So in our brief week here, I have made two observations.
Observation number one: life in Denmark is pretty good. Things work, people are nice, you don’t really see misery, and you don’t really see struggle. The Danish state is infamous for providing for its citizens, and I feel like I’ve restored more balance into my life in less than a week than I had been constantly running after for two years during our time in Washington.
Observation number two: life in Denmark is pretty expensive. As in, VERY expensive. And presumably those two things balance out – you pay more upfront to get more on the backend. It doesn’t immediately hit you (except for maybe in restaurants) and people do say that the only way to survive the shock is to stop constantly converting into dollars in your head. But when you actually stop to think about some of the items, even the day to day ones, the differential between what we used to pay and what we’ll now pay is pretty dramatic.
Now, naturally, one can make a whole lot of arguments about what is the true price of something…But I’d thought I’d do a little mini-series on goods that are easily comparable to give you a sense of what prices are “from here to there”.
First up, Diet Coke. It shouldn’t be, but it’s a staple for me – all around feelgood drug – I should drink a lot less of it, and at this price, I probably will. My preferred form is from a fountain with ice, but I have to say, the can version has always appealed to me more on this side of the atlantic (the fountain versions are rarely found and if you find them, they’re too sweet and don’t have ice).
The prices are pulled from Peapod in the US for the DC zipcode, and from our neighborhood Fotex (kind of like a Safeway), using today’s exchange rate on XE.com, and there you have it – doesn’t seem like much, but the difference is actually 319% more if you compare it to the US price. So how’s that for cost of living?
WOW! That's expensive.
At first when I saw the title of the post I thought it would be something about how it taste different (didn't pay attention to the graphics right away, still on my first cup of coffee) but the pricing is crazy. BTW, real Mexican Coke tastes different.
Rosa – it definitely does! sigh, no Mexican Coke around here 😉 although Diet Coke/Coke light taste a little different from each other as well, it's always nice to have a little variation on such a standard product!
Gulp.
exactly!
Having recently relocated from Boston, Mass to Stockholm, Sweden, I feel your pain on that one. It's so incredibly expensive here by comparison — especially with regards to food and drink. While veggies and dairy is pretty cheap to buy at the grocery store, eating out is essentially no longer a daily option for us. To eat out here tends to be something like 200kr ($30) per person. And really, that's cheap. A decent meal will be more like 300kr ($45). As someone used to swinging by a nice Thai place for an authentic meal at $10, this is rough. The Thai place near our apartment is only for special events now, at 300% more than Boston cost-wise.
The good news is that after a few months here, we've settled, know what's reasonable and what's not at the grocery store. Your mentioning of the "stop converting the money to stay sane" is right on target. Really, it's all relative. Of course, it's good to compare it to what you know you should pay, but at the same time, it'll make you crazy. I found that the problem essentially solved itself once I'd moved my money over to a Swedish bank account and could see my total in Krona all the time. It's much easier to think of that Coke as a percentage of what you have instead, just as you would have in the US.
that's great advice jamie, our bank stuff should get squared away soon so hopefully that makes the transition easier too!
ps -we went out for thai as well and while the tab hit hard, the food was so good – i have a feeling we'll be back!
yeesh!
I had friends study abroad in copenhagen and they just kept saying how expensive everything is but it balances out because everything is so nice too 🙂
clare – exactly, i think balance is where this will all lead too!
It's also important to keep in mind that a lot of different taxes are generally included in the price here in Denmark.
And all kinds of soda and sweets are very expensive in Scandinavia – because the Scandinavian governments are trying to keep their populations from becoming obese. The number of obese people is skyrocketing these years and therefore the governments has put taxes on food containing a lot of sugar or fat. The percentage of our population that are overweight may not be as high as in the states but it's still a huge problem seeing as obese peoples lives are a shortened by at least a few years and in the end requires a lot more care by the state than healthy people. The governments here in Scandinavia are trying to prevent that in different ways. So you'll also see such extreme prices in both Sweden and Norway. It's the same with cigarettes, alcohol and so forth. Therefore a lot of Danes and Swedes cross the border to Germany and stock up on alcohol, candy and soda. It's rather common to take a trip like that at least twice a year or before a big party.
But in general Denmark is an extremely expensive country to live in but I'm happily paying the price since I feel like I'm getting my money's worth – free education, SU (monthly support paid by the government so no student has to work while under education), free healthcare, good living conditions and a safety net provided by the state if I ever lever my job, my home and so forth.
I feel privileged. So I'm happily paying 10 DKK for a can of diet coke. Although diet coke has become hard to find here i Denmark – apparently Danes prefer their Coke Zero.
And I'm sorry for my english. I hope you'll live. 🙂
Emrah – thanks so much for your comment, and i completely agree. just because something is a price, doesn't mean that it's actually how much the item really "costs". I also feel that way, especially about clothes. Sometimes when I see t-shirts that are only a couple of dollars, I always wonder how that shirt was made, or how who made it was paid in order to be able to sell it for that price… i'm definitely looking forward to learning more about the benefits that come along with the Danish system in order to get a sense of what the trade offs are. In the meantime, when we finally know enough people for a large party, we'll take your advice on the stocking trip!
This will be an interesting series! Drinking less Diet Coke will be a good thing, but what is the price of milk? Or cheese? Or say, vegetables?
Not sure if it's the same in Denmark, but here in Sweden, while Coke is expensive, diary items and fresh veggies are really cheap. We usually have to stop ourselves from overindulging on the extremely cheap and delicious ice cream!
Noreen – i'll definitely have to do a few more grocery products and good things is that will be a series, so I just need to get out there and collect all the comparables! i'm looking forward to investigating all kinds of things! And jamie, definitely good point on the ice cream – i can definitely be a good investigator of ice cream!
I've given up on soda entirely here, which is probably not the worst thing, but I found myself craving carbonated beverages when I was pregnant with my little girl. My solution: dansk vand (carbonated water) with a splash of juice. It really helps me when I craving something sweet and fizzy.
If you really want to be blown away, do a price comparison on books.
ooo! good point – i actually have yet to see a bookstore but putting it on my list!
ps -also good suggestion on on the water and juice – i love carbonated water with lemon as a substitute and have been wanting to try the many berry syrups here too!