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On the above note we found some things like car insurance more expensive, even though they took into account our no claims bonus.
Food in supermarkets can be cheap but I was wary of things like their beef, as cattle are given growth hormones.
Sugar and salt levels could be very high in processed foods.
We were careful what and where we bought groceries ending up with food costing about the same as here.
Eating out at 'regular' joints (ie not fancy restaurants) was less expensive, but there was the proviso of high levels of additives to be considered.
One of the biggest factors for us in SE Texas was the cost of cooling a house in summer. They never mention that on 'A Place In The Sun.'
My car insurance is much more expensive here, as is the cost of maintenance. Add to the list, I pay twice as much (roughly) as one of my brothers in the UK for virtually the same plan. Utilities too tend to be pricy. As for commercial US beef, I wouldn't even feed it to my cat for the reason you mentioned. There's also far too much High Fructose Corn Syrup in many foods (proven to cause obesity and other health issues) and aspartame is used too widely as a sugar substitute.
It's often quite difficult to really compare the US and the UK. For one, the cost of living varies so widely by state, as do property prices and property tax. I would say that salary wise, higher end jobs tend to pay better over here, but lower end jobs are worse. You also have to factor in that not only do Americans pay far more for healthcare, but many are also burdened with large student loans.
From my perspective, I find some things cheaper, some more expensive. Petrol is the obvious one, but then again, I do three times as many annual miles as I did in the UK and drove a more economical car over there, so that levels out. Rent is definitely cheaper in most parts of the UK, but it is easier to get on the property ladder and actually buy a home over here. I'm undecided about food. You can bargain hunt here and go to places like Costco, but I find regular supermarkets pricier, especially for fresh fruit & veg, meat, bread, dairy and cereal.
In summary, the US pays more, but you have to earn more to live here.
Property taxes do vary massively - your right about that! Healthcare - I'm not sure about that. It's definitely more expensive if you don't have good insurance. It's definitely a lot less for me than what I was paying at home.
My car insurance is less than $1000 for two cars, which was twice as much as Chicago.
There are pros and cons - overall your purchase power is far higher here.
You guys getting rain? Here in the East Midlands it has been raining off and on for about a week now - and right at the moment it is bucketing down - so hopefully no hosepipe ban for us!
Yesterday even got two quicks episodes of hail!
It's been raining here (SW) for a couple of days but no where near enough to affect our new hosepipe ban... Oh well, another day or so of rain and it might give the grass a chance of surviving for a bit (new lawn).
It hit 90 here on Monday. Now it's back in the 50's!
It's weird. Its like that in the Midwest - huge swings. It's going to be in the 90's here until Monday when it reaches 100! Everyone here enjoys the weather all year apart from the summer. Everyone hates the summer as its way too hot - the complete opposite of what I was used to in the UK!
I never understood the talk of drought and hosepipe bans in England though - I think it's all the usual paranoid BS you get there over anything remotely outside the norm. I.e 2 inches of snow is usually "blizzard hits freezing Britain", 2 inches of rain means "parts of Britain cut off due to flooding", and 3 days of continuous good weather means a frikin drought?? C'mon, let's get rational
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Rain rain rain rain rain!!!!!!!
