We are in Cairns and I wrote the following in another thread nearly 2 years back. Since writing it we've added a baby to the family but, to be honest, the figures still hold today(we've cut down a little on entertaining / lifestyle spend though!).
State: QLD Location: Cairns
Property type: 3 bed house
Household: 2 Adults (and dog who thinks it’s human)
Mortgage: $20,700 per year / $1725 per month
Annual Rates: $3000 per year / $250 per month
Electricity: $1300 per year / $108 ish per month Pool: N Air Con: Y
Gas: N/A
Water: Annual Charge – Not sure if this applies here (I can’t see it mentioned on the two bills I have just found) Usage: $120 per year / $10 per month (no joke – last quarter the bill was $19.19, one before that was $31)
Monthly Shopping/Food: $7800 per year (around $650 per month, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less)
Car Rego: $1460 per year (two cars – SUV & a 4x4) (note: this has to be paid upfront for either 6 or 12 months, but equates to $122 ish per month)
Car insurance: $900 per year / $75 per month (two cars, fully comp)
Fuel - Can’t split between work and social I’m afraid as never broke it down. For info: SUV does around 400km on $85ish (2.4L petrol), 4x4 (3L Diesel) does around 600km on $110ish (both mixed driving).
Home Phone: N/A
Mobile Phone: $1320 per year / $110 per month Total Mobiles in Household: 2
Internet: $480 per year / $40 per month (we don’t have a fixed internet connection, just a dongle type thing from telstra (pay as you go) but to be honest , other than browsing, e-mailing, the odd skype chat and music download, we don’t hammer the net that much each month)
Schooling Costs: N/A
Child Care Costs: N/A
Entertaining/Lifestyle: $10400 per year / $200 per week (, sometimes more, but most weeks less)
Additional: $1440 per year / $120 per month private health insurance (good cover - wife only), $500 per year / $42ish per month pet insurance
Profession: N/A
That totals around $49380 per year / $4115 per month / $950ish per week (excluding fuel for cars, buying clothes, buying stuff for house etc and any loans that may need to be repaid)
As someone said in another post, if you rent, you wont pay rates.
If you have any further questions drop me a line and if I can help out, I will.
Best of luck with the move!