stay or go

[SteveR]

Me and my family came here for a so called better way of life as well. Personally I have not had the best of starts and if someone offered me a ticket home I'd take it and not look back. When we landed on 4th August 09 we went to a friends house and lodged for our tax file numbers straight away. 28 days later I still hadn't got mine so I phoned the tax office to get some info. They had cocked up and then said I'd have to wait another 14 days.......thanks . Meanwhile I'm working and not getting paid because of that and I'm travelling up and down Adelaide and working like a dog which is what I didn't want for my so called new life.
We both needed reliable vehicles for work and blew most of our money on them as second hand car prices in Oz are ridiculous unless you want an old banger. By the way don't buy a car from Stillwell ford in main north road or rather main north rogue where you will find loads of car dealers ready to rip you off. As soon as they hear a pommy accent you are shark food because for some reason they think we're all loaded.
Cost of living is more than the Uk for sure and I'm sorry but anyone who says different must be going out at night poaching or eating road kill and drinking their own body fluids. Beer is more expensive, wine is more expensive, food is more expensive , road tax is way more expensive.
Positives are income tax is less, fuel is less ,the beach is nice, our house is nice and is a 15 minute walk away from said beach and we can watch the sun go down from our balcony and you can't put a price on that. Adelaide city is fantastic with a feeling of space and cleanliness unlike cities back home.
I do try to think positive but right now I keep getting pushed back down my own mountain. All I want to do is provide my family with a decent standard of living but all we do is shell out money for this and that and with not much coming in it's damn tough. There's plenty more I could say but you'd get bored and I'd be responsible for mass suicide.
Dissillusioned definitely !! Staying....yeah why not, after all a month isn't really long enough to give the place a fair go.

All the best

[ShaunWilson]

Me and my family came here for a so called better way of life as well. Personally I have not had the best of starts and if someone offered me a ticket home I'd take it and not look back. When we landed on 4th August 09 we went to a friends house and lodged for our tax file numbers straight away. 28 days later I still hadn't got mine so I phoned the tax office to get some info. They had cocked up and then said I'd have to wait another 14 days.......thanks . Meanwhile I'm working and not getting paid because of that and I'm travelling up and down Adelaide and working like a dog which is what I didn't want for my so called new life.
We both needed reliable vehicles for work and blew most of our money on them as second hand car prices in Oz are ridiculous unless you want an old banger. By the way don't buy a car from Stillwell ford in main north road or rather main north rogue where you will find loads of car dealers ready to rip you off. As soon as they hear a pommy accent you are shark food because for some reason they think we're all loaded.
Cost of living is more than the Uk for sure and I'm sorry but anyone who says different must be going out at night poaching or eating road kill and drinking their own body fluids. Beer is more expensive, wine is more expensive, food is more expensive , road tax is way more expensive.
Positives are income tax is less, fuel is less ,the beach is nice, our house is nice and is a 15 minute walk away from said beach and we can watch the sun go down from our balcony and you can't put a price on that. Adelaide city is fantastic with a feeling of space and cleanliness unlike cities back home.
I do try to think positive but right now I keep getting pushed back down my own mountain. All I want to do is provide my family with a decent standard of living but all we do is shell out money for this and that and with not much coming in it's damn tough. There's plenty more I could say but you'd get bored and I'd be responsible for mass suicide.
Dissillusioned definitely !! Staying....yeah why not, after all a month isn't really long enough to give the place a fair go.

All the best

Steve,
Sounds like your giving it your best shot, and like you said, it's only been a month. Setting up a new life overseas, wherever you go is a very expensive proposition, and will be a huge drain on any savings you have taken over with you. But you sound positive and hard working, and when the TFN arrives, you will have the back pay to arrive, along with money coming in every 2 weeks (or whatever you get paid). Food and shopping i have found in the 2 years we've been here can be more expensive, depending on where you shop. Try to stay positives, it's a long hard road, and took us a good 18 months for our whole family to feel settle. You sound positive, and have the benefit of already secured work, and in my opinion, hard work is recognised and rewarded much more here than in the UK. Good luck with everything, and hope it starts to work out for you, especially with the warmer weather just roaund the corner.

[Nick11]

I think it took us the best part of a year to get set up and stop haemorraging money. Its only 2 and half years down the line that things are slowly beginning to come together.
No its not easy. Its damm hard. Anyone who thinks differently is living in a fools paradise.
It take gutts, courage and a little stupidity to come over here - lets face it no one in their right minds would give up every thing they have to move to the other side of the world and literally start again.
But we've all done it and there are lots of us here to say it can be done.
Don't give up hope. It sounds like you're a fighter.
It will get better.

[minkyme29]

I think it took us the best part of a year to get set up and stop haemorraging money. Its only 2 and half years down the line that things are slowly beginning to come together.
No its not easy. Its damm hard. Anyone who thinks differently is living in a fools paradise.
It take gutts, courage and a little stupidity to come over here - lets face it no one in their right minds would give up every thing they have to move to the other side of the world and literally start again.
But we've all done it and there are lots of us here to say it can be done.
Don't give up hope. It sounds like you're a fighter.
It will get better.

I agree with all you've said...and think it takes at last two years to settle at all. We're not quite there yet but I feel hopeful that we will get there soon, roll on two years.

[kangomik]

Why are you working like a dog? Chill.. slow down.

Stillwell ford couldn't do enough for us, i feel i got a good deal by sticking to my guns and shopping around. They gave us a brand new loan vehicle while are new car arrived. They were not to happy when it returned weeks later with 3500KM's on the clock, but tough love.
We bought new because the second hand market is all over.

