Moving To Poland - Cost Of Living compared to the UK

I was thinking more along the lines of wanting a single family residence, and two cars all the time (rather than using public transportation a lot/most of the time). Trying to maintain English eating habits most/all the time (instead of being an occasional treat). Trying to find English language private school rather than local public schools...

Those are a luxury in Polish cities, so yes.


Like decent meat, plenty of veg etc. It does push prices up but if you're OK with lower quality pork stuff, you can live. Goof fish is dear; I generally only eat that when I'm back in the UK.


About 2,000zl a month.

Yes, that's still an issue. I'm not a big fan of pork, prefer beef and lamb both of which are expensive in Poland and the beef is not great quality - the better stuff is horrendously expensive. Was in Auchan recently and saw nice t-bone steaks, vac packed of course but nice looking, picked one up to look at the price - 75zl. So dinner for two, 150zl. Leg of lamb is around 60-70zl per kilo and that's one of the cheaper lamb cuts. Lamb chops are much more expensive. In England a lamb chop is not a luxury if you earn an average salary.


You're absolutely right. The OP will have to get used to the fact that things he takes for granted in the UK are luxuries in Poland, even on a high salary, and it can be hard to get used to that.

I prefer to eat Borsch and Pierogi so no issue with eating local!

There's your mistake right there! Where I am smaller local stores have far better quality meat (though usually not lamb/mutton which has never been popular in Poland).

Duck and goose are also good alternatives when you get sick of pork, pork, pork.... don't know how the price compares to the UK...

Fish (beyond herring) has also never been a real staple in Poland (suits me, I've never been a big fish eater).

No, kochany! Barscz, i nie borsch, musisz mówic po polsku :))


Not where I am. There are a few 'posh' small stores which sell beef at an exorbitant price but the local meat shops just sell the usual stuff. Don't get me started on meat - I still can't come to terms with the fact that the Polish cuts are so different and you can't get a decent Sunday roasting joint of beef on the bone. In Warsaw you can only get that kind of thing by ordering it at a ridiculous price from a 'craft' type, hipster butcher.

The lamb from Auchan is not bad actually. But the breed and diet of the sheep is obviously quite different to the British Isles, far less fatty and much smaller. A nice bit of fat is important in lamb to give it flavour and tenderness.

And look at that - I made a typo! Barszcz it should be - what a language! :))

That's what I mean, you're trying to maintain a British diet rather than adapt to what's good locally...

@Atch; what a language!
Barszcz biały=żurek - yummy
Barszcz czerwony - yummy
Barszcz Sosnowskiego - dangerous
😊😇

Not quite, Maf. I make a lot of Polish dishes but I grew up in a country with meat and dairy products of exceptional quality. It's hard to get used to Polish beef compared to Irish. I eat chicken, fish and pork but I miss good quality, reasonably priced beef and lamb. Polish duck is delicious though, bigger and more meaty than Irish :)

The same. When I lived in Poznań I used to buy meat from butchers. In Warsaw there are no butchers, just 'meat shops' where everything is delivered pre-prepared or supermarkets. Makro is about the best.

The cuts of pork are different here in large part because so much of the piggy goes for wędliny.


We usually have Barszcz Ukrainskie however my favourite beetrooty soup is botwinka.

They're two different soups - I make both. Barszcz biały I do with pigs' lungs ( I don't eat it, it's for my husband!), żurek I make with white sausage. A key difference is the zakwas base mixture, the barszcz is made with wheat flour starter and the żurek with rye flour.


Oh, yes, it's yummy and a great example of seasonal Polish cookery at its best.

When did that happen? There are three good meat/butcher stores within easy walking distance of where I live...

Poor Varsovians....

There are older 'meat shops' (not in any sense butchers) here however they are relatively few and most people buy the meagre offerings of supermarkets here.

Do they have the carcasses in the shop and will they butcher for you on the spot? Because if not, then I don't count it as a butchers but I agree that you can have a good 'meat shop' - just haven't seen any in Warsaw.

What are the butchers' shops like where you come from in the USA Maf? The local butchers in Dublin when I was growing up were completely tiled with sawdust on the floor, blood spattered aprons and a strong smell of blood in the air. Nowadays the aprons are cleaner but that's about the only difference. This was my 'go go' butchers in Dublin until we moved to Poland a few years ago. Used to go there on the way back from my teaching job a couple of times a week. Oh, happy memories! If you don't see what you want on the counter, you just ask and they'll produce it. Once, I wanted pork hocks for roasting golonki and 'yer man' as we say in Ireland went downstairs and came back up with a whole pig and an axe :)) 'Will that do you?' he enquired, positioning the blade at a strategic angle and cocking an eyebrow invitingly. 'Lovely,' I responded and within seconds I had two lovely, succulent hocks of pork fresh from the beast.

youtube.com/watch?v=Jq6UxOayORE

Oh beautiful English you write, best on PF. But sorry, carcasses in the shop, sawdust on the floor or blood spattered aprons and a strong smell are no goes in a shop in Poland and never was.

