Well, that'll save you a fortune. Hay doesn't cost much.

Not according to the local farmers.

Just in the news:

German supermarket chains Kaufland and Netto raided, accused of social security tax evasion, workers paid less than minimum wage.

Do you honestly think anybody here cares about this? Most topics here don't reflect anything else than a strong ME-,ME-, ME-thinking.

It doesn't affect me, so I really don't care.

While I do my major weekly shop across the border, I spend at least the same amount here through the week, stopping in to get items to complete a meal sometimes or to get things that I simply like what's on offer here better.

Alas, I think scrimping on food spending was one of the things that helped me lose weight the first year or two I was here. Now a lower grocery bill allows for more buying - and more eating.


Sorry to be a bit dumb but, would buying a 2 zone ticket (or a day pass) cover this, or do I have to buy some special type of ticket?

What amazes me is how little some people spend here on food (not the above poster, in particular).

Even with careful shopping and going to multiple places, I don't think we could get our bill below 200CHF every week (and that's just for food without washing powder, nappies etc).

I suppose we could get it down by cutting down on fresh fruit and vegetables but that wouldn't be very healthy and would be going against all recommend advice).

So, are people who spend a lot less sacrificing their health in order to save money? *

*I appreciate that some people have no choice in this due to personal financial circumstances?

The easiest is to get the daycard "Triregio mini", which you can also buy from the green BVB machines in Basel, which covers the return journey as well. It's CHF 10.50 or CHF 7.50 with a U-Abo/GA.

Alternatively you can get singles by typing in the name of the stop into the ticket machine - if you have a U-Abo or GA you can get an 'Anschlussfahrschein' just for the extra bit of the journey outside Switzerland. You'll need to buy the return ticket from the machine in Germany, so don't forget your Euro coins The stop you want for Hieber is "Gleusen".

We live in the Zurich area and do the majority of our week to week shopping at Aldi. There are some items I still buy from Migros because I like the brands, but otherwise I find the food at Aldi is just as good as Migros/Coop.
Once a month, after payday, we drive to Germany for haircuts, nice cheap lunch, pharmacy shop and a wider range of groceries at very competitive prices.
Vitamins, hair-products, kids clothes, etc are always cheaper in Germany (as far as we have observed in the last year).
We like to buy meat from our local butcher, but otherwise we have to continue travelling across the border for bargains or we simply could not afford to live here. Yes, the life is great here in Switzerland, and my husband makes a reasonable wage, but we have also moved from a very large property in NZ with land, to a 3 bedroom apartment on the first floor. I cannot afford to send my kids to mittagstisch everyday, so I have to be home for them everyday cooking lunch. I understand that some people think we are copping-out, by shopping across the border, but we are making compromises too, in order to have our "privileged Swiss life"
Good luck to the original poster in their research

Thanks for including this info so comprehensively .. it took me two or three goes before I worked out how to buy a ticket to tag on to my TNW network U-Abo. Leave yourself a few minutes at the boarding busstop to work it out as its hardwork pulling up this ticket option.

Much the same for us. Money that we save on everyday food here (by buying some stuff across the border) allows us to do more activities here in Switzerland:
- eat out every now and then
- visit more places in CH (there's so much to visit!), perhaps stay the night
- try skiiing and other sports

My salary is good, but way under the EF poverty line (120k CHF, as it's been established that only the foolhardy try to survive on less than that*). So some money management is essential.

We still buy quite a lot locally (some things we need to buy more off over the border), and like someone above remarked, nipping into Coop/Migros/Denner for bread/missing veg/whatever allows us to see what promos are running that week.

But again, I do not understand why I shouild feel guilty over multinational middlemen making less. An remember, when the EUR fell to near parity with CHF, did prices change? No the contrary - there was a big ad campaign from Coop about them deciding to drop some items as the distributor refused to accept lower margins by reducing wholesale prices!

So we need to get more organised so that we shop in DE once a month; this will not stop us from shopping locally.

*humour (but I do earn way less than 120k).

It's very easy for the natives to point fingers at us foreigners for not supporting the Swiss economy by shopping across the river. But their wallets are sitting comfortably in a Swiss Frank bubble, without influences from debts being owed elsewhere in the world.

Most of us expats come here and end up having to send a sizable chunk of our earnings back elsewhere to prop up debts in our homelands. And that proportion of income is subject to exchange rates. If it's the Pound or the Euro or some form of Dollar or other currency.. you're getting squeezed on that end. (and if you don't have that burden, well I'm jealous). So that "comfy" Swiss salary of 200K that we're all each making suddenly isn't comfy anymore, which means what we do have to live off of here in Switzerland is a whole lot tighter.

But if you're living in the Swiss bubble... nothing's really changing. Is it?

Good question.

I do know that I don't save money by shopping in Italy on average, as while some items (pasta, for example ) are cheaper, I always end up buying stuff I don't buy in CH (fish, different meats, different cheeses, different vegs, or more expense cuts.

Tom

Same here....we typically spend as much at Kaufland as we do at Coop/Migros but at least 40% of our bill in Germany comes from non food items that we end up buying in kaufland

I think this is a really valid point.

My wife buys clothes washing liquid in Germany (along with things like that). Even with the "Amazing 40% discounts" that Co-op here periodically offer for Persil etc, it's still cheaper in Germany.

These mark-ups really are quite obscene and compared with the electronics consumer markets where prices here are basically in parity with much of Europe, totally unnecessary.

However, any money we save by doing this type of shopping tends to be spent here on going out and spending money where it actually goes into Swiss peoples' pockets and not into the pockets of some non-Swiss global distributor.

Not particularly? We buy fruit on almost every trip.

Admittedly, we are on an economy drive post-move-to-CH, so no doubt our expenses will grow as our desposable income Also family member 3 is only 2 years old...

Tips:

- Use Aldi's or Lidl's
- In Coop/Migros, use own brand for 'non-priority' foods.
- No booze!
- Bio stuff is a rip off; basic or own brand meat = ok
- own brand nappies are way cheaper
- Cut out the sugary stuff; replace with pastries or biscuits instead
- Sausages/cured meat is cheaper than fresh
- (gym Bunnies look away now) Lots of filler carbs; Pasta, potatoes etc
- Buy local produce - cheese, milk, bread etc
- Use a shopping list. Don't "graze", and don't shop on an empty stomach
- Buy in bulk where possible (10x litre cartons of UHT milk), and trawl the bargain bins.

Actually there are two Denners in Horgen, within a 70m or so radius (one in the Migros complex, one across the road). I never got the point of that.

That's impossible - Germany does not have a minimum wage.

But yes, Lidl (who own the Kaufland chain) and some others have a very bad history of gouging their workforce and suppliers. So I try not to shop there, in Germany or elsewhere. Aldi and dm (and Rossmann), as well as local chains such as Hieber have a much better reputation.

I've found Denner to offer few price advantages over Coop/regular Migros (same parent company).
Denner do sell a great alcohol free beer though for 50cents, far superior to Feldshittens offering.

Aldi currently are doing a very nice fondue, and their msc smoked salmon is very decent.

i only wish i earned 200k chf... I live very comfortably on less than half that!!!! i spend around 80-100chf a week on food... I usually always have money left to pay overseas debt, as well as normal debt... I own a car, and even after all the compulsory insurances, petrol, rent (not a stingy one room place), Gym Membership, Bills, taxes etc, i still end up up... Where does all your money go people?? Switzerland isn't THAT expensive, yeah there are things that are ridiculously priced (meat and rent), but in general it's not that much more than other countries, such as Australia!