Sitat av
frtoretang
If you are moving to Norway and are still uncertain where to live I would recommend you also check out the housing costs. In Oslo, Bergen and Stavanger the prices are insane to even a small studio apartment. But if you travel an hour or so by train out of the city the prices will be lower. Much lower. Also for renting a place to live prices are high - especially in cities with Universities and Høyskole.
You can save close to 40% on you food budget by shopping smart and in Sweden rather then in Norway. A lot of us do. If you put some effort into it and cross the border when you see they have great sales campaigns you can get really good deals on all kinds of pork, chicken and beef. SOmetimes even ducks.
If you smoke, use chew or enjoy drinking shopping in Sweden will really pay off. But you should consider brewing your own beer and make moonshine. By reading your post I assume you are from the US? Alcohol and tobacco prices will knock you off your feet for sure. What you get ie that Old Millwakee for like 7$ a case? FOr the cheapest beer you will have to pay 350-400 NOK a case. About 50-60 bucks.
That's right, I'm still unsure. I'm sure that I absolutely love Norwegian nature: pines, mountains, snow (and the rest that comes with Northern climate), so I don't mind living outside the city. Besides, I work at night, and I bet it's a lot more quiet further from the city. And since most Norwegians speak at least some English, it shouldn't be problematic either, until I learn the language at least. I'm using finn.no to look for shared housing (since non-shared costs wayyy more). That's pretty much the only website I could find actually, but it has many offers.
Hah, never tried duck yet. I mostly eat pork as it's cheap, quite healthy (not as healthy as beef though) and makes you feel well-fed. I could definitely go to Sweden for a shopping trip, and it would add to variety in my schedule, which is great.
I don't smoke or chew, though I do enjoy some good scotch. In other words, I don't like alcohol if it tastes bad, and from what I had a chance to try so far, only decent scotch (like Johnnie Walker's Black Label) tastes good to me. Note that I haven't tried many brands yet, it's costly. And I'm from Europe, not too far from Norway, not from the US, but alcohol prices are cheap here, though most of it tastes real bad (as it's cheap), at least the ones I've tried so far.
Sitat av
Duckie
For the dairy and meat products there's strict rules about artifical stuff. And it's the whole process - the farmers are only allowed to use this and that, the butcher's allowed to use just this and that.. but of course the big cats are allowed to slack on the artifical and the potential antibiotic resistant substances like narisin. On the plus side it prevents from salmonella and other nasty stuff, on the downside - I've already covered that but hey, that's a problem for our ancestors, eh? You could befriend a farmer, though and buy it under the table.
The cheapest convenience store which is a brand with shops scattered around the country is Rema 1000. It's okay, but the cleaning is sloppy and usually it smells funny at the entry inside the store. They've just cut palm oil from all of their products.
I'd recommend getting a Coop member card. You'll get 1% of every transaction you're doing transferred to an account and then you can withdraw money. Say, you buy groceries for 200NOK and you'll get 2NOK on an account. There is a deposit at 300NOK, though.
Kiwi is another cheap store. Meny is the most expensive, usually they have a wider assortment than the other ones. If Oslo is your place you can save much by visiting "immigrant shops" (direct translation).
It's funny you ask this - a Ukrainian I know was scared of the convenience shop prices when he at first arrived here and he thought to himself «I'm not gonna survive here». Then he got his first paycheck and he was all like "Woah, I can live like a king now."
Oh, and about the Coop membership (I'm working there, sorry to be partial in this case), you'll get saving coupons after a while, depends on how much. Soon, there will also be an app for this. It's (for now) little pieces of paper the store clerk scans like the rest of the groceries and you'll get discounts from 1NOK to an item free of charge.
I know I didn't answer your question, but it was kind of answered already and I can't answer any better right now. So I thought this was practical to know.
Well, that's great actually. Cheapest eggs here taste like rubber, literally. I can't even eat them. Some meat makes me feel bad, even though it's fresh, but it's really cheap. Some sausages look rubbery (literally, and I don't eat sausages at all anymore, I cook stuff myself). Anyway, that's another argument to move to Norway, I suppose.
Now that I think of it, I could change my diet to meat (cheaper, pork steaks for 20-30NOK/kg), hazelnuts and almonds, butter, cream, olives, cocoa, greens... Nuts would definitely do some good for my diet, they're quite a bit costlier around here.
...And I'm guessing lentils shouldn't be a lot costlier. Perhaps no smoked meat though (I bet it's probably costlier - still awaiting a reply). Still, most important thing - meat - is about as cheap as here, it seems. Would like a confirmation on that one though because it's just so hard to believe, to be honest.
Anyway, most places have some kind of cards nowadays, so I would definitely get that - long-term you save quite a bit when you don't have much. I forget to use it all the time here though, I need to make it a habit.
As for your Ukranian friend, I wouldn't be working in Norway except for short periods of time if I really needed the money, then I will be still living on the cheap, but will be able to develop my projects online in the meantime.
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P.S. I appreciate all the descriptive answers - very useful stuff.