Cheap Switzerland!

'Cheap' and 'Switzerland' are two words, you rarely see in the same sentence without a ‘not’ hovering around somewhere. One could say this is in fact an example of an oxymoron.

Yes, there are things in Switzerland which are cheaper here than in the UK, please see list below (not exhaustive, I’m sure, but these are the things I’ve come across since July):

1.       Ear plugs

2.       Glasses (if you have ‘normal’ problem-eyes)

4.       Electricity

5.       Travel cards

Ear plugs:

Since university, I’ve been using ear plugs and I guess I’ve become addicted to them. As I don’t feel this is an addiction that has taken over my life, I’m not worried about any side-effects showing up in 10 years’ time. Hence I keep buying new ones on a regular basis. (Having tried various kinds, I’ve come to the conclusion that the ones that work best for me are the yellow foam ones with blunt – not round – edges.) They sell for around £3.50 (=CHF5.88) in the UK for three pairs and in Switzerland I pay around CHF2.99 for three pairs – almost half price!

Glasses:

A couple of weeks ago, I purchased three pairs of prescriptive glasses. As you can see from the pictures below, they are colour variations of the same frame. 

The colours are: Black, brown and red.

The frames were CHF19.50 each and the total per frame with a prescription of r: 3.25 and l: 2.00 was CHF111 (the eye test cost CHF20). So the total costs of my three pairs of glasses ended up being: CHF353 = GBP240. In the past when I’ve gone for the ‘buy one get (the cheapest) one free’ in Specsavers or other places, I’ve always ended up only using one of the pairs. This time around, I was determined to not let that happen and with three identical frames, I’m happy to confirm that I swap colours several times a week.

Electricity:

Having spent some time today doing calculations in order to establish how much we pay for 1 kWh here compared to the UK, we ended up with the following result (yes, we know how to have a good time!):

Switzerland: 

1 kWh: CHF0.14 = GBP0.10

UK: 

1 kWh: GBP0.20 = CHF0.30 

Even though we have a dishwasher, washing machine, tumble dryer, electric stove as well as more gadgets than two people necessarily need, the fact that we pay 50% less per kWh means that even with the above running regularly, we don't spend more money in total per month, than we would have done in the UK without these machines.

Travel cards:

My monthly travel card, which lets me use trains, busses, trams – and even a ferry on Lake Zurich (the short route but still very picturesque) in all of Zurich as well as all the way to Zug (25 miles), where I work, costs CHF248 (GBP168). I’ve just looked at First Great Western’s website, and the monthly travel card from Moreton-in-Marsh to Oxford (30 miles), which is what I’ve been using for years, before I left the UK, is now: GBP218.50. This includes the train journey only. No ferries, no busses. But probably still lots of delays and cancellations! (I'm SO not missing the general chaos of public transport in the UK!)

I am fully aware that most things in Switzerland ARE more expensive than in the UK (or even Denmark), but the quality and taste of for example fruit and vegetables as well as the service one gets and general standard of living are much higher as well.

This doesn’t mean I don’t miss living in the UK, though. Luckily I get a daily dosage of Britishness at work as most of my colleagues are ex-pats like myself. And I've started watching Coronation Street again...

Lots of love,

Karen x