Cost of Living - Melbourne
Sep 16th 2010, 7:47 pm
#1
BE Enthusiast
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2009
Location: Whangaparaoa
Posts: 458
Cost of Living - Melbourne
Sorry if this is the wrong place for this post, but could someone give a quick insight into their monthly expenses living in Australia.
We are 2 parents + 3 kids.
We are thinking per month:
RENTAL: 1500 (Roughly $350 pw seems reasonable)
SCHOOL FEES: 2000
FOOD: 1500
PETROL: 300
GAS/ELEC/WATER: 400
TEL: 100
CAR INS: 50
HOUSE INS: 50
LIFE: 50
------------------
6000
plus other expenses, eg clothes, entertainment, etc
We are 2 parents + 3 kids.
We are thinking per month:
RENTAL: 1500 (Roughly $350 pw seems reasonable)
SCHOOL FEES: 2000
FOOD: 1500
PETROL: 300
GAS/ELEC/WATER: 400
TEL: 100
CAR INS: 50
HOUSE INS: 50
LIFE: 50
------------------
6000
plus other expenses, eg clothes, entertainment, etc
Sep 16th 2010, 10:07 pm
#2
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2003
Location: West Melbourne
Posts: 462
Re: Cost of Living - Melbourne
Hi
Just looked at my personal accounts. We are a 2 adult, 19 year old child family living in outer burbs of Melbourne
Averaging per month for last year
Gas: $90
Water: $65
Elec: $67
Home Ins: $45
Car (2 cars): $47
Rates: 97
Petrol: $267. Two cars, about 18,000km per year on the odometer
Life insurance. Obviously you an buy this here, and is alos usually part of of your superannuation benefits anyhow, but might be worth thinking about buying this in the UK. Many policies here have periodic increases in premiums, whereas most simple UK term life policies have an agreed fixed premium upfront. I'm not a financial advisor (though I did work in the insurance industry in the UK) - so am not qualified to give specific advice ya-di-ya-di-yadeh.
Personally, didn't think school reated costs for a state school would come of $2,000 per year though I'm open to being corrected on the point. However, you should look out for costs incurred for before- and after-school care, even though the state often rebates some of it.
Neil
Just looked at my personal accounts. We are a 2 adult, 19 year old child family living in outer burbs of Melbourne
Averaging per month for last year
Gas: $90
Water: $65
Elec: $67
Home Ins: $45
Car (2 cars): $47
Rates: 97
Petrol: $267. Two cars, about 18,000km per year on the odometer
Life insurance. Obviously you an buy this here, and is alos usually part of of your superannuation benefits anyhow, but might be worth thinking about buying this in the UK. Many policies here have periodic increases in premiums, whereas most simple UK term life policies have an agreed fixed premium upfront. I'm not a financial advisor (though I did work in the insurance industry in the UK) - so am not qualified to give specific advice ya-di-ya-di-yadeh.
Personally, didn't think school reated costs for a state school would come of $2,000 per year though I'm open to being corrected on the point. However, you should look out for costs incurred for before- and after-school care, even though the state often rebates some of it.
Neil
Sep 16th 2010, 11:50 pm
#3
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Feb 2010
Location: Amongst Melbourne's tall gum trees
Posts: 1,323
Re: Cost of Living - Melbourne
Sorry if this is the wrong place for this post, but could someone give a quick insight into their monthly expenses living in Australia.
We are 2 parents + 3 kids.
We are thinking per month:
RENTAL: 1500 (Roughly $350 pw seems reasonable)This will vary quite a bit depending on where you live and how big your house is. In the inner suburbs, you won't find a 3/4 bedroom house for less than $450/week. Go out to over 30 minutes from CBD and you could get 3/4 bedroom for $350.
SCHOOL FEES: 2000 If you are PR, state schools are free in Victoria. Not sure about temporary residents, but I think it's still free. I know NSW charge temp res but double-check for Vic. You will have to pay for uniforms, after school care and other activities though. Private school fees vary from a couple of grands to $25,000 per year I think.
FOOD: 1500That's about right, though again will depend where you live, eg if you can get to markets, Aldi, Costco, etc. I believe it also depends on kids' ages. I have 2 small boys so they don't eat as much as teenagers yet
PETROL: 300 Another one that changes depending on where you live, how you commute, what car you have, price of petrol... We spend about $80/fortnight but my OH takes the train and I am home with the boys.
GAS/ELEC/WATER: 400 We spend about $300/month
TEL: 100 Including mobiles and naked ADSL, our bills are about $130/month
CAR INS: 50 Our car costs us about $135/month. That includes yearly registration, insurance and maintenance, excluding petrol. We have a 10-year-old Honda CRV so nothing flash and it's our only car.
HOUSE INS: 50 We pay $50/month for buildings AND contents
LIFE: 50 OH has life insurance through superannuation, I pay about $50/month for $600k (but I'm an occasional smoker so they charge more!
