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If you read my post you would see that my comments are consistent.  The Intermarche turkey was only fit to be fed to the dog whereas the Asda joint was solid best breast meat.  I can only assume your wife doesn't let you do the shopping.

Apparently the hairdresser I went to was a good one (price wise - and came recommended by the neighbours).  The hairdresser's in Perigueux were even more expensive.  After mentioning it to one of my English friends (who lives in France) she told me she now goes back to the UK every few months to have her hair cut...she reckons that the money she saves covers the airfares!

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 Think you may  need to read the post again :

we bought what we thought was a turkey breast joint in Intermarche last week at 5 euros for 500g.  It transpired it was the dog ends of gristly leg meat cunningly disguised as a turkey 'joint' - think Baldrick in the trenches....  This week I just spent £4 for a 575g piece of solid turkey breast meat in Asda

Scooby, I think your hair do  in the Uk is well below the price charged generally - locally a colour (tint & foils) is £60, a cut £46

 

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Kathy I understand what you are saying, but we find that staying in France as much as we do doesn't cost any more than when we are in the UK. If you unlucky enough to suffer with chronic illness in France, treatment is free of any top up obligations. The choice of food is much wider in the UK? yes it is, if you like food that has been stored in a cold store for months on end, and has flown round the world. As for social security benefits, don't worry the French get them as well. In fact lots of Brits living in the sunshine in Spain and France still get the UK winter fuel allowance. The French get a winter fuel allowance if they have oil fired heating. There is no need to keep switching suppliers in France for utility services, they are a lot cheaper. Also anybody with any sense has a log burner, you get 40% tax refund on the burner when it is fitted, and wood  a  sustainable product is cheap, the other bonus is they also look great.( no pun intended)  We love England but enjoy the French culture and pace of life so we live in both countries. We benefit from the best of both worlds and consider ourselves very lucky.

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[quote user="Russethouse"]

 Think you may  need to read the post again :

we bought what we thought was a turkey breast joint in Intermarche last week at 5 euros for 500g.  It transpired it was the dog ends of gristly leg meat cunningly disguised as a turkey 'joint' - think Baldrick in the trenches....  This week I just spent £4 for a 575g piece of solid turkey breast meat in Asda

Scooby, I think your hair do  in the Uk is well below the price charged generally - locally a colour (tint & foils) is £60, a cut £46

 

[/quote]

My god another one's had a humour by-pass. As for paying £46 pound for a hair cut well maybe you do have a sense of humour after all?

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Funny reading the Council House remark. Over lunch we were discussing the snob culture of the UK,possibly more England than regions and that it must be the last remaining place in the world where snobbishness rules.I lived in a Co-ownership block and spent 2 years of my spare time getting the right to buy for all the 54 tenants, after Lady Thatcher,God bless her,pushed through the Housing Act.I learnt quite a bit about dealing with the high and mighty and sacked the Association and Solicitors dealing with our case for the Housing Corporation as their sole aim was to stop us having the right and so losing part of their income.It did allow me to buy my first flat and since the go on to buy and sell 13 more houses to get out of debt.My wife also bought her own Council house after being widowed with 2 small children but still managing to train as a nurse and get a mortgage. I think people at our end of the scale might have a better grasp of life than those looking down their noses like Norman. As an add on most of the older Council houses were actually better built than many New-builds and actually had things like gardens/cupboards/fireplaces and room to swing the cat.

Regards and hoping for a Healthy New Year to all,especially ex Council House persons!!
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[quote user="NickP"]Kathy I understand what you are saying, but we find that staying in France as much as we do doesn't cost any more than when we are in the UK. If you unlucky enough to suffer with chronic illness in France, treatment is free of any top up obligations. The choice of food is much wider in the UK? yes it is, if you like food that has been stored in a cold store for months on end, and has flown round the world. [/quote]

Well most of the UK food items that I might want to buy have never been in cold store and are sold packaged, tinned or jarred - but that is down to personal preferences

[quote user="NickP"]As for social security benefits, don't worry the French get them as well. In fact lots of Brits living in the sunshine in Spain and France still get the UK winter fuel allowance. [/quote]

Only if they claimed before they declared that they had moved abroad - assuming they have even done that.

