It has been a wild ride the last few months. The girls are about to finish their first term of language school, before we move to Almere, (which is super close to Amsterdam).
We’ve been staying in Enschede, and the girls have attended a local school here. They’ve been made to feel so welcome and supported in their learning, it’s been amazing for them.
I’ve been driving since about a week or so after we arrived, and to be honest I don’t notice the price of benzine (petrol) too much. My current car is a greedy beast – so I always think it costs too much – ha! But other things you do notice.
While there are many people who drag the NHS, over here health insurance is mandatory. And our first premium was well over €500, but now that is paid it will be a lower steady amount of €148 per month for me and the kids. So, that was one of the first costs we had to account for that wasn’t a consideration before! And, I wanted to mention it because I really feel like people take the NHS for granted a lot.
Although I stayed in NL for a year or so about 10 years ago, with many trips ‘home’ in between, coming over with extra babes this time and a lot more responsibility changes things.
We were lucky that we could view houses and get a mortgage pretty quickly this time around, in fact we move on the 22nd of July! So still, a lot to do – many moving parts.
It’s hard to compare food prices unless you are living somewhere. The quality is also very different. The comparison from where I lived in the UK to where I’m about to move looks like this >
Average weekly fruit and veg costs:
Most common fruit & veg | Almere, NL | London, UK | Birmingham, UK |
Apples (1kg) | €2.00 | €2.21 (£1.98) | €2.23 (£2.00) |
Banana (1kg) | €1.92 | €1.28 (£1.15) | €1.17 (£1.05) |
Oranges (1kg) | €1.53 | €2.36 (£2.12) | €1.64 (£1.47) |
Tomato (1kg) | €2.65 | €2.67 (£2.40) | €2.15 (£1.93) |
Potato (1kg) | €1.44 | €1.25 (£1.12) | €1.28 (£1.15) |
Onion (1kg) | €1.33 | €1.09 (£0.98) | €0.96 (£0.86) |
Lettuce (1 head) | €1.00 | €0.90 (£0.81) | €0.77 (£0.69) |
Total weekly cost | €11.87 | €11.76 | €10.20 (cheapest) |
Average Weekly Shop Cost:
City | Weekly Cost | Monthly Cost | Yearly Cost | Yearly Saving (compared to most expensive city) |
Amsterdam (Most expensive) | €42.32 (£37.88) | €183.38 (£164.14) | €2,200.64 (£1974.48) | – |
Almere, NL | €42.00 (£37.64) | €182.00 (£163.10) | €2184.00 (£1959.55) | €16.64 (£14.93) |
Netherlands | €40.00 (£35.81) | €155.17 (£173.33) | €2,080.00 (£1866.23) | €120.64 (£108.25) |
London, UK | €39.19 (£35.16) | €169.81 (£152.36) | € 2037.73 (£1828.32) | €162.91 (£146.16) |
Birmingham, UK (Cheapest) | €29.69 (£26.64) | €128.66 (£115.44) | €1543.94 £1385.28 | €656.70 (£589.20) |
Ours would be more, as we are a family of 6.
Quality of life is something I have been thinking a lot about recently. The obvious things for the UK is the undercurrent of racism, homophobia, Pro Brexit groups, increasing poverty… and so on. Everything here costs more money, and of course there are economic issues in every country, but The Netherlands is one of the most risk adverse countries in the world – very few grey areas. So while the cost of my average shop has shot up I’m not mad about it, because it feels like it might be worth it in terms of what you get out of living here.
Food I love:
Bitterballen
Oud Amsterdam Kaas
Filet American
Joppiesaus
And, I have had the MOST amazing Roti from a Surinamese place. Also, kibbeling vis, which is just fried fish pieces has made a few appearances. Still, I can’t get onboard with the haring vis situation – Raw herring, covered in a slick of preservative and topped with chunky onion. Hard no.
But still, in a few weeks time we will have a much firmer idea about the true cost of our weekly shop.
Notes: A recent study by Compare My Mobile has uncovered the cheapest and most expensive places to buy the most popular weekly food shop items around the world. Not a sponsored post.
Sources: The study was conducted using data source: numbeo.com (valid at time of scraping, 1st June 2019) and ONS.gov.uk
