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Forum -> Inquiries & Offers -> Moving/ Relocating
Cleveland Baltimore and other cities: cost of life
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 18 2014, 4:24 pm
My husband asked me to ask:
To compare the cost of living in different cities, let's start with 20 basic products.

How much do you pay for (please indicate your city/quarter/suburb and the size/weight/volume of each):

A bottle of CY milk
A bottle of orange juice
A bottle of grape juice or kiddush wine
A bottle of coke
Potatoes
Apples
Strawberries
Onions
Zucchini
Eggplants
Tomatoes
A full chicken
A full salmon
A loaf of frozen gefilte fish
A bag of frozen schnitzel
A pack of pasta
A pack of cookies
A pack of flour
A pack of rice
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MaBelleVie




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 18 2014, 4:26 pm
Besides the kosher items, everything depends on which stores you shop in. And for produce, prices vary by season and by week.
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amother


 

Post Thu, Sep 18 2014, 5:17 pm
Really varies depending on where you shop. Here in Cleveland the cheapest place to get many items is Costco.

Your question isn't really realistic to answer since prices vary so much. If your priority is bargains you'll go to places like Marcs, Walmart, Costco and spend less. If your priority is time you'll go to more expensive places but not have the aggravation of long lines, bad customer service (not at Costco though), or a longer drive to get there. Cleveland doesn't have one big kosher grocery store where you can buy everything you need. We have a small kosher grocery store and you need to go elsewhere for many items.

You can buy meat at Boris or at Tibor's (the two butchers in Univ Hts), or at Costco (Empire chicken and I forget what brand of beef, but it's a good hechsher), or at many of the local supermarkets (Heinen's, Giant Eagle, etc.).

Here are the weekly sales fliers from some of the Cleveland Heights area supermarkets (if you need to put in a zip code, put 44118 for Cleveland Hts:

http://www.davesmarkets.com/weekly_ads.shtml
http://www.gianteagle.com/Save/Weekly-Sale/
http://www.marcs.com/view-our-ads.aspx
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amother


 

Post Thu, Sep 18 2014, 5:24 pm
ok, I'm in Baltimore. The prices I'll give you are prices you can get at one of the major stores here- either 7 mile market, shoppers, or Giant, on a pretty regular basis. Keep in mind that they go up at random times and you can get them cheaper on sale or at Target, Walmart, etc. I also just had a baby and haven't actually done the shopping for a month and a half, so my prices might be a little off.

1. 1/2 gallon of CY milk- 2.59-2.87
2. 1/2 gal oj, not from concentrate, 3.39-3.50 or so, depending on brand, can get it cheaper sometimes.
3. we use grape juice, not wine. Kedem 64 oz bottles typically goes on sale at two major stores here for $2.50 a bottle twice a year (before Succos and Pesach) and we stock up then. Otherwise, it can run you up to $5 or $6 a bottle, unless you buy it at BJ's or Sam's Club.
4. 2 L bottle of Coke, not sure, since we're not big soda drinkers, but I think usually between $1.25 and $1.59.
5. potatoes, depends on type and time of year. 5 lb bag is between $2 and $4, usually.
6. apples- big range, depends on type, time of year, and store. anywhere between 99 cents a pound to 99 cents an apple.
7. strawberries, depends on if in season, usually between $1.50-3 a pint
8. onions, depends on type, yellow onions are 69-79 cents per pound
9. zucchini- can't remember, not that much
10. don't usually buy tomatoes
11. I think the chicken at 7 mile is about 2.99 a pound now, can buy from local butchers too or wait for a sale to stock up. 1 chicken at 7 mile can be between 10 and 12 dollars
12. don't know about salmon
13. I usually buy the gefilte fish when it's on sale for $3.99, but otherwise can run btw $5 and $6.
14. don't know about schnitzel.
15. a pound of pasta is between $1 and $1.50 (or more if you want whole wheat or specialty things)
16. 5 lb of regular flour is btw 2 and 3 dollars, bread flour is between 3 and 4. specialty flour is more.
17. rice depends on if you want instant or brown. I just buy mine in bulk at BJ's, so I can't tell you how much it costs at smaller stores.


Hope this helps!
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doctorima




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 18 2014, 7:04 pm
I don't understand - you don't have visas and you're worried about the cost of zucchini in Cleveland??? I know it's nice to dream and fantasize about life in the good old USA and the various options there, but several posters have tried to nicely tell you that your priorities seem to be way off.

I really think you should be focusing all of your time and energy into finding out if you can realistically be allowed to move to ANY of them, and if not, it's a waste of time. I wish I had tips for you in terms of a visa, but I'm sure other posters do, and I think you'd do much better posting for tips about getting a tourist or work visa, and less about knee socks and vegetables in various American cities.
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Peanut2




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 18 2014, 7:22 pm
doctorima wrote:
I don't understand - you don't have visas and you're worried about the cost of zucchini in Cleveland??? I know it's nice to dream and fantasize about life in the good old USA and the various options there, but several posters have tried to nicely tell you that your priorities seem to be way off.

I really think you should be focusing all of your time and energy into finding out if you can realistically be allowed to move to ANY of them, and if not, it's a waste of time. I wish I had tips for you in terms of a visa, but I'm sure other posters do, and I think you'd do much better posting for tips about getting a tourist or work visa, and less about knee socks and vegetables in various American cities.


I strongly agree.

And I know a lot of people on green cards and work visas but I have no idea at all how you plan on going about getting one. Do you?

