As part of the ongoing (and rather torturous!) process of applying for a permanent visa we've been asked to provide evidence of research into the costs of moving and then living in Canberra (our chosen destination).

There's only so much we can find out from the web and having material sent to us so I just wonder whether anyone here may be able to help at all? We're a married couple expecting twins and some of the costs we dont know at this stage are:

Childcare/minding, a month of utility bills, healthcare, insurance (personal and property), an average weekly food bill, mobile phone rental, a cinema ticket, a ticket to a sports game, a beer, a meal in a good restaurant, coach and/or flight to Adelaide/Melbourne/Sydney and anything else you can think of that would be relevant!

Thanks in advance for your help, Rob

my sister live there for educational purpose since a year. her monthly cost is about $400 USD.

Is she living on the streets? That would be educational I guess.

Beer in a pub: $7
Cinema: $17
Good 2 course meal with wine: $110
Private family health insurance: $2600 per year
Canberra to Melbourne return flight: $250
All day parking: $9
Groceries family of four: $1300
New VW polo drive away: $24K

Expensive weekly food bill

This http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living...&city=Canberra seems pretty accurate to me.

When we lived in ACT my average monthly spend - without rent or mortgage - was around the $5-6k mark and that was for two oldies, running two cars with all insurances, utilities, medical, bit of DIY, occasional meals out, the odd weekend away etc. add to that another $25k for rent and you should have a ballpark figure

Thanks to everyone that posted, especially the link from Quoll - very useful. I presume however the rent you mention is more like $2500 than $25k per month or we may have to rethink the whole move!! ;-)

LOL, sorry - $25k pa! Think somewhere between 2k and 2.5k per month. Assume you have found www.allhomes.com.au - they have pretty much the monopoly on rentals and purchases these days. Sorry for the heart attack there!