Guest itskaren Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 I was chatting to my mum this morning who has been in Perth for 18 Years and she was talking about how expensive daily living in Australia is getting and how she is concerned that when me and o/h make the move we will strugggle.....so I was wondering do others that have been there for while see a big change in the cost of daily living? And what do those of you that have recently arrived make of the cost of living? Thanks Emma :cute: If we'd had know before coming here how much more expensive groceries and day to day living was we certainly would not have come. We were far better off in the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrfordy Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 Living in Australia isn't cheap fact.Dont come here expecting a better deal than the UK, you wont get one. My statement might sound very negative but at least its truthful. Go further inland, it is cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest36187 Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 Costs of living have gone up. We notice a difference in costs since we arrived in 2005. Even in little things like going out for dinner. We were going to go out for dinner to a local restaurant last night - one that we frequented regularly from day 1!) Prices have skyrocketed! We stayed in ! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest croxleysue Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 have been quite suprised at the cost of groceries since arriving here...really expensive compared to the UK. However, petrol and house prices are definitely cheaper so I'm sure it all evens itself out in the end! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Yuills Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 Would still rather be skint here than skint in the UK!!! At least we can still have outings at weekends with the kids here if we are short of money..hard to do in UK. Where we lived in UK, wherever you went parking cost a bomb, even having to pay to go on a peir. Here you can go to parks and beaches and not have to pay for it..petrol cheaper to get there and an excuse to have a picnic..kids love picnics!! (they don't need to know we are having picnics cause we can't afford fish and chips that week!) As said previously though some things are more expensive but then others are cheaper..and like me its been a year and prices have gone up in the UK..but we still compare Oz prices now with UK prices a year ago. The ony thing that gets me is telstra!! you pay through the nose for internet connection and then it takes half and hour for the dam page to load! We live on 1 wage here but in UK i had to work various jobs and shifts to just get by. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chris955 Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 Serious question, you really find that house prices are definitely cheaper here ? have been quite suprised at the cost of groceries since arriving here...really expensive compared to the UK. However, petrol and house prices are definitely cheaper so I'm sure it all evens itself out in the end! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest croxleysue Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 Yeh, we've looked around Ormison/Wellington Point areas at house buying and you def seem to get more for your money then where we've just come from in the UK.....and the areas we've looked at here seem quite nice?! (unless I'm wrong....if so, please correct me, lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest36187 Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 I agree with Sue. If we went back to UK we could not afford to `rebuy` our house or our old 1 bedroom flat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byrned Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 Not in my opinion,when I was last in the UK my girlfriend spent £150.00 for a weeks shopping,in Australia £150 (over $250.00)is what I spend in a fortnight.And don't get me started on the cost of meat in the UK,£18.00 for a small leg of lamb that only just fed 2 people,here in Australia I can buy the same sized leg for $18.00.! Australia is expensive for some things but I spend a lot of time in the UK so I can confidently say that this idea that Australia is an endless pit that will suck your money in is a myth. Are you views on the costs of living from a single persons point of view or a family with say 2 to 3 kids? vastly different Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
byrned Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 energy prices in victoria have risen by 58 percent over the last five years and all utilitys are set to continue to rise, which will be passed onto to all other goods, no it is not cheap to live here especially with kids, but this again can depend on what your income is as well, house prices really get my goat, crappy flimsy, draughty houses pee me off, you just know they are not worth what you are paying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest36187 Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 There is 2 of us that we shop for. We just spent (today) about $160 and that does us for a week. In UK we could easily spend 100pounds. Obviously varies on where you shop and what you buy. I `buy better` here. However horses for courses really as in UK I could buy a loaf of bread for 10p.....cant do that here! lol Edited to add: Im in Brissie too and costs of living vary around Oz. We noticed that massively having just arrived back from Melbourne and Perth. BIG differences in prices to Brissie. Brissie being cheapest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest croxleysue Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 We're a family of 5 and I was paying on average 130 a week for groceries in the UK (not really paying much attention to the cost of things as I was buying stuff)...here I'm paying on average 300 per week....but shopping wisely and paying attention to the cost of things! