Thursday 29 April 2010

BNP buys my love

Headline: BNP would offer £50,000 to leave the country. My response: WHERE DO I SIGN UP?!?

I've paid roughly £1000 in visa fees over the past 4 years. (Current Student Visa: £199; Current Post-Study Work (Formerly Fresh Talent Scotland): £315; Spouse visa: £475 by post; TOTAL: £989)

I won't count the taxes I've paid as I've enjoyed the NHS service, and I'd have to pay tax in the US as well.

Petrol prices are about £1.17 per litre, which at 3.78 litres to the US gallon, makes gas £4.42 per gallon, or at today's exchange rate, $6.72 per gallon, or more than twice what it is in the US. Being that (while I don't drive) my husband and I spend roughly £50 per month on petrol alone, and I've been with him for 3 years, divided between the two of us, I've overspent (50*36=£1800/2=) roughly £900 on gas.

Let's look at food.
UK (usually Morrissons): Bread: £0.75-£1.34 ($1.14-$2.04) Milk (2L): ~£1.50 ($2.28)  Eggs (12 large Free-range): £3.99 ($6.06) Butter: £1 (on sale - works out to one cup) ($1.52)
USA (Albertson's online): Bread: $0.99-$3.59 Milk (Half Gallon) $1.79 Eggs (Naturally Nested 12 Grade AA large): $3.29 Butter: (four sticks = four cups) $2.59-$3.49 ($0.64-$0.87 / cup)
Difference: Bread: On average, roughly the same if not better. Milk: UK: $1.14/L US: $0.95/L = 20% increase in the UK. Eggs: Almost twice as expensive in the UK. Butter: Twice as expensive.
So, while food prices vary from slightly less than American prices to twice American prices, we can assume that there is roughly a 50% increase on prices, if not more. So if I'd lived in the US, our grocery bill of £30/week ($45.60/week) would be cut to probably $30/week (£10/week less). So I've overspent in the 3.5 years I've been here some (10*52*3=) £1560 on food.

Visa: £989
Petrol: £900
Food: £1560
Total spent on UK (not including flights): £3449

Out of the £50,000 for leaving the country, I'd re-coup that £3500, spend another £1000 on the flight home and some £1000-2500 moving our things. Leaving £43,000 to buy a house in the US. At today's exchange rate, that's $65,360, which in Oregon would buy a 1 bedroom house in a cheap area or a 2-3 bedroom manufactured home or some acres of land. Not too bad, eh?

Of course, with the UK in its biggest economy crisis in EONS, the big question is: how would you pay for this?

But then, the BNP isn't concerned with practicality, are they?

No comments:

Post a Comment