Why do some of you UK folk think stuff is more expensive in Oz?

[Pond321]

A lot of things are a lot more expensive in Aus. There is very little competition between the companies over here – it is all a bit of a cartel. If you want to be scientific about it, go view the company report for Coles (owned by Wesfarmers) and compare their gross margin with a company like Tescos. It is quite revealing.

Things that I have noticed that are eye wateringly expensive over here include:

- Decent cars (i.e BMWs, Landrovers etc)

- Fresh soup

- Tinned Tomatoes

- Work shirts

- Fishing/Diving equipment

- Hot roast chickens in supermarkets

- Beer (either in a pub or to take away)

- Electrical equipment

- Tinned goods

- Bed linen

- Nice clothes

- Nice shoes

- Internet Access

- Books

- Magazines

- Ready meals

- Chewing gum

- Confectionary

- Haircuts

- Cleaning products

- Toiletries

Some stuff is cheaper:

- Meat

- Petrol

- Utilities

- Fast (junk) food

- Taxis

- Public Transport

Thing is, after a while, you kind of adjust. There is no wrong or right. You just adapt.

One thing that I have noticed is that people who say that Aus is cheap generally seem to have limitless time to shop around. I do not. I go to supermarkets to buy stuff because I do not have time to shop around. Supermarkets here fleece you. They have a couple of loss leaders – but overall they make far more money off you than equivalent UK chains. Coles only has to compete with Woolworths. And that is all they care about. They both try to maintain pricing parity with each other and not lower prices overall.

Finally, internet shopping over here is naff. The Aussies are literally years behind the curve. And this limits price competition as in the UK a lot of people shop for big ticket items on the internet. Things are slowly changing though. But it will take time. And Aussies do not seem to realize they are being fleeced.

[Guest futuretaipan]

Wow, thank you! great input! Do you think I will be OK packing a few home-brew kits?:biggrin:

[Guest Alexxxxx]

I haven't read everyones comments so someone may have already said this but...

 

Both me and my OH have looked into it as much as we can at the cost of living out there and read books and asked our friends opinion who lives in Melbourne too and we believe (and could be wrong until we get out there) that the cost of living in general is about the same as the UK. Some things are more expensive and other things are alot cheaper so balances it out. BUT our income will double! Wages in this country are so low and taxes are so high, it's hard to live life here. Hardly any spare money a month to maintain a social life. I'm a strong believer in "work to live" not "live to work" and that's what it is here so can't wait to get away from here and be able to enjoy life without the stress and worries of work & bills.

[Sol Survivor]

I can't be bothered to read all the replies so if its already been said sorry, but if you paid £2 for a tin of soup you were mugged off! £2! where the hell did you go for that. In a supermarket on average its about 80p!!!

 

 

 

My wife and I were back in the UK for a few months last year and were shocked at the price of just about everything (except paperback novels).

 

I've been flitting around this forum and someone said that Oz was more expensive than the UK generally speaking.

Well generally speaking a tin of Heinz soup here costs between $2 and $3 bucks, whereas in the UK the same tin of soup was on average 2 quid or above.

When we were there 2 quid was about $4.45 Oz

(Yes we don't have Oxtail soup, pity but it's not that popular here.)

 

Someone also said we don't have the variety of meat that they sell in the UK?

We're really wondering about that, as our large supermarkets have just about every kind of meat and combination you care to name. More than we ever saw in a UK supermarket.

 

We don't have a curry house on every corner, but they never really took off here either, but we have plenty of Chinese and Japanese food places. And again they are cheaper than in the UK.

 

We actually realised that the only way to survive long term in the UK is to be paid in British Pounds, anyone trying to live in Britain on an Aussie wage is going to go under pretty quickly, as our dollar was so weak against the pound.

 

A campsite in Oz averages anywhere between $12 and $20 dollars.

A campsite in the UK averages all the time at about 19 quid. That was over $40 bucks when we were there.

(That's wayyyyy too expensive for what you don't get. No BBQ's. No sun/rain cover. Just a shower and a toilet is all we got at any campsite in the UK, south to north. Many times it's just a spot in a field, campsites here are normally special parks. Although we often just free camp as so much public access land.)

 

Petrol is cheaper here.

Family Resteraunts are in the main cheaper.

Middle range Motels/hotels are cheaper.

B&B is often cheaper, though it's getting more expensive.

 

We don't have any Toby Carvery's...crying shame as we loved Toby's and the price was right.

