To be surprised at how advanced the US were to us?

[Hownoobrooncoo]

was watching an old movie earlier set in The 50's and a character mentioned her glass of champagne her 85 calories - would anyone in the UK even have known what a calorie was back then?

The first microwave ovens appeared in the home in the 50's in the US as well, same as TV remote controls - Jesus, we were lagging behind.

Ugh, what I wouldn't give for a nice Sainsbury's, Waitrose, M&S, even Asda. Can't stand the supermarkets here. And GOOD food is really pricey.

On the other hand, eating out is varied, cheap and excellent!

I was with RBS / Charter One. They charged for cheques, but you can get them much cheaper from printers who advertise in the ad insert sections of Sunday newspapers, at the back of the ones where you find the coupons for various different packaged, branded foods, detergents, shampoos, etc. Where I was, this was 'Red Plum' and one other insert whose name I have forgotten but it may be different in other parts of the US. You supply the account number, routing number, number you want your series to begin at, name and address, and you choose from a range of designs, or plain. Direct debits -- they didn't charge. Or direct deposits.

Get a little extra ring for your keys and keep the keyring loyalty cards on that. Get a clip so you can clip the card ring to your carkeys. That way your wallet isn't so jammed. They will give you several if you need extra ones for your household so you won't need to get one from your H or vice versa. You will find you save a lot for the relatively minor hassle of having the loyalty card and if you keep them handy on your keyring there really isn't that much hassle. You hand over your keys with the cards attached to the cashier and they sort out their own to swipe, or swipe them yourself at the self serve lane. Takes a matter of seconds.

I had two for the two stores that I used to go to that had them and saved a lot off the regular prices and a drugstore one also. And one from Borders before they folded. One place in particular had nice store brand Italian sausage that went on sale regularly.

Am amazed you leave your keys in your car.

You can get Guittard, Godiva, Ghirardelli, Sarabeths, Whole Foods brand, Dagoba 'xocolatl', Nesquik, Moonstruck Classic, or even Ovaltine if quality cocoa is what you're after -- but making your own is easy. And Trader Joes sells hot cocoa mix too, maybe not sugar free though. You could also try Abuelita's, a Mexican brand (usually in the Mex section of supermarkets and not near the other cocoa mixes).

Maybe it was the region where I was, but you could get alcohol in pretty much every supermarket. There were very ew exceptions. I know in Colorado you can get alcohol (in sealed bottles) at drive throughs, which imo is taking the idea of convenience a bit too far.

isnt Asda the same as Walmart?

I love the McCormicks gravy mix, and could buy it on ebay but the postage charges are outrageous. I get visiting friends to bring me dozens of them when they come over.

Laws on where you can buy alcohol are variable by state. In New York anything stronger than beer has to be bought from a special booze shop, and the booze shops are not allowed to sell food.

Can you do grocery shopping online?

Walmart owns Asda but the stores aren't really alike.

Normal Walmart stores (so not Super Walmart) aren't really grocery stores/supermarkets at all, but they sell just about everything else (although the one I used to live near didn't sell non-applicator tampons, necessitating an 80 mile round trip to stock up!). Asda are always grocery stores/supermarkets and only the really big ones sell lots of other stuff as well.

In the U.S in 2000 I couldn't open a checking account without having $1000 to put in it.
A year or so later Washington Mutual opened one which would allow you to have an account with $100, and was free of charge (previously all banks charged you to have an account).
I do remember America being much further on in terms of the internet though-in 1999 all companies were online, and online services were much more advanced. Most people had high speed internet connections in their homes by then.
But my cell phone was expensive. I still hardly text, since I was there during the texting revolution here-it seems weird to me to conduct romances etc via text.

You can do grocery shopping online via Peapod, USGrocer, Meijer, Schwans, Safeway and others, and there are still little stores where you can phone in your order and they have a delivery van. You can also grocery shop online at Walmart and pick up your order the same day, or wait a few days for home delivery.

My sister has an IT business and reported finding many Irish companies resolutely stuck in the computer dark ages in the early 90s, with senior management and particularly managers above a certain age often suspicious to the point of ridiculousness of all things new fangled. I think back then a lot of older generation Americans were quicker to embrace technology than their counterparts in 'make do and mend' Britain (and Ireland). I agree about texting -- it caught on much faster in Britain and Ireland than in the US. A strange case of the markets and price structure inhibiting development and popularisation of a tech product.

I use peapod for online grocery shopping. I find it so much easier than navigating the aisles and all the confusing special offers.
Another thing that America is behind the UK with is electricity. I have lived here 11 months and we have had 4 power cuts (one lasted 5 days). All due to the fact that our state has overhead powerlines and lots of trees. Any bad weather brings brahches or whole trees down along with the power lines . Apart from the pain of having no power, the lines also look very ugly.
This afternoon we had a thunder storm and heavy rain. So far the power has gone out 3 times....

Thanks maths....will check out those suggestions.
i leave my house keys in the car so as not to lose them and get locked out- try to avoid carrying a handbag too and often my dh sits in the car whilst i nip out to get the shop so we do not have to juggle 2 small kids.....so car keys stay in car with him.

the point is a lot of the discounts just bring food to a regular price- the second price is massively inflated......anyway we avoid those stores but get caught out on holidays or days out. the food is expensive here i think. cells are double as is internet unless prices have changed in the uk since i left....we pay40 quid just for internet alone!
but the averagesalary is definitely higher here and it seems more mums have the choice as to whether they wish to stay home than in the UK from what i observe- and that suits me just fine.

