What about toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo, laundry soap, household cleaning supplies, pet foods? These are all items added into a typical grocery shop. I hope you are well! Thanks for making your videos!
Pet foods? on average, people that live in apartment dont buy those because an apartment is not really a good place to have pets, not enough space for dogs and cats need access to outdoors...
I buy soap refill 4L jug for $13CND that last me 6 months so $26 per year. Toilet paper is about $7 per month and paper towels like $3 so $120 per year. I might get razors every 3rd month for $6 and shaving foam every 4 months for like $7 so $45 total. Dish soap is like $3 a month so $36 a year. Laundry detergent and fabric softer is like $8 every second month so $48. Bleach and floor cleaner is maybe $20 a year. Garbage bags maybe $8 twice a year so $16. All in all that's about $300 per year or $25 a month or $6 a week. Not much compared to the $2400 food budget. Plus I get deals when I buy all my shopping at once for a month I get $25 of free stuff. Sometimes it's a box full of cereal, sometimes it's full of soap and toothpaste. Oh I forgot toothpaste but I get so much stuff like that free. Sanitary wipes, kleenex, soda pop and more. Plus I get points so that's another free $100 right off any order after saving them for a year.
This shopping trip can't be used as an average weekly grocery purchase. You aren't going to use up all the sugar, flour, salt, pepper, oil, tea, and coffee in one week. Some of this will be used in later weeks. A total of all four weeks, divided by 4, will be a better view of your weekly shopping expense. Then there are non-food items like dish soap, laundry soap, bath soap, toothpaste, and toilet paper. How is that going to be factored in? Anyway, love your videos. ;-)
I'd be very interested in the non-food essentials! I really like these videos, and your editing keeps getting better and better -- clear, concise, and enjoyable :) Many places in US also have those produce scale/print-off things, but they are either optional (as in, you can either weight the produce there or at checkout) or are for specific types of shopping (like some stores have something called scan and go where you scan your items youre buying using the app in your phone, put the item in your cart after scanning, and then you easily checkout using the app & leave). When talking about the way things look and whatnot, you might be looking for the word "aesthetic" (pronounced ez THEH tuhk). Also, one thing to pay attention to regarding salt is the crystal size. Sea salt usually has larger crystals than a table salt. (Sea salts usually do come in different grain sizes, but even the "fine" sea salt can still have coarser grains than table salt.) This can be a good or bad thing, depending on how you are using the salt. If you get salt mainly as a finishing salt or just for cooking veggies, you're probably ok. But, because sea salt (as well as Kosher salt) doesn't dissolve as easily, when baking, table salt is the way to go -- ugly packaging be damned ;P Hope you're settling in nicely to your new place :)
Himalayan or pink salt is the healthier option I prefer. Has been known to have up to 88 vitamins and minerals but usually not in one spoonful. Depends on the cutting and grinding of these rock salts. I do have a bit of a thyroid issue which I need white dry table salt with iodine. Not sure. if Sea Salt contain this. Iodine can be harvested from the rock salt or it is chemically added. Sadly, there are no government food regulations noting the difference on the packages. To keep up with my ph-Electroylte balances which keeps a body healthy, these past few months I add a pinch of sea salt in almost all of the beverages I drink and I have noticed a healthier difference in my body.
I use Himalayan or Hawaiian sea salt, but I go home to Hawai'i and get different salts, red, black or pink even certain Soy Sauces, nothing is as good as home right? Now if I can get the good Ahi ( tuna) and Poi, I'm good to go! Aloha from Nevada
I used to buy instant coffee for convenience since I rarely drink coffee, but the Keurig machine has kind of made that unnecesary. Not sure if they have those in Russia. Incidentally, you can use any kind of coffee in them, not only the specially made “pods” which mostly I don’t like. When I’m going to drink some coffee I usually get a favorite Kona blend.
I work at a grocery store. I may have a explanation as to why those eggs are so much cheaper than the others. At our store when the egg orders arrive there maybe cartons with 1-2 broken eggs. Instead of throwing the whole carton out. We have generic cartons that we will put a dozen good eggs in and they sell at a steep discount. So it’s a mixture of all the other brands of eggs that we sell. Hope this helps. Love the videos Niki.