 

Our local video shop charges $2 a movie for a weekly or an overnight.

I'm guessing no vid shops in the UK charge 50 pence a rental?

 

I saw another person say they had trouble finding the clothes they wanted?

Once again if you can't find the clothing you want in a big Aussie city then you must be wanting something really special.

 

I don't recall I saw people in the UK dressing much different to us here in Oz?

 

Two things we didn't like in the UK:

The McDonalds food tasted funny to us and the crisps were bloody awful compared to the ones we buy here. (Sorry, had to get that off my chest.) :biggrin:

Crisps are chips in Oz, by the way.

 

Okay, had my say, interested to see what new arrivals or people who travel between the UK and Oz on a regualr basis think.

[Guest Alexxxxx]

I can't be bothered to read all the replies so if its already been said sorry, but if you paid £2 for a tin of soup you were mugged off! £2! where the hell did you go for that. In a supermarket on average its about 80p!!!

 

Yea I was quite shocked about that. Must have gone to M&S or a very touristy place or centre of London or something.. I dunno. I didn't want to say anything because someone MUST have said something sooner haha!

[Quoll]

I haven't read everyones comments so someone may have already said this but...

 

Both me and my OH have looked into it as much as we can at the cost of living out there and read books and asked our friends opinion who lives in Melbourne too and we believe (and could be wrong until we get out there) that the cost of living in general is about the same as the UK. Some things are more expensive and other things are alot cheaper so balances it out. BUT our income will double! Wages in this country are so low and taxes are so high, it's hard to live life here. Hardly any spare money a month to maintain a social life. I'm a strong believer in "work to live" not "live to work" and that's what it is here so can't wait to get away from here and be able to enjoy life without the stress and worries of work & bills.

 

I sincerely hope that you find what you are looking for - you have included the far higher mortgage interest rates in your calculations I expect? I am not so sure that wages are far higher here than in UK and we have our fair share of taxes which you will also need to take into account - stamp duty is a kicker when you are buying your own home for example. I think you will find that most Australians have to worry about bills and most families seem to have to be two income just to make ends meet (this is especially true in Canberra where the cost of housing is ridiculous). In fact, I wouldnt expect it to be much different from UK if I were you.

[Guest Alexxxxx]

I sincerely hope that you find what you are looking for - you have included the far higher mortgage interest rates in your calculations I expect? I am not so sure that wages are far higher here than in UK and we have our fair share of taxes which you will also need to take into account - stamp duty is a kicker when you are buying your own home for example. I think you will find that most Australians have to worry about bills and most families seem to have to be two income just to make ends meet (this is especially true in Canberra where the cost of housing is ridiculous). In fact, I wouldnt expect it to be much different from UK if I were you.

 

Well we're not looking to buy straight away.. because obviously we don't know what to expect and (fingers crossed it wont happen) for whatever reasons we can't adjust, so we won't be looking to buy until we're out there for a few years at least.

 

Wages.. well I'm a legal secretary and the highest wage I can get in Cardiff, Wales is around £15,000... everywhere I've looked out there it is at least £25,000+. Same as my partner who is a graphic designer, again in Cardiff he is on £17,000 and averages around £20,000 and all the jobs he's found out there he could be on £30,000+. Family relatives out there have mentioned many times of getting yearly tax rebates.. we don't get that here. although we haven't really looked into that much but we're factoring it in when we look at the cost of living.

 

Rent is a little bit dearer there but not too much especially when the houses are so much more spacious and garden areas are much bigger.

 

Also the biggest factor for us is just generally the outdoors lifestyle there. I'd love to have more of an outdoors lifestyle but here, the weather is awful. It is summer and it's 15 degrees and raining out so it costs us money to get out of the house when it's raining such as going to restaurants, bowling, pubs, anything to get us out lol. We can't make plans for the weekends because the weather is so unpredictable! It's so frustrating. A close friend of mine is living in Melbourne and she absolutely loves it and she said the fruit & veg does cost a little bit more but it's so much better. So I do speak to her regularly to get as much info as I can and she never intends on coming back.

 

If you have any more advice or suggestions, then please let me know. Obviously it gives us more to look into and more of an idea of what we should be looking at.

 

Thank you.

[Guest guest36187]

Wages.. well I'm a legal secretary and the highest wage I can get in Cardiff, Wales is around £15,000... everywhere I've looked out there it is at least £25,000+. Same as my partner who is a graphic designer, again in Cardiff he is on £17,000 and averages around £20,000 and all the jobs he's found out there he could be on £30,000+.

