Worlo24 Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 hi guys I have already posted this on the backpackers section of the forum but feel I may get a little more joy in the NSW area of the forum so here goes... we are a couple looking to move next year to sydney. We visited on holiday last summer and fell in love with the city. We are hoping to travel on a WHV for an initial year and after doing some research on the net was wondering if a couple could lead a comfortable life in sydeny bringing home 500-600 dollars each a week, so 1200 in total? By comfortable we mean groceries, utilities and rent (saw a few studios from 450 a week online), travel card to the CBD fro work and a few beers on the weekend? I know this is quite different as each persons lifestyle is unique but any feedback, people experiences of this would be gratefully received. Thanks for reading guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bungo Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 I said this on your other thread too but will say it again. It doesn't matter what other people think, it is up to you how you life your life. There is no magic "cost of living" figure for a couple in Sydney, every couple spends what they want or have capacity for. Personally, I think $1,200 would be extremely uncomfortable, horrendous even, but thankfully it doesn't matter what I think is comfortable. The only thing that matters is you. So would the two of you be happy living in London on say £500-600 per week (to pay rent out of as well)? Or if you have indeed seen accommodation for $450 a week, would you be happy to live in the UK on say £300-400 per week? If this answer is yes, then you will be good in Sydney too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worlo24 Posted August 3, 2015 Author Share Posted August 3, 2015 I can appreciate you commenting on my post again - sorry if this is a bit of sore subject for you but I am generally after talking to other travellers/couples who are in the same situation. The jobs for backpackers generally pay a similar amount so I'm just trying to get a feel for what other people on WHV are doing. My post States its 'difficult' to put a figure on a question like this in the first instance. Rent in Sydney seems cheaper than London when comparing the wages on offer to be honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jumpingjellybean Posted August 3, 2015 Share Posted August 3, 2015 if a couple could lead a comfortable life in sydeny bringing home 500-600 dollars each a week, so 1200 in total? By comfortable we mean groceries, utilities and rent (saw a few studios from 450 a week online), travel card to the CBD fro work and a few beers on the weekend? I get paid $500 a week and my husband gets paid $600 a week and we do fine. Pay rent, travel expenses, utilities (bills), food and alcohol. Outings. Plus save a bit each week. It just depends on where you want to live, how far you want to commute and whether you like living the "high life" or not. The beer we like is $18.50 and $7.00 a bottle and several bottles of either a week will soon add up to being expensive :smile:.....but you can easily pick buy a can of VB for $3.00 or Little Creatures for $4.59 or Fosters for $2.40. Depending on location, I would perhaps expect to pay around $300 - $700 a week rent. Obviously a lot cheaper if you exclusivity stayed in a backpackers hostel long term. A nice place to live inner city is Balmain or Surry Hills, but it is usually expensive around $700 - $1000 a week. Found these on the Real Estate web page: http://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-nsw-balmain-416327037 http://www.realestate.com.au/property-apartment-nsw-surry+hills-415824693 You can easily see the quality and size you get for the price you pay. You could quite easily get a really nice two or three bedroomed apartment in Sydney for $1000 a week (horrifically expensive in my opinion), but if you share with one or two other couples, and that brings it nicely down to $250.00 a week each or $166.00 a week each..... which is very affordable. Where do you want to live? Rural? Beach? Mountains? And how far are you willing to commute daily? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MARYROSE02 Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 hi guys I have already posted this on the backpackers section of the forum but feel I may get a little more joy in the NSW area of the forum so here goes... we are a couple looking to move next year to sydney. We visited on holiday last summer and fell in love with the city. We are hoping to travel on a WHV for an initial year and after doing some research on the net was wondering if a couple could lead a comfortable life in sydeny bringing home 500-600 dollars each a week, so 1200 in total? By comfortable we mean groceries, utilities and rent (saw a few studios from 450 a week online), travel card to the CBD fro work and a few beers on the weekend? I know this is quite different as each persons lifestyle is unique but any feedback, people experiences of this would be gratefully received. Thanks for reading guys On that sort of income, you could use one partner's wages to pay the rent, and live off the other's wages, although you might get cheaper accomodation either sharing, or living further away from the city. Without having to pay any rent, I have about $2,500 per month to live on, though I should be saving $1,100 of that to cover my annual bills. If I ate more at home and stopped trying to go out almost every night, I could live on it, maybe get rid of my car, and Foxtel, and cut my mobile phone use down! Look at this site, for Sydney flat share. Whatever you do, you are joining thousands of others in the 'same boat', including me, come to think of it, as I came to Sydney on a WHV in December, 1978, when if you are to believe some people, 'it was all just SO much easier than it is today!' https://flatmates.com.au/sydney?gclid=CjwKEAjwovytBRCdxtyKqfL5nUISJACaugG1XR-Dx8Hc0ufGH_pezznn3Rhs1YlzRYD-OFXtZ27tURoCGSrw_wcB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worlo24 Posted August 4, 2015 Author Share Posted August 4, 2015 Many thanks jumping jilly bean for your detailed reply. It's really good to get helpful information like that. The links to the sites are excellent as well as it gives us a starting place to look at. We haven't really got as far as nailing down