Eggs are also divided into varieties, depending on the weight of the 1st egg. If the weight is large, then this is an egg of the 1st class, if less, then the 2nd. I do not know the exact classification, but this classification exists. Therefore, it was possible to buy eggs cheaper, I don’t think there is any difference in this product. They are simply sorted by size, weight.
I tried replicating your shopping on a grocery app here in Italy and the prices were quite similar. Of course, local products like olive oil and pasta are cheaper here, but the end purchase was pretty much the same - and meat is a lot cheaper on your side.
The latest bout of inflation has really sent the price of meat up in the US-more than anything else. Maybe it has to do with covid. They had a lot of trouble with that in meat processing plants and had to put in a lot of special measures and change ways of doing things. But still, stores still have sales when items like certain cuts of meat are radically less than usual. I mostly buy things like steaks on those sales, then buy a lot and freeze it.
Prices may be similar. But it also boils down to how much you're getting paid in the first place for a similar job. Like in America you get paid a minimum of 7-10 dollars an hour for a fast food worker. But in india we get paid 20k rupees max for a month. That's around 250 dollars in a month. So while prices can be similar, the amount you're getting paid matters a lot..
Here in Finland we must also mostly use the scales by ourselves. Only at Lidl (german chain, propably the cheapest around here) they do it for you with no exceptions. On other chains it's usually done by the customer him/herself. These videos are great, as they not only show the difference in prices, but in products that are present. Also like that there is your view on quality of the stuff, in terms of not simply buying just the cheapest stuff, but actually having an opinion on good brand / value in your area. I think most people have their preferences and do tend to lean towards brands they have learned to trust, no matter where they live, and while sometimes the cheapest stuff can be flawless in quality, there are also some products here and there that most people want to avoid getting the cheapest one if they can afford.
We plan to move to Finland in the next few years and have been trying to not just learn the language, but adapt to your cultural habits. I was so thrilled when our local store finally got the self-weigh/sticker produce and grain machines! Now I only use them but everyone else walks by them. It makes self check out so quick!
@@denni7173 we are last countries with open borders for tourism but at this time goverment is starting to stop the open border politics 'cause of security reasons and because of baltic states, Poland and Balkans had already did that to stop free moving from all people during invasion.
@@Juhani96 I actually don't blame the country for closing up. Too many countries were welcoming any- and everyone and have a mess now. We plan to come to work and contribute to Finland, not send money back home to the US. Hence why we are taking our language lessons VERY seriously. It has been my dream to move there for 30yrs but now I am in a position to start making that come true. Heck! I've had a Finnish flag tattoo (one of 3 Suomi-related inks) for 28yrs. That should make me an honorary resident 😆 Just kidding
@@denni7173 don't stress too much about speaking the language. Pretty much every Finn nowadays speaks conversational English. Problems can however start to arise on working environments, where Finnish is the de-facto language, even in tech companies that officially use English. Even if documents are also translated to English, the conversation surrounding them might be in Finnish. Also pretty much every free time group activity, course, etc primarily use Finnish. So one-to-one everyone knows English, but as soon as more people start to talk, then it's generally all in Finnish. You'll survive without talking the language, but having basic understanding will make your stay much easier for you. Feel welcome to stay or just visit the country! (EDIT: Removed few "also"s... *sigh*)
@@Niilomaan Kiitos for your kind words❤️ It has always been my dream to move to Finland. In fact I have 3 Finnish tattoos incl the flag for 28yrs now. Honestly, we believe that EVERY person who plans to live in any nation should work to assimilate as hard as possible. It is simply the respectful thing to do. I was given "honourary Finn" status by my Mum's Finnish friends at age 6 and have long admired the culture, people, and language. Only recently have I gotten to a place in life where moving there is not just a dream, but a reality. My wish is to open a small business for like-minded dog-loving, nature-loving people to visit in a small village. I've been told smaller towns and villages with older populations tend to speak less English. So we are hitting the books, listening to shows and news, radio, anything to hear it. Being 2 people with no speakers locally means we are on our own but we have our hearts in it.
Niki, maybe tell us how the spontaneous regrouping of Russia in eastern Ukraine is shown in Russian media? That Russian butter still costs the same is likely...