What does the salary out here equate to in `$`?

Family relatives out there have mentioned many times of getting yearly tax rebates.. we don't get that here. although we haven't really looked into that much but we're factoring it in when we look at the cost of living.

I`d say BIG mistake to factor it in! Look on any tax rebate as a bonus not something that you will regularly get!

 

Rent is a little bit dearer there but not too much especially when the houses are so much more spacious and garden areas are much bigger.

 

depends where you rent!

 

 

 

If you have any more advice or suggestions, then please let me know. Obviously it gives us more to look into and more of an idea of what we should be looking at.

 

Good on ya guys! I wish you luck x

[heyyu]

"Landrovers' not very popular here Toyotas are road tested here by the japanese and suit oz conditions,parts are available all over the country and thats everywhere which is a bonus.landrover had trouble with its Discovery range it literally fell to bits and spent more time in the workshop than on the road.if you have driven on oz roads with corrigations you"ll know what im saying

- Decent cars (i.e BMWs, Landrovers etc)

- Fresh soup

- Tinned Tomatoes

- Work shirts

- Fishing/Diving equipment

- Hot roast chickens in supermarkets

- Beer (either in a pub or to take away)

- Electrical equipment

- Tinned goods

- Bed linen

- Nice clothes

- Nice shoes

- Internet Access

- Books

- Magazines

- Ready meals

- Chewing gum

- Confectionary

- Haircuts

- Cleaning products

- Toiletries

[Guest chris955]

Wrong thread perhaps ?

[heyyu]

maybe

[Guest chris955]

It's just that Land Rovers are very common and popular here and have won multiple awards year after year. I'm not sure where your quote came from ?

[Guest lifeinmono]

By the way, I know that there is a policy of ignoring my posts at present, probably directed from the powers that be here but I'll reply anyway.

 

My wife is Aussie and she always says that she finds grocery shopping appreciably more expensive in Australia than in the UK. That's based on living in both countries with our most recent UK experience being last October and our most recent Aussie experience being yesterday.

 

Tesco had 6 Stellas for 5 quid. When do you see even VB for $10 in Australia? It's always at least $12 or $13 for six stubbies.

 

The only thing we agreed was hugely more expensive in the UK was petrol. The cost of housing (rent and mortgage) in Australia is going up and up.

 

Australia is not a cheap country anymore. It may once have been but those days are gone. Yes some things are cheaper here but equally some things are more expensive here so to consider Australia cheaper as a general rule is totally inaccurate.

[Guest lifeinmono]

The two biggest Supermarket chains here have close to an 80% share of the market in Australia.

 

In the UK, the two biggest have about 48%.

 

There is no competition in the world of retail in Australia. It's a couple of companies doing it all. Hence poor price choice and poor choice in general.

[Addy]

Well we're not looking to buy straight away.. because obviously we don't know what to expect and (fingers crossed it wont happen) for whatever reasons we can't adjust, so we won't be looking to buy until we're out there for a few years at least.

 

Wages.. well I'm a legal secretary and the highest wage I can get in Cardiff, Wales is around £15,000... everywhere I've looked out there it is at least £25,000+. Same as my partner who is a graphic designer, again in Cardiff he is on £17,000 and averages around £20,000 and all the jobs he's found out there he could be on £30,000+. Family relatives out there have mentioned many times of getting yearly tax rebates.. we don't get that here. although we haven't really looked into that much but we're factoring it in when we look at the cost of living.

 

Rent is a little bit dearer there but not too much especially when the houses are so much more spacious and garden areas are much bigger.

 

Also the biggest factor for us is just generally the outdoors lifestyle there. I'd love to have more of an outdoors lifestyle but here, the weather is awful. It is summer and it's 15 degrees and raining out so it costs us money to get out of the house when it's raining such as going to restaurants, bowling, pubs, anything to get us out lol. We can't make plans for the weekends because the weather is so unpredictable! It's so frustrating. A close friend of mine is living in Melbourne and she absolutely loves it and she said the fruit & veg does cost a little bit more but it's so much better. So I do speak to her regularly to get as much info as I can and she never intends on coming back.

 

If you have any more advice or suggestions, then please let me know. Obviously it gives us more to look into and more of an idea of what we should be looking at.

 

Thank you.

 

We migrated to Adelaide from Cardiff. I can't comment on any other two places.

