Well, MOST of Auckland I think.

Auckland Central
Franklin
Manukau
North Shore
Papakura

Round here half the piles disappear before they are collected. Seems a good way of recycling people's cast offs.

Though we left Chch temporarily 5months ago, the costs shouldn't have increased too much since then

Monthly unless stated otherwise...
Location: Christchurch
Family size: 2 adults

House size: 3 bedrooms

Rent: N/A

Gas: Two 45kg bottles for a gas hob [oven was electric] and one gas fire. Cost approx. $100 to rent and $100 per bottle. One bottle lasted 8-9m in summer using the hob every day and 3-4weeks in winter with the gas fire on. We went through 4 a year. I don't think anywhere in Chch has piped gas.

Electric: $100-120 pcm

Water: No extra charge, paid via the rates

Internet: $90-100pcm for internet and landline including calls

Mobile phone (per person): rarely used!

Home insurance: Can't remember and can't find the paperwork either [which I need for something else]

Car insurance: $400 per year per car

Groceries: $100-120 per week

School related costs (per child): N/A

Vehicle licensing fee:

Other car costs: wof every 6m: $40

Social: $200 pcm

Annual GP, prescription and misc. health costs: $35 per consult, $5 per funded script

Annual Dental: $123 for an exam, xray, scale and polish

Annual homeware and appliances: Very little once everything has been bought!

Clothes: I don't buy a lot so hard to assess

Bins: no extra charge, paid via rates. Chch issues three bins-red for general waste, yellow for all recycling and green for garden and food waste. No need for bags

Thank you so much to all who've answered, can't tell you how helpful this all is! This is actually really assuring me, quite a few of our assumptions seem to be very pessimistic in comparison to some of these so hopefully we'll be able to manage ok.

Those who are in Chch - how easy are bar/waiting jobs to come by? My OH is the one with the 'proper job', I'm self employed but think it'll take a while to start that from scratch so just thinking ahead and wondering if I'll be able to get anything part time to give us a little boost. Been a good few years since I've been in formal employment though :/

You could look on trademe.co.nz for hospitality and catering/licenced trade jobs in Christchurch. The job centres are known as 'Community Link' offices. There's also Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ) offices which are benefit offices that also have employment vacancy listings. If you're ok to start with a minimum wage job initially you might be ok. Bear in mind the minimum wage in nz is $13.75 per hour. (Somebody correct me if I'm wrong) That's about, say, six pounds fifty an hour equivalent.

A lot of business premises got trashed in the earthquake so a lot of people became unemployed.

You could also visit various places of employment with your cv and explain that you are looking for work. Be upfront about your visa status. Try to be patient with Cantabrians if they seem to 'freeze' when they hear a foreign accent.

(Never mind any local advice about going to a potential employer in person to introduce yourself and say you are interested in the vacancy and then ask if you should return later with your cv. That sounds like time wasting to me personally. That was the oddest piece of looking for a job advice I've ever heard ! Albeit from a seventy year old lady who had spent a lifetime in provincial NZ on the North Island. Maybe that worked if you were looking for work in NZ circa 1950 !)

For the record, my husband got his job by applying for the vacancy, being interviewed etc. I got a job in ChCh from an employment agency in the normal manner. I got another temp job near to where we live now from Trademe jobs working directly for the local authority that advertised the vacancy. Normal apply/interview/job offer process for us.

Absolutely no inorganic waste collections in Rodney. Not that that bothers me, I think it looks terrible. I was horrified the first time I witnessed it.

Lots of the new subdivisions have reticulated gas and even an 'old' one like Pegasus does. Apparently there is 160km of retic gas in Chch and it was back up and running within 2 weeks of the Feb quake amazingly!

Cost of haircut update:

I've just come back from the hairdresser. A dry cut cost me NZD25. That's about twelve pounds fifty. Like I said, I live in the provinces where things are supposed to be cheaper.

Interesting, never knew that! I should never assume

I also want to clarify the costs of gas bottles. I wrote the above in a hurry! It cost us $100 per annum to rent the bottles whenever necessary. We then paid approx. $100 per bottle on delivery. So for us, approx. $500 per year total for gas

The cost of a very basic dinner - plain white rice and stir fried veges (no meat)
Rice - ordinary size packet - $4.95
Frozen veges 1 kg $5.95
one tomato $1.20
small bottle soy sauce $6.95
salt in a small tin - $2.95

Going out to a pub for a drink - one glass medium white white $8-10 per glass (if you go to a nice trendy bar $18 per glass)

Average pay if you work in a bar $13 per hour before tax.

Cheers

Not sure where you shop but I suggest you change to countdown, most of their prices are significantly cheaper than the above (eg soy sauce 300ml $1.99, 1kg rice $2.69, 1kg salt $1.29).

I can't comment on wine prices in a bar, but you can get a very drinkable bottle of NZ or Aus wine for less than $10 in any supermarket.

Also, if the minimum wage is $13.75 per hour, how can the average be $13?

I realise it's not utopia here, and groceries are definitely more expensive than UK, but there's no point in posting inaccurate information

Thanks chaps! this is a really great post for all of us who are still trying to get there xxx

Are you for real? It is such a kiwi thing to do to oversell Nz and defend its high cost of living. I was told it is a psycological condition called GroupThink -(you can look this up on Wikipedia) Why would a brit who is used to the pub culture want to sit at home like a lonely kiwi drinking a cheap bottle of $9 wine? Yuck! You can quote what prices are on special for sure but its not just food - what about the cost of going to the dentist - $90 to look at your teeth, and another $90 for them to be cleaned. I got an earplug stuck in my ear in the middle of the night and had to pay $70 as it was afterhours clinic and normal doctor fee is $35 for a GP visit. If you go to the doctor and the medication does not work -(such as the wrong antibiotic ) and you have to go back a few days later you will pay another $35 for the second visit. I paid $3000 to have 2 x wisdom teeth removed recently - In the Uk my cousin had this done free under the NHS when they got infected. And I won't mention house prices, leaky house syndrome, rates, and the new unitary plan for Auckland which involves removing heritage buildings and replacing them with 18-story apartment blocks in heritage suburbs in Mt Eden. But each to their own I guess.

But you are using inaccurate information to bolster your own view of NZ.

Posting inaccurate information is only going to make you look "insert politically incorrect description of a persons lesser intelligence"

I agree Catchafire.

ShockedKiwi.

Please stop making posts simply to rain on other poster's parade. Further please stop with the inaccurate posts and massively sweeping statements.
It contributes nothing .

BEVS
Moderator.

Just by way of balance, I had one wisdom tooth removed last August. Cost was $130, it took 40 mins of digging around
Obviously costs will vary a lot depending on work done and use of anaesthetics when it comes to dental work but just wanted to say that it's not always massively expensive.

I thought $130 was very good value