Wow. How things have changed there. I was in Russia (Moscow), the Ukraine, Latvia, and St. Petersburg in 1981. His apartment is way way better then what was available back then.
That was a very interesting video. I would say that prices in Russia are similar to ones in Czech Republic but a little higher than in Poland (although we have a serious inflation these days). Could you please do a video showing what are the prices for heating, water, electricity, petrol, house rental? Cheers!
In the EU is the problem countries market size. Sadly, smallest countries have higher prices as big countries like Germany because supermarket chains can lower the prices more easy as in small countries because they can sell much more of the products.
@@hansberger4939 For whom you mean? Because for Russia yes, it is very poor. Imagine average czech gross sallary is 1464 Euro, Russian is 919 Euro. Net sallary is 1182 Euro for CZ and 809 Euro for Russia. So yes they have generaly same or 20% higher prices but much less money. And remeber that in Russia there is much more bigger wage inequality than in CZ.
Side note: "red fish / красная рыба" you mention @16:30 is basically salmon and such varieties (literally red in colour as opposed to white). Here in Australia salmon has gone up for fresh one from 25 AUD/kg to 40 in some places. Frozen and smoked kind vary but overall trend is definitely up. Thanks for the insight and interesting videos!
Here in Singapore, Norwegian salmon is now usually around 45 SGD / kg and New Zealand salmon for 65 SGD / kg :/// 1 SGD = 1.05 AUD according to current exchange rates
LOL. When I was 6 years old, I went to the local grocery, with my 50 cent/wk allowance. Walking down the grocery isles, I spotted a can that was beautiful, with GORGEOUS colors. Bought it. Took it home, and opened it. It was canned salmon. When I saw the bones, and smelled the odor, I quickly sneaked out the back door, dug a hole and buried it..
Did anything grow from it? What kind of a plant is salmon? Seriously speaking, canned salmon should *not* have bones in it. Maybe you saw streaks of salmon fat instead?
@@smokeonthewater5287 You'd be surprised by how mediocre American canned fish products are. They leave all the bones in for some absurd reason I have never been able to understand.
@@Blackgriffonphoenixg yep some are mediocre but the salmon bones i remember from when i bought it back in the 80's ---- i just bought some canned fish, including salmon and none had identifiable bones - but canned fish is never inexpensive ....
@@smokeonthewater5287 Nope. It was bones. I remember thinking some sort of ghastly foul play had occurred. I even said a prayer over the grave, and never mentioned it to my family
My father once bought suspicious can with russian cyrilic text on it, that noone was buying in grocery. It was impossible to identify content. I expected something like super salty russian fish with bones , tails and eyes, in sunflower oil. There was sunflower oil inside. But content was minced sunflower seed "halva", very sweet and delicious :-))) But that tin can looked like WW2/early cold war soviet army MRE.
I am in Australia. I have to admire Russian people have such variety of choices and such abundant supplies in Supermarket. And It is now even under sanctions! 😂While our prices here are much higher by inflation. Tomato is at about AU$12 a kilo (480 rubles a kilo) and only 2 pack eggs can buy each time. And constantly shortage of supply of toilet rolls. 😂😂
I really liked this video showing a bit more of your everyday life and tastes. I thought it was adorable that you chose some things based on "beautifulness" and the cat milk 😅 you seem like a very nice and good person. (P.S.: here in Portugal some supermarkets also have that system where you have to remember the number and weigh your own fresh produce)
The cat is simply the "Prostokvashino" milk logo, taken from the Soviet cartoon "Three from Prostokvashino" (1978). This is cow's milk, not related to cats.
@@HelenaUschanoff In Finland they milk their cats too? Wow, exotic milk huh! I guess you need more than 3 cats to drink a glass of milk everyday. I can't believe it..😱 I live in Canada🇨🇦. Mgmmm...there must be a 🐈cat milk farm somewhere around here.🤔
In California, US, you would qualify for government subsidies at the income level (82,000 rubles) of the average Russian citizen. All of the prices you showed are maybe 50% less than the US prices. I think that reflects the lower incomes in Russia.
