Having been in Brissie about 6 weeks, I must agree with the people who are saying it is not as cheap as you will expect. we are in the process of buying a house and when I have worked out all the budgets for insurance, utilities food etc etc I will have about $400 a month spending money for everything! This is for a familiy of 4 and I earn a good wage and have a company car!

Child care costs are high (if you can get in) and I probably spend more on food in equivilant pounds than I did i the UK.

BUT I love it and we are not here to make our fortune
Peta

Very down to earth and honest people require truth which is not always what some post on this site .
There are many plus sides of living in Australia becoming wealthy is for most not one of them , we have been set back years by moving to Perth.
I am far to jaded to get excited about living here but can understand those who have just arrived being wound up about the change in lifestyles .
What seems cheap when you are paid in high value pounds will not work out that when living on rubber dollars, this is not a holiday no exchange rate will alter a wage packet.
We all need to change our lifes now and again hope yours works out okay the first few years are time for rebuilding , good luck.

Hi,
Well! what a hornet's nest!
For people like us this particular thread has been excellent, we don't know where in Brisbane we will need to rent a place yet, or indeed in Brisbane at all. It all depends on where the agency gets Clare work, I'll just follow! I can understand PB's and Jayr's comments with regards of living expenses, however it must surely depend on the location within Brisbane. I would have thought that like any other city there, are extreme variances within the rental market for a 3 bedroom house.

I think it is important to not look through the rose tinted specs, and i know that you can't eat sun,sea & sand! slightly pointing out the obvious!But at the end of the day the move is down to an individual and what they want out of it.

It may sound shallow, but the weather for me is probably the most important reason for the move! the housing market has given us the chance, and of course Clare's specialist skills! so b******* to it, let's give it a go!

We paid £12.80 for 4 bottles of beer in Manchester cit centre at the weekend and it was P****** down.

Still Upbeat
Gary&Clare!

I'm with you on this one Gary - My wife. myself and two kids are heading to Brisbane area too in 2004 (wife's a nurse), and we're under no illusions that life will be perfect, but our raesons for going are much the same as yours - weather and more space to name a few. I think a lot of the so-called scaremongerers have good points to a point however many underestimate the intelligence of the majority of those moving over to Oz on this forum. Dreamers some may be, however I'm sure they have done their research into what to expect, how much things will cost etc.

So to all the people currently in Oz offering advice, make it constructive and give the people on this fourm some credit, we're not all as thick and ignorant as you'd like to think we are.

Gee Guys - what an eye opener.......
so I have worked out that we need a take home pay of say
$4500
plus say deductions of 40% (=$6300 x 12)
need to earn in region of $76K pa

With no mortgage/rent to worry about and outright pay for cars - would this mean a life of luxury ??? seems that we will just be on par with lifestyle here minus the excellent weather???
We are looking at Canberra - is it any cheeper? (my god, I guess the replies will be "its dearer")

A friend who started in sydney now in Brisbane said an excellent starter would be to earn the equivalent of UK """dream on.....

a still not detered MaggieLou

Hi,
Thank god there are other people out there who share my point of view! Houdini I salute you, however it makes it an even bigger deal when ankle biters are concerned! I can just about cover my own a**e, so I respect the decision you have made, and the bottle it must of took. But as somebody has already pointed out, the old "rocking chair" adage, when you are old and grey, you really don't want to be saying "what if"?For the record I am proud to be British and indeed a Manc, but it still p***** down 300 days a year!

Regards
Gary

Go to

http://www.movingdownunder.co.uk/files/finance.php

look for calculators and you will find a link for a cost of living calculator (think its on go maltilda) but the link will take you to it.

Stick in what you earn in UK and it will tell you how much you need in Oz to maintain your current lifestyle, eg: I entered £30000 UK and it come back with £22000 for Perth roughly $56000

If you can earn twice what you earn in UK ie 15k to $30 you should be OK.

Tax are higher, but by the time the idiot Blair has finish as PM you will be paying them here one way or another.

The more bad habits you have the better off you will be here - 20 Marlboro around 2.70GBP, wine in the UK at 5.00GBP cost as little as 2.00GBP here and of course fuel at around 30p/litre.

I suggest for those who don't smoke and drink that you start now, you will then feel better off when you come here.

To feel even more self satisfyingly smug, grow your own food & tabacco, make friends with an Italian or Greek, they know a thing or too about home made wine. Sems the British did once too but have forgotten.

Jayr,

If he can't aford to live in Brissy on a 40K wage (which I agree with) - why take up smoking?

That's a bit like going to buy something at a sale where there's 25% off when you never intended to buy anything anyway.

AndyH

But Andy, my wife does that all the time!! She then tells me how much she has saved rather than how much she has spent.

Sounds great son but whys me beer so expensive $6.8 a pint in a pub around 2.65GBP , have I got the wrong bad habits?

Yep - I certainly have never understood this piece of 'female logic'. Whereas me trying to explain why I need some new electronic 'toy' has her similarly shaking her head in disbelief.

Oh well - maybe there is something true in the quote (and book) 'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus'.

AndyH

Thats women for you. !!

We leave on July 1st and have a cupboard full of beans and museli.

WHY?

because they were on offer. !!

Cant live with them, cant kill em..

PB, I take it you are drinking real (i.e. imported European) beer?