Family budget

[Griggs family]

We have been looking a jobs and salries in Australia and it is apparant that they are lower than in the uk. We keep hearing that the cost of living is lower than in the UK. It would really help to put our minds at ease (on this issue at least) if we had some figures to go on.

Weekly shop for a family of 3 (not big meat eaters and dont mind a few basics brands)
Gas (per month)
Electric (per month)
Water (are meters in use in Aus???)
Home Insurance (how do they compare to UK?)
Car Insurance (how do they compare to UK?)
Petrol (I believe is a fractioin of the cost in the UK) Currently approx £1.12 per litre of unleaded.
Health care costs
School fees

We appreciate any help. As you can imagine our heads are full of what ifs and hows???

[the staffords]

god..what a tough one...you just cant compare costs to uk..there are so many variants..yes,petrol is a third of the price,but not if you are buying the standard 3to4 litre car that most own here..
at the end of the day..me personally would say,for me and my familly,we are definately no worse off...but the bills still hurt and we are definately not getting rich..but chances are you will be living in a nicer house with a bigger back yard and even maybe a pool...and to top it all the bloody sun shines in the summer!

[Griggs family]

Thanks for the reply, all we are really trying to find out is are you spending more, less or the same as at home???
Kind regards

[katsmajic]

Hi, IMO, i have found bills in general to be cheaper, but were in early days still, only been here 6mths.
But i can say it is not a cheaper standard of living, somethings are very cheap but others make up for that by being rather expensive.
Eat meat and dont wash much and its a cheaper way of life

But in saying that WE are better off here, lifestyle and financially...basing this off a one income in the uk to a one income here. Obviously we are worse off compared to when i worked too in the uk but we will soon be on top again on that once i get back to work.

[Nick11]

We have been looking a jobs and salries in Australia and it is apparant that they are lower than in the uk. We keep hearing that the cost of living is lower than in the UK. It would really help to put our minds at ease (on this issue at least) if we had some figures to go on.

Weekly shop for a family of 3 (not big meat eaters and dont mind a few basics brands)
Gas (per month)
Electric (per month)
Water (are meters in use in Aus???)
Home Insurance (how do they compare to UK?)
Car Insurance (how do they compare to UK?)
Petrol (I believe is a fractioin of the cost in the UK) Currently approx £1.12 per litre of unleaded.
Health care costs
School fees

We appreciate any help. As you can imagine our heads are full of what ifs and hows???

Here is my breakdown of the cost of living here for the 4 of us
shopping - $200 a week
Gas - $50 a month
electric -$100 a month(we do have a pool and hot tub though)
Water - $900 ish a year.
Home insurance - $700 a year(we have super gold insurance)
Car insurance - $350 for me(colt), $340 for hubby(outlander)
Car rego $1100 for 2 cars!!!! Bloody expensive!
Petrol - $1.45 a litre
Health care - $55 a month for extras
School fees - $440 a year - state school. Meg is going to woodcroft college next year and we are looking at about $120 a week.

I find the main difference being we can entertain ourselves for a lot less.
Thats where we save the money

[Alipally]

Can't answer most but the car insurance....

OH has just bought a brand new Subaru and the insurance was $368 for the year! included as many named drivers over 25 as you liked and also covered unnamed drivers (with a bigger excess of $800 for over 25 and $1700 for under 25)
I

He paid that in £ for our BMW in the UK, so that, at least is cheaper!

petrol varies depending on what day of the week you buy it!! on Tuesday I found it for $1.42 per litre but yesterday I saw it was $1.48/ltr I believe that Tues/Weds are the cheap days for petrol! I should also add that we bought a 2L car, because of the economy.... although my company car is a 3.8l commodore.... however private usage is charged at $40 per month.... and that includes the fuel, so I'm one happy bunny!!!

Medicare covers most of the basics, so you don't have to have medical insurance (unless you are on a temp visa then I believe the rules are different, but I'm not sure how)

We've only been here for two weeks, and have eaten take away lots but generally, lamb is a bargain, Beef is reasonable, but mince is not, Chicken is good to get on offer and is so much nicer than in the UK (Apparently SA is famous for it's chicken meat), fresh fish is good value and fresh veg is too. Ready meals are expensive as are sweets and choccie, but take out is CHEAP! Esp on a tuesday (called cheap tuesday here!) First night we bought 5 pizzas (12") for $32.00!!!

Broadband is expensive and weird! (with peak and off peak times for downloads)there's no such thing as 'unlimited' here!

Mobile phones are about the same in costs, but the plans are different, we've gone with Optus, mainly because the lady in the shop (Lisa, opposite HSBC in the city) explained everything asked all the right questions and recommended a price plan that suited us!

To get an mobile phone contract, all you need is a bank statement with $1000.00 balance and your Aussie address on it , 2 and two forms of ID (We used passports and UK credit cards)

HTH a bit

Ali