Dude you compare please also the taxes and the prices for everything. You will feel more comfortable here with 500 dollars a month than in the USA with 3000 bux a month. Medicine is free, people mostly own their flats and country houses. Services are much cheaper, a lot of free entertainment. And also take into consideration that in most European countries there’s less than 1000 dollars/euros for a person left after you have paid taxes, rent, other payments which as A Russian I even don’t know how they’re called and why they exist. And here your 1000 dollars it’s your money , your pure income. You live in a bubble, absolutely unaware about life anywhere else, absolutely incapable of comparing the overall picture, it’s actually called extrapolation, a very rare quality nowadays
@@ksudenisova2462 You clearly never been in this countries. I have been in Russia, Germany and in the US. I would pick Germany and the US every time over Russia. The average Russian have the worst life conditions.
4:40 I appreciate the conversions for USD & the price tag addition animation. Really like the grocery shopping videos for some reason, probably same reason as cooking shows. Though, yours are more refreshing than the food network shows I got addicted to. Lol, it's a peek at everyday life and good food. Sometimes you even go over foriegn stuff like Baked Milk. Looked amazing tbh. I really want to try that Baked Milk now too....
In UK food has increased by ~30% in real term. Gas & Electricity more than doubled from £150 to £350 a month. My basic monthly on essentials such as bills and food is more than £1000/mth, not including mortgage.
I live in St. P too and I can say that we have the same +30% or even more since the beginning of this year. I also worked as a cashier in the winter of 2021 and in front of me were the prices of all goods by weight, and they were growing LITERALLY before my eyes.
You better make up your mind due to tightening of VISA travel around Europe. Even Georgia will now put VISA limits on Russians. It will come down to leave soon or stay forever.
Agree... Russia is losing their SMO. Ukraine is taking more & more land every day. The sanctions will be continued for a long time while Ukraine rebuilds. His life will be worse over time. And, budget wise I see no toilet paper, etc. He deserves his future. He calls his purchases "essential" --- but he foolishly is buying more expensive items and even choosing based on package design. Foolish. Stupid. Unless he has a source of funds we know nothing about --- his parents maybe even at his age? A very spoiled person... that is what he showed in this vlog. Sad.
For a first shop in a kitchen you did good. You won't have to buy some of those items next week because you will have plenty left so you can add some of your favorite foods next week.
alle the spices and the oil should last months not weeks. but yeah he did good, now he just need soaps and cleaning supplies and such :D it's expensive to move and have to restock everything
Same here $50 gets you zip nudda nothing you get home with 1-2 bags and you say to yourself what the hell did I buy for $50. I couldn’t believe the price of goods such as sugar flour cooking oils meat and dairy especially not to mention the range of products to pick from and incredible low prices.
I also dont use laundry soap; its extremely expensive! I used liquid dish soap; dawn blue 4x platinum; 1.5 tbsp per large load, put soap into water stream as its filling, makes plenty of suds, cleans well, rinses well, works great on collars n cuffs n stains too. its 6cents per lg load, very cheap!
I was glad to see you moved--your other apartment was basically a closet with a toilet. Your basics always are the most expensive items. I addition toilet paper, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent add up so quickly and really shouldn't be part of your 'grocery budget'. I was surprised you didn't buy butter. Thanks for the video--maybe a tour of your new place?
As a senior in the US on Social Security and Pensions and IRA Savings and Roth IRA Savings and Annuities and Rental Properties we spend less than 5% on groceries. We do seem to giveaway money to our grandchildren, buying them clothes, paying for soccer leagues, music lesions, toys and Stuff. You Can Not take money with you when you die, so we are spending it Now.
@@Stephen85 In the state of North Carolina, where I am living now, the regular amount of foodstamps is $20 monthly, no kidding, and emergency FS due to COVID are ending right now. So, even though said people qualify for foodstamps, $20.00 monthly really doesn’t help much!
Very interesting, the prices definitely seem much better there, but I know it's all relative to income. St Petersburg has been on my short list of places to visit, I hope to get that opportunity soon.
