kmmr Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Hi, My husband and I are waiting for his partner visa to be approved, and we will hopefully be looking to move in about 6 months. From London to Sydney. I'm trying to budget for how much the process of moving from one country to another costs. Including all the big and little things, and would love to get an idea from people of what they spent and how much I should set aside. It's just the two of us. So far I am thinking: - Shipping container of 'stuff'. ~£4000 - Flight tickets x2. ~£3000. - 1 month in a holiday flat in Sydney. £2000. - Spending money. $100AUD per day, until we get jobs. We will both be out of work, so there is the lost income, but I'm not considering that. We will be renting out our flat in London for a year or so, so hopefully there won't be many upfront costs for that. I know this is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but I'd love to know other peoples experiences, and any surprise costs. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incata Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 You need to specify what size shipping container. A 40ft shipping container from London to Perth cost us £7200. Are utilities such as electricity included in the price of the holiday flat, or do you have to pay them on top? Do you have to pay a deposit? Does the holiday flat have a washing machine or will you be paying to use a laundry? Have you included food and drink in your $100 per day or is that just getting around? Have you factored in a hire car or do you just plan to use public transport? Do you plan to buy a car quickly? If so you will need to consider insurance on top of the price of the car. When you are applying for rentals, you are expected to put down a week's rental as a deposit at the time of application. You only get it refunded if you are unsuccessful. This can be quite a hit if you are not expecting it. I would suggest that you look at your day to day living costs in the UK, then double them and from that work out how much you will need to live on everyday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 £10 Cheers, Bobj. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starlight7 Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 $40 - it had gone up by the time we came! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobj Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 $40 - it had gone up by the time we came! :tongue: Cheers, Bobj. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinkla Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 You may want to get shipping insurance for your container. You will need one month's rent and one month's deposit in advance if you sign a lease. That is likely to be $3000 in total. You will need to buy some essential furniture and stuff when you move into a rental and wait for your stuff to arrive. This is expensive. You will need transport - realistically a car - and you'll need to hire a car for the first week or so whilst you look for a car to buy. Your cost for holiday accommodation looks low. Your living costs of $100 a day split between two also looks very low. You will need to budget also for telephony and internet access as this will be essential for job seeking. You will need contingency in case you are not able to secure rented accommodation quickly. Broadly, they do open houses every Saturday, people have until Monday to put in bids and the landlord considers and lets people know on Tuesday. If you are in 4 week holiday accommodation, that gives you two or three goes at securing somewhere before your time's up - and without jobs you are not going to be strong rental applicants. The answer overall is that you can be fortunate and do the move cheaply; you can be unlucky and spend heaps and still not make it stick. Bring as much as you can - migration is way more expensive than you could imagine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whatsitallabout Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 Every one is different & some people have spent a fortune & some less! Having just got back from Sydney I found it much more expensive than Melbourne 100 dollars a day in won't go far!!! The first year we spent at least £20 grand. But we are a family that includes car school fees & we paid 6 months rent to secure rental as we found that a nightmare !!! I would advise to bring as much as you can as you don't know how long it will take to find work. I stuck to a budget when shopping but we still spent a lot in the first year Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trabonita Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 We just bought flights to Sydney for £800pp, £3000 is quite steep! Also I would check out airbnb for accommodation for the first month, we use it everywhere. You can get a fully furnished apartment with laundry facilities and lots of them will offer a discount for extended stays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacaranda Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 Those flights seem very expensive?One way you'd be looking at half that,especially as you'll be arriving in winter!Where did you find those prices? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmmr Posted January 5, 2014 Author Share Posted January 5, 2014 Flights are a guesstimate. I normally go at Christmas so didn't realise they were so much more than normal! I will adjust down a bit, but we may stopover so I'll still mentally reserve a bit more than the minimum. Thanks everyone, all very helpful. I have my £40 ready. So $100 a day isn't enough? Even as an average? What costs so much!? Serious question. I had though that was moderately conservative. I forgot phones. We have nice new smartphones and a tablet, so how much is a monthly contract with high data allowances? Rather than signing up for internet right away. We will look at car costs, although I have parents there who can lend me a car to begin with. And mum will do the laundry... At least for a while! