[leeb]

Heres a silly question, but one which I've for some reason been thinking about a lot.

How long did it take people to get used to working only in $ and not pounds, Km instead of miles, etc? Do you still do a mental calculation to compare to what you used to pay/speed drive at in the UK (or wherever else you were from originally)?

Lee

[Dash]

I've heard people saying on the website and from a mate who lives in Auckland that it is not a good idea to compare $/£ as you will start to distort the reality of what prices are in relation to value when you are earning NZ$.
It is better to judge cost in relation to what you earn in NZ as it will allow you to judge whether you can afford it or not.

As for Km/miles, you will soon adjust to the driving regulations. The speedos on NZ cars will be in Kms so as long as you know the limits for the road you're travelling on then just keep an eye on the speedo.

[Jenny & Mark]

I imagine that it will be similar to living in country with a different language. You will continually "think" in English until one day you wake up and release that you have switched over. It may take just 3 months or it may take more than 3 years, but eventually, you do switch.

Mark.

[sizzlingbadger]

I managed to switch over in around 3 mths, in fact have now noticed that when I went back to the UK I was converting back to $$$. Husband on the other hand is still converting back nearly 2 years on :mad: He thinks if he can justify it in GBP then it'll be all right of course everything seems cheaper when saying well it's $300 that'll be 100GBP or near enough :wah

[gil]

I agree with Jenny and Mark, KMs and KGs are just another language and I find they are a lot easier to calculate than imperial measures!! 200 grams is about a quarter of a pound, 450 grams approx 1lb. Distances fly by in kilometres too! No trouble with those at all.

BUT it is so tempting to convert $ to £ BUT I am really tring not to for the reasons given above!

Gil

[wiki]

When I came for the NZ to the UK I had the opposite problem - all car journeys were really long because I was used to road signs in kms. And I didn't buy anything for about six months because I'd transfer it into NZ $ and wince... even with earning UK pounds it took me a good nine months or so to "forget" to transfer into what I was used to.

[Trigirl]

we've been here about 6 weeks now. happily using kms and kgs without converting. i still struggle a bit with kJs instead of kcals though.

as for £s/$s - where its somehting we buy regularly or a normal day to day shopping thing (food / drinks / eating out / petrol / books) then i'm now happy using $s but where its a one-off purchase (ie on saturday we bought a new TV) then i convert back to £s. day to day stuff has to be about affordability and has to fit into our weekly budget which is in $s but one off stuff we still need a frame of reference and its all well and good saying "don't convert" but if that leaves you with no concept at all of how expensive something is then it doesn't really help.