After enjoying a strong British Pound for a year or so, the strength of the Britiains currency has been hit hard in the last few months. This really hit home a few weeks ago when I was over in Dublin. The cheapest drink I bought was €5.50 however most drinks cost €7 or more, particularly in the city centre pubs.
Due to the poor strength of the pound, 7 Euros is around £6.80. To put that into perspective you need to look at prices from where I live. You can get a pint in the local weatherspoons pub for about £1.50 but most pubs charge about £2.20 for a pint. In glasgow (the closest city to me) the cost of a pint is between £2.50 and £3 on average. I love going over to Dublin but it is just so expensive just now, especially if you plan on drinking a lot!
The pound doesn’t fare too well against other currencies either. When me and my friends went to New York in March earlier this year we were getting around $2 to £1. You now get a little over $1.4 to the pound.
It really does make things harder when you are travelling and if I needed any convincing, I had another reminder this morning. I need to take about 40,000 baht to Thailand for my arrival to pay for training and accomodation. The UK Post Office is offering 47.2 baht to £1 on their website but the local exchange place gave me around 47.9.
When I first went to Thailand you got about 75 baht to the pound, more than 50% than you are getting just now. It’s still cheap to live in Thailand compared to the UK but certainly not as much as it used to be.
I’m planning on going on a few more trips this year so I’m crossing my fingers the strength of the pound will return. :)