One of the first things we do when sizing up a place to stay long-term is to check out the prices in a supermarket. The bigger the supermarket the better as then you will be able to find all the things you actually need / want to help make your time even more awesome.
In Bali, we headed to Carrefour. The supermarket holds everything you could ever imagine. You can buy furniture, white goods, computers, food, clothing, books, footwear, and even normal Balinese tourist goods sold in all the little shops down the laneways of Kuta. Oh, you can even buy a bottle of Moet Chandon!
This is a list of the things we would typically purchase when we take on a month or more stay somewhere. Of course, if a place we stay at offers breakfast, or has a kettle and toaster etc already supplied for us, we won't buy it. At the end of our stay, we will either donate the goods to the place we are staying at or to other recently arrived expats.
All prices are in Indonesian Rupiah. The exchange rate is around IDR 10000 to AUD 1.00. Prices of goods are from January 2013.
Kettle – 79900
Toaster – 149000
Fan – 130000
Helmet – 250000
Instant Oatmeal – 33600 for 800gm
Tea – 3400 for 25
UHT milk – 1L – 11900
Skippy Peanut Butter 500gm – 52000
Jam – Strawberry 390gm – 13200
Tim tams – 8000
Cadbury Chocolate 165gm – 22700
Take-It 4Fingers – 5000
Pocari Sweat – 2l – 14680
Bintang Large – 23990
Premix max vodka cranberry lolly water – 15000
Muesli 700gm – 81500
Weetbix 750gm – 65890
Half loaf bread – 8900
Margarine 250gm – 30000
Fresh milk 1l – 12020
Size 44 Flip Flops – 25500
Bottle of Moet – 1000000
Some things are still quite reasonable in price, even cheaper than at home (Australia). For example, the toaster and kettle. We thought these would be quite pricey. Other things like, oats and muesli are very dear. These items, we would have to consider bringing over with us if we really wanted them.
Even though we only have carry on bags which hold our necessary stuff, who says we can't check-in a 15KG bag full of food like oats, muesli and vegemite. This makes me laugh a little. Checking in a bag of muesli! Heh!
