k8bug79

Hi I live in Mortdale 2223 (been here for 2 months) and before that Oatley (2223 also) for a month. I'll let you research the areas as ou obviously enjoy it but know some interesting facts lol. I do think people automatically gravitate to the north shore. I've not been up thee myself yet so I may not realise the reason why. But down here we have fantastic facilities and good transport. I can be in the city within 40 mins door to station and we have a large 3 bed apartment for $500pw. Great community full of families. Oatley is very affluent and has a villagy feel. Mortdale is made up mainly of apartment vblocks and has a real buzz to it in the evening- lots of eateries and during the day there are plenty of great shopping streets- mortdale, penshurt and of course Hurstville just a few moments drive away. We can access the beaches within 20 mins- Cronulla or Eastern beaches and we have direct access to the Georges river in various pleasure grounds around the area. Parks are fantastic down here. Houses within the near vicinity look relatively affordable with places on the west and south of the shire being $600-700K and Padstow/ Riverwood to our west can be even cheaper at time.

I'm only 3 months into our Oz adventure but we personally think Oz is way cheaper than the UK. We find that generally $ = cost in £s, and where it doesn't if you look at hours taken to earn the money to pay for it Oz v Uk Oz always wins. We are surviving....just ....on 1 wage and we will always be better off by working , as I said above we weren't in the UK. I find it easier to pay in Oz also. Because things like rent are paid flexibly (weekly/ monthly as long as we don't go into arrears) I find it easier to manage finances also.

We had very little debt in the UK in comparison to some. But we were never in a position to save. We wouldn't have been able to eat next week if we were put out of work let alone pay the rent. We didn't have any extras either. I think it's more of a reflection on the bracket of middle income earners who are penalised for working as no mater how hard they work they are never any better off.

If you've been emailed the forms can you alter them in word so you can cut and paste? We just hand wrote ours in as we went.

Can you still use it as a 2nd space with a bed in it? Persoanlly if I had the option of a spare room with a bed I would take that option. When we first movd here we spent 4 weeks sleeping on a sofa bed- it was awful even though we went to Ikea and bought a new mattress to put on it. We store taht mattress under our mattress now as an alternative to under the bed. What aboout buying one of the single beds that has a trundle underneath that makes it into a double. That way you don't havea full size double in there all the time and could use the space in another way. Could you gf have that as her study as well and then the other room becomes another living space?

Apart from the states you can have more than one bag totalling the baggage allowance- in this case 30kg. I took 9 checked bags for 4 of us travelling totalling my 30kg per person (I got an extra 10 from the then 20kg) and it was fine. I think if youread the small print it says similar. It's just the states that has a 1 piece rule for economy

Yeah once I am working hubby is going to stop or go part time. We are lucky are school has after school care but we don't want them in too much but we'll juggle that when I get a job (I generally earn more than he does so it makes sense that way). We are lucky to get some assistance towards childcare but - at the risk of sounding like i'm whinging- it's not the same as 15 free hours in the UK lol.

Thanks, I presume you are actually asking why I am paying for child care when I don't work? My youngest starts school in Feb and has been in pre school in the UK until now. So She does 2 days here to keep her used to it and give me a break lol. Also I found that I was in a catch 22, get a job interview or networking opportunity but no one to have her. So I figured that putting her in 2 days a week means I can try and work things around those days. ......if however you mean why am I paying for childcare when I am not working and I am missing a trick please let me know :-) I am not registered as not working- in fact I have put down that I am doing 15 hours per week which is right as all my 2 days off are busy doing something to looking for work. I did think about registering for new start but it gave me $8 a week so figured whats the point in the hassle lol.

