I could have translated this with Google Translator, but that'd be worse considering most Norwegians speak English, as far as I know.

In short, I've always wanted to live in Norway, but I'm not sure if I can afford it even now (I'd be living in a cheap shared flat), so I'm wondering if I can also afford food.

If someone could help me with prices outside of costly places like Oslo, I would greatly appreciate that. I know that prices also differ in Northern and Southern Norway, so... As much insight as possible would be great. Here's the food that I'm interested in. The average-priced stuff, not the costliest, but not the cheapest either. Specifying the size of the package (i.e. 250g, 1kg, 500g, etc.) is quite important as well of course.

1. Pork meat
2. Chicken breasts
3. White cheese (made through a cloth)
4. Swiss-like yellow cheese
5. Head of broccoli
6. Peanuts
7. Almonds
8. Hazelnuts
9. Butter
10. Eggs
11. Avocado
12. Coffee
13. Cocoa
14. Cream (for coffee and such)
15. Olives
16. Hot smoked pork
17. Cold smoked fat
18. Greens like lettuce, onion greens, etc..

Hope it's alright me posting in English, since the whole forum is in Norwegian, though I don't speak Norwegian. Yet.

Will this help??

http://enhver.no/priser/

It helps a bit to establish some patterns, but if I will move to Norway - it will help a lot, as then I can see what and where to buy each week. I take it it lists discounted wares, as they are different for each week. Anyway, it's a great site overall, wish it had more stuff listed.

First off - thanks for a detailed answer. Secondly, I'm gonna bold the answers that require a comment, others are just for someone who may be curious... Though if anyone has something to add, that's always welcome regardless.

1. Here it's 25-45NOK, usually around 30-35. Looks like this, that one (and tastes great): http://mobile-cuisine.com/wp-content...fun-facts1.jpg But anyway, why does the price range so much? I'm guessing that you could get something like in the picture for about the same price, then?
2. Costs double than here, but I don't like chicken except on a rare occasion in a soup.
3. Costs more double than here; I would've expected it to be cheaper since a friend of mine told that Norway's big on diary products. Interesting...
4. Same as #3 except it's a bit less than double.
5. 10-20% costlier than here I'd say (cheapest).
6. Twice as much as here (cheapest).
7. 20% cheaper than here (cheapest).
8. Twice as cheap as here (cheapest).
9. 20-50% cheaper than here.
10. Twice as much as here.
11. 50-70% more than here.
12. Here you can get for 80-240/kg. The 240/kg is pretty good in comparison. Maybe you could compare.
13. Same as here, maybe bit cheaper even.
14. About the same I think.
15. About same as here, I bet of better quality though.
16. http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/smoke...t-37813159.jpg or http://www.muncanfoodcorp.com/wp-con...-Pork-Neck.jpg
17. http://shop.monolith.mobi/products/Images/230380.JPG - usually comes without meat, just plain white. It's pretty good if you know how to eat it. Otherwise can be disgusting.
18. Here it's about 10-20NOK, so about the same I'd say.

I also forgot to mention lentils: they taste good, you don't need much to eat and are quite healthy.
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So the main difference is just between big/popular/certain cities, particularly Oslo and Bergen (don't know any other ones). Well, and between stores as evident from the site... Not between regions. That's good to know, as the source wasn't Norwegian, and it sounded a bit strange to me...

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bacon?

Bacon is around 200NOK/kg.

Btw bacon is a star in Sweden. 50 NOK a kilo. Chicken breast 2 kilo bag 99 NOK. The pork cut used for a classic Nordic dish Flesk og Duppe (pork belly I think) is like 30-40 NOK a kilo. It is boneless so good price.

All of that seems very cheap compared to prices here, considering that the quality is higher (no GMO, antibiotics, etc. due to regulations), and as far as I know, you can't get meat used for Flesk og Duppe for less than 60-70NOK/kg - it is considered 'luxury meat'.

I'm surprised by the huge price differences between stuff - some cost way more, while others cost way less.

In any case, since those prices are in Sweden, I wonder why more Eastern Europeans don't go to Sweden instead to get jobs that pay a lot (to them) at construction, etc.. I mean, stuff is even cheaper than here. Perhaps no job market?

Well anyway, back to topic: how much does it cost to get to Sweden and back? I'm guessing taking a bus would be the way to do it, with an empty suitcase to fill your freezer for a couple of months when you get back, haha.

Well, 2500NOK isn't that little, I eat for around 700-1000NOK a month right now. I love food and cooking, but I don't eat much as I don't make a lot: usually 200-300g of meat and 2 eggs or so a day, sometimes I buy cheese as well (because I love cheese). Since eggs and cheese are rather costly there, I'm thinking I could switch those to hazelnuts/almonds and greens (like cabbage or lettuce), which would cost me even less and would be even healthier. However, if I can get meat for say 50NOK/kg in Sweden (let's take a bit more to include travel costs), I just calculated that I could live for around the same amount of money per month, +-100NOK, depending on how I adjust my diet and what I'll need to feel filled.

So adding that to renting a room (assuming it's okay for me to type at night on my non-laptop louder keyboard, and they won't mind me occupying half the freezer with meat, haha), it'd end up being around 3000-3500NOK/month with an adventure to Sweden every couple of months. Which is very affordable until I start making more money (thinking of getting into web design and I've some other ideas as well).

