$1 will net you 65 euro cents.

Wow. And people wonder why we don't shop at the grocery store in our smalltown. Why we don't travel constantly or shop the Christmas markets coming soon. The thing is, everything looks about the same pricewise, and your mind sees one euro and says to itself Oh, one dollar. Not so.
Price tag says 10 euro? That's $15.38. You get 100 Euro out of the bank and it shows on your debit receipt $154. (plus any fee you might incur!)

When we got here it was 85 euro cents to the dollar. So our buying power has decreased by 20% since August 2006. Which also means all our bills (rent, phone, elec and gas) have increased 20% as we pay them in euro and we are paid in dollars.

This is not to say "send money now!" We are doing fine. I have a new job that pays significantly more than the last one and I think our COLA (cost of living allowance) may have gone up a tiny bit. I just wanted to try to explain the economics of the situation. The good news is that as long as we are shopping on post we don't pay tax! :)