012
(The index is based on cost of living expressed in US dollars. Therefore, if the dollar weakens against the local currency of a city, the city becomes more expensive and moves up the index, even if prices expressed in local currency remain the same or go down.)

Rank 2012	Rank 2011	City	Country
1	2	Tokyo	Japan
2	1	Luanda	Angola
3	6	Osaka	Japan
4	4	Moscow	Russia
5	5	Geneva	Switzerland
6	7	Zurich	Switzerland
6	8	Singapore	Singapore
8	3	N'Djamena	Chad
9	9	Hong Kong	Hong Kong
10	11	Nagoya	Japan
11	14	Sydney	Australia
12	10	São Paulo	Brazil
13	12	Rio de Janeiro	Brazil
14	16	Bern	Switzerland
15	21	Melbourne	Australia
16	21	Shanghai	China
17	20	Beijing	China
18	15	Oslo	Norway
19	30	Perth	Australia
20	12	Libreville	Gabon
21	17	Copenhagen	Denmark
22	19	Seoul	South Korea
23	34	Canberra	Australia
24	31	Brisbane	Australia
25	18	London	UK
26	44	Khartoum	Sudan
27	46	Adelaide	Australia
28	29	St. Petersburg	Russia
29	51	Caracas	Venezuela
30	43	Shenzhen	China
31	24	Tel Aviv	Israel
31	38	Guangzhou	China
33	32	New York City	USA
34	23	Niamey	Niger
35	70	Yangon	Myanmar
36	61	Kinshasa	Congo (Dem. Rep.)
37	27	Paris	France
38	25	Milan	Italy
39	41	Lagos	Nigeria
39	63	Bamako	Mali
41	67	Abidjan	Ivory Coast
42	34	Rome	Italy
43	55	Brazzaville	Congo
44	39	Djibouti	Djibouti
45	33	Brasilia	Brazil
46	39	Stockholm	Sweden
47	37	Nouméa	New Caledonia
48	36	Vienna	Austria
49	48	Baku	Azerbaijan
50	25	Victoria	Seychelles
50	44	Dakar	Senegal
52	91	Lomé	Togo
53	56	Douala	Cameroun
53	63	Bogota	Colombia
53	155	Conakry	Guinea
56	118	Auckland	New Zealand
57	50	Amsterdam	Netherlands
58	49	Bangui	Central African Rep.
58	52	Taipei	Taiwan
60	83	Yaoundé	Cameroun
61	59	Toronto	Canada
61	69	Jakarta	Indonesia
63	65	Vancouver	Canada
64	82	Abuja	Nigeria
65	42	Helsinki	Finland
66	101	Qingdao	China
67	75	Beirut	Lebanon
68	77	Los Angeles	USA
69	47	Prague	Czech Republic
70	74	Cotonou	Benin
71	62	Brussels	Belgium
72	58	Dublin	Ireland
72	104	Tianjin	China
74	75	Santiago	Chile
74	136	Wellington	New Zealand
76	67	Abu Dhabi	United Arab Emirates
77	53	Athens	Greece
78	60	Madrid	Spain
79	57	Bratislava	Slovakia
79	70	Istanbul	Turkey
81	80	Almaty	Kazakhstan
81	88	Bangkok	Thailand
83	93	Bandar Seri Begawan	Brunei
84	72	Luxembourg	Luxemburg
85	66	Barcelona	Spain
85	122	Shenyang	China
87	79	Montreal	Canada
88	73	Frankfurt	Germany
89	98	Pointe-à-Pitre	Guadeloupe
90	78	Munich	Germany
90	106	San Francisco CA	United States
92	96	Calgary	Canada
93	171	Maputo	Mozambique
94	81	Dubai	United Arab Emirates
94	115	Nanjing	China
94	124	Chengdu	China
97	88	Riga	Latvia
98	99	White Plains NY	United States
99	53	Havana	Cuba
99	86	Accra	Ghana

Research by Mercer Consulting.

Isn’t that crazy?! I knew that we were living in a very expensive place, but no clue that it was so high up on the ‘official list’. So to just give you some info on the costs of everything we have come across, here it is...

• We spend about $1,400/month on groceries for our family. We make all of our meals at home and go out to eat about 2-4 times a month to fast food. Fast food is about $40 every time we go and If we went to a restaurant equivalent to Chilli’s (which would be unpleasant with our children), it would probably cost about $125. One advantage is that you never have to tip here for anything but clearly it doesn’t make up for being #23 on “the list”.  
• We purchase most of our stuff at Costco in bulk every 2 weeks and get everything else we need at a grocery store near our home. We have found that is the cheapest way to do it. People here either love Costco or completely hate it. Many people here don’t understand the concept of buying in bulk. However, they are used to going to the store 4-5 times a week, which makes no sense to me.
• To register our two vehicles (years 2008 and 2009), it is about $1,000.
• To send our children to public school: Pre-School- $3,600/year plus the cost of uniforms which are required in the ACT. After they hit kindergarten the price goes up to $9,000 per child. Why don’t I just send them to Harvard?
• 3 Litres of Milk at our nearest grocery store is $6. I saw on the news that this price was cut in half from what it was the year before we came here. People would actually pay $10-12 for that same amount the year before until so many people complained about it.
• We buy eggs in bulk at Costco for $5 for 30 eggs. In the store you would pay $2-3 for a dozen.
• Something nice is that anything that has a price listed, including cars that you purchase, that is the price you will pay when you leave. There are no extra taxes and fees. It’s already built in to the cost. Example: In all of their car advertisements it will say $49,9 drive-away... meaning that you will pay THAT price and nothing more. Not like in the US, you have to figure out all of the extra taxes and fees and junk.
• At one point we were told it was about $15 for one bunch of bananas. Holy cow! I’ve never seen it be that much. We pay about $3-5 for a bunch.
• We just paid $10 for 21 strawberries at Costco and if we would’ve bought it at the grocery store there would've been about 15 strawberries for $8 (Yes, I counted)
• We paid $17 per person to go to a movie here on a Saturday night.
• It’s $30 for a 24 pack of Dr. Pepper here at Costco. Needless to say (and it’s a good thing), but we don’t buy much soda at all anymore.
• I just spent $54 on ONE strand of 450 Christmas lights for the tree. (Christmas in July Baby!)
• They have a store similar to the dollar store, but everything is $2 instead of a dollar and it’s called “Hot Dollar”. 
• Minimum wage paid here is $18/hour. 
• The average income in Australia is (approximately) $45-55k/ year
• The average income in Canberra, ACT is about $75k/year 
• The LEAST expensive home that sold in 2011 in Canberra went for $450,000 AUD 
• Compared to the US, gas/petrol prices are still about $5.60/gallon
• They don't really do couponing here because unlike the US, the population is not as big and there are not as many companies competing with one another to get you to buy 'their' brand.
• We still haven't gotten our first utility bill and I'm VERY curious as to what it is going to be. Will keep you updated...