Guest JK2510 Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 How do you mentally get over the fact that your mortgage is $3k pm!! This is something we can't get our heads around.....ouch!!! BTW bananas are no longer an issue. $3.47 kg.........lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest51810 Posted December 14, 2011 Share Posted December 14, 2011 yeah my main worry is housing, i look at the rents and house prices online and think :arghh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest62757 Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 How do you mentally get over the fact that your mortgage is $3k pm!! This is something we can't get our heads around.....ouch!!! BTW bananas are no longer an issue. $3.47 kg.........lol 99 cents at Coles this morning woo hoo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpo1971 Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Well, it used to be the equivalent of 1500 pounds or so a month and that wasn't so bad, our UK mortgage was a grand or so. Now that $3k dollars is 2 thousand pounds, I agree, it looks nasty. Best not to think about it. Our house is nice and I like it so that kind of lessens the sting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harpodom Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 How do you mentally get over the fact that your mortgage is $3k pm!! This is something we can't get our heads around.....ouch!!! BTW bananas are no longer an issue. $3.47 kg.........lol ours is 4k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest51810 Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 :swoon: ours is 4k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest31881 Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 ours is 4k Thats a lot for bananas you must have a good job to afford those. :ssign7: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meme78 Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 I agree, I came over in 2005 and lived it up on the very strong pound- now, we barely get by on an above average wage, we shop at Aldi, I download books for Kindle, I buy a lot of 2nd hand stuff, and have cancelled luxuries like Foxtel- I also get visitors to bring over Shoes from Clarkes, underwear from Marks etc a few times each year. I find it annoying that I have to shop in several places to get cheaper products, and it's insane how much utlitilities have risen recently. for the average family (in our case, dad works full time for the military, i work 2 part time jobs whilst raising a small person) there's not much left over for luxuries these days. There's no point whinging though, it is what it is, and although we hope to return to WA at some stage next year, I am absolutely dreading the highly overpriced rentals and food situation. It's certainly the land of plenty, if you can afford it. That being said, I would much rather live here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest62757 Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 You must be paying for next doors as well. i pay the equivalent of 3,500 dollars per year for my gas and electric here in the uk and several people living in OZ have previously said they pay far less than this and wine was really cheap when we were there you could get 5 litres of fruit of the loom i think it was called for just over £10, its double that here in the uk, beer and spirits are dear though. It really does depend which state you are living in as the competition in NSW and Northern Queenslands is abysmal. For the last three years my bills for elec per quarter were roughly $700-800 and a bit more in winter this is for a three bedroom house with me at home during the day with the children. I switched providers to supposedly a cheaper one and after I signed the contract the prices hiked up so my last bill for winter was $2200 and my recent one after living like a hermit was $1483 with a 7% discount when paid on time. You have to find a like for like to compare as when I did my research three years ago I greatly underestimated the living costs and I'm married to an Aussie so you'd think I would have more of an insight! lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bensdad Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 We've not been here long but this is how we got our heads round it, may be wrong but it works for us. What ever wage your offered divide it by 2 and ask yourself can you live on that salary in the uk ie 90k aud can u live on £45k gbp. If the answers yes you should be fine. Often people will refer to a wage of 100k being the same as 75k in the uk but it's not you simply cannot use the exchange rate. Having said that I still think paying 9 aud for some chips and 18 aud for a small pizza in a famous pub in Fremantle is a bit much! Loving Fremantle! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petals Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 We have to cut our coat according to our cloth, if you can afford 3 grand a month for a mortgage and live ok then so be it. It becomes sticky when people buy houses that are out of their price range. Cannot eat a house or take it out to dinner. Where I live there are quite a few cheaper homes low three hundreds. Admittedly they are not very large but they have good blocks of land, need some work and are close to all facilities. Our first home was the smallest in the street but we could afford and live with it at the time. Frankston and particulary Lakewood has quite a lot of cheaper housing as well and its an ok area, my friend has lived there for 12 years. Its also close to facilities etc. The new housing is cheap to rent and you can buy a smallish house and land package cheaply but its the on costs of extra transport and fitting it out all that stuff and isolation that to me is not attractive. Where we live all the houses are more expensive because we live on the fringe and on acreage but we would not be living here now if we had saddled ourselves with all the trappings with the first house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest GoldCoastMag Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Rents on the Gold Coast