Is Sydney any cheaper than Perth ?

[Rugby Lad]

You see if we moved interstate now it would be a case of repacki g the suitcases where as if we left it until say after Christmas it'll be aot more expensive. We are starting to acquire things and I'll have to tell the shipping company in the uk where I want it sending to pretty quickly too.

It does feel a bit now or never, I like Perth but feel a bit like I am payi g a premium because of the mining bubble which we aren't involved in, that said we like the weather a lot too and not paying for schools on the 457

 

OK,

 

well that changes my advice somewhat as going early may mean saving the cost of inter-state move. But in general I go with my previous post

[Bob1]

I use Woolies on line and have never spent more than $300 and that's more like every ten days - 4 adult appetites. This week I got a kilo of mince for $11 - which will do for spag bol one night then left overs will have chilli added and some four bean mix, rice and stuffed into wraps for tortillas and salad for the next night. I'd say that's two meals for $20. Whole chicken is about $13, bones boiled up next day for stock - add veggies - home made pumpkin soup the next night served with a $7 woolies pizza. Another two nigths worth of meals for less than $30.. Kilo chicken fillet was $11 - they're being dipped in egg and breadcrumbs and lemon from the garden, plus veg - another meal for under $20. So $70 - five nights of meal. I've got two kinds of yogurt -all working out no more than a $1 a pot - pudding. Something is going wrong somewhere with your shopping. I think Woolworths on line is good as it gives you price per kg for everything so you can buy the cheapest.

[Guest guest17301]

Hadnt thought maybe you are buying alcohol also? That will bump it up, not included in my grocery budget..?

[Guest guest17301]

I think what rugbylad said is relevant...stocking the cupboards, not just groceries but cleaning products, toiletries etc when you've just moved all rack up the costs..i mean on a weekly basis you might just buy a few items, loo roll, shampoo, cloths etc...but not your entire stock

[Rugby Lad]

Andy, every Aussie I gave discussed this with tells me they budget a grand a week for food and if it comes in less they are delighted.

 

Not questioning your experience but considering that anyone earning the Australian average wage only gets $1000 a week after tax then I would suggest that basic economics would tell you that this is not true.

 

I earn $2000 a fortnight and out of that we pay rent on a 3 bed house (admittedly not in Perth or Sydney), 2 x kid's school fees (one pre-school which is bizarrely more expensive and only 2.5 days per week), run a Holden Captiva, 2 x mobile phones, food, toiletries, household stuff for a family of 5, kindergym and swimming lesson fees for the kids.

 

Is it hard? Hell yeah!!!! Do we live hand to mouth? Yes. Do we shop around and only buy stuff on special? Yes. Do we go out much? No.

 

OTOH. Are we starving? No. Do the kids go without? No.

 

I don't want to see people scared off by some of the scary numbers thrown around on here. I wouldn't come over here to "live the dream" on my wage but that's not why I came here anyway.

[PomPrincesses]

Hadnt thought maybe you are buying alcohol also? That will bump it up, not included in my grocery budget..?

Nope that's on top if we buy a bottle of wine or a few beers but to put it into context I left 20 unopened bottles of wine in the uk that I'd collected as presents or part of meal deals because we just don't get through them. The box of peroni beer bought at Christmas was still being worked through when we left mid July. I have 4 little kids, no time for being tipsy.

[MicheleW]

I think what rugbylad said is relevant...stocking the cupboards, not just groceries but cleaning products, toiletries etc when you've just moved all rack up the costs..i mean on a weekly basis you might just buy a few items, loo roll, shampoo, cloths etc...but not your entire stock

 

Absolutely, our first few months here the shopping bill was around the $300-$400 a week mark, now it is more around $100-$150. That is for 2 of us in Brisbane.

[PomPrincesses]

True but I also think a dose of realism is important and buying meat really isn't living the dream it's basic stuff IMO. I didn't expect the streets to be lined with gold and I'm actually not complaining just aasking for comparisons between states. I'd been least to believe WA is one of the worlds most expensive cities - after we'd arrived of course lol - just wondered how people found Sydney.

[paul1977]

Agree with you totally about WA, it's mega expensive and although wages are more than the uk when you sum it all up your financially better off in the uk. To come all the way here and then just ' survive ' 9000 miles away from everyone that loves you and knows you really is a mistake, with the added of not being able to offord a visit back to the uk to see them, went shopping yesterday and see a pair of lonsdale track suite bottoms for a staggering 90 dollars... Time for the big bird to take me home. I can honestly say you need To earn at least 120000 a year in Perth to have a form of living rather than surviving...

[LKC]

We manage on $65k per year in Sydney. We have two children, I spend about $300-$350 on shopping a week, but I cook from scratch and we never use convenience foods. That includes some toiletries and all cleaning products, washing powder etc. We don't rent (we put a large deposit down on our house and have a small mortgage) and we bought our cars outright so we don't have things like credit card debts or car loans. Hubby brings home a little bit under $1000 a week, it is a struggle at times but we have never been the sort of people who spend money without a thought.

