Hi, :D

I wondered if anyone could give me an updated guide on cost for family of 4, I looked at the threads on FAQ-Money for back in January, which were excellent, I am trying to build up a forcast spread sheet, so can work out what salary our household will need to cover living in adelaide. :help:

We have a 4 bed house and 2 cars here, both working full time, we have a 4 & 6 year old to help spend the pennies and would like to try and have a similair set up in Adelaide. :sign03: :sign03:

I know this is a really, really long list, but if anyone can chip in bits and pieces to help me get the big picture, it would be great, and I promise to post the end result, purely as a guideline.

Housing
Mortgage or rent
Second mortgage or rent
Phone
Electricity
Gas
Water and sewerage
Cable/Internet
Waste removal
Maintenance or repairs
Supplies
Other
Subtotals

Transport
Car 1 payment
Car 2 payment
Bus/taxi fare
Insurance
Licensing
Fuel
Maintenance
Other
Subtotals

Insurance
Home
Health
Life
Other
Subtotals

Food
Groceries
Eating out
Other
Subtotals

Children
Medical
Clothing
School tuition
School supplies
Organisation dues or fees
Lunch money
Child care
Toys/games
Other
Subtotals

Personal Care
Medical
Hair/nails
Clothing
Dry cleaning
Health club
Organisation dues or fees
Other
Subtotals

Entertainment
Video/DVD
CDs
Cinema
Concerts
Sporting events
Theatre
Other
Subtotals

Taxes
National
Regional
Local
Other
Subtotals

Savings or Investments
Retirement account
Investment account
College
Other
Subtotals

p.s. I dont spend on all of this in the Scotland, just trying to build a list for our future new Aussie life.

You use Microsoft Money as well, I see Gary :D

It's hard to give an accurate reflection of average spending at the moment, because we've been here such a short time and it will be some time before our budget looks anything near normal again, but I'll PM you a few figures ....

Hi,

Sorry to sound blunt, but i think this is a pointless exercise! Everyone has different expenses, some people spend more money in some areas and save in others. Rent/house price will purely depend on where you decide to live - Adelaide (like any city) has a wide range of house prices.

Phone - depends on whether you will be calling the UK or you will set up Skpe. or you generally use the phone a lot!

Things like fuel depends on how much you will use the car and how far you live to work.

Eating out - we eat out every Friday which not everybody does! So our expense here will be really high.

and on and on...............

I think you can only really get a true picture of cost of living here, is when you actually arrive and see how you fit into the Aussie life.

On the whole I think you need to be earning about the same as you are in the UK to enjoy the same standard of life style. Some things are cheaper here, some things are more expensive. This also depends on which part of the UK you are from. And also depends on whether you are willing to supplement things you had in the UK for the extra's you get here.

Sorry I haven't been much help - but Im just saying what I think!.

Karen

Karen,

if Gary has only one or two useful replies, yes, it would be pointless... but if loads of people respond with some figures, a good average should be easy to work out. Most people do qualify their answers with things like " we eat out every ... so this is probably higher than normal" etc., which will give a more accurate picture of reality. Gary did give an example of their lifestyle expectations, so people who don't have a similar set-up might wish to either not reply, or qualify their figures properly ... :D

The more people reply, the more realistic the average figures will be :)

I agree with the fact that you need to have a similar income here for a similar lifestyle ;) unless you are living mortgage free, in which case you can of course eliminate that cost from your required income ...

OMG - What a list!

I will fill in a few bits for you! Some are guesses, bills are from most recent! Hope that is some help. We also have 2 children, we eat out at some point most weekends, but nothing fancy. I try to be fairly frugal in general - but doesn't always work out! We are living on one wage now, whilst we were on 2 in the UK and we seem to be about level .. so far!

