Is buying groceries in the UK cheaper than Msia? We compare!

Malaysians have been feeling the pinch in their pockets for so many months now. Everything is expensive wei – got GST la, Ringgit drop la, toll hike la, and some businesses are using every excuse they can to naik harga. So we weren’t very surprised when we came across this article on The Heat Malaysia by May Wan Wong, talking about how she could buy more groceries with the same money in the UK.

“Our bill in Kuala Lumpur, for a family of five, would usually come up to RM150 a week. There are no fancy things in our trolley — just vegetables, tofu, butter, milk, jam, and eggs. Occasionally, I get indulgent and get a block of real cheddar cheese. This does not include the price of pork and fish, which we do not buy from the supermarket.

In London, I would spend the sterling pound equivalent of RM150 a month.  I have cod, I have chicken, I have fresh, crispy lettuce and beautiful tomatoes and as much cheese as I can eat. I get gourmet sausages from time to time, I have a towering stack of snacks, chocolates, biscuits, chips and beer in my room.” May Wan Wong, The Heat

As a Malaysian studying in the UK, the writer noted the huge difference between cost of living there and here, especially for food. She realised that in the UK, basic necessities are cheap, while luxury things like services (hairdressers, plumbers, engineers, lawyers, etc.) are expensive because skills are being used and people are being paid for their WORK. Logically, this should be the way right?

However in Malaysia, she claimed it’s the opposite – food so expensive but labour is ‘cheap’. So people are not getting paid as they deserve, yet they have to pay more and more for a bag of rice every year.

So of course, CILISOS always dem kepoh. So we compared prices of the most basic of necessities from supermarkets and hypermarkets in Malaysia (eg. 99 Speedmart, KK Mart, Tesco, etc.) and the UK (eg. Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda). For most of the items, it’s impossible to get the exact same brand and weight la. Like over here we have Jasmine brand rice, over there it’s all the angmoh brands we takde here, like Tilda Swinton?. So this is not an apples-to-apples comparison. But we tried looking for the cheapest prices available to make it more relatable to average people.

 

1. Carbs & mains

For this category, we looked at rice and bread coz they’re common carb staples. But for rice, somehow we couldn’t find normal white rice in UK hypermarkets (walao, they so healthy?), so we decided to compare Basmati rice. We discovered that Basmati accounts for around one-third of the types of rice stocked in UK shops!

• Malaysia: RM22.99 for a 5kg bag/RM4.60 per kg
• The UK: RM30.75 (£4.79) for a 4kg bag/RM7.70 (£1.20) per kg

Looks like rice is MUCH cheaper in Malaysia, but that could be because we all Malaysians makan rice like almost every meal. Plus we have plenty of paddy fields, but paddy is not grown in the UK. But we also found out that in 2013, the price of Basmati really hit the ceiling in the UK after production dropped.

Now what about bread? We compare with a 400g loaf:

• Malaysia: RM2.20-RM2.40 
• The UK: RM3.21-RM5.07 (£0.50-£0.79) 

But you know what? Sainsbury’s own brand has a 800g loaf (that’s DOUBLE) for only RM2.57 (£0.40). WHOA! When in the UK, eat bread, man.

WINNER: MALAYSIA

 

2. Whole chicken

This is one we definitely can’t compare apples-to-apples. It’s impossible to get the exact same chicken breed kan? Besides, it’s colder up there so prolly the chickens got bigger body mass? 😛 So we just took the Malaysian bird which is approx. 1.818kg seekor, then we compared with the same weight type in UK markets, which are 1.6-1.9kg birds. Anyway, in both countries the most affordable prices are:

• Malaysia: RM5.99 per kg
• The UK: RM16.63 per kg (£2.59) but can go lower on promotion!

Harr, why whole chicken so mahal in the UK? But The Telegraph reported that recently chicken prices have dropped until stores are in an all-out chicken war with each other, dropping prices to lure customers. There was a time prices soared so high that Sainsbury’s resorted to sticking a security tag to their chickens to stop people from stealing them!

WINNER: MALAYSIA

 

3. Fresh milk

A carton of fresh milk in Malaysia and the UK not so much difference in price. Still, this one’s cheaper in the UK.

