12 July 2006

Calgary Bound?

All signs are pointing to a move to Calgary at the end of August. I'm hoping to have my thesis defence done in time so that we can spend a few days packing up and getting ourselves ready to go on a fun little cross-Canada drive. That said, I'm hoping that somebody from Calgary, or Alberta generally, reads this little blog of mine and can answer some of the following simple little questions:
1. How much is a 4L jug of milk? It's $6 here, and that's too much!
2. Car insurance? Reasonable or gougers?
3. How much is a litre of gas these days?
That's all, really, for now anyways. If there's more everyday stuff that you think is probably cheaper (or more expensive) than here in Halifax, let me know!

7 comments:

Brian C said...

Calgary now? A real traveller.

Milk comes in about $4

Gas is now about $1.10. Oh but in Calgary they have a trick where they subtract off 3.5c so its about $1.06.

Car insurance. Now theres the expensive one. You'll hafta check around. I'm on a plan with Meloche Monnex (a TD company) for engineers so I have a bit of a deal. My insurance is about $85/mo for a '96 Dakota.

Rents and real estate are other expensive items.

RGM said...

Yeah been looking at the rental scene, it's about comparable with here in Halifax from what I've seen so far. My worry is actually finding a place.
Glad that milk is closer to BC levels; the first time I saw a jug of milk at $6.67 my jaw damn near dropped. Gas has gotten that high out there eh? It's a $1.14 here in regulated Nova Scotia; the last time I was in Calgary (Metallica show!) it was when gas was 95c in Kelowna and I rejoiced to see 80c.
Car insurance is probably going to be a bugger regardless of where one is. BC is nothing special, I don't actually have a vehicle out here but I'm told that it's pretty scary. I've got a friend in BC who insures his in Saskatchewan because he's originally from there and it saves him loads apparently.

Ahhhh the joys of moving!

Anonymous said...

6 bucks on milk!? WHAT THE HELL?

Are they deprived of cows in Halifax or something?
I will come and visit when you're all settled in at some point!

Brian C said...

Gas is regulated in NS? I saw something about gas stations closing in NB to protest the regulated prices. Why is it that "Conservative" governments feel the need to regulate gas prices?

Another insurance quote. A small 2005 Toyota Yaris (on a group plan) is $650 a year.

I had hoped to move out of my condo in Calgary for a house after moving from Edmonton in 2000. However, house prices are out of control right now. >:(

RGM said...

Yeah they started regulating it here on July 1st (Happy Canada Day!). They're clever: at $1.14/L, it's really $1/L for the gas, but the HST is already built into it. I blame the strong NDP here.

Anonymous said...

Found your blog from Riley's -

We seem to be switching spots - I am heading to Dal in Sept -

Its true - Alberta is the promised land - $3.96/4L of milk is pretty awesome -

One piece of advice - do as much searching for places as you can - as far as I have seen to date, there are few rentals available, those that are free are hiking their rates (basically because they can) -

An economic boom is great unless you are poor.

RGM said...

Hi Anita, welcome to the place.
Yes I've already experienced the rate hike discussion. One of the places we were looking at has rates that are $100 a month higher than what they have advertised on the website. Reminds me of an old radio commercial about a guy that couldn't get his tech guy to update the website. The search goes on . . .

Halifax is a fun city, and Dal has some good faculty. Are you going to be in the Political Science program?