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Cost of living in the UK


Guest Andy

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Having a £2.35 pint of real ale at my local Wetherspoons. Shame on me!

 

Go to Australia

1 pint costs about 8-10$ in a crappy pub(miles, miles, miles away from your house)..let's convert it... about 6£

My friend pays council rates in Sydney about 250$ monthly..how much it is in £?

 

I am happy I moved back to the UK last year from Australia and I regret I had believed in stories Australia is better/cheaper than the UK

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Go to Australia

1 pint costs about 8-10$ in a crappy pub(miles, miles, miles away from your house)..let's convert it... about 6£

My friend pays council rates in Sydney about 250$ monthly..how much it is in £?

 

I am happy I moved back to the UK last year from Australia and I regret I had believed in stories Australia is better/cheaper than the UK

 

Came back to the UK too mostly for the cheap booze. In Oz I was paying $7 for the Aussie beer like Tooheys, Coopers, Carlton and >$10 for the good European beer like Heineken or Stella.

 

By the way, given the high price of alcohol in Australia, can Stella considered a wifebeater there? I would think no one can afford it :-)

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Ok – for those of you that don’t like stats…..look away now!

 

First of all the facts (I’ve used an exchange rate of dollar to pound of 0.65) :

 

Oz weekly average household income = $1,832:

 

Oz weekly average household expenditure = $1,236.00

 

Source:

http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by%20Subject/1301.0~2012~Main%20Features~Household%20income,%20expenditure%20and%20wealth~193

 

Uk weekly average household income = 699 pounds ($1075.385)

 

Uk weekly average household expenditure = 474 pounds ($729)

 

Source:

 

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/family-spending/family-spending/family-spending-2011-edition/general-nugget.html

 

(download the pdf)

 

 

Now the analysis:-

 

The income to expenditure ratio for the UK and Australia is about the same (about 1.48).

 

The Oz to UK average income has a ratio of 1.695.

 

So (here’s the important bit) to achieve the same standard of living in Oz as you do in the UK (assuming you are moving to an area that is comparable to where you live now), multiply your income by 1.69 e.g :

 

If you have a household income of 25000 pounds (after tax) you need to earn $65189 (after tax – assuming an exchange rate of GBP 0.65 to the AUD).

 

Now the important thing is to remember that this is for a comparable location to where you are now e.g. London to Sydney. If you are planning to live in one of the major cities in Oz from a cheaper area in the UK then you will probably need to increase your income by a greater factor to retain the same standard of living.

 

Sorry if I’ve bored anyone but I’m a data analyst by trade to I enjoy playing with numbers J

 

BTW - the pay difference ratio (based on the average) between the UK and Oz is currently 1.7 (not the 2.2 often quoted).

Edited by Sydneyhorn
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Sounds about right. Earn 25,000 in London and have a pretty shite life. Earn 65,000 in Sydney and have a pretty shite life......

 

Problem is that most people move to a state city in Australia, so the costs are increased massively from, say, South Wales or Leeds or sommat. Again, I have lots of mates that have made the informed decision to stay put. None of em are prepared to pay the cost of living here. Have a mate who is staying with me at the moment and he is constantly spun out by the cost of stuff.... Although I don't help. One of my favourate past times at the moment is getting the local paper and having a laugh at the house prices in mine are surrounding areas, great fun. $800,000 for a shack, $1.5 for a normal house... Great fun.

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Sounds about right. Earn 25,000 in London and have a pretty shite life. Earn 65,000 in Sydney and have a pretty shite life......

 

Problem is that most people move to a state city in Australia, so the costs are increased massively from, say, South Wales or Leeds or sommat. Again, I have lots of mates that have made the informed decision to stay put. None of em are prepared to pay the cost of living here. Have a mate who is staying with me at the moment and he is constantly spun out by the cost of stuff.... Although I don't help. One of my favourate past times at the moment is getting the local paper and having a laugh at the house prices in mine are surrounding areas, great fun. $800,000 for a shack, $1.5 for a normal house... Great fun.

 

That's exactly it. We moved from rural Suffolk to Sydney - our housing costs have gone up by a multiple of 5. That's not a problem for us because we went with our eyes open, researched costs, negotiated the pay deal accordingly and there are very big positive pay offs, my commute has gone down from 90 minutes to 30 for a start. But it's what catches many out, and it's what makes "rules of thumb" based on multiples of average wages to be pretty pointless IMO

 

Better work/life balance is probably the single biggest benefit to us of living in Australia but it only applies because we can afford to live in a nice area of the city that's handy for work. If we had to live 90 minutes journey away because that's all we could afford then I can safely say we'd be back on the plane pretty sharpish

 

There are other positives to us for living here at the moment and as per postings elsewhere, we are happy here and like it, but the increased family time is the kicker. Actually it makes such a difference to us that when we do go back, we'll almost certainly be going back into a nice/expensive suburb of London (which will be no cheaper than Sydney) as it's taken coming here to make use realise how important that is. I'll never go back to the long commute, it's a killer

Edited by northshorepom
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http://www.sanza.co.uk/Tooheys_Extra_Dry.asp

 

Cant believe how much this costs over here. Haven't found anything as good, but can't afford this very often

 

I'm a great believer of "When in Rome".....which is why I drink Australian and Kiwi beer over here, don't really buy anything imported. I've always found TED to be "meh" in the extreme but I guess it's what you're used to. Can you not find anything European that's similar?

