Comments on: 10 Things That Are Cheaper in the U.S. Than in Britain

By: Johnny Walker

Johnny Walker — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:46:00 +0000

If you want scones and mince pie, come to coal country in Pennsylvania, we have both and they’re both great.

By: Sarah Spencer

Sarah Spencer — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 07:03:00 +0000

An F-150 is NOT a big stupid truck. My F-250 is a BIG stupid truck, and my boyfriend’s F-350 is a BIGGER stupid truck. But seriously, we’re from a rural area where we still chop and haul wood in the winter, and we often haul to loads of hay for our horses, building supplies, horse trailers, etc. We’re welders. We leave home and will head to other states to work. When we do that we have our gang boxes (tool boxes) in our truck(s) and haul the travel trailer to the town nearest to the jobsite. Makes sense to me. Don’t know if you consider being Native American being a “Yank,” though.

By: Jacqueline O Moleski

Jacqueline O Moleski — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:52:00 +0000

I’ve seen sunscreen up to 50 upf in the US — it goes higher than that? Also, many cosmetics include sunscreen, but that’s off the point.

By: Jacqueline O Moleski

Jacqueline O Moleski — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:49:00 +0000

1. Depends on WHAT you are buying. As a Brit TV fan, and a media fan in general I pretty much buy all my DVDs on-line (I’m not up to Blu-ray yet) and I have a region-free & multi-system DVD player. Actually, I’m on my third. Anyway, it’s worth while to check multiple websites (including Amazon UK) for a pricy set. Also some UK series are only available in the UK. What I find hilarious is when I find a US series for *cheaper* on Amazon UK (and yes, I’m including shipping to the US and the difference between British Pounds and American Dollars). There are also websites that will hunt the cheapest price for you – but I find they are often out of date and don’t let you compare US and UK on-line stores. (Another snag – some UK retailers will NOT ship to the US, I don’t know why. But Amazon UK will).
HOWEVER – it isn’t just Region Free you have to look for. The US and the UK use different television systems. The US system is called NTSC. The UK system is called PAL. The differences (technical as they are) include: how colors are encoded, interlaced (PAL) verses non-interlaced (NTSC), and number of lines on the screen (624 for PAL; 524 for NTSC — or something close to those numbers, it’s been awhile since I learned this or looked it up), it’s possible with the UK & US both going to hi-def TV those numbers are now different anyway, but that was the deal in the 80s. The upshot of all this is if you take a British videotape and pop it into an American VCR hooked to an American TV you can’t watch the video. Now — with DVD things have changed a bit; a truly multi-system, region free DVD player is only slightly more expensive than a regular one. From the research I’ve done on Blu-Ray players, the same is true for these. And since everything is digital, it’s possible for a PAL signal to be out-putted to a NTSC TV without a problem (as long as the DVD player converts it). The trick is — unlike Japanese Animation DVDs from Japan (which are region 4 but NTSC) to purchase PAL DVDs from the UK, you must have a multi-system player NOT simply a region-free one.

By: Jacqueline O Moleski

Jacqueline O Moleski — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:31:00 +0000

Um — most produce is farmed in the Midwest actually, NOT California. (Why do Californians think they have a lock on everything?) One thing you might want to try in the US is looking for local farmers markets. The initial price might be higher, but because the food is local and in season it *usually* lasts longer. However, important cavaet – be sure to check produce carefully at a market, “farm to table” sounds better than it sometimes is, shop early, and check for pest damage, etc.

By: Jacqueline O Moleski

Jacqueline O Moleski — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:25:00 +0000

I have a funny story about that. My friend and I were at a bookstore in Ireland, and when the clerk announced the price of everything we’d bought (seperately for each of us) we both looked at him like, “wait, that’s not right”. When the clerk explained the price on the book *included* VAT (sales tax) both of us were very surprised. It falls under “stuff no one mentions” even if you DO watch a lot of British/UK TV and read a lot of British books, etc. However, when my friend explained that in the US sales taxes are added *after* the total (as a percent of the total) it was the clerk’s turn to look confused. So then I said, “Well, you just round up in your head – everyone does that automatically.” Which sorta’ left the clerk shaking his head.

By: dork

dork — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 04:37:00 +0000

What I said.

By: dork

dork — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 04:36:00 +0000

Yeah but… on petrol. Actually the monthly amount you spend on petrol is *more* in America than in the UK. Here’s why: Yanks drive big stupid trucks (like F150s) instead of reasonable cars (for various unintelligible false reasons that only make sense to yanks) which get 15 miles per gallon instead of 40 or 50 miles per gallon. They also drive stupidly long distances to work. In the end result, they probably spend at least double if not more in real money on “gas” as we would on petrol.

By: Matt K

Matt K — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 21:58:00 +0000

In the UK we have to pay a dedicated road tax which can cost up to
£1,030 a year.

By: Matt K

Matt K — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 21:50:00 +0000

They aren’t allowed to sell you more than 2 packets at a time if I remember right. Yet you can then go back and pick up more and take them through the same checkout, and again, and again. The point of this rule is lost on me…