London vs Toronto: Cost of Living (grocery, housing + more) | Is London actually more expensive?

[@Lisamakes]

We moved from Toronto to Barcelona in 2019. When I visited Toronto this summer, I was shocked at the prices! It’s crazy how much it’s gone up. Spain is significantly cheaper than London, and for sure it’s much cheaper for us to live here.

[@nathanaelshing]

content for sure, but can we all appreciate the graphics and production of this video 😮‍💨🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@FalcomScott312]

Living here in London, England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 is so ridiculously expensive here over the years. Even Toronto, Canada 🇨🇦 same situation too! Happy Sunday, Monica & Happy Remembrance Sunday! ❤️

[@sophiaywc]

This was so interesting!! Thank you for making this video ❤

[@arjunbhaduri7525]

I think clearly the rent difference is the kicker. All the other cost-of-living stuff is manageable to live with in London, apart from the exorbitant rent ... The rent situation is a demand and supply issue due to population growth, and recent UK population growth has been fueled by immigration, but immigration will slow down now because of the new salary rules requiring people to earn at least £38k to get a work visa. People in the UK can no longer afford to have more than 1 child, so the UK birth rate has also declined.

[@bee42Sad]

I know you mentioned salary briefly at the end, but it is critical to include. Ex moving to a cheaper or more expensive place is only in comparison to how much you're being paid. A place can be super cheap or expensive if you aren't being paid the local rate.

[@IsabellaBoyne]

This was such an interesting video! One of my close friends lives in Toronto and I was shocked at how nice of a place you could get where the same rent would get you something tiny in London. And definitely notice a huge difference between Toronto and London salaries - I assume it's to be able to compete with US salaries which are also super high!

[@MonicaXGuan]

true! when I talk to european friends, although they think the salary doesn't match costs of living in london it is still higher than most of europe

[@monicatoro2286]

Hi Monica, I'm from Colombia, and I was completely surprised to find that groceries were cheaper in London vs Medellín (Colombia).

[@MonicaXGuan]

Oh really!

[@AndySowyer]

ha ha pepper prices in Canada, it's funny ;) I have lived in Canada over 8 yers now, and never understood why vegetables are so crazy expensive here, especially peppers. Why peppers are so unique? Food cartels in Canada remind me of drug cartels in Mexico..

[@水-n4v7s]

As someone who is moving to London next year for school, this was very very helpful! Thank you very much:D I assume the reason why salary in Canada is generally better than London is likely due to the existence of another competitive appealing job market nearby. Since the US offers better salary in many industries, so if Canadian companies dont pay well, they cannot attract good candidates. On the other hand, the UK is the most attractive job market for English speakers in Europe and it doesn’t have a big competitor nearby except Ireland. I don’t know perhaps it’s just my assumption. Sorry if I’m wrong 😅

[@MonicaXGuan]

Def could be it!

[@aleksandarnikic5838]

Quick question on regards to the price of food. produce and meat can be really expensive in canada, but with weekly deals and flyers, there are usually items in all of the main food categories, like some veg, fruit, meat, that go on a pretty heavy discount. I do most of my shopping with the flyers and often reduce my bill by at least 50%. Is it the same in London for flyers and discounts?

[@MonicaXGuan]

Yes similar but I would say the discounts are not as big as in Canada on fresh foods becuase the prices are already quite low.

[@mrggy]

The UK has a lot of tiers for groceries. M&S and Waitrose are expensive grocery stores. Tesco, Morrisons, and Sainsburys are more mid range, while Lidl and Aldi are discount. I notice huge price differences depending on where I shop

[@Matt-rw9py]

Went to Ealing Broadway recently. I've never seen anything like that for 15 years me living in London. Every 3rd, 4th shop closed down and empty. Ealing was always busy with shoppers, consumers, customers, people having fun but it seems it's gone now. Crazy 😱 and sad 😔 But let's stay hopeful the situation will improve SOON.

[@AthynVixen]

I'm always baffled watching these at the amount of people who eat out once a week or even more than once a week . My UK background was you only ate out for special events and birthdays etc.. I really do not know where people are getting the money from for takeaways and dinners out.

[@akay2723]

I used to live in Toronto back in 2011 when it was affordable and I remember the salary was higher. I'm wondering if it has anything to do with Medicare VS NHS ... i dunno maybe Medicare is more expensive to run🤔

[@VenusEudora]

confirms what I thought; that I eat more veg and fruit in london vs toronto 100%!!! so expensive for food these days

[@Cantloseit]

How about health care insurance and visit to doctors? How about other insurance like renter insurance or others? How about travel cost?

[@MonicaXGuan]

So most people don't have private health insurance, covered under the NHS and same for Cnaada. As for renters insurance, some people get contents insurance and that can be as little as £5 a month and I would say it's a bit more expensive in Canada but not by much. I personally don't pay for any type of insurance in the UK 😅 For travel it really is up to you but generally cheaper to travel to europe from the UK but with more frequent trips it does add up to the cost of 1 big trip from Canada.

[@phoenix-xu9xj]

We have a lot of competition here. I don’t know what the situation is in Canada.

[@DaniMagnes]

everything here is a monopoly run by a few conglomerates protected by the gov from any foreign competition.

[@pokaye]

Essentials such as milk, eggs, etc. are not taxed at the grocery store in Canada

[@MonicaXGuan]

oops! So it's probably more lik 20% higher in Canada

[@teawithtams6596]

Great video, I can see you put a lot of effort into it. Personally when I was working in London the salary was much higher than that of Toronto, but that was pre-covid and pre-Brexit, maybe things have changed since then.

[@MonicaXGuan]

interesting! yes it's def changed but might also be industry dependant.

[@JimmyJr630]

I live in another city in the uk and the prices here are so much cheaper than London. It might as well be a separate country. You need to get out of there asap for your wallets sake

[@pakistanicanadianvlogger]

stop making me HUNGRY!!! :)

[@ElectroSharpTurtle]

It's very surprising that London UK is more expensive than here in Canada. 😯 I wonder Monica if you can make a video about dating in Canada vs the UK. 👌