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A pint of something pretty nasty in Perth CBD will not see any change from $15. A glass of some "ok" wine about the same.

 

I can't think of anywhere in Perth where you would pay $15 for a glass. The Belgian Beer Cafe is one of the dearest in town (it's a rip off) and I think it's $12 a pint in there. Whether it's pretty nasty is just a matter of taste. I think one of the most expensive places in Perth is the Breakwater in Hillary's and a pint of Guinness and a glass of wine were $19 last week.

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I'm a great believer of "When in Rome".....which is why I drink Australian and Kiwi beer over here, don't really buy anything imported. I've always found TED to be "meh" in the extreme but I guess it's what you're used to. Can you not find anything European that's similar?

Indeed, I haven't had so much as a sip of European beer in an Aus pub, though I've bought German beer in Dan Murphys - Oettinger is cheaper than some Aussie beers! But I prefer German wheat beers like Franziskaner - that's a treat. In the UK I always drank Bud or whatever Euro beer was cheap in Wetherspoons, the only UK beer I liked was Innis & Gunn Rum Cask which was about £1.35 in Tesco, and can be found in one Brisso bottle-o for a painful $8 - this one's for very special occasions!

 

I like TED but if we returned to the UK I'd be back on the Bud :oD

Edited by paisleylass
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Guest chris955
Tax disc uk 135 pound per year

 

Registration $647 per year

 

passport uk 77 pound [adult]

passport australia $233 [adult]

 

Just 2 examples of the many. Our tax disc is actually £20 a year, our registration was well over $600. I had to renew my British passport yesterday actually, it has been reduced in price down to £72. We are finding so many things here cheaper than Australia.

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Guest Trueblue22

I think these threads just go to show that you CANNOT say which country is more expensive. It all comes down to the individual, the area, the wages and the lifestyle expectation.

 

For me personally I will have a much higher standard of living in Aus, but for me this isn't related to materialistic things, although I will be much better off financially. I have started to find UK very expensive lately, but this is probably due to poor wages and only 1% pay increases of late.

 

But they're always good for the UK vs Oz banter :wink:

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Guest chris955

Well for us life here is certainly working out cheaper overall.

Food about £100 a week for 4 of us.

Car insurance £25 a month

House insurance £28 a month

Mot £30 around here so no biggie :)

Rates are higher here but it's apples and oranges £110 a month.

Water rates £20 a month.

Phone and broadband, completely unlimited £30

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Guest chris955
I think these threads just go to show that you CANNOT say which country is more expensive. It all comes down to the individual, the area, the wages and the lifestyle expectation.

 

For me personally I will have a much higher standard of living in Aus, but for me this isn't related to materialistic things, although I will be much better off financially. I have started to find UK very expensive lately, but this is probably due to poor wages and only 1% pay increases of late.

 

But they're always good for the UK vs Oz banter :wink:

 

Well for us we can certainly say which country is more expensive, for us it is Australia.

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Guest Trueblue22
Just 2 examples of the many. Our tax disc is actually £20 a year, our registration was well over $600. I had to renew my British passport yesterday actually, it has been reduced in price down to £72. We are finding so many things here cheaper than Australia.

 

My tax is nearly £200 and I don't think you can use the cost of a passport as a reflection of the cost of living in UK, you only purchase one every 10 yrs.

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I'm a great believer of "When in Rome".....which is why I drink Australian and Kiwi beer over here, don't really buy anything imported. I've always found TED to be "meh" in the extreme but I guess it's what you're used to. Can you not find anything European that's similar?

 

I mostly drink whatever is on special in sainsburys. Carling, fosters gold, becks etc. I haven't had an extra dry since Australia day in the walkabout. I don't really need to be searching for all my Aussie favourites over here in the UK. I try and fit in where I can, and I don't believe in paying over the odds for anything just because it's from Aus. A bit like some people on here that want everything in Aus to be the same as how they had it in the UK.

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I mostly drink whatever is on special in sainsburys. Carling, fosters gold, becks etc. I haven't had an extra dry since Australia day in the walkabout. I don't really need to be searching for all my Aussie favourites over here in the UK. I try and fit in where I can, and I don't believe in paying over the odds for anything just because it's from Aus. A bit like some people on here that want everything in Aus to be the same as how they had it in the UK.

 

Amen to that! *does cheers with Pure Blonde tinnie*

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