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmmr Posted January 5, 2014 Author Share Posted January 5, 2014 Airbnb is a great idea, thanks. Once we have a date I'll get in touch and see if we can get a good price. Mum and dad can take us for the first week or so, but we want to get out and independent asap. We are in our late thirties, so being at home with parents isn't ideal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmmr Posted January 5, 2014 Author Share Posted January 5, 2014 This talk of the difficulty renting worries me. We own our home in London, so have no rental history to speak of. Is it really that hard to find some where? Is it easier in winter? We would be looking for a 2 bed with garden - flat or house. On the north shore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maruska Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 What about the cost of assessment of qualifications for your job? Me and husband both had to spend about 1200$ total for the processing of nursing licenses ( including certifying copies of documents, postal fees etc). I`m not even counting the extra trip to Australia to finalize the license in person :wacko: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trabonita Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 I would have thought $100 was plenty per day assuming that you won't be doing tourist things/eating out very often? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinkla Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 I would have thought $100 was plenty per day assuming that you won't be doing tourist things/eating out very often? It truly is a mystery as to where the money goes - but it does go. Even cooking for myself, I would work out $20 a day per person for quite frugal living - add in things like coffee, tea, transport, telephony, bottle of wine to lift spirits, etc. But especially when you first arrive, you find you need so much stuff that you'd be used to having to hand at home. Want to cut something - go out and buy some scissors. Want to write something - go out and buy paper. Want to have a cup of coffee - go out and buy a kettle. These little costs really do add up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenon4017 Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 It truly is a mystery as to where the money goes - but it does go. Even cooking for myself, I would work out $20 a day per person for quite frugal living - add in things like coffee, tea, transport, telephony, bottle of wine to lift spirits, etc. But especially when you first arrive, you find you need so much stuff that you'd be used to having to hand at home. Want to cut something - go out and buy some scissors. Want to write something - go out and buy paper. Want to have a cup of coffee - go out and buy a kettle. These little costs really do add up. +1. Or rather +100$ per week for stuff that you never really considered you might need or even want, but you have to buy. Lawnmower, a pack of bulbs (alright, "light globes"), some extra pans, bed linen........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incata Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Flights are a guesstimate. I normally go at Christmas so didn't realise they were so much more than normal! I will adjust down a bit, but we may stopover so I'll still mentally reserve a bit more than the minimum. Thanks everyone, all very helpful. I have my £40 ready. So $100 a day isn't enough? Even as an average? What costs so much!? Serious question. I had though that was moderately conservative. I forgot phones. We have nice new smartphones and a tablet, so how much is a monthly contract with high data allowances? Rather than signing up for internet right away. We will look at car costs, although I have parents there who can lend me a car to begin with. And mum will do the laundry... At least for a while! Just a quick tip. Get your phones unlocked before you leave the UK. I had a phone on orange and have had some difficulty in getting it unlocked over here. I have now been in touch with orange and they are going to try and help but as I am no longer a current customer, they cannot guarantee that they will be able to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incata Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 It truly is a mystery as to where the money goes - but it does go. Even cooking for myself, I would work out $20 a day per person for quite frugal living - add in things like coffee, tea, transport, telephony, bottle of wine to lift spirits, etc. But especially when you first arrive, you find you need so much stuff that you'd be used to having to hand at home. Want to cut something - go out and buy some scissors. Want to write something - go out and buy paper. Want to have a cup of coffee - go out and buy a kettle. These little costs really do add up. I agree. It's also the little things that got me. I do a lot of cooking with herbs, and I did not bring them with me (did not think they would get through customs), so I gave them away to a friend who also loves cooking. Thus when I need something for a recipe, I can just access the supplies I have gradually built up, I have to go and buy a new jar of the herbs. A single jar might not be expensive, but when you buy 5 or 6 it starts to mount up. ps: + chocolate. Decent quality stuff (think Green and Blacks rather than Cabdurys) comes in at $4 per bar so it is not a cheap, quick pick me up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chunter Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 this post is really helpful as we are planning our move to Melbourne in August but get mixed reports of what we should and shouldn't take. we priced a 20ft container from UK to Aus and then found a great place 'fantastic furniture' it's so cheap. the forum referred it and when I looked at it, it's really cheap for start up furniture