 

I think it is true that you spend more to start with. After you have been living somewhere a while, if you need cumin or flour or a dustpan, you just get out of the cupboard. However, until those things are 'built up' as it were, you have to buy every ingredient for every meal plus the extra stuff such as dustpan and brush, dusters, shoe polish etc.

[Georgiajoe]

This is making me scared , I'm moving to Perth early next year with my wife and 3 children 14,10 & 5

Im a plumber and looking on seek wages seem to be between $30/40 / hr, as I'm going to be the only wage earner to start with I am really concerned that we can survive on my wage.

PP are you a PR as I believe you can get child tax allowance like in uk .

im going on a 176 PR so hopefully potential employers will see I'm in fo the long haul

 

Good luck

 

Ian

[PomPrincesses]

This is making me scared , I'm moving to Perth early next year with my wife and 3 children 14,10 & 5

Im a plumber and looking on seek wages seem to be between $30/40 / hr, as I'm going to be the only wage earner to start with I am really concerned that we can survive on my wage.

PP are you a PR as I believe you can get child tax allowance like in uk .

im going on a 176 PR so hopefully potential employers will see I'm in fo the long haul

 

Good luck

 

Ian

 

We would earn too much for any financial help here or in the UK. We came out with £10,000 and I've been really glad of it to get us settled, buy bits and pieces whilst we wait for the container to arrive and topping up our income. Obviously rent is a large chunk of our income but the ret basically is going on food. I can't even consider buying a car yet.

[paul1977]

Agree with you totally about WA, it's mega expensive and although wages are more than the uk when you sum it all up your financially better off in the uk. To come all the way here and then just ' survive ' 9000 miles away from everyone that loves you and knows you really is a mistake, with the added of not being able to offord a visit back to the uk to see them, went shopping yesterday and see a pair of lonsdale track suite bottoms for a staggering 90 dollars... Time for the big bird to take me home. I can honestly say you need To earn at least 120000 a year in Perth to have a form of living rather than surviving...

 

This is making me scared , I'm moving to Perth early next year with my wife and 3 children 14,10 & 5

Im a plumber and looking on seek wages seem to be between $30/40 / hr, as I'm going to be the only wage earner to start with I am really concerned that we can survive on my wage.

PP are you a PR as I believe you can get child tax allowance like in uk .

im going on a 176 PR so hopefully potential employers will see I'm in fo the long haul

 

Good luck

 

Ian

If you work out your need around 1100 dollars a week just to survive without anything else that will be a fair indicator of what your need to earn. 500 rent 300 food 80 petrol etc etc

[rsg2369]

I think this is a joke come on 140'000 plus 80,000 and can't live on that

who pulling who's leg here

[Guest guest17301]

PP isn't the first to post such figures, I guess it's down to your expectations as already said its hard to pull a figure out of a hat and say 'this is what you need' as people idea of comfortable and obviously what constitutes a weeks shopping can be wildly different, to aid decision making I'd say go for the majority view and in that case old threads and memory tell me that most families spend approx 250 to 400 a week on food and that 100k is a reasonable joint income with 120 to 140 needed for luxuries....obviously many will cope on way less as demonstrated by PIO posters experience and others will need much more...you get people saying you cant get a decent car for under 10k...define decent...my decent is different to someone elses decent. Too many variables to be honest

Edited August 12, 2012 by guest17301

[PomPrincesses]

I think this is a joke come on 140'000 plus 80,000 and can't live on that

who pulling who's leg here

 

Think what you like that is how we feel right now, not even had a bill through the door yet and hubby and I are going without food to make sure the kids don't.

In comparison I doubt I ever spent £200 in tesco's even at Christmas so I don't think we have ridiculously expensive tastes.

I love that you can come on this forum to ask advice and within 4 pages are called a liar. Charming.

Edited August 12, 2012 by PomPrincesses

[frostie]

We live in Sydney and our food shop for 5 is $200 week approx that includes most cleaning and kids packed lunch bits but no alcohol.... Most people i know budget $200 - 300 a week....With a 457 don't forget about school fees as they are $4500 per child a year state school....

I would reccomend you do your food shop online with a Sydney postcode to see how much different it is compared to Perth.. I shop in Coles and go to the butchers just outside Coles ...

[Guest Hedwig]

Thanks for that,

 

so your food bill is probably more than one third of your husbands wages, i think our food bill over here is about one fifth of my earnings so quite a big difference there, we have 3 children who eat like horses so i guess i should be thankful instead of always moaning about the cost of food over here as we tend to do.

 

 

Hi

 

We have been living in SA for the last 7 months and as above the first few weeks are very expensive as not only do you have to start your cupboards off from the very beginning but you have to get used to everything in dollars and it does panic you! I do generally cook from scratch rather than convenience though.

 

We are a family of five with both picky eaters and growing teenagers! We spend on average $250 to $300 week on groceries and we seem to manage quite comfortably on one average wage in a 4x2 rental in a decent area near the adelaide hills. I think that you need to give yourselves time to settle in properly and not make hasty decisions especially if you are happy in Perth. IMO coles is cheaper than woolies but luckily we have foodland as well which is good for meat.

