toon williams

We are a family of two adults and two kids and our weekly tesco shop is anything from £100 to £140 a week, anyone with similar size family can tell me what their weekly shop is in Australia??

Also do they sell Marmite there yet!! Biggest fear is that they dont as we eat it LOADS!!

samnrob2

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ht=Cost+living

Depends on so many things, where you go in Oz, etc. Above thread will probably help.

Rob

steandleigh

Hiya!

I used to find myself doing the weekly 100 pound (stirling) shop in Sainsbury's too. We are 2 adults, 2 littlies.

Food shopping here costs me about $150 a week. That's supermarket shop for 'store cupboard and pantry' stuff, fruit and veggies from the 'FruitBat' (a roadside place) and a once a month trip to the meat warehouse - buying meat in bulk and freezing it for later. Also includes extra milk and bread etc, when I run out. At todays exchange rate, I guess that is roughly 62 pounds (stirling).

I do enjoy cooking though and I do make everything homemade from scratch. :scared:

Whether or not that is good value (it seems to be, compared to Uk prices) depends upon what you are earning in Aussie $$$, (i.e what proportion of your salary goes on food).

Simple question but difficult in terms of whther or not it is really cheap or not.

what I can say is that (IMO) the quality of the fresh food here is far superior to the UK.

Cheers and happy shopping!

ABCDiamond

My wife does very much the same and we averaged $126.00 per week (For 2 adults and 1 pre-teen child) over the last 2 years, on food shopping.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2503643

kirsty&al

I reckon our bills are about 20% cheaper here. It's a little hard to compare as Tescos used to sell more stuff than Safeways here (e.g. clothes).

UK Marmite is called "Our Mate" here because the Marmite name is owned by Sanitarium. We've only found it in the IGA in St Kilda so far and bought the lot ($3.75 for a 125g jar). Our local doesn't do it, but I've not asked them yet as we have a store at the moment. It is probably worth bringing a whole load over if you really do prefer it to Vegimite.

A

steandleigh

Hi ABC,

your post, initially, had me wondering whether or not I spend *too* much on my groceries but on reflection, I think that for a family of 4; 4 brekkies, 3 packed lunches and 4 evening meals ( plus treats - homemade muffins / cakes / ice-cream etc) per week, we aren't doing too bad.

There *has* to be a point between economising / careful shopping and also making sure that one's family eats a quality diet.

I have to say, that for some reason (not sure why), I have become SO much more interested in where my budget goes and how it is spent, since I've been here.

Paul and Chloe

We spend about the same in Perth as we did in the UK, 100-120 GBP and 230-250 AUD.

TrickyTree

There are 2 of us and we used to spend around 40 quid a week at Tescos now we spend around 80 dollars a week at Woolies so it has doubled in price.

Sorry cant help you on the marmite question but will keep my eyes out the next time we hit the shops.

TT

kirsty&al

Isn't £40 approximately $95

A

hevs

Nearly the same. In the UK £80 to $100

In Aus $180- 230

TrickyTree

Hi A

It would be the same if I was still spending pounds or had a job that paid twice as much as it did back home but sadly I have neither.

I work on a one to one ratio now im earning $'s so in my eyes $40 should equal 40 quid. I cannot equate 2.4 dollars to the pound as I do not earn twice as much as I did in Nottm (it would be lovely if I did! ).

What does everybody else do? do you still convert or think it should be 1 to 1?

TT

hevs

Yep, pretty much same here. If something is $30, IT NEAR ENOUGH MIGHT AS WELL BE (opps caps locked!) $30 or near enough anyways

jacknat

Doesn't matter where you live, Everything is in comparison. Personally it only makes a difference if you worry about it!!

Fiona&malc

In the UK, my weekly shopping bill was always around the £100- £120 mark, here in Oz, i take out $200 a week to buy food which more than covers it (2 adults and 2 kids) and if i have any leftover, i save it, its amazing how quickly it can mount up !! i think a trip to Melbourne will be on the agenda soon, desparate to see 'Dirty Dancing' (stage version )
so we are much better off here as regards to our shopping bill. I have found however that our electricity bill is higher here, our last bill for a period of 47 days was $275 but our house has the reverse cycle heating and cooling and everyone tells me that its the most expensive type, typical

kirsty&al

I generally use 2.5 as that is the rate that I got when I came here although my earnings rate is about 2x (but then I have deliberately downgraded to an easier job - which would also be lower paid in UK). I guess if you are only earning the same number in $ as you were earning in £ then Oz must seem very expensive.

If the £ keeps weakening against the $, I think I'll have to switch to 2x.

Regards
Al.