packages compared to what we would pay here for shipping everything and makes me feel is it worth the small cube route rather take everything, sell what you have and buy out there! houses in Aus tend to have build in robes so no need to ship them and my brother went to Sydney 6yrs ago with just a suitcase and he feels that the properties are so different from what we are used to so the furniture for different places may not always fit, his advice was just as I had researched, get as much money as you can for what you have in the UK and take the bare minimum. having 2 young girls we'll be taking the necessities and going from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinkla Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 it's really cheap for start up furniture packages compared to what we would pay here for shipping everything and makes me feel is it worth the small cube route rather take everything, sell what you have and buy out there! Everyone's experience is different but I would give the opposite advice. Only ditch the things you know you couldn't live without for any time at all (because you will have had to buy replacements before your container arrives). Everything else will be super expensive in Australia and the price you will get for selling stuff before you leave will be negligible. I regret so much of what I left - including, for example, a super aluminium stepladder. I assumed it would be expensive to ship and cheap to replace, but the replacement costs in Australia are in the hundreds of dollars. Also bear in mind that when you first arrive, you will end up paying high prices for everything because you won't yet know where to go for bargains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABL275 Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 ...a lot more than expected so probably wise to do your calculations and then double the number to be safe. We spent far more than expected and it took us quite a while to repair our finances. Some thoughts/experiences: - Australia is quite a socialist country, the worker is king and so the minimum wage is relatively high and so is just about anything that involves any sort of labour. Although the exchange rate is currently about £1=$1.8 I reckon you should budget on the basis of £1=$2.2 to get a truer reflection of many prices. - a purely personal view but I've always thought that in the US they count in dollars while in the we still count in (and mind the) pennies. Australia seems more US-oriented; the smallest Australian coin is the 5c piece and there was talk recently of even getting rid of that as it's considered so worthless. I guess it gives a sense of Australians being less money conscious and consequently prices being higher. - We rented out our house in the UK with a full set of white goods. In Australia (apart from dishwashers) you're expected to provide your own so that was $2,000+ additional cost. - pretty much all the utilities will charge you a connection fee plus some sort of month's charge in advance so you will effectively pay double or more in the first month/quarter for any services connected. - when you get a car you'll need register it and in Australia registration includes compulsory third party liability - so it'll cost you $800-$1,200 per year just to put your car on the road - a fair bit more than the road-tax in the UK. - Australian healthcare again mirrors the US approach more than the UK and so you'll need to ensure that you have appropriate private health cover. - virtually all contacts with government will cost you; when I went to register my daughter for school there was a 'processing fee' of around $400 (they also wanted $9,500 per annum in fees in the ACT but that's a separate matter). - we had to buy a lot more 'replacement items' than expected; my iPhone was under a Vodafone contract and couldn't be unlocked so I ended up having to buy a new one. The child's car seat needed replacing as it seems to be Australian practice that when they introduce new regulations they use the UK or US as starting point and then just increase the standard a bit so as to force people to buy Australian. TVs, DVD players and a whole load of other things need to also be replaced. As everyone is different you'll need to do your own research so here's a few starting points: Renting/buying houses: www.allhomes.com.au/ is pretty much the default followed closely by www.domain.com.au. In most cases rates etc. are paid by the landlord not the tenant. Apart from the bond (deposit) which is normally 1 month's rent there's generally no hidden costs. Electricals: www.binglee.com.au and www.thegoodguys.com.au are two of the biggest retailers. They'll also haggle over prices. Furniture & household: www.harveynorman.com.au are Australia's biggest and most widespread. Department stores: www.davidjones.com.au and www.myer.com.au are your John Lewis and Debenhams equivalents. General stores: www.target.com.au and www.bigw.com.au are like your old UK Woolworths. Groceries: Try either www.coles.com.au or www.woolworths.com.au These two operate a cosy duopoly and have probably cornered 80+% of all groceries which leads to frequent accusations of profiteering. Many Australian industries/retail sectors seem to be controlled by just one or two large players. DIY/garden etc. www.bunnings.com.au are again Australia's biggest and most widespread Telecoms, TV & internet: www.telstra.com.au - the BT equivalent, www.optus.com.au/ - the original competitor and there's a whole raft of smaller and regional operators Utilities: Most are regionally-based, for Sydney I'm guessing the main player is www.originenergy.com.au but there are probably plenty of others to choose from Hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incata Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Everyone's experience is different but I would give the opposite advice. Only ditch the things you know you couldn't live without for any time at all (because you will