• Malaysia: RM6.90-RM9.40 for a 1L carton
• The UK: RM6.10 (£0.95-£8.92) for a 1L carton

Early this year, milk really jatuh harga in the UK, until it became cheaper.than.bottled.water! Their dairy farmers are driven out of business week after week, according to their National Farmers Union. How did this happen? Simple supply and demand law. Good weather helped farmers deliver surplus milk, but there have been fewer orders from China and Russia imposed a trade ban.

This is extra painpain for CILISOS office where we use ALOT of milk to make Cappuccinnos 🙁

 

WINNER: UNITED KINGDOM

 

4. Vegetables

We chose to compare cabbages and carrots. For cabbages we just use the most basic one lah, the loose white cabbage. So here are the prices:

• Malaysia: RM2.69-RM3.99 per kg
• The UK: RM3.80-RM5.10 (£0.60-£0.80) per kg

And we also used loose generic carrots:

• Malaysia: RM4.00-4.50 per kg
• The UK: RM3.20-RM3.80 (£0.50-£0.60) per kg

So looks like we win Round Cabbage and they take home Round Carrot. Apparently, cabbages in the UK are still a cheap type of vege anyway. However they have fewer cabbage-growing regions compared to carrot-growing ones. Malaysia on the other hand imports a lot of vegetables from China. Mainly cabbages, carrots, and others.

WINNER: MALAYSIA for cabbage, UNITED KINGDOM for carrots!

 

5. Frozen meat

We wanted to compare frozen sausages for this category, but the UK supermarkets mostly sold either beef or pork sausages, whereas ours are chicken and beef. And the weight for each packaging is so different, so just know this one isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison, k. Somehow tho, we managed to find ONE brand of chicken frankfurters in Sainsbury’s:

• Malaysia: RM4.30-4.45 per 340g pack
• The UK: RM16.05 (£2.50) per 400g pack

WINNER: MALAYSIA

6. Chicken eggs

For eggs, we took the total price and divide by however many biji there is in that carton. Supermarkets and hypermarkets in Malaysia sold them at around 50 sen, while in the UK, it ranged from 51 sen to RM2!

• Malaysia: RM0.49-RM0.55 per egg
• The UK: RM0.51-RM2.05 (£0.08-£0.32) per egg

WTH, why so expensive their eggs? 😕 We found recent news that due to a shortage of eggs, prices have increased by 40% over the past year. It all ties to the bird flu outbreak in the US (dun dun duunnn!), so EU supplied are being routed there instead.

WINNER: MALAYSIA

7. Baked beans

Let’s have a canned food category in here. A standard Ayam Brand can is 425g, while the Heinz one is 420g. The UK ones were 415g, but that’s not too far away. You can get really baked beans ranging from budget to Heinz brand at:

• Malaysia: RM2.95-RM3.79 per can
• The UK: RM1.54-RM4.81 (£0.24-£0.75) per can

So looks like you can definitely get cheaper baked beans in the UK. In fact, one UK mom reviewed various baked bean brands from budget, to Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury’s brands, to the upper range ones like Heinz and Branston. She realised that nutrition-wise, they’re all pretty much the same whatever the brand. As for the taste, she and her family couldn’t really tell the difference anyway, except for maybe the ‘juice’, which was watery in the budget cans. So they’ll be sticking to cheaper beans from now on. That’s smart shopping for you! But you know what they say about beans…

WINNER: ABOUT THE SAME

8. Instant food

We compared instant noodles and instant coffee for this one and we took more specific brands – Maggi and Nescafe, simply because they were available in both countries. In the UK tho, the instant noodles weren’t sold like 5 in a pack, but individually. Once, the brand was in hot soup coz they accidentally aired a TV ad meant for Bangladesh in the UK, claiming that it would ‘help to build strong muscles, bone and hair’.

• Malaysia: RM3.99 per packet (Maggi 5x77g)
• The UK: RM9.63 (£1.50) (Maggi 1=£0.39/5=£1.50)

Similarly, the 3-in-1 instant coffee sachets were fewer in a pack over there, while here you can get like a 30-sachet package. Every kopitiam in Malaysia sells Nescafe and no doubt it’s a super popular drink here. But despite the UK’s reputation as tea drinkers, they’ve spent more on coffee than tea and this brand is their bestseller!