Shop around for food, get out of the one shop mentality. Booze well yes its shocking and the prices have just jumped over 15% since the 10 cents back thing came in. This was cheaper for beer. Wines always expensive. Again shop around, each one does different offers.

I reckon you have a positive attitude, granted its costing more than you thought, but keep the mind right and you could be staying. Enjoy the beach, today is glorious and i sit in the back yard typing this waiting to fire up the Barbie for the kids tea.

It takes a while to settle mate, at least your working!

[mayjess]

Me and my family came here for a so called better way of life as well. Personally I have not had the best of starts and if someone offered me a ticket home I'd take it and not look back. When we landed on 4th August 09 we went to a friends house and lodged for our tax file numbers straight away. 28 days later I still hadn't got mine so I phoned the tax office to get some info. They had cocked up and then said I'd have to wait another 14 days.......thanks . Meanwhile I'm working and not getting paid because of that and I'm travelling up and down Adelaide and working like a dog which is what I didn't want for my so called new life.
We both needed reliable vehicles for work and blew most of our money on them as second hand car prices in Oz are ridiculous unless you want an old banger. By the way don't buy a car from Stillwell ford in main north road or rather main north rogue where you will find loads of car dealers ready to rip you off. As soon as they hear a pommy accent you are shark food because for some reason they think we're all loaded.
Cost of living is more than the Uk for sure and I'm sorry but anyone who says different must be going out at night poaching or eating road kill and drinking their own body fluids. Beer is more expensive, wine is more expensive, food is more expensive , road tax is way more expensive.
Positives are income tax is less, fuel is less ,the beach is nice, our house is nice and is a 15 minute walk away from said beach and we can watch the sun go down from our balcony and you can't put a price on that. Adelaide city is fantastic with a feeling of space and cleanliness unlike cities back home.
I do try to think positive but right now I keep getting pushed back down my own mountain. All I want to do is provide my family with a decent standard of living but all we do is shell out money for this and that and with not much coming in it's damn tough. There's plenty more I could say but you'd get bored and I'd be responsible for mass suicide.
Dissillusioned definitely !! Staying....yeah why not, after all a month isn't really long enough to give the place a fair go.

All the best

I agree with you, the 1st few mths is just money going out, but hang on in there it will all even out, we felt exactly like you & more but I stuck it out & it did get better (even tho we came bk the UK) we didnt come bk because of money matters tho!!!!

A month is definatley not long enough to settle anywhere, you spent a lot of time in your original country-built up friends & familiarity didnt you? well the same has to happen in OZ, Im on the outside looking in now & believe me, it takes a long while for some to start feeling even just slightly settled, the statement you made about sunsets & beaches and no price can be put on those things, thats exactly right!!!

Hope you start feeling better soon

Mayjess

[guest569]

Just think back to how hard you worked in the UK and then on what your doing now. Its tough at the begining but i'm sure you'll look back in a short time and smile.;)

[norah battie]

Me and my family came here for a so called better way of life as well. Personally I have not had the best of starts and if someone offered me a ticket home I'd take it and not look back. When we landed on 4th August 09 we went to a friends house and lodged for our tax file numbers straight away. 28 days later I still hadn't got mine so I phoned the tax office to get some info. They had cocked up and then said I'd have to wait another 14 days.......thanks . Meanwhile I'm working and not getting paid because of that and I'm travelling up and down Adelaide and working like a dog which is what I didn't want for my so called new life.
We both needed reliable vehicles for work and blew most of our money on them as second hand car prices in Oz are ridiculous unless you want an old banger. By the way don't buy a car from Stillwell ford in main north road or rather main north rogue where you will find loads of car dealers ready to rip you off. As soon as they hear a pommy accent you are shark food because for some reason they think we're all loaded.
Cost of living is more than the Uk for sure and I'm sorry but anyone who says different must be going out at night poaching or eating road kill and drinking their own body fluids. Beer is more expensive, wine is more expensive, food is more expensive , road tax is way more expensive.
Positives are income tax is less, fuel is less ,the beach is nice, our house is nice and is a 15 minute walk away from said beach and we can watch the sun go down from our balcony and you can't put a price on that. Adelaide city is fantastic with a feeling of space and cleanliness unlike cities back home.
I do try to think positive but right now I keep getting pushed back down my own mountain. All I want to do is provide my family with a decent standard of living but all we do is shell out money for this and that and with not much coming in it's damn tough. There's plenty more I could say but you'd get bored and I'd be responsible for mass suicide.
Dissillusioned definitely !! Staying....yeah why not, after all a month isn't really long enough to give the place a fair go.

All the best

Shame you thought that...my OH works there and is honest and fair and goes out of his way to give the best deal....

[lorluc]

Yeah...hang on in there Steve. It is soooo hard at the beginning. I had forgotten what it is like...but have recently been reminded. My friends arrived 3 weeks ago....and their time has certainly been full of ups and downs....frustrations....job hunting etc.....

Totally agree with you though....I believe it is more expensive here....especially when you consider the wages. My friends who obviously only left the uk recently...are also finding many things more expensive.

There was an interesting news article on the tv recently....they compared exactly the same shopping basket here and in the UK...it came out $30 more expensive here for exactly the same products....

[Bodie]

Steve I can empathise with you. We spent like drunken sailors in the first couple of months here and hadn't any income for the first 6 months. Drop me a PM and I'll discuss the matter more with you if you like.
All the best.
Bodie