Hi we have not long moved to Sydney with 3 kids in tow and no jobs. I don't know your industry so can't give specific advice just our experience. My husband is a chef and managed to pick up a job really easy- only part time initially but now he is full time. He could have his pick as there is so much chef work but he was choosy to fit in with our family. I am slightly harder. I work in theatre and do production/ coordination and my work is here but not available all the time. I thought I would get an anything job to start but I am finding that hard- to the point I have given up and just waiting for my youngest to start school and for something in my field to come up. I think people look at my CV and know I won't stay working in a bar/ shop/ admin role etc. However my husband is on $50K and we have now just started living off of this rather than our savings. We are surviving ok. We pay rent, petrol, travel, food and just about scrape the utilities and internet etc. We have done this by being advance of the rent and "skipping" weeks to give us a break financially for the big bills. We get some family assistance and rent assistance but only about $400 a fortnight which half goes to childcare. We can't survive long term like this. We need to look at comprehensive car insurance, dental cover , contents insurance, mobiles, and savings/ spending money in time. But we are not panicing or stretched. So on one hand I say it's doable but don't fall into the trap of thinking you can just pick up anything job wise to start with as that may not be feasible. We are getting out loads as a family though as so much is cheap/affordable. Good luck with the decision

Glad you are safe so far. We are near a Bush Fire Prone area but not so close it worries us. Hope it stays safe for you and when/ if it comes to evacuation you and yours stay safe.

There are some insurance co's That offer a flight service for situations like this. http://www.angelflight.org.au/ Heres one. We looked at it but decided against it for a few reasons. It didn't cover enough people at the basic rate - for eg it didn't cover my baby nephew. Plus we decided we would rather put the money aside each month and keep a flights worth there. (These types of insurance are only worth their weight in gold if you need them not long after taking policy) you had to wait fr them to be in hospital a number of days before you can claim- or pay for your flight and claim it back- which if you can afford to do then you may as well just not pay the insurance. But these are our reasons and I hope we don't regret it. (Specially as we have no money for flights at the moment) I hope you don't need to race back. It's times like these that we feel so far away :-(

Hope you are OK. We live north of the Georges River in Oatley and the smoke is really bad this morning feared that the Shire might be at risk due to the fire south of the National Park. Hope you stay safe :-( Do you know of any specific incidents?

Personal experience (As I can see both sides of the argument) we had a few pieces that were good enough to keep. Some that was so bad, hand me downs, old dated and not what we wanted etc so we got rid. We bought the bits that were not top of the list to replace. In so much that we waited for ages to buy ourselves book shelves as there was always something more pressing- we didn't need bookshelves immediately so we brought them with us. We did think we would ship nothing that we couldn't live without for 3 months- but as we had just bought a new mattress we decided to ship our bed and buy a sofa bed out here. We worked on the principle that we had 2nd hand and make do furniture in the UK so what difference did it make to buy 2nd hand here. We've picked up some nice bits. You can get a range of top quality stuff right down to bargain basement on gumtree. We bought over a large movecube as mentioned above (there's a thread somewhere with pictures of how much you can fit in them) and it cost us about 1500 gbp in total for that. I agree with above that some of the furniture could look out of place and certainly the rooms and houses are generally bigger so we are having to buy more pieces than we left behind in the UK. We didn't bring our TV as we were told it has to have a different sound setting (German I think but a search on here will tell you for sure) which ours didn't. we picked up a no name one from Dick Smith for $400 does the trick. I think it all depends on your mindset. We are starting a new life and don't expect to live the aussie dream straight off. We will take what we can get for our budget. If you've enough to splurge on new stuff go for it (I for one have not found Aus to be expensive when earning $). But we are erfectly happy and comfortable with our pre loved stuff.

Thanks everyone, happy for them to have it just a case of when we'd have to have it by. So def gonna have to have youngest done soon for family assistance. Appreciate the help :biggrin:

I had a bit of a nightmare entertaining mine- I flew n my own with them. They refused to sleep on the first flight despite cabin lights being dimmed and me trying to convince em it was night(we flew at 12 noon from Paris on the only flight- then 2.45 in Singapore and straight through to Sydney) I had a bag of goodies but didn't touch them, too busy trying to get then to sleep. They watched TV and played games- loads of choice. The food and snacks come round so frequently that it breaks it up. The stewardesses are great- thank god I took everyones advice and flew Singapore Airlines. My youngest (4) wanted the TV/ Film/ Games changed every two minutes literally so I didn't get to watch anything. They did all sleep on the 2nd leg for hours. I felt they really misbehaved but I had a couple of comments on how good they were. So I was probably being over sensitive. It was long but honestly the second you are off the plane you realise it wasn't that long and it's a distant memory. Try and make it fun for them and an adventure- difficult when you are under pressure.