Anyway, back to your post: that's a pretty good way to predict and limit your monthly expenses, my godfather does something similar. He's a part-business owner, so he only takes out a specific sum of money on every Monday when he's in the bank. That money is for the whole week, no matter what, he's not going to take out more money, so he knows that if he's going to buy say a bag of chips or brandy or something, he's going to have less left to spend for potatoes or meat or fish. If I recall correctly, he takes out around 1000NOK a week though, so that's very generous. But he drives a lot, so he has to pay for gas as well, but still - that's more than enough, considering that I spend that much a month myself.

Personally I go about it a different way: I see how much I need to eat daily and predict the sum I'll need by the end of the month based on the prices at the store. I can be around 10% off due to discounts, price increases (usually before discounts, holidays, etc.), etc.. But I can do that only because I don't buy sweets, chips, beer, etc., and most people stare at me with huge eyes when they hear that.

That site just links to various store pages by the way, so it's not very useful in this case. Or have I missed something?

It's a nice app, I just checked it out - thanks.

There are no jobs in Sweden, young swedes come to Norway to get work.

The tendency has been that the corporations need tax cuts so they can invest in more equipment and provide more jobs, this has not happened. The corporations have got tax cuts since the 80's and forward, all we see is investors cashing out and the middle-class suffers. Yet they still use the same rhetoric, corporations need more money to provide more jobs.. and the voters are falling for the lies.

In Sweden the paycheck is almost half then it is in Norway, thats way people move to Norway and shop in Sweden.

Rent in Oslo and 1 hour outside is like 4-6 000 for a little room in an apartment you share with 1-5 other people.
If you can find a bus that go to Sweden from Oslo with a return, it will cost around 2-300NOK.
The train will cost around the same. Up to 500.

So its cheaper to rent a car or something.

Source, (in Norwegian) http://forskning.no/okonomi-samfunns...r-finanskriser

That makes sense, then... Sounds like it'd be smarter to live in Sweden for someone who works online then, though I irrationally like Norway. Well, something to think about.

Not gonna rent in Oslo, I don't mind living further from civilization as long as I've internet connection as I work online... And the trip isn't too costly, especially if you take it once every 2-3 months, considering the meat prices are half there, and I'd stock up on household supplies and such as well - things that don't go bad. In short, I'd still save a lot.

Right now I'm looking at a few apartments for 2000-2500NOK/month on finn.no, most are for around 2500NOK it seems. I really wonder how well noise is isolated in shared apartments... E.g. if I was typing at night, would it bother others assuming I'm the only one in the room? For me, I could just buy closed headphones and listen to music, or even listen to louder music with open headphones like I do now, to dim out noises from outside, neighbors, etc.. The only thing I couldn't dim out is party music, obviously... But haven't been in that situation yet, and from what I hear, that doesn't happen in Norway either.

Do you have a car? (Or licence)
If you find a place near Kongsvinger, you go to Charlottenberg Sweden.
If you find a place near Ørje, you go to Töckfors.
If you find a place near Halden, you go to Svinesund / Nordby.

In "the woods" the internet is not so good. But you'll get 2-3 Mbit almost everywhere.

Thanks for the advice. And no, I don't have a car nor a license.

I saw more apartments around Tornstad, Folkestad, Lillehammer, Norheimsund, etc.. Seems it'd be 4-12h total each 2-3 months, which isn't too bad at all in my opinion.

2-3mbps is a bit little but manageable if the accommodation is better. Worst case scenario, I'd buy a cheap laptop, visit a bigger city and use wifi to upload something to YouTube or a server of my own once a week.

Perhaps someone who'll be reading this lives in a shared apartment? I'd like to know how much noise goes through the walls, as I need to determine whether or not I can even go for a shared apartment... As I type at night (and not on a laptop, so it's not as quiet), as I don't sleep for 8h, not even for 6h sometimes. So far I lived in an apartment (not a room, but an actual apartment), where I could hear my neighbors, but not that loudly (headphones would cure it and nobody ever complained about me typing or even talking on Skype at night), and in another apartment where I couldn't hear anything except neighbors above, which was even quieter.

You probably know that there are a many different pork cuts. I don't know where you're from, but I do know that they use different cuts in US than in Norway – e.g. you can't really find pork shoulder here. What you linked looks like what we call a kotelett, and I'm guessing it's around 50-60 kr pr kg.
I wouldn't buy cheaper coffee than in the 120 kr/kg range. It's decent and standard in every grocery store. 240 kr/kg is pretty good. For better and more exotic coffee, I'd buy it from a reputable roaster. 320kr/kg is most often very good, and for around 500 kr/kg, you'll get the best coffee in the world from https://timwendelboe.no/

I haven't seen anything for that per kilo yet at any stores I looked at so far. Not saying it doesn't exist, just haven't seen anything below 100NOK yet, but I'm not physically there either, and I trust Norwegians who actually live there and shop there. If it's as cheap as that in Norway, I wonder how cheap it would be in Sweden then. It's entirely possible that I could live even cheaper and healthier in Norway than I live here, which is strange... Well, except for having to pay quite a bit for the apartment of course.

And I've no idea where the cuts are from, but pretty much everything costs the same here, except for mince meat - that's cheaper, but at least here it also often contains stuff that it shouldn't contain, and it always tastes quite a bit worse than an actual piece of meat.

That's a really good price... Over here the regular 'grocery store coffee' goes for around 220NOK, which is the one that I said is pretty good... Sometimes it goes for 200, sometimes for 240NOK, depends whether it's just before a discount or during it (they raise the prices before discounting it)... I can't drink Jacobs for example, it tastes horrible, but is considerably cheaper here (unless you buy dry-freeze one). Great coffee goes for around 500-700NOK here, I haven't had a chance to try it. You can only get it at specialized coffee stores that seem way less 'luxurious' and/or 'professional' than the one you linked me to.