 

I can definitely say that housing costs in Adelaide are cheaper than in Cardiff ... The rent you would pay for a flat in Cardiff would pay for a house here. The price you would pay for a flat in Cardiff would pay for a house here. (In a like for like area comparison)

 

I can also say that wages are LOWER in Adelaide than in Cardiff. Which given the housing costs is acceptable BUT please don't assume you will earn more. Especially at the start.

 

You may find that you do earn more than in Cardiff but if you chose to go to Sydney or Melbourne, your housing costs will be a lot higher.

 

I am sure that you will make a go of it, we are happy with our move but we are no better off here than in Cardiff.

[i need stimulation]

My wife and I were back in the UK for a few months last year and were shocked at the price of just about everything (except paperback novels).

 

I've been flitting around this forum and someone said that Oz was more expensive than the UK generally speaking.

Well generally speaking a tin of Heinz soup here costs between $2 and $3 bucks, whereas in the UK the same tin of soup was on average 2 quid or above.

When we were there 2 quid was about $4.45 Oz

(Yes we don't have Oxtail soup, pity but it's not that popular here.)

 

Someone also said we don't have the variety of meat that they sell in the UK?

We're really wondering about that, as our large supermarkets have just about every kind of meat and combination you care to name. More than we ever saw in a UK supermarket.

 

We don't have a curry house on every corner, but they never really took off here either, but we have plenty of Chinese and Japanese food places. And again they are cheaper than in the UK.

 

We actually realised that the only way to survive long term in the UK is to be paid in British Pounds, anyone trying to live in Britain on an Aussie wage is going to go under pretty quickly, as our dollar was so weak against the pound.

 

A campsite in Oz averages anywhere between $12 and $20 dollars.

A campsite in the UK averages all the time at about 19 quid. That was over $40 bucks when we were there.

(That's wayyyyy too expensive for what you don't get. No BBQ's. No sun/rain cover. Just a shower and a toilet is all we got at any campsite in the UK, south to north. Many times it's just a spot in a field, campsites here are normally special parks. Although we often just free camp as so much public access land.)

 

Petrol is cheaper here.

Family Resteraunts are in the main cheaper.

Middle range Motels/hotels are cheaper.

B&B is often cheaper, though it's getting more expensive.

 

We don't have any Toby Carvery's...crying shame as we loved Toby's and the price was right.

 

Our local video shop charges $2 a movie for a weekly or an overnight.

I'm guessing no vid shops in the UK charge 50 pence a rental?

 

I saw another person say they had trouble finding the clothes they wanted?

Once again if you can't find the clothing you want in a big Aussie city then you must be wanting something really special.

 

I don't recall I saw people in the UK dressing much different to us here in Oz?

 

Two things we didn't like in the UK:

The McDonalds food tasted funny to us and the crisps were bloody awful compared to the ones we buy here. (Sorry, had to get that off my chest.) :biggrin:

Crisps are chips in Oz, by the way.

 

Okay, had my say, interested to see what new arrivals or people who travel between the UK and Oz on a regualr basis think.

 

i agrree with you that the south is definitely more expensive than oz (i come from gravesend), overall

 

regarding petrol, it costs more but usually you don't need as much of it anyway because of the more motorways, and sometimes walking is sufficient to get somewhere

 

curries in oz don't take off because they are crap

 

for men in particular clothes are limited here if you like really good ones, and the designer ones are definitely cheaper in uk

 

catching a train into london is astronomically expensive, when i used to do that i used to dodge the fares regularly and saved 80 per week

 

rochester to euston london was about 18 a day ($36)

the same distance here in sydney would be about $12, 3 times the difference

[Petals]

We are with family at the present time and one is looking for a new car and so we are a bit up to date on the prices and we see no difference once we convert to dollars. Used cars may be cheaper but new no. Not the cars we are looking at.

 

OH has been looking at wages and he feels they are less here in UK and he wonders how people manage.

 

Mammograms are not done 2 yearly here my sil having one this week and its three yearly and as she says she is in the worst phase of life for breast cancer.

 

I remember when I married and came over here and lived yonks ago I had to take a big reduction in salary. Of course if one is in London then wages are higher so is the cost of living, same as Sydney I was paid more when I worked in Sydney than when I worked in Melbourne once again cost of living comes into it.

 

If people want to come to Aus take no notice of information from me and others use as a guide and make sure you do the homework yourselves.

