HelenTD

You're right, Perth is expensive, for many items. I think it's perfectly possible to gauge how expensive a place is when you're visiting and reviewing. Please tell me where you saw grapes for $4.99/kilo, as the cheapest I've seen them is $20.99/kilo. One lime cost me $1.39 last week, 2 lemons today were $2.50, etc, etc. This is just grocery items. Medical bills take a huge chunk out of our family budget, as do school items. We are also a one income family with 2 kids, one just became a teenager.

spottydog

Probably the biggest difference is that here for fresh stuff the supermarkets are often the most expensive places to shop.

I buy the fruit & veg from the greengrocer and generally what is in season (depending on time of year advocados can range from 25c to $5 each and cucumbers from 50c to $3), meat comes from the butcher where I pay less than $10 a kilo for pretty decent rump. I only use supermarkets for bits that I can't easily get elsewhere (loo rolls, cereals, frozen veg).

flanagaj

Thanks for clarifying that. Where are you noticing the inflation. Food, rent/mortgage ... ?

flanagaj

Correction. I meant to say grapefruit. Not grapes.

2 lemons $2.50. 20p each in the UK!.

Kelli28

Perth's grocery prices are higher than anywhere else I have been! I noticed almost everything in Coles Joondalup was was between 50c to $2 more than the same items in my local coles in CQ

HelenTD

The stupid thing is that a lot of fruit and veg can be grown in Perth. It's relatively easy to grow lemons, mandarins, olives, and all sorts of things. A lot of fresh produce is imported from outside WA, especially by Coles and Woolworths. I usually only buy local fruit & veg, but when local growers see that somewhere like Coles is selling 2 lemons for $2.50, I wonder if they are going to be really competitive, or still sell them for too high a price. Sometimes people put baskets out, giving lemons away, but I haven't seen any free ones recently. By the way, an avocado today cost $1.98, a bargain as they can be as much as $3.99 in some places.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

Personally it seems to be food and utility bills. My Winter electricity bill was $1100 !

HelenTD

Utilities have gone up a lot in WA, but we haven't noticed them as we were away in the UK for 5 weeks over winter, we have solar HWS and we don't have aircon (have pool pump instead). What we've really noticed are the council rates. Last year it was about $1700, a big increase from 2008, but this year it's gone over $2000. Water rates also shot up. These are once a year bills, though, and it's the weekly food shop and medical costs that wipe us out.

Bermudashorts

I do of course remember you from the immi forum. You went through so much to get this visa and I know you want this move. Maybe you need to consider other parts of Australia in order to deliver the lifestyle that is compatable with your current lifestyle. Or set your bar higher in WA.

To be honest Mr Bermudashorts and I didn't think we wanted to move to NSW but it really was the only option for us, my husband's occupation is so niche that he wasn't even going to find work anywhere else. This has been confirmed umpteen times since we got here by very senior people in his industry.

If you think you can only get $90k in perth and think this is not enough to live on then why not think about another area.

Edit: I forgot to say, we are really happy in NSW and are glad we ended up here.

freebo

You're right, don't come - its far too expensive here in Australia Especially with all that high paid IT work in the UK.

P.S. Lemons? $1.25 each?? Are you sure???

P.P.S. We arrived this year, and beyond a few grand startup cost ar doing fine and increasing our savings too.

GeordieGeek

Great thread and interering to hear the truth about bills etc.

When we last over £2.5 to the $AUS supermarkets were WAY more expensive for fresh produce than the UK and in the last few weeks our UK shopping bill has gone up about 15% I would say so I have no idea what Oz must be like now.

Can someone please explain why fresh produce is so expensive in Oz (Vic / NSW) as we never really worked it out and the fact that you lot grow most of the World's produce doesn't make any sense to a pom looking at maybe emigrating one day?

Grayling

So why is so much imported over here?

Don't believe all the myths

freebo

As one (adopted) Geordie to another I think its all bout wages, the bloke who mows our lawn wants $60 per hour for doing so! Needless to say we've bought a ($200) mower and declined.

Don't let anyone kid you its expensive here, partly because of the exchange rate but also partly that Aus has become "Americanised" IMHO - why do something yourself when you can pay someone to do it for you...

GeordieGeek

Cheers for quick replies.

Does anyone have any experience with education costs?

Amazulu

I wouldn't pay that either - the going rate around here is $30-35.