------------------
6000
plus other expenses, eg clothes, entertainment, etc
We are 2 parents + 3 kids.
We are thinking per month:
RENTAL: 1500 (Roughly $350 pw seems reasonable)This will vary quite a bit depending on where you live and how big your house is. In the inner suburbs, you won't find a 3/4 bedroom house for less than $450/week. Go out to over 30 minutes from CBD and you could get 3/4 bedroom for $350.
SCHOOL FEES: 2000 If you are PR, state schools are free in Victoria. Not sure about temporary residents, but I think it's still free. I know NSW charge temp res but double-check for Vic. You will have to pay for uniforms, after school care and other activities though. Private school fees vary from a couple of grands to $25,000 per year I think.
FOOD: 1500That's about right, though again will depend where you live, eg if you can get to markets, Aldi, Costco, etc. I believe it also depends on kids' ages. I have 2 small boys so they don't eat as much as teenagers yet
PETROL: 300 Another one that changes depending on where you live, how you commute, what car you have, price of petrol... We spend about $80/fortnight but my OH takes the train and I am home with the boys.
GAS/ELEC/WATER: 400 We spend about $300/month
TEL: 100 Including mobiles and naked ADSL, our bills are about $130/month
CAR INS: 50 Our car costs us about $135/month. That includes yearly registration, insurance and maintenance, excluding petrol. We have a 10-year-old Honda CRV so nothing flash and it's our only car.
HOUSE INS: 50 We pay $50/month for buildings AND contents
LIFE: 50 OH has life insurance through superannuation, I pay about $50/month for $600k (but I'm an occasional smoker so they charge more!
------------------
6000
plus other expenses, eg clothes, entertainment, etc
Sep 17th 2010, 9:07 am
#4
Victorian Evangelist
Joined: Sep 2005
Location: Melbourne, by the beach, living the dream.
Posts: 7,704
Re: Cost of Living - Melbourne
Sep 18th 2010, 3:46 am
#5
Going for a ride
Joined: Sep 2005
Location: Monbulk, Victoria.
Posts: 2,838
Re: Cost of Living - Melbourne
Sorry if this is the wrong place for this post, but could someone give a quick insight into their monthly expenses living in Australia.
We are 2 parents + 3 kids.
We are thinking per month:
RENTAL: 1500 (Roughly $350 pw seems reasonable)
SCHOOL FEES: 2000
FOOD: 1500
PETROL: 300
GAS/ELEC/WATER: 400
TEL: 100
CAR INS: 50
HOUSE INS: 50
LIFE: 50
------------------
6000
plus other expenses, eg clothes, entertainment, etc
We are 2 parents + 3 kids.
We are thinking per month:
RENTAL: 1500 (Roughly $350 pw seems reasonable)
SCHOOL FEES: 2000
FOOD: 1500
PETROL: 300
GAS/ELEC/WATER: 400
TEL: 100
CAR INS: 50
HOUSE INS: 50
LIFE: 50
------------------
6000
plus other expenses, eg clothes, entertainment, etc
Also if the kids are older, they will probably have/need mobile phones, and then you might end up looking more like $200 for internet, landline & mobiles.
Sep 19th 2010, 2:39 pm
#6
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Oct 2005
Location: Hill overlooking the SE Melbourne suburbs
Posts: 16,622
Re: Cost of Living - Melbourne
Sorry if this is the wrong place for this post, but could someone give a quick insight into their monthly expenses living in Australia.
We are 2 parents + 3 kids.
We are thinking per month:
RENTAL: 1500 (Roughly $350 pw seems reasonable)
SCHOOL FEES: 2000
FOOD: 1500
PETROL: 300
GAS/ELEC/WATER: 400
TEL: 100
CAR INS: 50
HOUSE INS: 50
LIFE: 50
------------------
6000
plus other expenses, eg clothes, entertainment, etc
We are 2 parents + 3 kids.
We are thinking per month:
RENTAL: 1500 (Roughly $350 pw seems reasonable)
SCHOOL FEES: 2000
FOOD: 1500
PETROL: 300
GAS/ELEC/WATER: 400
TEL: 100
CAR INS: 50
HOUSE INS: 50
LIFE: 50
------------------
6000
plus other expenses, eg clothes, entertainment, etc
We would find it hard to spend 1500 on food. Ditto 400 on electricity/water/gas. For us it would be more like 85 a month for electricity. We have mains water but tank for washing machine and toilets so our water bill has been 50 bucks a quarter for the last 3 years or so.
I've worked out our monthly expenses (sort of 'unladen' weight) is $2500 including mortgage. This is to exist and is what we would allocate in times of emergency and includes all bills and food but does not include 'laden weight' such as clothes, entertainment, car maintenance or the tens of other things that vary from month to month to say nothing of week to week so are harder to track.
Rental could be more though.