 

I prefer my life in Australia as I have finally realised this time although I love the countryside its green for a reason it rains a lot, culture is talked about a lot because buildings are old and I love to look at them but would not live in an old house quaint it may be. I live in 2010 and wish to remain in the present lol.

 

We have another five weeks here and are enjoying ourselves and funnily enough cannot find anything to spend our money on besides sightseeing and eating out so will be returning with plenty I believe.

[heyyu]

It's just that Land Rovers are very common and popular here and have won multiple awards year after year. I'm not sure where your quote came from ?

 

maybe in 1960:biggrin:

[Pond321]

Hmm. Yes. Strangley however, I seem to have seen lots of them just today as i drove down the great ocean road.

 

And even putting aside your views on Landrovers, Toyotas are also significantly more expensive here than in the UK. I know this for a fact, as I was about to buy one, but got put off by the price.

[pez2008]

It seemed expensive to us (in Geelong Victoria) when we arrived 7 months ago. I think the reason for that is when we started our visa it was $2.5 =£1. When we changed some money we got $1.8 so when we compared things we used the $1.8 comparison. As for wages, in uk i was on £9.5 hr here im on $23 hr but with exchange rates changing so much in 18 months its hard to convert $23 back to pounds, if you get my meaning. My mates think im on about £13.50 hr here lol but it doesnt work like that.

As said before you got to remember why you came here and stop comparing.

P.s Its also colder here than i thought lol.

[JayBone]

We have recently returned from our visa validation trip. We travelled from Sydney to Adelaide (via Melbourne). We didn’t really see much of a difference in price between states, but we did notice that ‘Scooners’ are different sizes in different states though?!?

If we were to compare prices based on exchange rate (which is ludicrous, may I add) then Australia is VERY expensive.

But if we compare it on percentage of wage used per month, which is the only sensible way to do it, then Australia is about the same, maybe cheaper than UK.

The average salary in the UK (median gross) is 20,800

The average salary in Australia (median gross) is 60,000

So as a guide, the realistic exchange rate is $3 to 1 pound.

A pint of beer in the UK (where I live) is 2.50

A Scooner in OZ (where I’ve been) is $5 or 1.60 pound (for less beer albeit)

But I would say this works out about the same price.

So as a rule, if I would pay 20 pound for it in the UK, I will quite happily pay up to $60 for it in OZ, and I’m sure I will get along fine with that in mind.

That’s my plan anyway, and I’m sticking to it!

[pez2008]

If we were to compare prices based on exchange rate (which is ludicrous, may I add) then Australia is VERY expensive.

 

I think you will find this is how most people compare-using the exchange rate they got for there money.

 

The average salary in the UK (median gross) is 20,800

The average salary in Australia (median gross) is 60,000

 

Most people i know (tradies) say the money is less here than in Uk.

 

A pint of beer in the UK (where I live) is 2.50

A Scooner in OZ (where I’ve been) is $5 or 1.60 pound (for less beer albeit)

 

A pint here in Geelong is about $7

[byrned]

You cannot compare prices and wages to uk pound comparisons, it just does not work, you are better just waiting to get here hopefully have an idea of what you will be earning, have an idea of rents cost of lving so forth which you can research ie realestate, online shopping etc price of cars etc because believe me when you get here, and this is for people with kids, any pre ideas you had in some cases are totally blown out of the water, and expences you just seem to forget about rear the ugly head.

[rockola57]

You Joust do you not?OZ is mega expensive compared to the UK.The quality of everyday stuff like food,clothes and household goods is way inferior.Please admit it all you OZ lovers,it is as plain as the nose on your face!:wacko:

[JayBone]

If we were to compare prices based on exchange rate (which is ludicrous, may I add) then Australia is VERY expensive.

 

I think you will find this is how most people compare-using the exchange rate they got for there money.

 

The average salary in the UK (median gross) is 20,800

The average salary in Australia (median gross) is 60,000

 

Most people i know (tradies) say the money is less here than in Uk.

 

A pint of beer in the UK (where I live) is 2.50

A Scooner in OZ (where I’ve been) is $5 or 1.60 pound (for less beer albeit)

 

A pint here in Geelong is about $7

 

 

Fair enough, But.....

 

You dont live from your savings you brought with you forever, you live from your wage surely??

 

Define less, is that exchange rate based again? I am a tradie and its the same for me.

 

A pint is $7, thats good, because i would quite happily pay $7.50