The average salary here is higher but you pay through the nose for so much. My health insurance is nearly $800/month and that's meant to be a bargain! My rent is $5000/month which is twice as much as what we'd pay in London for something comparable. My kids' summer camp is about $375/week which is also almost twice as much as what I paid in London. Only thing which is a bargain is the subway at $104/month for all zones!

You should shop around for internet. $40 (a month presumably) sounds like a lot just for internet.

DSL internet where we are is $50 a month, there is only one provider, so no competition. We bundled internet with land line phone and pay $95 a month plus taxes. This gives us DSL and 200 mins of landline calls anywhere in the US or Canada each month and calls to UK cost about 1¢ a minute. I'm now saving about $30 a month over what I paid having them separate.
The store cards are the only way to shop with out breaking the bank.
I have a CVS card and a Safeway card.
I just shopped Safeway today, only one item on the whole list wasn't on special, I make the list online at their website and add my coupons electronically to the card, this way they will give you some items at "just for you" prices some things less than half what I'd pay with a club card only. So worth getting and I stock up when things we use a lot come up. Today I got boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.99 a pound, I got two big packs, the normal "sale" price this week is $3.99 a pound, I got it on a just for you price. I still spent $80 and that doesn't include milk or frozen veg this week.

YY to kettles - it took us THREE WEEKS to find a kettle for under $40! I miss Argos (never thought I'd say that)

Lovely California means you buy alcohol in any supermarket (BIG fan of Smart and Final where you can get a buge bottle of gin for $23)

Banking system here is rubbish though - pay for atm cash withdrawl unless it's with your bank, online banking doesn't exist, we have to pay all our big payments (rent, preschool etc) by cheque. Bloody nightmare.

And I've (so far) found the US to utterly backward politically....

am reading back over recent pages ginandslimeline Bank of America let you open an account without even a SSN...

but I am still outragd by the medical system and have my feminist knickers in a right old twist over how childbirth is handled because the driving force is money

*disclaimer Hippy Home Birther alert

Politically backwards, for sure. Antediluvian wrt Gay rights.

Thanks Mouseyhair - I think we almost had to use HSBC because we wanted to also have an account in the UK. Not too sure though as DH set it all up when he moved over before the rest of us.

As for childbirth - give me strength!!! I worked as a midwife in the UK and am shocked at how medicalised pregnancy and birth is here. Suctioning out the baby's mouth after birth, insisting the doctor delivers, no skin to skin, ARM at 2cm. The list goes on...I have been trying to get registered here for about 18 months but an fighting a losing battle.

In fact I find a lot of healthcare not very evidence based or holistic. The first time I saw a doctor I was taken aback when she started examining me without even asking if she could. Then she told me that I had to have bloods taken and start taking blood pressure and cholesterol lowering drugs. I asked why as my BP and cholesterol have always been perfect. She said just in case! Ehm, how about evidence based care and informed consent my love? She nearly fell off her chair when I (politely) declined both!

WRT kettles, with the socket voltage at less than half the UK, and amps per socket also lower (IIRC at about 10A), you simply can't get enough power into an electric kettle to boil it anywhere near as fast.

But most US stoves/ranges are at 220v which is nearly as high as the UK, so putting your kettle on the stove you can probably heat it up twice as fast as the US kettle can do it.

We are lucky enough to live in the Land of the Worlds Best Plugs (they are a bit big, though)

i had a midwife led birth here in the US. Definitely not the mainstream but increasing in popularity.

I had a midwife assisted birth for my youngest. It was actually the most complicated pregnancy due to GD and of course delivery was in hospital. I found that while the prenatal care and childbirth I experienced was quite medicalised, even with the midwife, the quality of nursing care (at least in the hospitals I went to -- unscientific sample of 2) was really good. I encountered two nurses whom I wouldn't recommend for post natal duty in the reptile house at the zoo, but all the rest were lovely, really professional, and genuinely kind.

I think part of the experience of being in a very medicalised system can come from the personality of the doctor -- the OB/GYN practice I went to for the first four deliveries and for all my MCs had three doctors who were really nice, personable individuals and one who was as stiff as a poker, very inclined to approach it all strictly by the book. She happened to be the only woman in the practice.

I think it just scares me (again I had both mine at home so have a very particular idea of what would costitute a "good birth experience" for ME) that ObGybn's lead the care, not midwives, that c-section rates are so high, I know people who've been booked in for csections for no real reason, also know women who've been clock watched and told things like "if you're not pushing in the next three hours we'll do a c section", doctors sticking rigidly to dilating a centimetre an hour otherwise down to surgery you go.

A lot of women I've spoken to have talked of the hospitals being like hotels, all very clean and although highly medicalised all that medical care being top notch - but then I'd expect that if you're paying for it!

Everything I know is based on anecdotal evidence though, and Naomi Wolf's book...

the banking stuff was so confusing...we looked at going HSBC Premier but didn't have the money in our account to do so have just kept our old HSBC accounts going and opened new Bank of America accounts. We did however have to buy our car outright due to no credit history etc.

Such a pain credit history doesn't cross an ocean!

And yup, appalled at the gay marriage opinions here, also encountered more racisim, homphobia and sexism in 3months in the USA than 29 years in the UK..and I live in "progressive" California