Nikki
xx

Housing
Mortgage or rent - Rent $1360 p/m
Phone - $25 p/m (but I am a very low user)
Electricity - $180- 210 p/m (approx)
Gas - not had a proper bill yet
Water and sewerage - in rented so don't pay
Cable/Internet - $55 P/M - unlimited broadband

Transport
Insurance - $586 + $323 fully comp - P/Y (more than I realised!)
Licensing - $170 P/Y - both cars
Fuel - $500 P/M - both cars

Insurance
Home - $67 P/Y - Contents only
Health - $110 P/Y - Ambulance cover

Food
Groceries - $400 P/M approx
Eating out - $150 - $200 P/M - I'm guessing

Children
School tuition - $460 P/Y

We are a family of 4 and are in a rented 3 bed. Some things we could have got cheaper such a car ins, and looking at Nikkis list, contents ins too. Neither of us smoke and i only buy my wine in the 5 litre boxes for $13 :happy45: keeps me going a day or two :D

Ann

Here goes

Rent $1000 p/m
Electric $200 quarterly
Gas $100 quarterly
Phone $60 P/M
Internet $25 p/m
Contents ins $690 P/Y Nikki how come yours is only $69 :(
Ambulance cover $100

Car ins $600 P/Y
Rego Not sure as it was included in the purchase
Fuel $200 P/M we only have 1 small car

Nails having them done Sat, $40

Groceries $700 P/M
Eating out/going out $200ish

School Fees
1x private $5500 P/Y Plus uniform $800 Plus books $500
1x state $177 Plus uniform $100

I didn't do it Paul did, don't know - it's not a huge amount covered, contents only + legal liability, Australian Unity - $250 excess. Did it on the internet.

How do you keep your leccy so low - we pay between $550 and $650 a quarter!

We buy the boxes too .. no teeth enamel but the bank account doesn't mind .. :D

Nikki
xx

Apart from petrol I dont think the cost of living has changes much in 5 months! I think it is great that you are doing some detailed research on costs but also you need to check out how much you are likely to get paid in your respective professions (I believe there are some links in FAQ). Many professions pay less here. In terms of my own profession (business psychologist) the market here is very different so I doubt I will end up with a job similar to what I was doing in the UK. I will certainly be earning less!

I am not sure I totally agree that you need a similar income to maintain the same lifestyle. A lot depends on how much money you bring over (how big a mortgage you have or if you are mortgage free). We earn in dollars what we earnt in pounds in the UK and pay more in tax so, on the face of it should be massively worse off but as we have only a small mortgage, 1 car instead of 2 and have changed our lifestyle a little, we certainly dont feel that much worse off even on 1 salary. Holidays are the only thing that we are missing but we have bought a tent (OMG!), downscales our expectations (1 week in a cabin in SA plus camping trips) until I get a job. Hopefully then interstate trips will be an option. We may even go back to visit the UK eventually!! :lol:

PS Nicki - can I come grocery shopping with you!! You have managed to get our grocery bill down from $1000 a month to $725 but no lower - I will get your handy hints on Thursday! :lol:

Hi Alexanders
I know you said you have looked in FAQ and wanted something more up to date. We have been here since 2003 and would say that the only REAL difference over that time is the cost of fuel, which has shot up about 40% in the time we've been here.

I still reckon $250 in cash is my budget for the week for a family of 4, as I have done throughout.

So do take a good look at what is in FAQ, it is still very relevant information - though it will be nice to update it with some '2006' info on this thread in due course so please everyone, add all you can onto here too.

I'm sure when I looked at the figures the total tax take was slightly less in Oz than the UK. Are you due a rebate on the tax you've paid this year if you've only been there 5 months are you being taxed correctly?

Contents insurance for $69?? Wow? I like it.

This got me thinking how many people earn similar amounts to what they earned in the UK, and how long it took them to achieve it. I'm expecting a considerable pay drop (starting on a lower rung of the ladder and having to work back up etc) and it's one of the things that makes me wonder if we're doing the right thing - especially as house prices have gone up so much in Aus in recent years. :doh:

Jim

Jim,

I think it probably depends what your occupation is. My hubby went to an interview with a company on our reccie in April, and 10 weeks later and many telephone interviews and emails later, he has been offered a position that is one level below his current position, with a very generous salary package that totals his current UK gross salary minus car/pension payments.

