USA/Florida now becoming unviable?

[Katys Grandad]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by ukman
I'll agree with karen, my food bill for my family can easily top over £200 a week, yet when we go florida twice a year we spend considerably less and for the two weeks we more or less buy similar food to what we do in the uk and don't forget with staying in a villa you can cook your own food, or go eating out. My family went out to eat at the weekend and the bill alone was over £100, we have never spend that amount on eating in florida over the past 10 years of visiting.
[/quote]

I think you can see why I didn't want to open up this debate again. All I'm saying is that my experience is not the same as yours.

[Robert5988]

I simply cannot believe that people think that food from a Supermarket in Florida is cheaper than UK. Everyone I know who comes to visit is astounded at the price of many items of food in Publix - bread, fresh fruit/vegetables, cereals, cheese(non-plastic variety)- even essentials like wine and beer are similar in price to UK these days.

[chrizzy100]

FL was a lot cheaper than Cape Cod a few years ago Robert..our prices have not gone up but they have in Orlando..big time..things were about a dollar cheaper in a lot of cases..now its could be a few cents if that...cakes cost more in FL...good for the diet..[msnsmile2]

[chrizzy100]

I can only go by my top up food bill in FL..we buy the same things each trip because I do a shop before leaving the villa for our next trip...for years that would come to $40 give or take..now its $80...in my mind a large jump..when we moved over to the US from the UK I had to put up my food bill to 3 times what I used in the UK..that was a shock..but then one gal of milk was $10 in the summer..that was stopped a year after we came here..the joy of living in a seaside town..my Dad does nothing but moan about the cost of food when he is staying with us in FL..maybe we all buy such different things .. steak in the US costs next to nothing.. food classed as more expensive in the UK could be cheaper here..I know when I get a UK paper sent over and it has a Supermarket page in it I can't get over how cheap everything is..

[Lyn]

I agree some things like fresh veg. are expensive, however a cauliflower in Tesco last week was 90p. The overall bill I find on a par with the UK. However if the prices were more expensive they would have to be a lot higher than they are to stop me going[msnwink].

[karenk]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Katys Grandad
It's possibly me who didn't make themselves clear. My reference to 'old ground' was merely an attempt not to open up the same old debate on comparative costs.

My 2 mains points are, firstly, that it isn't a true comparison when looking at US menu prices against those in the UK and Europe due to the much higher tip expectation and tax. A $1 menu item is really closer to $1.30 for that purpose.

My second point was that my experiences from around 80 visits to the US over the past 10 years or so is that it's now more expensive (both in real terms and in comparison to home)than at any other time I can recall. I have to say that my most recent experience of grocery prices in the US (last week) is that supermarket prices are on the whole higher that at home although we don't spend £250 a week here so perhaps we have different needs.

Of course there are some things that are cheaper but many which are more expensive and that's consistently confirmed by independent surveys. If your experience is different to mine then I'm pleased for you.
[/quote]

Our experiences do seem to be vastly different and on that point, we can agree to differ. My sons eat the same in Florida as they do in the UK so regardless of surveys, I can only report on what it really costs me to buy food in Florida not what a survey suggests it should.

Granted things have increased in price over the years in Florida and that's not just restricted to food but my experience from travel all over the world is that prices have risen as far a field as Australia to dare I say it Salou. My point about comparison is that portion sizes should be compared. One extremely small meal costing 12 pounds is not the same as a large meal costing the same in Florida and bearing this in mind, the basis for comparison becomes somewhat distorted.

[chrizzy100]

Holidays are the last thing on my list to cut back on Lyn..we only turned on our heating for 8 hours all winter so we could wack up our carbon footprint on 3 trips to FL this year maybe 4..I've got used to a log fire now..not sure I'd like to go back to gas..

[wrpac00]

I'll tell you next week when we arrive but last year the vast majority of items in supermarkets was far cheaper than the UK.

[Susan J]

food wise- remember you are shopping in a tourist area- petrol and food prices are less if you travel out of that tourist area- for instance, petrol can be 10c a gallon cheaper on Orange Blossom Trail than on I27, or parts of 192. SAme will no doubt apply in Salou or even Blackpool, but if you have time, or interest, you can shop around for cheaper prices.

[Andrena]

We spend longer periods than the average holidaymaker so are better able to judge the costs of food in the supermarkets. We spent 3 months over the Christmas/New Year recently and while like everywhere else cost have gone up they are nothing like as expensive as they are in the UK. When we are in Florida we save quite a bit on our monthly costs. When we get home again we have quite a bit of savings. We buy the same as we would in the UK and use the same amount of petrol and they costs per month are roughly half the cost. We had the family over for Christmas and I can assure you our Christmas food bill was absolutely nothing compared to what we would have spent at home. Even the turkey was less than half the price, sorry our family wanted exactly the same in Florida as they would have had at home. That made it easy to compare the costs. I love our extended stays, we come home to extra money in our bank account.
When we eat out, which is not really very often, I am not a huge eater so we often ask for an extra plate and share a larger sized steak and I have a baked potato and extra salad. Try asking for that in the British restaurant, you would probably be run out of the door. Also when we have our little two year old grandson they usually suggest that we just give him some of our own meal and often bring him extra fries without charging. Also remember the free coffee and soft drink top ups, in the UK you pay for every single glass of coke or cup of coffee in most places. Yes, Florida is very much cheaper even now.

Andrena