a few suburbs to live yet but would like a City suburb - we are not too fussed about living at the beach so long as we can get there on weekends and commuting isn't really a massive deal for us as we already do that back in the UK so say a 30 mins commute would be less that what we are doing now. We had friends that lived in Edgecliff and that seemed a nice place to live and they shared a three bedroomed flat with two other couples so that could definitely be a route we go down. Again thanks for th info - it's much appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worlo24 Posted August 4, 2015 Author Share Posted August 4, 2015 Thanks for your reply too Mary Rose - loads of people make the trip every year don't they and a lot of jobs I've seen are aimed at backpackers so just wanted to make sure we could get by if we opted for the move. Thanks for website link - will look it up as sharing is something we would be up for Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MARYROSE02 Posted August 4, 2015 Share Posted August 4, 2015 I was somewhat worried about what I would encounter in OZ, not least that Aussies hated Pommies, that first myth being destroyed when the three young Aussies sharing my cabin on the ship from Singapore, all shook my hand! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Worlo24 Posted August 4, 2015 Author Share Posted August 4, 2015 Yeah the majority of Aussies I met last summer were great guys. Apt of the jobs I've looked at are in call centres, marketing etc don't suppose you have any experiences of these workplaces? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jumpingjellybean Posted August 20, 2015 Share Posted August 20, 2015 jobs I've looked at are in call centres, marketing etc don't suppose you have any experiences of these workplaces? No thank goodness - both would drive me crazy! I don't have the patience to work in a call center :laugh: BUT there are lots of travelers doing these types of jobs. I think your best bet is to share a house or unit. I stayed mainly in backpacker hostels. If you get in a hostel that is aimed at workers that is good because the culture is work focused. Getting in a party hostel is bad because you are trying to get to sleep for work midweek and you have loads of trashed travelers arriving back at odd times. As I said, I stayed mainly in backpacker hostels where practically everyone worked and for about four months I was in a hostel in Potts Point (quieter and less seedy than Kings X). But a group of travelers I hung around with socially, had pooled their money together and were renting a really nice flat in Elizabeth Bay. There was four couples all sharing a four bedroomed flat. They had a bedroom each and shared the other facilities. No way could one couple have afforded the rent alone; but shared between eight people made it viable. The FlatShare website provided by MaryRose02 is a great place to start. But you could also meet other travelers at a backpackers hostel or answer a ad on a hostel noticeboard and agree to share - like the above group did (as it was years before the internet; when people still had real face-to-face conversations with each other!!!) There are also often flat and house shares advertised on Gumtree and there are often jobs advertised on there too: http://www.gumtree.com.au In regards to the Aussie / Pommie issue. You should not have a problem in the big cities as these are cosmopolitan and full of foreigners. Maybe you will just have to endure some light heart ribbing about warm beer, wet weather and the British cricket / football / insert sport here / - the only time I have encountered real nastiness is from rednecks in a small country backwards rural towns - once in Victoria and a couple of times in Queensland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NigelWaring Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 We live about one hour by train from the Sydney CBD and bought our own place 30+ years ago, you wouldn't believe how little we paid or what it is worth now. Rents out here, beyond Hornsby, are $300 to $600. I'm now retired but when I was a worker I soon got used to the travel and would manage to read at least one good book every week. Nowadays folk have laptops and pocket wifi so they can amuse themselves in many ways. I have seen people from the Central Coast (2 hour journey) watching the previous night's TV that they'd recorded, it is one way of catching up. We do like where we live, Hornsby is a passable shopping centre but for more serious stuff we can go to either Chatswood or to Erina Fair on the Central Coast. We are in the bush and a couple of times it has been exciting during the bushfire season but with a brick house and metal window shutters we seem to be OK. Not a good area though for anyone who likes the beach, Sydney beaches would be at least an hours drive, a bit less to the Central Coast and theirs are less crowded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marisawright Posted October 17, 2015 Share Posted October 17, 2015 I can appreciate you commenting on my post again - sorry if this is a bit of sore subject for you but I am generally after talking to other travellers/couples who are in the same situation. The jobs for backpackers generally pay a similar amount so I'm just trying to get a feel for what other people on WHV are doing. My post States its 'difficult' to put a figure on a question like this in the first instance. Rent in Sydney seems cheaper than London when comparing the wages on offer to be honest. Yes, rents are cheaper in Sydney than in London. Most people on a WHV live in the Eastern Suburbs or the Inner West - unless they're surfers, in which case they live on the Northern Beaches or Manly. I would strongly advise you to stick to those areas. They are more expensive, but on a WHV you won't have many belongings so you'll be happy in a small one-bedroom flat. The reason I say don't venture outside those areas is - you're on a working HOLIDAY visa. You want to enjoy the best aspects of Sydney - the nightlife, the cafe culture, the beaches etc - as well as work. And you want to do that with other WHV'ers and young professionals. You can't do that if you're living out in the outer burbs, which are generally more family oriented and much quieter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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