A number of things come into play when you're considering a percentage of groceries as a benchmark. Firstly, it tends to be a bit more expensive if you've just moved and acquiring all the basics from start. Things like tea, salt pepper, flour, sauces etc tend to last for ages but iif you're adding them all together in one shopping list, the price will naturally 'blow out'. The other thing to consider is how often a person buys take away food or eats out at cafe's and restaurants which may not be considered part of a grocery expense but provides the same needs. I live in Australia and rarely eat out (any more). With my wife and grown up son at home I spend about 30% of my retirement income on groceries.
yep - i've done a monthly budget study a long time ago and used a time-labelling system as well as noting any food thrown out etc ----- it was a pain ---- sort of an accrual based accounting method - recognize the cost as you eat through it (or time average the replacement) .... i found that my normal spends were
The leaf you bought is Bay Leaf--it's from a Laurel tree (Laurus nobilis). We call these natural seasonings 'herbs'--translates to 'grass', I guess. 'Love you, Niki.
haha interesting, in Lithuania we just call it Lauro Lapai. Lauro means laurus, and lapai leafs... Never knew how to say it in English... but it is different I guess, if u came to someone with Laurus Nobilis, they would be wtf???
In America, lots of supermarkets have customers weigh their produce on machines that print price stickers. Meat is typically sold in preweighed and stickers packages. Your apartment looks nicer than mine is. The grocery store in the video looks like it is rather larger than the one that I shop at. There are several types of cooking oil here. Rapeseed oil and safflower oil are fairly common. Corn oil and olive oil cost more money. There is also some soybean oil. I was a bit surprised by your choice of soy sauce. Don't they sell Kikoman in St. Petersburg? Brian Woods is spot on about prices. Prices are higher here and going up. Of course, the US supply chain does weird things. A year or so ago, I read an article about chickens being sent to China for processing and being reimported for sale here.
I remember that thing with the scale and the code number…but the last time I saw it was in the late 1990. They switched to the cashier scale because it was way easier for the customers and the shop.
Beautyfullness = Beauty ;) In Germany for some reason the cheaper coffee tastes better than the expensive one. Always check the eggs! Bread prices are somewhat similar in Germany. Love your colored hair. 11:43 QR code well applied xD The scales with label printers are pretty new in Germany. No butter, but that was probably replaced by the cream cheese.
Hope it's not for frying. Extra-virgin doesn't really like high heat and I think it's just too nice to use that way. Edit: With olive oil I'd use refined oil for frying, extra-virgin for sauces, salads and anything else where the taste of the oil is supposed to come out.
Love your apartment, it looks so nice! It's never fun buying groceries for a new kitchen, but it's interesting watching someone else do it lol. Still hoping I can eventually visit St Petersburg someday, it always looks so beautiful. I hope you're doing well, you have lots of people that care and worry about you.
In Switzerland is a suicide grocery shopping, that’s why we go to Italy/Germany, approximately weekly i spend around 180€ with two kids. I really appreciate your vids, be safe брат 😄
It's interesting to see all the English language products. I don't think I can say that I've ever seen a Russian language product in any of my grocery stores (I'm Midwest, United States).
nor in the southwest - but we have a lot of Made in Mexico - Nopales are fantastic!! I saw back in the day in a Brooklyn store (probably Brighton Beach) lots of canned fish! ... and some breads
Wow! This store had such a great selection of items and budget levels. I feel like the prices you were paying were pretty good too. I’m Canadian and we maybe have 2-3 brands of milk to choose from, 2-3 types of eggs, 2-3 brands of pasta, 2 types of flour (name brand and store brand) in your average and even little bit higher end store. I feel like most of our stuff is either the average or the expensive version whereas it seemed like you had much more options between bargain and pricey.
I have heard the news (not confirmed) that to maintain lower prices in Moscow and St. Petersburg, companies and government have different prices between western and estern Russia (with much higher prices in the less 'explored' east. Should be nice to make a location price comparison between Moscow, St. Petersburg and ... Khabarovsk?
The USA has similar price disparities between regions. I live in southeast Alaska and milk is 4.99 for a half gallon. A loaf of bread is 7-10$ Head up north and you could pay much more.
Most of the average things we eat today were once expensive and rare. Only 100 years ago people didn't get to consume big chunks of meat on a daily basis. Now the poor here in America have an obesity problem for too much calories.
Yep, and the only change are currency fluctuations because Russia and the rest of the world are free to exchange in commerce related to food or anything humanitarian as much as they want! Great insight though Don!
