Amazulu

It's only worth it on AAX when they have their ultra-low priced sales on - usually a couple of times a year. Friends are coming out for christmas on SIA - AAX were actually more expensive for the dates that they are flying. Stansted is a pain for me too but would be great if you needed to get to the midlands. It's also good if you want to fly onto somewhere in Europe as it's a major low-cost carrier hub.

Turban Explorer

You can get to KL - fly intra Asia and take advantage of other deals around. We recently did Coolangatta to KL - then KL to Colombo (about 100 quid) and took advantage of a Sri Lanka air offer - 99 quid each to Heathrow. It just means you can cheapen the Aussie leg which is the fruity part. Of course you do need to have time on your hands.

Jensanco

121 pages - I read through about the first 3 and you'll all have to excuse the fact I skipped the other hundred and whatever

The cost of living is going up in so many places....
If the cost of living for you in Australia is too high for the lifestyle you want as far as I'm concerned you have a choice - change your lifestyle if you can or go back to the UK...

The painted picture of bliss with you by the barbee most days of the week is surely gonna hike your cost of living up
If you HAVE to have a bedroom each expect to pay more, if you aren't prepared to shop around for deals you're not gonna get them but thats true of any country.
We live in the UK and find the cost of living can test our patience at times, sometimes though I think it's because of trying to live the 'ideal' life we want rather than sticking to what we can afford without being mean about it.

Food has gone up in the UK and will probably continue to rise, petrol is a joke but there really isn't much you can do about it it would take for everyone to kick off about it and lets face it it's like saying if no one ever argue or falls out we'll have world peace - what a load of crap
Some things in life you just have to accept, and yes it does have consequences, when my eldest was born we used to just go out for a drive.... now if we go out in the car there is a specific reason for it ! and if we can do without the car and walk we do.

But look back over time past our own to parents, grandparents the cost of living has gone up for each generation it's not a new occurance espcially saved for us or a vendetta.

I pulled out a few examples of UK issues cause that is where we currently live are they things that bother us - of course we'd rather be spending money on other things but you have to go with it and live your life as best you can....

What sort of lifestyle do you prefer because personally I feel you can have a very different lifestyle in Australia than the UK.
In life you have to make allowances for the best life for your own purposes and thats a very individual thing....

Sure your always gonna have people with lots of money but in my experience they can be equally as shocked and a bigger complainer of what life is costing them
You don't have to have lots of money to have a good lifestyle. YOu only have one shot at life and you have to decide where you're gonna be happiest, what lifestyle fits in better if you have strict expectations and Oz is expensive and you feel you can do more in the uk and have ore money and be happy then living in Oz you are prob in the wrong place.
If you like what oz has to offer and your prepared to adapt your lifestyle for it to work and still be happy but with a bit more $ then so be it.

I wouldnt have posted but virtually the same thing can no doubt be found on I dread to think how many other threads - it's not new people...
An I have to laugh when people think going to Australia is some yellow brick road where you waltz in and find the perfect home by the beach with a pool for a modest amount of rent, nothing ever goes wrong food and blah blah blah is all relative.

Ughh got a headache now and gonna go moan about that and p$$$ myself off lol

chris955

It really is surprising just how many people do think this is how it is.

fish.01

That's because of the crap uk media chris only joking

chris955

It's OK I know you are only joking but it isnt really down to the media, not entirely.

Turban Explorer

It's perhaps a bit due to the fact 5-10 years ago you could cash up in the UK and come out to Oz and live very well. Buy the 'absolute ocean front' house of your dreams whilst you did your myriad of Tafe courses needed to 'de-skill' for the local job market.

Since then the Aussie property boom has happened, the commodity boom has happened and the UK economy has been slashed by the GFC. These variables have made Australia a very different environment for British immigrants. It's not the country's fault but sometimes when you are struggling it feels that way.

chris955

When we arrived up here 10 years ago we bought a nice place on a big block for $115,000, that would now be a decent deposit on a big house. In that time costs of just about everything, especially groceries, have gone through the roof.

jimbo_d

Have you wages kept up though? Many have and some have increased ahead of inflation

Jensanco

But I don't think food is that expensive.... fruit is a bit more in general if you go to Coles but in the world where lots of people like to compare Uk and Aus if you pull up Sainsburys and pull up Coles and do the conversion it's actually pretty spot on for us for what we buy !!!!

The obvious answer before everyone jumps on the box is that comparing is useless cause you need to be solely looking at UK wages - UK bills. Aus Wages - Aus bills because the two can't be mixed and matched unless you are sending money home from Oz to buy food in the Uk or vice versa (if it's the latter good luck with that one :$)

itxrd

You guys can say what you want but after 100+ pages the consensus is in general you are better off financially in the UK. Oz has become too expensive. Even tourism has decreased as its so dear. The capital cities are coming up in all the worlds most expensive surveys. A 4 bed house in a half decent area is over $1m. If the average wage is $65k how do you afford that? The papers are full of stories everyday about how expensive oz is

On 40k pounds I lived very well in the UK. Here I am on a lot more (as you say wages are higher) but I am not as well off. Everything other than petrol is more expensive here and the higher wages do not make up for it.

We came last year and did not realise how dear it was. We are happy here as there are lots of great things about Oz but if you are coming here thinking you'll be better off financially I very much doubt it. I hope people thinking of coming over realise this. People that say otherwise are those who came 10 yrs ago or who have never lived in Oz recently

TGA

Apparently you need to "shop around" whatever that means

BadgeIsBack

A good post but this bit resonated with me, and it's a point I often make - price inflation is not new !

I found this forum when Australia was still quite cheap for migrants.

To be honest, I don't recall the last ultra- positive post. Most prospective migrants seem pretty familiar with their chances...

lumpommer

I REST MY CASE M'LORD

fish.01

Tourism has declined because of the exchange rate, not the cost of living. There are 10 of thousands of 4 bedroom houses in Australia in good areas for miles less than 1 million.