Smokes are cheaper in the Republic than in the north? That's mad. Up here, I'm paying €8.30 for a pack of twenty L&M Silver light cigarettes. They went up back in October by €0.20, which is a sizeable increase in Finnish terms. One and a half liters of pasteurized milk comes in at €0.80. In Finnish stores, there are gluten free products of everything standard in a supermarket: Finns seem to have issues with gluten products: it's a bit like how there are more people wearing glasses in Finland than there are in Ireland. This has to do with the light we get from the sun: it's a very stark white light when the sun is full. Like the angle we're at being so different to the angle of light you get there. Maybe this is also why gluten-free products are so abundant.
When it comes to alcohol, Finns who intend throwing a bash (wedding, anniversary, birthday, etc) will take their car over to Tallin, Estonia to do the major booze shopping there. If you buy from the regular shops rather than the duty free you can stuff the car/van with as much hooch as you like at a quarter of the prices here.
For my evening Bellini's, I use a fairly cheap white wine (€7.50) with regular lonkero (dry green grape juice alcohol, 4.7% - €1.80, 500ml) and karpalo (dry red grape at 4.5% alcohol - €2.35, 500ml) on piles of ice in a long glass. So one bottle of white wine and two cans of lonkero/karpalo comes in at €11.00 and I can mix around five or six long drinks from that. Were I in a bar, the same drink would cost around €8.50+ for one glass. That's if they even make cocktails at all.
My local does Guinness cans at €7.50, 500ml. They also stock Kilkenny at the same price: I never drink there though, I use it for meetings if the upstairs function room is busy for local community issues. I can go down to Kallio and have a pint for as little as €2.50, but it's rank beer, and I stopped drinking beer (outside of sauna) years back. Can't hack the smell of beer at all these days, no idea why. Maybe it's a lifetime of working in bars and lounges performing and other shit. Whatever it is, people drinking beer who I speak to tend to put me right off them. I can't take the smell at all.
There's a six pack of Karjala beer in the fridge I bought before Christmas for guests, but it's still sitting there unopened.
Same with straight white wine: I dislike the acidic bitterness and it dries my mouth and lips.
So it took a few years of trial and error but now I've found my zen in Bellini's.
They're dry, refreshing, slightly sparkling, have a nice after-taste and can be as strong or as weak as you like it. Mid-week, I do lighter versions: on the weekend, I go a bit mad and buy a box of wine, Argentinian white grape (2 litres, 13.5% - €27.50) and twice the number of lonkero/karpalo cans. It covers for guests and lasts from Friday evening through to Sunday night.
You can't buy strong/spirit alcohol on Sunday - the Alko outlets are all closed.
You can buy beer, lonkero, cider, karpalo, and many other choices every day of the week between 10.00am and 2100pm from the local stores.
Alko also closes on bank holidays, observational days, Christmas, and Easter - so you have to plan ahead if you're planning a party or a session.
Sail over to Sweden? The prices in Stockholm are eye-wateringly expensive, insane prices for a beer in the city.
During the summer months, a quick sail over to Tallin for the shopping and then a slow sail back overnight for partying is a lovely experience. The ships are basically mental asylums on water. People get nuts, that's why they're cruising: to party, get laid, dance, sing, make an arse of yourself and go home broke and exhausted.
It costs half nothing and it's worth every dime too.