[quote user="NickP"]The French get a winter fuel allowance if they have oil fired heating. [/quote]

Not this winter.  Oil prices have fallen winter 2009 vs 2008 so Nicky has decided to reduce the deficit a tad and not giving a benefit

[quote user="NickP"]There is no need to keep switching suppliers in France for utility services, they are a lot cheaper. Also anybody with any sense has a log burner, you get 40% tax refund on the burner when it is fitted, [/quote]

Is that still available for 2010?

[quote user="NickP"]and wood  a  sustainable product is cheap, the other bonus is they also look great.( no pun intended)  We love England but enjoy the French culture and pace of life so we live in both countries. We benefit from the best of both worlds and consider ourselves very lucky.
[/quote]

There is no doubt in my mind that France has become very much more expensive in the last couple of years - and I am comparing with German prices not English, so the impact of exchange rates does not come into the equation.  When I drive down for Xmas, I shall be filling the car - in the past when our house was just a holiday home we used to import  in the other direction.

 

I can also relate to Scoobie's comments about hair dressing - 50€ in Germany equates to just under 90€ in France.

 

However if asked where I prefer to be, UK, France or Germany?  The answer is still France.  The extra costs are just part of the price to be paid for a lifestyle I doubt I could enjoy as much elsewhere.

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Scooby try LeClerc or ED they are doing whole turkeys for just under 4 Euros a kilo. Our local Champion (sorry Carrefour Market) has loin of pork for just under 3 Euros a kilo. However, the thing is these are on special offer and the normal prices are around 8/9 Euros a kilo each. I bought 20 cans of paraffin about two months back at 14 Euros a go, its now 18 Euros a go so we have saved 80 Euros or as we would say we have gained two good meals out.

You have to watch out for the offers and buy them when you can. Don't stop the 'pub' dropping through your letterbox because thats how you know when the offers are on, you also get the vouchers for money off things. Even my USAP v Munster tickets have a 5 Euros off per 50 Euros spent at Auchan. My mates went to throw them away so I grabbed them.

We have all been down this road before in other threads but the truth is when you compare UK prices to French prices (which is quite simple to do if you use the Tesco and Sainsbury's websites) the French ones are higher. The thing that I would say is I don't think they are as much as double as Scooby has said. The problem is of course is that when the exchange rates were very good things seemed (and in some cases where) to be cheaper here in France.

The truth of the matter is that if you rely on an income in sterling then over the last year or two you have lost the advantage of the exchange rate and get much less of a bang for your Pound, some would argue you only getter a whimper these days. For me and mine we have always worked in Euros so all our income is earned in Euros therefore we have not noticed any massive increase. Most of my tax's have have gone up by very small amounts. Beer and coffee in my local bars has gone up by 10% in nine years (from 2 Euros to 2.20), bread has gone up 5 cents in nine years where we live. Diesel has always gone both up and down but it has always generally headed upwards. I currently pay, well lets say a Euro a litre for diesel, now in the old days that was equivalent to about 63p per litre now its about the same but then as we have always had a Euro income in France we don't see it that way.

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[quote user="Scooby"]That's why I asked where NickP lived as UK prices vary considerable - North v South and London v provinces.  We live in what is probably a very reasonably priced area in the UK so we find the French prices scary by comparison.
[/quote]

Agree with you here, Scooby.  We live in rural Mid-Wales and have a house in rural Normandy, so I think I'm comparing like with like and food on the whole is definitely more expensive in France. I can get a beautiful cauliflower here for under £1 and I've yet to see one under 2 or even 3 euros in France. Certainly I can still get my hair cut here in Wales for under £20. [:D]

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[quote user="Scooby"]I don't know which part of the UK you are comparing France with but I'm guessing it must be Mayfair!  France is horrendously expensive compared to the UK.  For example - we bought what we thought was a turkey breast joint in Intermarche last week at 5 euros for 500g.  It transpired it was the dog ends of gristly leg meat cunningly disguised as a turkey 'joint' - think Baldrick in the trenches....  This week I just spent £4 for a 575g piece of solid turkey breast meat in Asda. 

Then there is the hairdressers.  I went to the local (village) hairdressers for the first (and last!) time a few weeks ago.  Colour, foils trim and blow dry - 96 euros.  Same treatment at my local hairdressers in the UK - £28.  Even excluding the recent dive in exchange rates the price is double.

