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Global Household Expenses

by asdf Thu Oct 13th, 2005 at 10:13:36 PM EST

Ok, I'm leaving on my holiday to North Platte, Nebraska tomorrow. Here's a picture of the North Platte railroad yards.

You may recall that I was going to try a cross-cultural shopping expedition on this trip. See below for current shopping list.


What I have for a shopping list right now is as follows. If I see anything new before I leave, I'll try to add it.


2 liter of Milk
2 pounds of freshly made bread (not blown up in store)
2 different kinds of equally freshly made breadrolls (local tradition, only available in that part of the country)
1kg of organically grown local vegetables that are in season.
1 pound organically grown local fruit that are in season.
1Kg potatoes (local)
1Kg beef silverside (local)
1Kg pork spae ribs (local)
1Kg chicken breasts (local)
200g pork dripping

bulb of Garlic
sweet paprika green-yellow long 'Hungarian' sort, for eating
sweet paprika yellow-red long 'Hungarian' sort, for cooking
sweet paprika red round "cherry" sort (sorry am not sure of the English name)
sharp paprika dark green
very sharp paprika bright red Southeastern Hungarian sort
large watery tomato, for cooking
medium-sized tomato, sweet, for eating
mini tomato, for sandwitch ingredient & parties
red radish
white radish (big, long)
'normal' onion
small onion, with green
red onion
carrot
turnip
celery
courgette
eggplant
sour cabbage
red cabbage

1 VW Polo standard, cheapest model - but you want a Polo
10 kw/hours of electricity
10 k/hours of gas
50 liter of diesel
1 dentist appointment with root treatment
1 bus ride back and forth, duration of one trip 35minutes

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Here's a start, on some things that I won't be able to find out about in North Platte.

My utility bill just came, so I can submit some real world American living expense numbers. This is for 30 days, ending in mid-August, for a 1500 square foot house with two people.

Electricity: 310 kWh, $28.33
Gas: 1900 cubic feet, $22.43
Water: 475 cubic feet, $14.20
Wastewater: $8.95 based on a complicated formula related to water usage.
Steet Light: $1.77

Monthly bus pass: $45.00
Single bus ride: $1.25
Automotive diesel fuel: $3.10 per gallon, or $0.82 per liter.

The VW Polo is not sold in America (you knew that!), so I would submit instead the Honda Civic DX with a 1.7 liter engine. Car purchasing in America (maybe everywhere?) is all about negotiation. You start with the "invoice price," which supposedly reflects how much the dealer pays for the car. It doesn't, and by aggressive negotiation I bought a new Honda earlier this year for $846 under the invoice price. For the 2005 Civic DX the invoice price is $12,676.00, so it's reasonable to expect to get one for a bit under $12,000.00.

by asdf on Thu Oct 13th, 2005 at 10:47:10 PM EST
what country do you live in?

La vie n'est de soi ni bien ni mal, elle est la place du bien et du mal selon que vous faites.
by Time Waits for no Woman (time.waits_at_gmail.com) on Fri Oct 14th, 2005 at 10:43:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
All very nice but if we're talking expenses the only one that really matters to me is rent. That plus utilities represents a good two thirds of my expenses.
by MarekNYC on Sat Oct 15th, 2005 at 03:49:10 PM EST


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