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest36187 Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 We're a family of 5 and I was paying on average 130 a week for groceries in the UK (not really paying much attention to the cost of things as I was buying stuff)...here I'm paying on average 300 per week....but shopping wisely and paying attention to the cost of things! Absolutely! Thats what we do. We actually changed our Supermarket to cut costs. We look at all the leaflets that come through the door and if something is cheaper in one place we`ll go get it tehre. Things like Diet Coke, coffee, loo roll etc etc that will always get used! I bought 3 huge jars of coffee today! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chris955 Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 Yes of course as with everything it very much depends on where you came from and where you are going to. At the moment we could easily sell our place here and be mortgage free in a nice house in the UK. Wellington Point is quite a nice area. Yeh, we've looked around Ormison/Wellington Point areas at house buying and you def seem to get more for your money then where we've just come from in the UK.....and the areas we've looked at here seem quite nice?! (unless I'm wrong....if so, please correct me, lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest chris955 Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 That seems to be a major difference I have noticed, in the UK we rarely looked at prices but here we hunt out the specials and buy in bulk where we can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul1Perth Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 Hi, but her in Scotland, its getting pretty expensive here as well, and with the new goverment i think it will get worse as they need to get money from somewhere so probably everything will increase, groceries and taxes. Ive read its same as UK for food shopping, some things here you pay for that you dont in Oz but basically its swings and roundabouts. Gillian I think you've hit the nail on the head. Have you ever known anywhere get cheaper? Having just written that I guess things did get a bit cheaper in the UK when the financial crisis hit. That didn't seem to happen here as we somehow managed to avoid the problems. I can see your point that the UK is going to get dearer pretty soon. As with the rest of Europe, by recent press reports, they are just realising how much debt the country is in and it has to be brought back to a maneagable level. Someone is going to have to pay. Another thing you don't have to pay as much for here is heating/cooling. I would guess your heating bill in Scotland would be substantial whereas here it wouldn't be that much for the winter months. We only had reverse cycle aircon last year and used it about 4 times for cooling. We live close to the beach though so get a nice sea breeze in the afternoons most days. If you live a bit inland I would imagine you would need aircon more. It's hard to compare houses. It's not really comparing like with like. You would maybe pay the same for a small terrace in a fashionable area as you would pay for a 3 or 4 bed detached family home here. My friend emigrated from Windsor, sold his 3 bed semi there and bought a 4 bed detached place with a pool, 2 mins walk from a really nice beach. They have gotten more expensive over the last few years though. Depends what you are going to end up doing. There are some fantastic salaries if you work in oil and gas or mining. One of the reasons why Perth housing is expensive. We still love it here and get by just fine. We don't save any more than we used to in the UK but the comparison of lifestyles is not easy. We haven't really tried to pay our mortgage off quickly, like a lot of people do here. We would rather enjoy things and have a bit of cash to spend whilst we can still enjoy it. Rather than wait until retirement when we will be physically knackered to enjoy it. All the Best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest famousfive Posted May 28, 2010 Share Posted May 28, 2010 That seems to be a major difference I have noticed, in the UK we rarely looked at prices but here we hunt out the specials and buy in bulk where we can. We also buy specials nearly the whole time.Not just groceries but clothes,shoes,books etc...We as parents find it hard constantly saying no to our kids.Don't get me wrong,they were not spoilt before they arrived in Australia either.But the constant no,no,no because we can't afford it is wearing a bit thin.If it was about big things then no problem but we are talking about the things we considered to be a normal part of everyday living in Ireland. I didn't expect it to be cheaper here but I definately did not expect it to be such a damn struggle either.Maybe we are just unlucky to work in lower paid professions,who knows! I'm not knocking this country,just stating my experience of it this time around. We love it here but not staying as we think we can possibly have a better life elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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