I’m always fascinated with the contents of other people’s fridges and shopping trolleys. I love this book that has photographs of a month’s worth of food in different countries around the world. So when International Currency Exchange asked if I’d be interested participating in their expat challenge, to see how far the British pound will stretch across the world and how much I could buy for £100, I jumped at the chance (you don’t have to ask me twice to go shopping)!

Disclaimer – I bought all this stuff at different times and in different places. I’d never spend £100 in one go unless I was buying furniture or something. We also don’t have much space in our kitchen and tend to buy stuff as we need it rather than doing one big shop once every couple of weeks.

Fruit & veg from 2 different supermarkets (one in Ubud, one in Kuta):

• Bananas – 17,671rp (£0.90)
• Red pepper – 9,672rp (£0.49)
• 1kg Local oranges -12,000rp (£0.61)
• Broccoli – 10,000rp (£0.51)
• Granny Smith apples 28,535rp (£1.45)
• 1.4kg Mangoes 29,635rp (£1.51)
• Grapes – 25,155rp (£1.28)
• White cabbage – 12,540rp (£0.64)
• 500g Tomatoes – 9,000rp (£0.46)
• Avocado – 8,424rp (£0.43)
• 500g Aubergines – 5,200rp (£0.26)
• 1 kg Carrots – 14,000rp (£0.71)
• Sweet potatoes – 13,000 (£0.66)
• Dodol (a kind of candy made with coconut cream, rice flour and dried fruit) – 6,194rp (£0.32)

total = £14.19

Store cupboard groceries:

• 4 cartons of milk @ 16,000 64,000 (£3.25)
• yogurt – 41,500 (£2.11)
• honey -63,400 (£3.22)
• Jam – 51,350 (£2.61)
• coconut cream – 8,820 (£0.45)
• flour – 10, 230 (£0.52)
• 10 Eggs – 15,500 (£0.79)
• 250g coffee (not pictured) 16,650 (£0.85)
• bread (I normally make bread because the local stuff is so awful and not terribly cheap but I was feeling lazy) 8,500 (£0.43)

total = £14.23

From market (We don’t shop in the market often – I can’t be bothered with the hassle. But I always get coconut oil there):

• coconut oil 15,000 (£0.76)
• cakes 5,000 (£0.25)
• Mangoes (yes more mangoes! It’s mango season – have to make the most of it!) 15,000 (£0.76)

total £1.77

Random bits and pieces:

• 20 nappies (Only Maya still wears nappies at nights – she doesn’t even stir if she wets in her sleep and will just sleep on, soaked from head to toe – advice if you have any?!!) – 95,000rp (£4.84)
• 10 microfibre clothes – 96,000rp (£4.89)
• Jacket for Kiran – 100,000rp (£5.09)
• Dress for Maya – 95,000rp (£4.84)
• Garden trowel – 44,100rp (£2.25)
• Hair dye – 108,000rp (£5.50)
• Contact lens solution – 59,000rp (£3.01)

total = £30.42

Dinner for two (Fish with rice and water spinach, 1 glass ice tea, 1 glass wine) – 195,500rp (£9.96)

3 x 5GB internet sim cards @ 60,000rp each (£9.17)

My biggest monthly expenditure (after rent and health insurance) is on internet. I actually have no idea what I’m spending – I usually buy ones with more data on which work out a bit cheaper and I think I’m using over 60GB a month at the moment. Yikes 🙁 I miss cheap fast unlimited internet. Also these ones I get sent over directly from Jakarta because in Bali it costs me 100,000rp for 3GB. No picture because… they’re sim cards – you know what they look like.

Bali Budda splurge! I normally avoid shopping here because everything is so expensive and I spend a fortune (and it’s full of hippies) but it’s one of the few places to get decent baked goods and western/healthy ingredients …

• butter 45,000rp (£2.32)
• Balsamic vinegar 46,00rp (£2.37)
• Local mozerella 46,000rp (£2.37)
• wholewheat flour (finally!!! been looking for this everywhere although i didn’t check the price before I bought it and I definitely won’t be buying it again. As you can see from my previous shopping, this is 10x the cost of normal flour. Bah.) 96,000 (£4.95)
• dried apricots 19,000 (£0.98)
• honey oat cookies 25,000 (£1.29)
• peanut butter 35,000 (£1.80)
• raisins 15,000 (£0.77)
• Granola 25,000 (£1.29)
• Rabbit not included

total including tax 387,200 (£19.97)

Final total = £99.71

So there you go – how to blow £100 in Bali. Money goes suprisingly fast – I’ve been away for so long that I don’t have any concept of prices in the UK any more but I feel like Bali is not as cheap as everyone thinks it is. Yes maybe if you do all your shopping in the market and live off rice and vegetables and tempe, but that gets boring fast, trust me. Western and imported food is expensive here I think, plus there can be a big difference between shops. Ubud, where I live is now the most expensive place to live in Bali. My sister in law won’t even shop in the local market here anymore – she does all her food shopping at a supermaket in Denpasar where the food is fresher and prices are more reasonable. I try to get down to do a big shop at one of the big supermarkets down south but it takes up the best part of a day and is a real hassle. It’s probably worth it though looking at some of the things I bought there – those grapes would have been double the price in Ubud.

I’d be interested in how these prices stack up against other places around the world (and Indonesia – anyone from Jakarta want to chip in? Erica? Eric? Ha, just realised you both have the same name….

Thanks again to International Currency Exchange for letting me go shopping! Want to see what I can get for £1,000 next? :p