A mum compared food prices in the US and UK and people are shocked (2024)

An American mother living in the UK has broken down the price difference in groceries on both sides of the Atlantic, leaving people surprised by how much cheaper food is in Britain.

Abigael Lanai, who is fromColorado but living in London, often shares videos on the differences between the two countries on her TikTokpage.

However her followers were stunned to learn that many of the UK's basic food items are typically a lot cheaper than in the US.

In a video, which racked up more than 300,000 views, Abigael decided tocompare the price of milk, apples, minced meat and carrots, taking into account the currency conversion.

She said: 'Before I start, just for context, I'm going to be comparingSainsbury's here in England - which is the grocery story I go to - to the grocery store I shopped at in Colorado called King's Super, literally down to the location.

'This might vary depending on where you're located in the US or what store you're shopping at.'

Abigael went on to compare milk saying in the US it costs 50 cents or 40 pence more for the exact same amount.

She said: 'Let's start with whole milk. I need to buy this every few days for my daughter. It's £1.65 for 2.27 litres.'

So if you put that into a conversion, you're expecting £1.65 to convert to $1.99 in the US, if we were expecting the prices to be similar.

'You can do the math if you want to, but 2.27 litres is equivalent to half a gallon in the US and where you would expect to pay $1.99 if you were here in England, it's $2.49.

'So that's 50 cents or 40 pence more for the exact same item.'

She went on to examine the prince of apples, which can be double or even triple in the US.

Abigael added: 'One red apple 25p, that's the equivalent to 30 cents an apple if you were expecting the same in the US.

'But it's sure not - 67 cents for a small one or 95 cents for a large, so it's depending on the size.'

Moving on to the minced meat she said 500g costs £1.99 from Sainsburys however in the US the same portion would be $5.49.

She added: That's $3.09 or £2.56 more in the US for the same product.'

Lastly,Abigael said a 1kg bag of carrots is 50p in the UK, while in the states it would be $1.99, which works out as £1.15 more.

Ending the video she said: 'If you want me to compare other products please let me know in the comments. I felt like that was fairly well rounded with a dairy, a protein, a veg and a fruit.

'Obviously it's going to vary a little bit because the salary that people make out here is typically less than the salary people will make in the US so that definitely plays a role. But for my family in particular, we went from being a two-income household because I was working full-time, to being a one-income household.

'And my husband makes the same amount, so his money goes a lot further here.'

Many rushed to the comments to leave their own thoughts on the price of food.

One person said: 'Lived in the UK in 2017, I was shocked at how much cheaper food was. Restaurants seemed more expensive though.'

Another said: 'Sainsbury’s is expensive, but yes we are so much cheaper than anywhere in the world x

Someone else said: 'I’m blown away by how expensive the US prices were compared to UK! Had no idea US was so much more expensive.'

A fourth wrote: 'America is so expensive! how are apples so affordable in England !? I usually pay $5-6 dollars for 4 apples not organic at Walmart...ridiculous.'