SueJamesH

Hi there everyone.

I know this question has been asked a million times and I have read it once on here, but can't seem to find it again.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to help with monthly cost of living for a family of 4 people?

Forget the mortgage/rent etc as I'm doing lots of research on this, but need help with other things like utilities, iPhone monthly fee, council tax (is there such thing??) kids clubs etc.

Any advice would be most helpful!!

Cheers
Sue

LaLaLayla

Sh*tloads. But being broke in the bad bad city wins over being 'comfortable' in the suburbs any day (in my opinion).

Kooky.

If you do an advanced search on "Cost of Living" under my username you will find a ton of threads.

Here's what I wrote on one of them last Winter, after a over a year's worth of bills. Don't think it's changed much (have tweaked a couple, including rent).

All figures weekly. Health insurance is for a 457 visa holder so will reduce now we have PR.

Rent 640
Contents Insurance NRMA 24
Gas & Electricity AGL 43
Water 5
Phone Telstra 9
Mobiles 29 (1 contract, 1 prepay)
Internet TPG 14
Cable TV Telstra Foxtel 14 (no sports or movies)
Groceries, Household & Eating Out 450 (yes I did say reflects our lifestyle, and most groceries are organic or specialist due to allergies)
Road Tolls 12
Public Transport 29 (1 weekly pass for ten minute train ride)
Health Insurance 108 (comprehensive for 1 person, basic for other, temp visa surcharges)
Health - Meds. Supplements, etc. 32 (this after health insurance rebates)
Health - Appointments 27 (this after health insurance rebates)
Hair & Beauty 50
Cats Food, etc. 50
Cats Annual Jabs 7 (3 cats, excludes all the bills for recent accidents)
Laundry 15 (5 shirts washed and ironed)
Dry Cleaning 6
House clean 50 (2 hours)
UK Obligations - Life Assurance & Charities 78
Gym 40
Car costs 140 (this is all costs, lease paid out of salary)

edit: Sorry should have said, this for a childless couple.

ABCDiamond

If you own your house then you pay council rates, maybe $350+/- per quarter ?

As a tenant, you do not pay. The landlord, being the property owner, pays it, and it is effectively built into the rent.

caliburn

This is an excellent response. Totals to around $97,300 per year or $8,100 per month for a couple. You (OP) could work out yours easily from this. You could perhaps save a little on rent (say $440/pw if you live in the hills or sutherland shire), groceries ($300/pw, even with 2 kids, if you are not buying exclusively from Coles or Woolies), health insurance & supplements (if you are on PR visa), hair & beauty, house cleaning, pet & uk expenese if you don't have them and car running costs if you are buying as opposed to leasing. These few things alone save you around $40,000 per year and your total expense will look something like $57,000. Add a few grand extra for kids expenses at public schools, it comes to near about $60,000. Now, remember my estimates for a budget living in your other thread?

Weebie

this is the ebst thing I've ever read on this forum.

SueJamesH

Hi Seasider

This is fantastic - and exactly what I was looking for! I can now do some realistic calculations of my own!

Thank you so much
Sue

SueJamesH

Hey Caliburn - yep - totally matches what you originally replied!! Great to know that you are all in agreement!

Thanks all!!

spottydog

Here are some costs we have (2 adults, no kids):
- iphone contracts - $60 a month per phone
- health insurance $230 a month (couple or family)
- Car insurance, rego & CTP - $1300 a year
- mobile broadband (6Gb) - $39 a month
- Gas & Elec around $350 a quarter
- Council tax is nothing as we rent, ditto with water
- Prescriptions cost us around $20 a month (averaging annual spend)
- TV costs nothing as we don't have Foxtel
- We use our mobiles for all calls except skype for international so no landline cost
- Contents insurance for $200k of goods is $700 a year
- Food is around $100 a week for 2 of us (I buy meat and veg in bulk not at Woolies)
- eating out is around $250 a week for 2 (5 days lunches plus a couple of evenings out)
- Booze (wine & beer) is probably around $100 a week including a night out at the pub
- bus passes cost $26 a week each
- petrol for us is around $10 a week as we only use the car at weekends

Mrs Jackaroo

Again this is weekly - 2 adults one child

Groceries $200.00
Petrol $50.00
Rego Savings $16.00
Rates $17.50
Electricity $30.00
Gas $20.00
Water $17.00
Mortgage $375.00
Broadband $11.53
Home Phone $9.23
Bow Wow Pet Insurance $6.58
Life Insurance $17.87
Buildings & Contents Insurance $13.83
Family Recovery Cover (Critical Illness) $12.19
Mobiles (2 x contracts) $22.62
Gym $11.54
Motor Insurance $15.19

Total per week $846
Total per month: $3666
Total per year: $44000

Obviously your lifestyle dictakes great what your outgoings will be.

SueJamesH

Thanks Spottydog

How do you cope with just mobile broadband - is it as good as "normal" broadband? I've never used mobile broadband even in the UK so always have a landline just for the broadband and SKY.

Cheers for the figures - they are so useful!

Sue

bcworld

I'd be a little careful with the mobile broadband - from Spottydog's price I'm guessing it may be with Three. I've been working in Sydney the past month - mainly staying in a high rise in th CBD and the Three internet performance has been really poor. I can catch the the train out from the city all the way out to Chatswood and some days barely manage to pick up a Three signal the whole journey. I'm pretty sure all these areas would show up in their 3G coverage zone though.

SueJamesH

Thanks Mrs Jackaroo

This seems very similar to what we would probably be looking at too. But we would be renting property, so probably expect to pay more than your mortgage each week.

As you have 1 child - do you have any advice on what sort of costs it would be each term for school essentials? I understand we have to buy books/calculators etc for the kids. Mine are aged 5 & 6 so I guess wouldn't need too many essentials to start with. I'm assuming the schools have a list of items required?

Thanks so much for all your advice here - it's really appreciated!

Sue

SueJamesH

Thanks BCWorld - I'm always a little worried about mobile broadband too. But have no experience of it as never really needed it. I have my iPhone which gives me mobile access at all times.

Hey - I notice that you are living in St Kilda - I visited there about 8 years and thought it was such a beautiful place!! I hear it's all been modernised now too!

Cheers
Sue

Mrs Jackaroo

Assuming you dont have the pay school fees, the actual school costs arent that great. School uniform is probably around $100.. thankfully our school isn't too fussy about things having the emblem on so we can get the regular t shirts from Big W and shorts/skirts. T Shirts around $10-$15 each and shorts $10-$20. Books for the Year (not term) can cost up to $40-$50 in total, but my daughter is in year 5 and this year we've only had to buy one book which was $17. Obviously the pens etc need to be bought each year and I guess you'd be looking at around $20 - $30 for all of that. School shoes you can get for $30ish (althoguh my daughter wears black vollies at around $20 I think).

At the start of each year (or at the end of the previous year) you get given a list of items needed. I generally just take that to the book shop and order them, then head to the cheapest stationery store and get everything else. Come 'back to school' time the stationery is on disply everywhere and its pretty cheap.

I'm talking about a public school here - you'd probably find that uniform would be more expensive for private school as it would probably need to have the emblem on etc (although I dont know this for sure).

Any other questions... fire away