have had to buy replacements before your container arrives). Everything else will be super expensive in Australia and the price you will get for selling stuff before you leave will be negligible. I regret so much of what I left - including, for example, a super aluminium stepladder. I assumed it would be expensive to ship and cheap to replace, but the replacement costs in Australia are in the hundreds of dollars. Also bear in mind that when you first arrive, you will end up paying high prices for everything because you won't yet know where to go for bargains. +1 Absolutely right. Quite agree. Specifically ovens, fridges and freezers are so much more expensive here. We did not have an oven so bought and imported our own from the UK and still saved a fortune, even with paying shipping and GST and import duty on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Incata Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 ...a lot more than expected so probably wise to do your calculations and then double the number to be safe. We spent far more than expected and it took us quite a while to repair our finances. Some thoughts/experiences: - We rented out our house in the UK with a full set of white goods. In Australia (apart from dishwashers) you're expected to provide your own so that was $2,000+ additional cost. - pretty much all the utilities will charge you a connection fee plus some sort of month's charge in advance so you will effectively pay double or more in the first month/quarter for any services connected. - Australian healthcare again mirrors the US approach more than the UK and so you'll need to ensure that you have appropriate private health cover. - virtually all contacts with government will cost you; when I went to register my daughter for school there was a 'processing fee' of around $400 (they also wanted $9,500 per annum in fees in the ACT but that's a separate matter). - we had to buy a lot more 'replacement items' than expected; my iPhone was under a Vodafone contract and couldn't be unlocked so I ended up having to buy a new one. The child's car seat needed replacing as it seems to be Australian practice that when they introduce new regulations they use the UK or US as starting point and then just increase the standard a bit so as to force people to buy Australian. TVs, DVD players and a whole load of other things need to also be replaced. Renting/buying houses: www.allhomes.com.au/ is pretty much the default followed closely by www.domain.com.au. In most cases rates etc. are paid by the landlord not the tenant. Apart from the bond (deposit) which is normally 1 month's rent there's generally no hidden costs. Hope this helps! Just some additions and further thoughts: Our rental had an oven but no dishwasher, which was the same as all the other rentals we saw in the sub $600 per week range. However the oven was the cheapest money could buy and the temperature inside (measured with an oven thermometer) was nowhere near what it claimed to be on the dials. It was awful. Whether or not the utilities charge you a month in advance varies from state to state. They do not do this in WA. You do not need private health cover unless you earn over a certain amount every year. You also will have to pay for visits to the doctor (part refunded by medicare), unless you find a doctor who bulk bills. ABL is quoting private school fees. You do not have to pay for state schools unless you come over on a 457 visa, in which case you will pay $4000 per child per year (from Jan 2015 in WA). You can just change the plugs on TVs and DVD players so there is no need to replace them unless you want to. Other websites to look at for rentals are http://www.realestate.com.au and http://www.riewa.com.au Binglee is not in every state (it has not reached Perth yet). You are lucky in that you have Aldi on the East Coast - again not reached WA yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinkla Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 You can just change the plugs on TVs and DVD players so there is no need to replace them unless you want to. Some UK TVs will require connecting to a set top box in order to work. You can get these from Dick Smith. I believe that in some states, it is illegal to change plugs yourself - which may make them hard to buy. It's not illegal in Victoria and you can buy Australian plugs in Bunnings - although I think Australians generally are not taught how to change plugs and tend to be horrified at the thought of doing it yourself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmmr Posted January 6, 2014 Author Share Posted January 6, 2014 Thanks all. I know what you mean about money disappearing in general though. I call it 'walking around money'. The money that just seems to be needed to live and breathe! I am bringing a lot of furniture and general household stuff. I have a decent amount of IKEA stuff, which is useful as a like for like comparison, and the Aussie costs are much higher. It's a pity, as I wanted an excuse to get rid of it all, but the costs just don't add up so it will be going in the container. I emigrated to the UK 8 years ago, so I know how much the little costs add up. From spoons to towels, lightbulbs to beds. But a good reminder as I hadn't set aside budget for it, so I'll add another £1000 to the budget for these unexpected costs. My phone is unlocked, but I'll check my husbands. Healthcare I've also considered as I have major health needs - and have confirmed I will be covered without waiting periods as there are agreements between my UK health insurer and HCF. Re the plugs - I did spend my formative years (9-21) in Sydney, and I too was horrified at the idea of changing plugs! I have Irish parents who would do it all the time, and now in the UK I change them easily without a second thought. Funny how attitudes to these things vary across the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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