• Malaysia: RM10.99 per pack (30x20g)
• The UK: RM5.70 (£0.89) (5x17g) so x 6 = RM36.30 for equivalent

WINNER: MALAYSIA

 

9. Cream crackers

Coz not everyone can afford biscotti, we need something budget for dipping in coffee or Milo. Yum yum! Jacob’s is a UK brand itself, but after several acquisitions, they came under Kraft Foods. Over here, their production and sales in Malaysia is done through Kraft Foods Malaysia (along with Oreo, Tiger, Chipsmore, even Cadbury chocolates). So that would explain why we can get it cheap here.

• Malaysia: RM3.99 per 300g
• The UK: RM6.23 (£0.97) per 300g

WINNER: MALAYSIA

 

10. Cereal

• Malaysia: RM8.99-RM13.79 per 500g box
• The UK: RM1.60-RM11.23 (£0.25-£1.75) per 500g box

Ok, we’re officially impressed with cornflakes prices in the UK. The cheapest one was RM1.60! What the heck?! Their cornflakes must be made from air or something. Well, the brand just signed a US$130 million deal last year to build a factory in Negeri Sembilan, but guess where it’s BIGGEST factory is…. that’s right, in the UK – Trafford Park, Manchester to be exact. Their European HQ is also there.

WINNER: UNITED KINGDOM

11. Watermelon

• Malaysia: RM1.59 per kg
• The UK: RM12.84 (£2.00) each, average size of watermelon 3kg, so approx RM4 per kg

This is really strange, but the prices of watermelon in UK hypermarkets don’t go by weight. They just put a price on 1 biji. Guess that means all their watermelons are the same weight? Anyway, a quick search on Google revealed that Malaysia has no shortage of watermelon farms.

But the UK, it’s somewhat of a novelty. Last year, Tesco sold UK-grown watermelons for the first time after a 19-year-old student was able to grow them. The BBC article which reported it said they usually imported watermelons from Spain and Brazil.

WINNER: MALAYSIA

12. Condiments

For condiments we thought of comparing CILISOS chilli sauce (#plugging) and salt. It seems chilli sauce more expensive there, but prolly coz they love their ketchup there, whereas we all Malaysians, everything also banjir in chilli sauce. Chilli sauce prices are:

• Malaysia: RM2.95 per 340g bottle
• The UK: RM8 (£1.25) per 340g bottle

There were so many different weight measurements for salt, we decided to keep it simple and adjust them to 100g:

• Malaysia: RM0.15 per 100g
• The UK: RM0.26 (£0.04) per 100g

WINNER: MALAYSIA

13. Cooking oil

• Malaysia: RM13.35 per 5kg
• The UK: RM32.10 (£5) per 5kg

It looks like cooking oil is more expensive in the UK hypermarkets we researched. There are many types of cooking oil such as vegetable oil, palm oil, sunflower oil, etc. Some of you might know that Malaysia is the second largest exporter of palm oil, after Indonesia. 

WINNER: MALAYSIA

14. Toilet paper

We found budget toilet paper in Malaysia was RM8.99 for 10 rolls. In the UK, we found £1 for 6 rolls. So that makes 80 sen for 1 roll in Malaysia and £0.17 for 1 roll in the UK. Ok la, not so far apart the difference in prices.

• Malaysia: RM0.80 for 1 roll
• The UK: RM1.09 (£0.17) for 1 roll

Apparently, toilet paper sales in the UK show that the branded ones are very doing well. You might generally think something like toilet paper (just like other basic necessities), won’t fluctuate so much regardless of what the economy looks like. But financial crisis in the UK shows that people spend more on toilet paper than in good economic times.

Interestingly, Malaysians like to buy fancy toilet paper. Studies have shown that international brands are the key players in tissue and hygiene because they built strong awareness through advertising.

WINNER: MALAYSIA

15. Soap bar

Soap bars in Malaysia weighed either 80g or 85g, but in the UK the ones we could find were bigger, like 100g up to 125g.

• Malaysia: RM2.55 a bar
• The UK: RM0.96 (£0.15) a bar

Dude, soap is so much cheaper in the UK! But you know what, it’s interesting to note that soap bars are one of the things that actually went DOWN in price after Malaysia implemented GST. The Malaysian Insider researched a claim by the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumer Affairs Ministry that certain items, including soap, would come down after the tax started… it was true for soap!