And the icing on the cake is we could only get an SIR visa alone, but they are sponsoring us on a permanent RSMS visa. :yeehah:

This thread has been very useful to me to see what our monthly expenses could be and what sort of house we could potentially be able to afford to buy.

Thanks,
Vera of DVDKB.

Other things to think about if you hadn't already are:

Fees for kids clubs and sports (might be what you mean by Organisation fees)

To give some examples: Kid's (non-school) soccer clubs - between $150 and $350 a year, Australian Girls Choir - something like $1,000 a year (horrendous, I know!)

Annual holidays: 4 people for a week to the Gold Coast - upwards of $3,000. Trip back to the UK for 4 - around $10,000 just for flights....

And don't forget.... cost of babysitters when your folks don't live locally....

Cost of postage on all the Christmas and Birthday presents you post back to the UK....

But against that, cost in terms of experience, making new friends, dragging yourself out of your usual comfort zone.... as the ad says, it has to be 'priceless'!!!

Marco - we have been here almost 2 years and, yes, we did get a rebate last year and hoping to get a bit back this year too!! :lol: We are in the 42% tax bracket and the highest tax bracket in the Uk is 40% - here the higest tax bracket is 47%.

Diane (CWC) - I would also add that other things you need to pay for here that you don't in the UK are -

school fees (even for State schools - about $250 for primary and $500-600 for High School per year), One third of kids here go to private school so think a low of $1500 for primary through to $15,000 for the more expensive high schools (a couple are even a bit more I believe!),

dental costs are pretty high although you can get 'extras' cover which is for this and optometrists, ciropractor, etc (please excuse spelling).

Also many people here have private health insurance. We dont have this yet but, when we looked into it it was around $175 a month for a family of 4.

We looked into private health cover too, but bear in mind that with most schemes, you are limited to what you can claim back each year, so we worked out that a years premiums for four of us would pretty much cost the same as the amount we'd be able to get back (if that makes sense!) Hence we're relying on the power of positive thinking and prayer that we don't need any major works done, rather than insurance!!

Haircuts seem very expensive here too (which is why mine is in such a state!)

And school lunches don't operate here in the same way they did (at least in our kids' school) in the UK - no set costs, more a canteen system which means you can pay anything from $2.50 a day to $8.00 a day!! (and my pet bugbear over here is that they get about 10 minutes to eat, and it's all stuff that can be eaten with fingers, not knives and forks at a table - perhaps someone can tell me if this is different at private/high schools?!!)

But you save on the cost of newspapers - because the Advertiser is about the only choice and that's so bad, you will not buy one!! :-)

That's been one of my worries, too. I know there are lots of costs associated with moving to a different country (I've lived in USA, Kenya, Greece and UK so am an old hand at saving up for years in order to spend it on exciting things like shipping!) but once these have been paid it seems odd that in a country where the average wage is much lower than the UK many migrants find they have to earn equivalent amounts to their UK income to keep the same standard of living. I suppose it's those big houses ..... :)

Milly

Not sure of the reasons why but the financial side is giving me more food for thought than things like if we'll like the place/feel homesick etc. Only one way to find out though ....

Jim :dance:

But do bear in mind that if you leave it more than 2 years after arrival, and decide to take up private health cover later on as you age, you will be hit with a 2% per annum penalty on the premium for each year that you are over the age of 30. If you take up within the 2 years, whatever your age you will be regarded as being age 30 with no penalty. We didn't know this in time and have been caught out as a result.

Returning Citizens are slightly different, there is a 2 year and 364 day period for you to take out the cover, including any time at all that you have spent in Oz since 2000 (eg holidays).