This is absolute rubbish !

[alittlebitfrench]

Sorry Complete France.

But this article...

http://www.completefrance.com/home/is-it-cheaper-to-live-in-france-1-5663538

IS ABSOLUTE RUBBISH.

Where do those rent figures come from ? LOL.

Methinks France is a 'lot' more expensive place to live.

Disusss...

[woolybanana]

Outside London and Paris, I would think that rents are now cheaper in France?

[alittlebitfrench]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Outside London and Paris, I would think that rents are now cheaper in France?[/quote]

Outside of Paris I would say you need a good 800-1500 per month for a decent house/flat in a place that you want to live in. I have rented enough, I know the score.

Anything cheaper than that will be a dive. Even at 800-1500 euros it will probably still be a dive.

So yeah rents, same as the UK.

[KO12]

Certainly, our rent (maison T5++) is much cheaper, but our numbers may not be comparable since we're immigrants and the numbers cited are for 'ex pats'.

At the time we moved (exchange rate 1.5) it was about half the UK. The exchange rate has suffered a huge adverse move (ca. -25%), but the rent (expressed in £) is still about half that in UK.

[richard51]

Articles like these are based on assumptions about "average" peoples lifestyle. The averages are also based on including both rural and city and everything in-between. OK they will have really wide tolerances but that should be easily appreciated by readers.

If one takes on board this multitude of issues then the different circumstances of any individual can probably be explained in any particular case. So ALBF you should not be too surprised that you differ somehow.

However it makes entertaining reading if you are so inclined. Agreed that it would be more "scientific" if the assumptions were better explained, but then people would just switch off.

For what its worth, in my particular case it took a darn large amount of money to bring up 3 kids in a relatively poor city of the UK, and we were without excesses such as home cinemas etc. So I'm not particularly surprised

Nb only skim read it, but doesn't the comparison including relativity to the ave salaries in the countries.

You either have a very high (combined) salary or have independent income from somewhere if you are spending lots more in France..

[woolybanana]

So, you came to France to afford a home cinema? Seems as good a reason as any for coming!?

[YCCMB]

I'd say there's a lot more to the equation than rent. Exchange rates aside, our overheads on a like-for-like basis ( virtually same habitable space in both countries) are higher in France by a fair bit.

Everything: local taxes, utilities, insurances, food shopping...has gradually become more expensive in France.

And, when I say "exchange rates aside" I mean, for example, that if I buy the same sort of basket of shopping in Lidl here, I spent €70-ish versus generally around £30-40 in the UK. I've deliberately chosen Lidl because they claim no regional variation in prices in France, and their products (except fresh) are exactly the same thing in France and ÙK.

Rental wise, rural France may well be cheaper than some parts of the UK, as you'll inevitably get more for your money. But €1500 ( or the equivalent) a month will still get you a nice place within commuting distance of London, and certainly a really nice place in many other parts of the UK.

Of course, there are other factors. But over the last 15 years or so I'd definitely say that living in the UK is less costly, and exchange rates are a small factor.

[Théière]

Why did Another (Ernie) re locate to Spain?

[richard51]

Don't know, enlighten us. Perhaps because he/she could not afford to go back to the UK?

[lindal1000]

We rent out a two bedroomed house for 500 euros per month and a one bedroom one for 400.. both in small towns,, I used to get £750 per month from my rental property in the UK before I sold it! However the value of the UK was 5 times the value of the French ones put together! For us, our cost of living still works out about the same.. Food is virtually identical..some things are more expensive but others are cheaper.. our heating costs are the same. driving a bit more because we have to drive a bit more..

As others have said.. it's impossible to compare really... we're better off in France but I can see that some people might not be, depending on what you spend your money on.. (BIg reason we are better off is that in the UK, because of our jobs, we couldn't live in the same house, so we had to run two houses and spend a lot of time commuting at the weekend..here our expensives are almost halved)

[YCCMB]

It is such an individual thing. I do wonder (truly, not in a "don't believe it" way) what people eat on a regular basis that they can find food shopping cheaper in France. Meat seems exponentially more expensive, not that I eat red meat often, but chicken is pricy, as is fish. Cheese seems much dearer, lettuce this summer about double the UK price, tomatoes and cucumbers ditto. As I live on fruit and salad in summer, and seldom buy wine or spirits (as I drink infrequently, I'm not splashing out on expensive food items. My biggest expenditure, oddly, is probably milk and yogurt. In all, I reckon I live and spend quite frugally in France and the UK, on seasonal fruit and veg, standard carbs like rice and pasta, and buy inexpensive cleaning products and other sundries. Perhaps I'm missing a trick in France and there's somewhere better or cheaper to buy stuff that I've overlooked, because I don't think there's anything I buy that's such a costly luxury., in either country.

[alittlebitfrench]

Betty said "perhaps I'm missing a trick in France and there's somewhere better or cheaper to buy stuff that I've overlooked".

No...you have not overlooked anything.

I would say so far that rents and food is more expensive in France.

Next !!

[richard51]

Lots of variables as already said.

Another here: yesterday we went to a meal for 14 prepared by our neighbors in Dordogneshire - Mediterranean type diet and all the veg cost zero - full time residents tend to have gardens (french for vegetable patches).

As previously tried to explain, anecdotes mean zilch.