WINNER: UNITED KINGDOM

16. Toothpaste

• Malaysia: RM5.35 a tube (100g)
• The UK: RM6.10 (£0.95) a tube (75ml)

We used Colgate toothpaste to compare prices. What we found was that the difference is not a lot. But fun fact: Colgate (the company) consumes around 0.2% of Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand’s combined palm oil output.

WINNER: MALAYSIA

17. Detergent

While the UK’s value-added tax (VAT) does not apply to most food (except non-essential food macam chocolates, crisps, alcohol, and so on), it does apply to other household necessities like detergent, pet food, shampoo and soap. In Malaysia also we kena GST tax for detergent. But the thing we can’t understand is, the UK is one of the Top 10 exporters of liquid laundry detergents, yet strangely it’s so expensive compared to buying in Malaysia.

• Malaysia: RM3.50 per 1l 
• The UK: RM19.26 (£3) per 1l 

WINNER: MALAYSIA

18. Diapers

OMG there’s no way you can get a fair comparison for diapers here and in the UK. First of all we go by S, M, L, they go by size 3, 4, 5… Then the number pieces in each pack varies, and let’s not even get into talking about different brands. But like we said, we’ll just look for the most affordable prices. So for Malaysia we saw one at RM29.90 for 81 pieces. The UK’s budget ones were around £6.00 for 84 pieces, so that’s:

• Malaysia: RM0.37 per piece
• The UK: RM0.45 (£0.07) per piece

WINNER: MALAYSIA

 

Still think stuff in the UK is cheaper in Malaysia?

According to our comparison, it’s a mix – some are cheaper, but MOST are more expensive, so May Wan’s article of spending the same amount in the UK isn’t entirely accurate.

Things like cornflakes, soap bar, milk (cheaper than water! We’re still reeling from this one), eggs, carrots and baked beans are cheaper in the UK. Meanwhile, a couple of other items were not too far apart in price differences – salt, diapers, toilet paper. But some things were A LOT more expensive to buy if you were to live in the UK, like chicken (even though their prices are currently considered low), frozen meat, and watermelons, etc.

 

But we don’t earn UK pounds also yea?

UPDATE (23/12/15): The header above has been changed based on user feedback

Let’s not forget two things. One is that Malaysian currency has taken a beating lately. So if you reduce all the costs here by 25%, it gets very very close.

ALSO, there’s another IMPORTANT aspect when it comes to comparing cost of living: SALARY! 

Of course we must see if our salaries are enough to keep us alive in the respective countries, right? We found the average yearly salaries based on different jobs for Malaysia and the UK:

Waiter/waitress – Malaysia: RM18,000 | The UK: RM49,000 (£7,654)

Cleaner – Malaysia: RM10,800 | The UK: RM52,000 (£8,067)

Hairdresser – Malaysia: RM13,200 | The UK: RM65,000 (£10,174)

Receptionist – Malaysia: RM40,408 | The UK: RM81,000 (£12,595)

Hotel managers – Malaysia: RM147,600 | The UK: RM208,000 (£32,470)

Journalists – Malaysia: RM65,400 | The UK: RM225,000 (£35,117)

Architects – Malaysia: RM67,000 | The UK: RM282,000 (£44,024)

Lawyers – Malaysia: RM50,400 | The UK: RM287,000 (£44,787 )

Dentists – Malaysia: RM60,000 | The UK: RM343,000 (£53,567)

Doctors – Malaysia: RM67,200 | The UK: RM453,000 (£70,646)

Chief executives – Malaysia: RM238,600 | The UK: RM754,000 (£117,700)

Sources from this site for Malaysia and this site for the UK.

OMG, you see the difference between how much they earn there and how much we earn here? No wonder they can survive la. What the writer of The Heat Malaysia’s article said made sense tho – by right, basic necessities should be made affordable, while services are the things that should be charged.

As the cost of living in Malaysia continues to go up, people who used to be in the middle class are falling off into the poverty category. Why?

Because our salaries are lagging behind. Although there’s been a steady increase in household income (cos of inflation), it’s a really small one.

Add in GST, toll hikes and whatever else, and it looks like soon, even CILISOS might have to downgrade to Kopi-O 🙁