Oh and on longest leg kids ones came in a cute little lunchbox with activities- still got it now and using it for snack at school :-)

Ouch that's pricy. But I'll have a good look online Thanks :-) at least I know it's not a case of not reaching here yet

Hi, not really a household thread but nowhere specifically for supermarket queries :wink: I have a cows milk allergy and generally i've found catering for allergens fantastic here. But i haven't seen soya cream or oat cream anywhere and I need to make my own ice cream in this heat lol. plus i've found almond milk and soya etc but i haven't seen Hazelnut milk. my local supermarkets aren't big so just want to know if anyone has found these anywhere or is it just mine not stocking it? Happy to travel afar if i know somewhere is likely to stock them. (i'm in Oatley, South Sydney) Thanks

Hi, i flew with the kids on sa in Sept. Kids 10,6 and 4. 10 yr old eats adults portions etc. ordered them kids meals and they ad more than me. they were giving back food, they feed them so much with extra snacks etc, honestly my kuds eat for britain and they were fine.

Hi, I have 3 kids Two are in school (10 & 6) and one due to start (4), Been here 5 weeks. Went to Drs today for youngest and asked if they could fill out the form to put her into the immunisation database which I understand I need to do to get part of my family assistance payment at the end of the financial year. First one she looked for was Hep B which I said we didn't get at birth. I've left the form with her and copies of her immunisation records to complete the form at a later date as it was time consuming. Can anyone confirm if I have to get hep b done for them? The school didn't query it for anyone and youngest is now enrolled for next year. If I do need it do I have to get all 3 done? Is it done just at drs and will it be chargeable (I have a bulk billing dr) I am in NSW if that makes a difference???? Thanks

As long as it's on the payslip it should be fine. Not heard of it in Oz but I was in a job in the UK where we had to agree to be paid in cash if the business had a large amount of cash that week. We would still get a pay slip and taxed etc just cash in an envelope. If it's likely to be a business that has a high cash intake I would be less suspicious. Maybe just get him to clarify

I would say be realistic to your situation. We arrived with no jobs, could offer 3 months up in advance and have 3 kids lol. So on paper not ideal. We got our first application because we chose an ok place, that was cheap and not the Oz dream! It's being bulldozed in a few months so it's a temporary home for prob a max of 6 months but it took the panic off looking, put everyone else off and we can look around when the time comes for something else hopefully with jobs and rental history.

I think it's still so early and natural to feel the way you do. We are about the same stage as you. I've been in Sydney 4 weeks hubby been here 8 weeks. He has got 2 low waged cafe jobs (he's a chef) although that is his/our choice as we wanted days rather than nights weekends. But they are certainly paying less than we would have hoped for him. We have a 4 year old who need sto go to childcare but we can't afford that until our family assistance kicks in and I am the one who needs to find the job to pay most of the wage and yet I am now left with no help to go to interviews etc so in a bit of a catch 22. Which feels scary. We are down to our last few hundreds but with only food to buy which is good. This is definitely the lull after the whirlwind of the first few weeks and even though I love it here and everything it offers us I am definitely starting to feel it. I knew this would come so I am riding it out- I def think it's too soon to think to head back. It is expensive here but only when you convert *** pounds and at the moment yu only have pounds to spend. The way we look at it is hours spent working to earn it vs Uk hours. When you look at it like that things actually become a lot cheaper. When you are earning $ it will feel better. Where are you living?

I applied online about 2 weeks ago and got mine through within 3 days. I am a PR with working rights and indefinite stay etc and I applied using this link http://www.ato.gov.au/Individuals/Tax-file-number/Applying-for-a-TFN/Permanent-migrants-or-temporary-visitors/ Only needed to put in UK passport number and it married it up with the Visa system I presume. Hubby applied as a citizen by descent- never been in Oz. Had to go to Post office with id and almost 2 1/2 weeks on it's still not here. If you have just arrived an are not a citizen then I guess you apply like I did above

Fab Steph thanks, and thankx Cal i've read that oaragraph a few times and didn't see that line there!