glittababe

Its going to cost you a fortune! How much allowence were you going to give her? Actually I think she'll soon realise the value of things when she has to do her own shopping and as for labels, well there aren't any really, only the surf shop ones (mambo, billabong etc). Jays Jeans and blackrock are good for girls in their teens. Shame you've got girls, I'd have your hand me downs! I'm one of 4 girls and always had my sisters old clothes, it never bothered me really. When i got to 13 I was working as a waitress so i brought my own clothes inc my school uniform. I can see now why my parents did the hand me down thing. It meant we had more money for other things. Mind you my mum and dad were the orginal 'good life' characters so we also had our own goats, chickens and grew organic veg! To this day I hate goats milk!

Badge

Two words : 'Felicity Kendall'.

Badge

PS still sleeping.

phoenixinoz

We give our son an allowance for the same reason.

Kids out here still like their labelled brands like "ripcurl" or "Billabong" etc

We find giving him an allowance means he shops far more sensibly. He now knows when all the sales are on or special offers and he's much more sensible than he ever was in UK and the fact he budgets for himself has taught him the value of money. No more "lectures" from us

He almost wets himsen with excitment now when he gets a good bargain

tracey.d

PMSL. I bet my daughter will end up like that. I was going to the gym with a friend the other week and was in need of a pair of new trainers. I was out with my younger 2 as they both needed some new football boots. I was in the shop with them when I spotted some sales items so had a nosey. Spotted some Adidas trainers that were my size for £6!!!! Nowt flash but they are only for the gym!!!

In the car on the way home I said to the kids. "Well that was my bargain of the year Adidas trainers for £6". My daughter piped up with "Oh God, you're the sort of person who will tell everybody as well!" . I asked her what would she do? Tell everybody they were £60 but she said she wouldnt have even bought them! I bet she would if the money was coming out of her purse and not mine

Tracey

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In all seriousness, I find I spend more money here on a greater range of things, because, quite simply I now have a house and 2 cars, and a wife and a baby. "oh you 2 cars, 1 kid, you" I hear you all cry.

Its impossible for me to ever know what the UK cost was or could be. I'm glad I don't have to compare, to a point. All I know is, life is doable here.

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phoenixinoz

Soddin hell Tracey...I think our kids are related

That's the sort of thing Id say.

My lad would say "oh get over it"

phoenixinoz

Life is what you make it.

Money does not maketh a man.

The value of life is not bought, it's perceived, it's from within.

DebraH

[QUOTE=DJMA] I thought the allowance was very generous, as she doesn't get anything normally.

This made me laugh - are you sure you're not my husband?

phoenixinoz

[QUOTE=DebraH] DebraH

He's everyone's husband

eintracht

Sounds like a really nice sensible bloke to me !!!!

phoenixinoz

PMSL....aye....and I bet you know someone just like him eh

They're all nice till you want their money

Wal10

A brief response to some of the queries that have cropped up in this long thread.

Our income is $65,000 gross, for 2 adults and 2 kids (aged 12 and 14), and my God it's a struggle. I'd say your estimate of costs is about right, except for the petrol. Unless you live right in the middle of everything and can walk to work and shops, kids walk or cycle to school, etc you're very likely to spend more than that on petrol because all the distances in Aus are so much bigger than in the UK. We run one car, hubby catches train or gets a lift to work with a mate, kids cycle to school, I don't have to travel to work, and we still manage to get through $100 a week on petrol, just running boys to their sports, going shopping, trip to the gym, etc.

As a rule of thumb on living costs, I'd say the "must haves" in life cost more in Aus than UK, but the luxuries in life, including eating out, private medical insurance, private school to name a few, cost less in Aus than UK. The result is that on my estimates a family of 4 need about $80k a year gross to afford the essentials, but that for $10k or $20 more a year the same family could afford loads more treats in Aus than they could in the UK.

On $65k we are dipping into our savings every month just to survive. We have a very simple life. Kids do the cheapest of sports, football, BMX and beach (biggest cost is the transport to get them there). Hubby and I look forward to going out for a coffee in the Surf Club once a week, and we look forward to one family day out a month. Private health & schools are way out of our reach, and the public system is a bit of a lottery. New clothes are a rarity, except our 14 year old son who keeps growing, but his hand-me-downs go to our 12 year old. As for shoes they have one pair of trainers each and a pair of thongs, but many Aussie kids go barefoot anyway so it's not frowned upon to wear tatty shoes. Football boots have to be worn until they pinch, but it's only for an hour at a time!!

As for keeping horses in Australia, they are cheap as anything to buy because there are so many cast-offs from the racing industry. Agistment is cheap enough, $25 a week seems to be average. But for that you tend to get a bare patch of earth for your horse to walk around on, and to keep the poor animal alive you have to pump hay into it day and night at between $13 and $20 a bale. If you want a healthy looking 15 hander you're looking at 5 bales a week. Shoeing can cost an absolute fortune because of the distance that the farriers have to travel. I always kept competition horses in the UK and used to compete show jumping and XC every weekend, but it's impossible here due to high price and quantity of hay, and the travelling costs for the vast distances involved in travelling to competitions. Plus the reduced income that we have suffered in Aus compared to UK means that we aren't even keeping our own heads afloat, let alone a horse's.

Regarding Eintracht's query about rental property, to give you an idea we pay $380 per week to rent a house which changed hands for $550k just before we moved in. It's a 3 bed 2 bath in a nice area on the Gold Coast. $250k will only buy you a rental house in the naffest of areas, or a small unit in a nice area. I doubt you'd generate any reasonable income from a $250k rental property unless you were to get a holiday flatlet, but then you have to account for bigger management and body corporate fees, so it's swings and roundabouts.

Somebody was asking about property development. Great if you go all out as a licensed builder and build off the plan for clients who want their dream home built, because they seem to make a very healthy profit. But in broad terms the way the property market seems to work here is that as the client you pay x amount for the land, spend $400k for a builder to build you an average size, poorly constructed but painted and tiled nicely house, and it will be worth $200 more than the land value, so the only time it's sensible to buy land and build is if you know you are going to live in that house for a very long time, otherwise you are likely to sell it at a loss. Aussies seem to just throw money at the housing market, many move around a lot, and stomach enormous stamp duty and agency fees every time they get itchy feet.

Hope this helps with some of your queries.

Yvonne.

eintracht

Yvonne,
Very thorough and interesting response, can I be rude and ask if you have to pay a mortgage out of your $65k gross a year ? As that would affect my calculations.

Many thanks

Chris

Wal10

Hi Chris,

No mortgage at the moment, we're in a rental for $380 a week. We did plan to buy a house in the future, but our deposit money is getting smaller every month as we are having to dip into our savings just to get by.

Yvonne.

glittababe

nowt wrong with felicity kendall in a pair of dungeree's (according to husband anyway). Right I'm off to feed the pigs!