 

Hooe you work it all out x

[footinmouth]

DH earns $140,000 and could work in Sydney or Perth, I earn about $80,000, might be able to command a bit more and a car in my next role

Any thoughts/info would be gratefully received.

 

At total family earnings of $ 220,000 roughly $ 12,000 after Tax Per month OR about 2800 PW, its a struggle to make ends meet in Perth? the 2 of you have to go to bed hungry. Pardon me for sounding too pessimistic but I doubt a city can sustain itself if its so expensive that its residents cannot afford a life.

OR am i missing something?

 

I am planning my Aussie Dream but posts like these scares the bejesus off me. not Sure if it is worth moving halfway across the world to sleep hungry.

[Guest Andy]

Hi

 

We have been living in SA for the last 7 months and as above the first few weeks are very expensive as not only do you have to start your cupboards off from the very beginning but you have to get used to everything in dollars and it does panic you! I do generally cook from scratch rather than convenience though.

 

We are a family of five with both picky eaters and growing teenagers! We spend on average $250 to $300 week on groceries and we seem to manage quite comfortably on one average wage in a 4x2 rental in a decent area near the adelaide hills. I think that you need to give yourselves time to settle in properly and not make hasty decisions especially if you are happy in Perth. IMO coles is cheaper than woolies but luckily we have foodland as well which is good for meat.

 

Hooe you work it all out x

 

Hello there and welcome to the forum as i see it is your first post :yes:

 

 

$250 - $300 seem's much more like it and we to are a family of 5 so your comments are very interesting after reading the others, when we validated we found the 2 supermarkets about the same but we did buy all of our meat from butchers shops which we found to be very good value for money and very good quality.

[whoiam]

Hi pomprincess--You can get houses in the southern suburbs of sydney for 650/wk and some even less. Check out panania, revesby, riverwood etc--they are all on the trainline as well.

[Fisher1]

Hi all

 

Pom princess, let me say first off I am not in Oz and cannot therefore add to the discussion about prices. However, I have gone to bed (in the distant past) hungry and know how it feels. When my OH and I were struggling, we became found ways of filling ourselves up without meat. Not nice I know, but better than being hungry! Here are some of the things we did, don't know if it will be any use to you at all, but you never know:

 

a) Bought 'cooking' tomatoes (i.e. split and not very nice) always one or two good ones for salad.

 

b) Made endless casseroles consisting of VERY small amount of meat, for the taste really (i.e. THREE OUNCES of mince for two people) and a can of baked beans, scraps of bacon, any veg we happened to have around and stock cubes. Always put sliced spuds on top and scraped cheese over. Melted cheese makes anything look better IMO.

 

c) Used stacks of lentils and split peas to make veggie soups. Always had a bowl of soup before the main course.

 

d) Bacon hock - very cheap cut of meat available in UK not sure about Oz but makes great soup with the above and usually enough left for sandwiches.

 

e) Made own pizza. Dough is really cheap to make.

 

f) Grow own perrenial herbs - once you've got them you've got them for good.

 

 

You probably know all this already and sorry if I have sounded patronising in any way - I didnt intend to, just can't bear the thought of anyone going to bed hungry!

[Guest The Pom Queen]

Everyone lives and eats differently. Some people could manage on $45k per year because that is what they are use to living off, some could be earning $300k and still struggle.

[flag of convenience]

We came here for my job which hasn't really worked out and I want to leave after just 4 weeks.

So rather than look for another role in Perth I am seriously considering reverting to the original plan which was to go to Sydney.

In Perth I am paying $650 a week for a quite run down house in a really good suburb about 30 from the city. Food prices are mental, 5 of us one is a baby and breast fed thank god, still spending $700 a week on food and if I am honest DH and I go to bed hungry at times because we've just run out.

DH earns $140,000 and could work in Sydney or Perth, I earn about $80,000, might be able to command a bit more and a car in my next role - didn't know that when applying from the UK.

Any thoughts/info would be gratefully received.

 

I'd be the first to agree that Perth is rip off central. But you folk on a combined income of $220,000 a year is way up there close to the top twenty percent or higher. I guess you don't mean literally that you go to bed hungry as you can't afford to buy more food but to show the food bill isn't enough to cover a week?

 

If it was me I'd probably have gone straight to Sydney. Perth being a third tier city has way over shot the value that could be obtained here until about seven years ago.London plus prices but a far minor city's attractions.

 

A word of warning though about Sydney. I cannot imagine you spending any more there but unless you are living in a good location, that usually means close to the water, which many cannot afford, life can be as dour or worse as anyway else

[PomPrincesses]

A lot of the problem I guess is that we have limited cooking facilities In the rental house and so things we would do like make a shepherds pie and frees half pad it out with quorn mince that kind of thing isn't really an option. I don't want to fall into the trap of buying poor quality food so prefer to buy fresh but less of it, I know of people who eat and feed their kids nothi g but Iceland stuff and manage on £40 a week but that's not for me.