The funny thing is Alien, that those Irish butchers have done a roaring trade since the influx of Polish and eastern European immigrants to Ireland. FX Buckley, (the FX stands for Francis Xavier btw, isn't that a wonderful name!), the butcher I frequented in Dublin city centre had queues six deep for offal and sausages and even pigs' heads - things that Irish people don't eat nowadays - and there were plenty of young Poles training as butchers there. I think that anyone who knows good meat (and rural people always do) appreciates a good butcher.


Oh, thank you Alien :)


Lol! I meant to say 'go to' butchers.

Hanging carcasses have never been a store thing in Poland* AFAIK (have only seem them in a few outdoor markets and then only pigs). But they do have the big wooden tables for chopping things up and do so for customers.

No butcher shops at all when/where I grew up (market was too small), just the meat counter at the supermarket (which again would do custom work if you asked for it).

I haven't noticed anybody posting that.

Nevertheless, Poland is not rich in butchers' shops. In Warsaw, Hala Mirowska is the best bet, followed by Makro.


Plenty where I'm from,(a town of about 150,000 people with about the same number around it and going there for shopping). Some in the market too which is/was a very large one. Plenty of fresh sea fish too, much of it only a few hours from having wiggled its fins in the sea, and the market there probably still has a bigger choice than in the whole of Poland.

The prevalence and popularity of wędliny in Poland doe have a negative effect on the supply, variety and price of fresh meat.

Where I'm from is closer to 3000 (with another 10,000 a few miles away across a harbor). Interestingly they tore down an old fishing dock (including a place with very fresh seafood) to make way for a 'fishing village' with no boats (let alone fresh seafood) let anywhere near it.

That's tragic, something that should never happen.

Fresh fish (from the sea anyway) isn't that much of a thing at all in Poland. Even people who live in the north near the coast are very often (due to the 1948 population shift from further inland) no more than a generation or so away from places where fresh sea fish was impossible to get and dietary traditions reflect that. A close friend from somewhere way inland in the former Soviet Union had never eaten sea fish, only pickled herring and I know people here in PL who've never eaten lamb.

One thing in the shops in Warsaw is that everyone who buys them (often nouveau riche/yuppies/hipsters) want very large prawns, often to show off, whereas the smaller shrimps are harder to get despite tasting nicer.

Closer to the topic, I tend to buy frozen fish here and notice that the price is going up. Fish fingers are of course sold by weight here, but a decent bit of halibut is hard to get and haddock is exotica, seen in Makro for a price.

Halibut is available in Biedronka from time to time and is actually very good but soooo expensive - never seen haddock. I really miss haddock (it's so delicious) and plaice and ray wings. At least one can do cod and chips at home :)

Weirdly enough the coastal area where I'm from that was also the case. Most locals (as opposed to tourists or transplants) didn't eat much fish at all. We did eat other seafood (crab, lobster, shrimp, oysters....) but plain fish? meh My favorite was rock shrimp which was very cheap because it was ugly and a lot of work to prepare (about 40 mintues to shell and de-vein enough for two people) but soooo good with a taste between shrimp and lobster....

woodsfisheries.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/rock-shrimp2-1.jpg

Recently, I've noticed fresh fish that's okay biedronka. I do like breaded and fried pollock (mintaj) served with boiled potatoes and sauerkraut salad

slice one medium onion into thin strips mix about a half teaspoon of salt and let sit about 0-15 minutes.

drain about a half kilo of sauerkraut well and keep the juice to drink (very healthy)

Cut the drained sauerkraut up into smaller bits. Mix with a a little salt, more pepper and two or so teaspoons of oil in a bowl.

Mix in the onions.

Grate one red apple over the top and then mix well....

When I was a child it was obvious that you ate carp on Christmas Eve in Poland. In our home it was in all varieties, fried, boiled and jelly. I hated it. Today, on Christmas Eve, my wife makes salmon that everyone likes, including children.

A custom that only dates back to the PRL. Of course some people sometimes had carp on wigilia before that, but it was the PRL that made it the centerpiece.

Getting back on topic, if I wanted to buy a property in Poland is it easy(ish) to do as a foreigner?

A house or a flat?

It can make a difference.

And in your own name or jointly with your wife?

Either, not fussed. Would prefer a house perhaps. In my name or joint, again not thought about it.

Interestingly I checked on the cost of living comparison website and Gdansk v my city exactly matches in terms of my net UK salary equates to needing 17k zloty net in Gdansk, which is what I'd have.

For flats there are no restrictions at all. For houses and land, this may be useful to you:
paih.gov.pl/polish_law/purchase_of_real_estate_in_poland

@sportbilly
Take a good advice. Do not buy a flat or house at first. Rent something and wait for further development. Hold the door open. Wait until you can be sure that this project"Poland" is good for you and your family.