prove that most people can live, and it depends what you are willing to give up to live in a larger place. On realestate.com just on one page there were properties on the gold coast ranging from a couple of cheapie 2 bedroom at $240 up to $1550 per week to live in a large beachfront apartment. Now I am sure most of us would love to live in the beachfront place, but lets face it we all have different priorities and some of us like to have food in the pantry. For me I love living here, yes "things" in the USA were cheaper, but here the beach and parks are free, and we only really need one of any of the things we are used to buying. We love going to the mountains and up and down the coast, we love the wildlife and the rainforest. I never got used to paying to go into parks and paying for a carpark. I love the bbq's that are free for use, and I think if people want to live within a tight budget they will find things they can still do for fun, without breaking it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harpodom Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 How do you mentally get over the fact that your mortgage is $3k pm!! This is something we can't get our heads around.....ouch!!! BTW bananas are no longer an issue. $3.47 kg.........lol 99 cents at Coles this morning woo hoo! $0.69 a kilo @ the Fruit Shack, Shannon Ave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpo1971 Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 One thing I do that I find beneficial is using BPAY to pay something off nearly all of my bills every fortnight. So, each fortnight when I get paid, I BPAY 50 dollars to the leccy, $20 to gas... and so on. For those who don't know BPAY is just online bill payment. When your bill comes through the mail, it will have a BPAY merchant ID and customer ID on it. You go to your online banking and just set up a transfer. It's dead easy. That way, I never get any nasty surprise bills. In fact, I am $150 in credit with the leccy! Getting paid fortnightly is superb too. I am only skint about 3 days a fortnight instead of 2 weeks a month! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourcorners Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 I love the way everyone uses the fact that so many things in Oz are free! Well they are in the UK too if you look hard enough. We lived in Cornwall and used the free beaches (though not as much in high summer when all the tourists were there). We went for lots of coastal walks, rock climbing, walking in forests etc, all free except the fuel. Can't do those things here in Kalgoorlie. Having just moved to Aus (for the second time), prices have gone up loads here over the last 5 years compared to the UK. We are horrified most weekends at the prices of furniture, particularly at second hand shops and garage sales. In Kalgoorlie there are monopolies in food shopping, clothing, books, furniture, electricals, cars, you name it. Small town in the middle of nowhere and prices just go up and up. We pay $2k a month for rent (could easily have ended up being much worse, particularly if we wanted a pool!). Our food bill (for 2) is about $200 a week, and about half our meals are vegetarian (although that should come down soon as I'm not needing as many pantry essentials now). Nt sure on utility bills yet, but our phone and broadband is $100 a months (for 200Gb, was 20 quid in the UK for unlimited...). All I can say is, thank god we've doubled our wage here. If our wages weren't so high I'd be back in the UK in a jiffy! And lets see, what free things are there to do here..... hmmmmm...... errr........nowt. Everything has a price here. Cheapest day out is to go off-roading in the bush but we've nearly already run out of destinations. Stay at home on the playstation but that gets pretty boring.... Read a book (from Amazon.co.uk!).... Go out for a run or cycle (oh damn its 38 degrees outside...). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest famousfive Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 I agree,plenty to do for free no matter where you live,if you want to do those things that is.The thing that bugs me is since coming here all we seem to do is free stuff,no other choice most of the time.That is the clincher for me........no other choice!!We had a choice where we were,spoilt for choice in fact.I like having choice.We work longer here for less just to survive day to day.What were everyday items in ireland are sheer luxury for us here.I don't think it is any more of a rip off than ireland but I think we had a much better quality of life there.......just took it for granted,well not anymore. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourcorners Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Sometimes a spell overseas does wonders for you in terms of appreciating what you did have. The grass is rarely any greener, just a different shade... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pintpot Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Sometimes a spell overseas does wonders for you in terms of appreciating what you did have. The grass is rarely any greener, just a different shade... That's for sure. I do wonder sometimes about the number of folks who are pinning everything on "living the dream" and assuming a move to the other side of the world will solve all their other problems, be they relationship, family, financial........ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gpo1971 Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Sometimes a spell overseas does wonders for you in terms of appreciating what you did have. The grass is rarely any greener, just a different shade... If I was forced back to the UK at gunpoint (it would have to be), I would move to Cornwall so I can sort of see what you mean. That's purely an aesthetic observation, I have no idea about the job market or whatever. I've been to Kal for a weekend, I expect you are noticing a slight difference. Although I assume your reason for living there is mining related so, swings and roundabouts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul1Perth Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 I love the way everyone uses the fact that so many things in Oz are free! Well they are in the UK too if you look hard enough. We lived in Cornwall and used the free beaches (though not as much in high summer when all the tourists were there). We went for lots of coastal walks, rock climbing, walking in forests etc, all free except the fuel. Can't do those things here in Kalgoorlie. Having just moved to Aus (for the second time), prices have gone up loads here over the last 5 years compared to the UK. We are horrified most weekends at the prices of furniture, particularly at second hand shops and garage sales. In Kalgoorlie there are monopolies in food shopping, clothing, books, furniture, electricals, cars, you name it. Small town in the middle of nowhere and prices just go up and up. We pay $2k a month for rent (could easily have ended up being much worse, particularly if we wanted a pool!). Our food bill (for 2) is about $200 a week, and about half our meals are vegetarian (although that should come down soon as I'm not needing as many pantry essentials now). Nt sure on utility bills yet, but our phone and broadband is $100 a months (for 200Gb, was 20 quid in the UK for unlimited...). All I can say is, thank god we've doubled our wage here. If our wages weren't so high I'd be back in the UK in a jiffy! And lets see, what free things are there to do here..... hmmmmm...... errr........nowt. Everything has a price here. Cheapest day out is to go off-roading in the bush but we've nearly already run out of destinations. Stay at home on the playstation but that gets pretty boring.... Read a book (from Amazon.co.uk!).... Go out for a run or cycle (oh damn its 38 degrees outside...). It was your choice to go to Kal for the money, nothing else, as you point out. I couldn't live in Kal and would be just like you if I lived there, wanting to move back to the UK. There is a world of difference between living in Kal and living within a stones throw of the beach in a nice suburb, not covered in red dust from dawn to dusk. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kernow43 Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Have a look at BBC 1 Wednesday nights called Rip off Britain. Same things. I have been here over 40 years, I know things have gone up, but being on an Aussie pension we are far better of than when we were working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harpodom Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 I agree,plenty to do for free no matter where you live,if you want to do those things that is.The thing that bugs me is since coming here all we seem to do is free stuff,no other choice most of the time.That is the clincher for me........no other choice!!We had a choice where we were,spoilt for choice in fact.I like having choice.We work longer here for less just to survive day to day.What were everyday items in ireland are sheer luxury for us here.I don't think it is any more of a rip off than ireland but I think we had a much better quality of life there.......just took it for granted,well not anymore. what sort of things do you mean FF? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heyyu Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 why migrate aussies dont migrate [they may leave for work purposes or extended holiday] why leave what you miss as for ff and kalgoorlie thats in your own court nobody forces people to live or work in these places its all done on your own bat and mainly for economic reasons mine sites work long shifts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fourcorners Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 It was your choice to go to Kal for the money, nothing else, as you point out. I couldn't live in Kal and would be just like you if I lived there, wanting to move back to the UK. There is a world of difference between living in Kal and living within a stones throw of the beach in a nice suburb, not covered in red dust from dawn to dusk. Yes we spent a long time deciding whether to move to Kal again, and in the end it came down to money. But we also have a really great group of friends here and there is a very good sense of community. I'd rather work a few hard years in Kal and pay off our house in Cornwall (which is a stone's throw from the beach!), than work for 25 years trying to pay it off and not feeling like you're getting anywhere. Our is a longer term goal. If moving to Australia was all about being near a beach then I wouldn't have done it, as I could do that in the UK and not be separated from my family there. Also I would hate to live in anything labelled as a 'suburb'. To me that is nightmarish! Don't get me wrong I wasn't actually complaining about the prices, I accept them all perfectly well and knew that things would be more expensive before we came back. I also didn't say I wanted to move back to the UK. Maybe in a few years I will but I'm quite happy right now. It's actually one of the best places for us in terms of our careers, and not as bad as you might think in terms of a place to live. Working in the mining industry you have to take advantage of 'boom' periods, making some hay whilst the sun shines so to speak. In a few years the gold price could crash and we'll all be out of jobs.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perthbum Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Have a look at BBC 1 Wednesday nights called Rip off Britain. Same things. I have been here over 40 years, I know things have gone up, but being on an Aussie pension we are far better of than when we were working. This is it Kernow, the UK does programmes like this to pinpoint the companies that are ripping us off, this does not happen much in Oz as I suppose cities are so isolated from each other with different prices on everything. The good thing is that consumer groups keep an eye on "rip offs" and if the spot one it is flagged and everyone gets to know about it. Another thing is the fact that you can switch companies and utilities so easy in the UK where it was harder in Oz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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