The article merely gives a small bias to France being cheaper overall given the variables used. Yes it was even more cheaper in the past due to exchange rates for those with UK income (1.5 cf 1.1 ish is probably significant, but please dont start asking the detail about what years are the comparison!)

[YCCMB]

Anecdotally....I have a potager ( or access to one) in both countries. My neighbour here tells me to help myself to her stuff, others give me fruit from their trees. This year a lot of her crop has been rubbish or failed. I've also been given stacks of figs and some pears. I hide from people who offer courgettes. Spuds ( don't eat many) are free off the farm.

So yes, many French people grow stuff. So do many Brits unless they haven't a garden or allotment.

Trouble is, on a quasi-veggie diet, it gets a bit boring eating the same five veg daily.

[lindal1000]

We eat no meat o 2-3 times a week.. so eggs..or things made with chickpeas.. or lentils..they don't seem to me any different. If I make a meat based sauce I put lentils and beans in it anyway because it is healthier.. I buy one pack of lettuce (either an iceberg or the little gem lettuces) at 99 cents, and they last a week.. cucumbers 2 for 1 euro 50.. 99cents worth of tomatoes. In the winter I buy broccoli and carrots.. I buy meat in bulk when we eat it ..so chicken breast s 5.99 a kilo.. I don't know.. I don't seem to spend that much on food for a week.. a bit more in the summer because we go out to the food markets..but that isn't a necessity.. we get though a bagette a day, a bowl of cereals and a litre of milk every three days? I buy a couple of packs of cheese a week for lunches.. fish maybe once a month? A few spices, garlic, onions..I haven't shopped in the UK for a while, but last time I was there those things seemed about the same price, and definitely more expensive that when I used to live there.

PS. Milk is around 99 cents a litre fresh here.. I make my own yoghurt with long life milk.. Pasta and cleaning products I get from Lidl as they are reasonable price and reasonable quality. I can't believe they would be very much more expensive in France than Lidl UK, seeing as they are mainly sourced from Germany.

[Patf]

Another thing that makes France cheaper - if you live in a deep rural area as we did there's none of this 'keeping up with the Joneses' or the Castets or whatever.

No carpets no curtains no pool no posh car no fashionable clothes etc.

[alittlebitfrench]

@ patf

Ummmm..........no.

[YCCMB]

But I've never felt the need to do that in either country, Pat!

[idun]

Please NO ONE TELL ME ABOUT CHEAP MILK OR MEAT!

I am not a vegetarian, but these things cannot be 'cheap'.

In the UK we can pay extra which goes directly to farmers and I do. I am not rich, but our farmers need paying properly. And I suppose that that also goes for most things that are produced.

Rant over!

[Lehaut]

France is, I believe, the only country in Europe that gives a rent allowance to students at its Universities, regardless of which country they come from or their parents status. When we compare what it costs to send one child to FAC in France, and the other to a year at ICL in London.....(neither doing "Chocolate" degrees as Macron called some studies"!)

[richard51]

LeHaut - ironically they might have been better off trying Harvard! Probably a catch somewhere though - it is the US!

https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/how-aid-works

But, indeed, yet another factor for a family of 4 living and working in France to be included in the overall average cost comparison.

[lindal1000]

I can see that with the fall in the pound, if you are translating prices back and forth, then yes, even without inflation, products will seem more expensive in france now. However if you just look at the euro price many things have not gone up that much. Salmon seems to have..I used to be able to get it on offer for 7 euros a kilo but the cheapest I can find now is around 10 euros..Chicken and pork are about the same..

Idun, you can also by milk here which is a bit more expensive but more money goes to the farmers..and the same with eggs.

[idun]

I am sure that they do that lindal1000, but we should never be 'tipping' farmers, but they should be paid a proper price.

I dread the prices if many of them simply pack in farming and the few that continue, and could also be that huge conglomerates take over, I am sure that they will charge what they want. There is something wrong with this.

[YCCMB]

I can also see that there will be a significant difference in prices brought about by the fall in the pound. However, I know that figures published regularly in the UK indicate that prices for fresh produce have remained pretty static year on year until this summer after the heatwave, and are set to continue increasing.

Even taking into account the currency fluctuation I can't see how an iceberg lettuce costs 49p in the UK and €1 in France, given that both probably come from Spain.

I've seen other fairly stiff price rises year on year in France. Bought a tin of the same paint from the same shop and it had increased a hefty €5 year on year ( still had the old tin with label attached).

New battery for my car €49 plus delivery was the cheapest I could find after much googling. £29.95 from Euro car parts.

I've just been quoted approx €200 for a second hand part for my car that I can buy for £14 on eBay.

[Noisette]

I think Linda is the only person who's mentioned 'offers'..i.e. promotions. We live very economically (especially in the summer) by stocking up on pricey foods we like only when they're on promo, by conserving/freezing/drying, and by growing our own fruit and veg. A wide variety of fruit and veg! The biggest single grocery item is cat food, but again, bought in bulk when on promo, it's nearly half the price. Ditto espresso coffee. I do agree with Betty, though, that the other costs of living like taxes, carburant, clothes and eating out have all risen considerably. On the bright side, (sorry, Betty ;-)) the wine is cheap and extremely good. And you can't put a price on happiness :-)