Very interesting, Niki. Your videos are the best. We have a great supermarket chain here in the UK, called Aldi, and all prices are shown online. For example 1 litre of soya milk is 0.55 Pounds or 38.75 roubles. Do you have an Aldi there in St Petersburg ? Best regards from Dai
I notice oil has been on the rise. Generic oil is uaully cheap 3-6. But name brand oil with nutrients usually cost more. My vegetable oil is at 8$ for name brand with nutrients. Havent used seed oil in some time.
Good video, good ideas. You are on a good way for a good needed channel. Best wishes from a German from Munich. But I would like to know where you shopped the veggies online?
Here in the US, we have Instacart for groceries. Pick your store, make your list and a shopper will pick it up and accept it. At your door in under an hour. I don't use it anymore but was convenient at height of covid.
@Yawn Sure, you are right that saleries are high (for some) - but the price has ca. doubled for extremely many products the last 1/2 year. So ppl are are struggeling here too. Most pay a lot for pensions on their own aswell, transportation is great in the few larger cities - just as it will be in Russia and any other country. So yeah, 316 RUB is f*ing expensive. Despite all mentioned. :)
Enjoyed your grocery trip. Setting up a flat with essentials would typically cost more than a weekly budget allocation. The surprise was I didn't see buckwheat in your car. Thanks from Wisconsin USA.
This is a really helpful video. I see many products that I’m going to boycott: DeCecco, Barilla, Lindt, Twinnings, Heinz. So many companies pulled out of Russia when they invaded Ukraine but still some remain. That said, I’m glad you have so many low cost alternatives. Love your videos and your bravery in making them.
Looks not so bad than i expected. Thx. Good for the russians. They can have everything if they have the money. Anyway i do not accept what Mr. P is doing in ukraine.
Very Nicely made video; and very informative too. You should do pretty much the same shopping tour every 6 months, and over a couple of years; you'll have made the Niki-Index 🙂 The sad thing is that it will change, and I cannot predict if it will be better or worse in the future.
When I travel I always go visit a grocery store. Just to see what they have, how ours differ from theirs. And of course, I buy breads, candy, fruits to see how they taste. I see your electronic scales are like ours here in Texas. Well, ours are in English and yours is in Russian. But I can tell you this Niki you and I would not have a problem using them.
The prices there are pretty good. Comparable to the prices here in Asia. I love that Barilla pasta makes its way there. On the other hand, eshhhh... Filippo Berio olive oil! It's so popular everywhere but it's not pure olive oil! Your groceries are nicely stocked. I recignize many of the things I would buy myself.
I live in Italy and I've never seen that brand in my entire life. But I could tell the quality just by looking at it, especially the low shelf one. Monini oil on the other hand it's alright
On Thursday, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that HIMARS strikes had hit more than 400 Russian targets, including command posts and ammunition depots.
@@perthonabudget “anthony beresford”. cute name but not original. ask putin for a more realistic name. As Russian forces abandoned town after town on Saturday, Putin was opening Europe’s largest ferris wheel in a Moscow park. Happy Moscow day!!!
@@perthonabudget Moscow's almost total silence on the defeat - or any explanation for what had taken place in northeastern Ukraine beyond a claim its troops were simply 'regrouping' - sparked significant anger among nationalists and some pro-war commentators on social media.
Olive oil isn't suitable for frying because it has a low smoking temperature. It's better raw. Think of it as a seasoning. Don't heat it! You need to get sunflower oil or canola for cooking!
Thank-you Nikki, that was so well done. I am so impressed with the variation you put into your video shots. I'm impressed with the prices, not so expensive. Is farming subsidized by the government?
@@dariuszur actually yes, there are supermarkets that are 40-50% cheaper. In Moscow Perekrestok is considered to be above the average in a price aspect. I usually buy such things in Pyaterochka which is average here (another brand of the same corporation) it seems to be something around 15-20% cheaper
We have that same olive oil here and it stinks when you cook it. Sometimes, the price matters. I would've just stayed with the sunflower oil. I can tell you, that brand wasn't worth the extra price. Tea selections in the US aren't so large normally, but the coffee section is huge (mainly from South America, Turkish brands are hard to find). Because the US destroyed the dairy industry with GMOs our dairy section is so small!