The cost of these things is really not so important. It's more important to get good well paying jobs, and how much these things cost might vary but won't make as big of an influence on your budget as cost of housing and taxes (which vary in different cities and states) and how much you make.

And you can't make anything without a work visa or green card.
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rain




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 18 2014, 7:46 pm
I think she needs someone to sponsor her and then she can get a green card
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Peanut2




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 18 2014, 7:56 pm
rain wrote:
I think she needs someone to sponsor her and then she can get a green card


No, it's not that simple or easy.
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amother


 

Post Thu, Sep 18 2014, 8:37 pm
How do you know ruchel doesn't have visa.
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amother


 

Post Thu, Sep 18 2014, 9:05 pm
No need to get rude, ladies. If you dont want to answer, dont. I can tell you that we have alsothought about moving overseas and the little details are what gives us the confidence to do it.
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yo'ma




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 18 2014, 9:05 pm
Please leave her alone!! She knows and she's not asking about that, she's asking about other things.
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ElTam




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 18 2014, 9:20 pm
You could just as easily make the argument that it's a waste of time and money to go through the immigration process and then not want to move to or not be able to afford to move to the places you have a green card to go live.
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amother


 

Post Thu, Sep 18 2014, 10:05 pm
amother wrote:
How do you know ruchel doesn't have visa.


She commented in another thread she started about other US communities (maybe Chicago?) that neither she nor her husband has a visa/green card or a clear path of how to get one, and a few posters there advised her to focus her efforts in that direction.
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LittleRed




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Sep 18 2014, 10:39 pm
Seriously, what does it matter to you if she has a visa or even started researching it? For whatever reason, she wants to know about communities in the US. If it bothers you, don't answer the threads. Maybe she and her husband need to know if it's even realistic financially, maybe they need an idea of where to begin looking for jobs because having a job may help one to get a visa, etc. It's extremely overwhelming to start from scratch in a new country and the more information one can get, the less daunting it seems. For any amother who says she is trying to be helpful in pointing this out to Ruchel, it certainly doesn't come off that way.
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amother


 

Post Fri, Sep 19 2014, 12:05 am
[quote="Ruchel"]My husband asked me to ask:
To compare the cost of living in different cities, let's start with 20 basic products.

How much do you pay for (please indicate your city/quarter/suburb and the size/weight/volume of each):
Baltimore:
A bottle of CY milk $4.69ish
A bottle of orange juice -
A bottle of grape juice or kiddush wine - biggest bottle of kedem $2.50 regular sale price predictably 3 times a yr. stock up
A bottle of coke - $1.20
Potatoes
Apples
Strawberries $3.00
Onions
Zucchini
Eggplants
Tomatoes
A full chicken
A full salmon
A loaf of frozen gefilte fish
A bag of frozen schnitzel
A pack of pasta $1.20
A pack of cookies
A pack of flour
A pack of rice
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amother


 

Post Fri, Sep 19 2014, 1:44 am
Not that I am saying this is a good idea but people come to the US all the time on a tourist visa and stay. If you are from Europe you can come to the US on a six month tourist visa I think. You can also come on a student visa and say you are studying in kollel. You don't need a green card or a work visa to come to the US especially from Europe.

People do this in Israel also. I know people who have lived in Israel for 15 years but never made Aliyah. They are on a tourist visa and every few months they leave and come back.
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 19 2014, 7:43 am
I know you people mean well, but harassing me in every single thread about my visa/green card just isn't helping.
You apparently don't know us. We are not the fantasizing type. We plan EVERYTHING. We take our time but when there's an opportunity we can jump on it 123. We are also not the type to write in details how we are going to get which paper. So yet again, if you just want to bash, just don't. Yes it is crucial to know price of life and level of tznius. We are not professionals (and will not be) and we are frum (and will continue investing our priorities into chinuch). The goal is not to dream of landing a posh job but see if realistically we can make it with a realistic situation, after assessing if the right cities for our type are also right for our wallet. No one is waiting for us there.


THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO TOOK TIME AND EFFORT TO ANSWER.

Thank you LittleRed and ElTam and Yo'ma and nice amother Smile it seems you get it.

I see why so many amothers posted in my threads lol they don't want the comments. I will ask dh to ask his questions somewhere else.
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MaBelleVie




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 19 2014, 7:50 am
amother wrote:
Not that I am saying this is a good idea but people come to the US all the time on a tourist visa and stay. If you are from Europe you can come to the US on a six month tourist visa I think. You can also come on a student visa and say you are studying in kollel. You don't need a green card or a work visa to come to the US especially from Europe.

People do this in Israel also. I know people who have lived in Israel for 15 years but never made Aliyah. They are on a tourist visa and every few months they leave and come back.


First of all, they are cracking down and catching lots of those tourist visa immigrants. I dont know about Israel, but in the US definitely. Second of all, it's illegal- so really? Third, you can not get a student visa unless you have appropriate paperwork from the school you will be attending. They will turn you rght back around and send you to your home country if you dont have the paperwork. Fourth, you can not legally work with a student visa or tourist visa. Good luck supporting a family. Or getting a loan to buy a house.
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 19 2014, 7:53 am
Ok so dh thinks the comments are well intentioned and nice. lol. I guess he should join Imamother, his skin is thick enough.
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MaBelleVie




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Sep 19 2014, 7:55 am
BTW my last post was addressed to amother, not to you op. I'm sure you're not stupid enough to pull those tricks.
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