I think many refuse to acknowledge the price differences because it might suggest that (a) France is not the nirvana they like to tell everyone it is...and (b) the UK isn't as black as they like to paint.

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London (central but NOT Mayfair), cut and blow +£100 (2007 prices), Lezignan cut and blow 17€ - 25€ (earlier this year).  I don't fuss with my hair, and find that having a good cut is all that is required.

Beef more expensive here, other meats about the same.  Could always get Tesco meats cheaply, but usuall poor meat and poor cuts.

Within the last two years I have seen the prices rise in France but my bills here for two are about the same as for one in London.  Agree London is an expensive place, but then so I suspect is Perigueux, compared to the areas round about.

In then end, it depends on whether you want quality or low price.  I know which I prefer.

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[quote user="Judith"]
Beef more expensive here, other meats about the same.  Could always get Tesco meats cheaply, but usuall poor meat and poor cuts.

[/quote]

That's interesting as I always found meat in France to be expensive and of poor quality, I guess it comes down to the individual shops.  I never found a decent beef joint at less than requiring a mortgage in 6 years.

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[quote user="Judith"]

In then end, it depends on whether you want quality or low price.  I know which I prefer.

[/quote]

But that was the point Judith - the meat we are buying is a lot more expensive but then it's not very good quality.  I think the fact that you have moved from London to France probably makes your comparisons much better - London is a *lot* more expensive that the provinces.  (We can still get good beer for under £2 a pint and two (decent) meals for under a tenner [:D])

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[quote user="NickP"][quote user="Russethouse"]

 Think you may  need to read the post again :

we bought what we thought was a turkey breast joint in Intermarche last week at 5 euros for 500g.  It transpired it was the dog ends of gristly leg meat cunningly disguised as a turkey 'joint' - think Baldrick in the trenches....  This week I just spent £4 for a 575g piece of solid turkey breast meat in Asda

Scooby, I think your hair do  in the Uk is well below the price charged generally - locally a colour (tint & foils) is £60, a cut £46

 

[/quote]

My god another one's had a humour by-pass. As for paying £46 pound for a hair cut well maybe you do have a sense of humour after all?
[/quote]

Nothing wrong with being high maintenance [:)]

PS When you are being humorous, a 'smiley' might help let us all in on the joke....

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[quote user="Russethouse"][quote user="NickP"][quote user="Russethouse"]

 Think you may  need to read the post again :

we bought what we thought was a turkey breast joint in Intermarche last week at 5 euros for 500g.  It transpired it was the dog ends of gristly leg meat cunningly disguised as a turkey 'joint' - think Baldrick in the trenches....  This week I just spent £4 for a 575g piece of solid turkey breast meat in Asda

Scooby, I think your hair do  in the Uk is well below the price charged generally - locally a colour (tint & foils) is £60, a cut £46

 

[/quote]

My god another one's had a humour by-pass. As for paying £46 pound for a hair cut well maybe you do have a sense of humour after all?

[/quote]

Nothing wrong with being high maintenance [:)]

PS When you are being humorous, a 'smiley' might help let us all in on the joke....

[/quote]

Mrs Russett, Forgive me for missing out on the smiley, but technology was never my thing,  I'm a hammer and nails man. Still I just thought as it's panto season a little jollity would not go amiss, and in case we don't get into any more discussions before Xmas a very merry Christmas to you and my other favourite lady the lovely Scooby P.S We booked the tunnel for Sunday as we heard BA were going on strike, now I hear Eurostar is joining them.  Mrs P and I will probably finish up spending Christmas at Sangatte ? I know, you probably think that is where I belong.

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[quote user="KathyF"]

 I can get a beautiful cauliflower here for under £1 and I've yet to see one under 2 or even 3 euros in France. Certainly I can still get my hair cut here in Wales for under £20. [:D][/quote]

Caulis in Lidl, 1 euro each.  Ditto cabbages, green and red.

But, I thought we were talking about selling houses quickly?

That's the trouble, you go half a day without looking at the Forum and, when you come back, it's all moved on.

I think I'd do better to tune in to the Archers (that is assuming they are still on air?)

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