Show Me The Money!

A sushi dinner for two - $100

A large pizza with pineapple, ham and onion - $41

A travel-size HP computer mouse (since my touchpad died) - $79

Sounds pretty expensive, huh?



Living here can really mess with your number sense, as $100 is no longer worth $100.

In Grenada we don’t use the US Dollar as the primary form of currency (although it is certainly accepted everywhere). The EC or Eastern Caribbean Dollar is the primary form of currency. Luckily the dollar is stronger than the EC, with an exchange rate of approximately 2.7 to the US Dollar.

The easiest way to convert the EC dollar value back to the US value is to multiply by 0.4 (which is actually slightly more than what you’d owe, but it covers local taxes and can’t hurt to overestimate). Personally I like to move the decimal point one place to the left and then multiply that number by 4. Some people multiple by 4 and then move the decimal. Tomato, tomato.

At first, this can really mess with your head. You go to buy something for $10 EC and hand the cashier $20 US and get back a handful of colorful bills with the Queen of England on them, and a bunch of coins ($1 is a coin here, since the smallest bill is the $5). Who knows if you’re getting ripped-off! Unless you’re some kind of math genius super-human who can do complex equations without thinking, which I clearly am not, you have to pay close attention.

My solution, dump all your US bills as soon as possible and start thinking in EC dollars, with a US value. So that sushi dinner for two is only $37.20 in US Dollars and that HP mouse is only $29.39. Bottles of Carib beer generally cost $3 EC at the store and $6 EC at the bars (unless there is a special). That’s $1.20 US at the store and $2.40 US at the bar. Not too bad.