Perthforme

OK this is for all those who want to know about living costs.
It is from the Living in Perth 2004-05 guide .

All figures are per year.
Gross wages of 2 working , A$90k ( 55 + 35 k )
Less tax (13 857 + 7 197) A$21 054
Net wage of A$ 68 946.

home loan of A$200k on 300k house at 6.8% A$16 692
homeowners ins ( building value 160k) A$270
homeowners council and services rates A$1 800

For renters
A 4bed 300k house A$13 260

home contents ins ( on 50k goods) A$260
home & garden maintenance renters A$500
homeowners $900
utility accounts : water A$180
electricity A$570
gas A$350
Mobile,home phone+net A$1 300
car loans (2 trade ins: say A$10k + [email protected]% A$4 992
Car licences A$850
Car ins's A$900
Car servicing & repairs A$900
Fuel A$900
Groceries A$4 500
Restaurants. take out A$2 000
Med ins A$1 700
Med expenses A$500
Personal ins A$600
Clothing A$1 500
Bank fees A$100
Personal expenses & entertainment A$2 300

No idea how close these figures are ?

At the end of the year the home owner has A$24 882 and the renter has A$30 774 left in the bank for investing or holidays etc.

BLC

Interesting to see those who are in Perth now and how that adds up, I would not have minded a combined income of $90k in Sydney

B

jad n rich

Petrol $17 a week It was quoted on the news the other night to fill the most common cars, holden commodore costs $90 to fill, just me doing the school stuff and work, I fill up once a week, thats now around $55, and we run two other cars, and petrols cheaper here than perth.

Food $86!, family of 4 we are doing around the $250, and food will keep going up while we have drought, petrol increases imagine that in a country this size and a monopoly on the supermarket game with 2 players.

Electricity of $570 a year we pay around $380 for 3 months when we had the pool it was nearer $500.

Health insurance seems well out of date, family cover not the top level but one that pays decent rebates is $2340. Beware of cheapo policies many have found when you get sick they dont pay for much.

Maybe the perth people could help out with how many are earning $90,000

steve99

In general it looks to be fairly accurate, there will always be exceptions (+/-)where individuals lifestyle will change certain parts of it, I wonder if its based on a couple or includes Kids? I would assume the former as theres no mention of any school fees etc.

For us the wage numbers are low, the mortgage is low, electricity is low, gas is high, phones is high, car loan doesnt exist, car insurance is high, car servicing is high, Fuel is low (only about 20%), groceries is about right, Restaurants etc is way to low (prob about half if you include beer money ), med expenses is high, bank fees are high.

I would say as a percentage rather than a $ figure the end result is probably roughly correct for a couple with no kids living in Perth.


steve

ABCDiamond

That's a co-incedence, I spent $904.66 on fuel for my car last year

Difficult to compare this one as a lot of places don't have gas, so the comparison for someone with just electric would be the combined figure of $920, which is $50 per quarter less than us.

They should change banks, to one without fees

JayDeee

Honestly those figures crack me up, Anyone in Perth think they are right?

there was a thread a few weeks back on what people pay for leccy, most bills were around $500 per 2-3 months

my med insurance for 2 is $2760 per year, It can be cheaper but we have full insurance.

My grocery bill is about $200-$250 per week for 2 people

clothing, sorry but ladies please agree with me that $1500 per year is a joke.
mine and Ants work clothes of shorts/traccy pants from Target and 5 poloshirts each cost around $900, just add to that a pair of trainers each $200-$300 and knickers/socks/bras and Pants to get you through a week about $360 and you have pretty much hit the $1500 mark, are we suposed to be naked the rest of the time??

And personal expenses and entertainment $6-7 per drink in the pub more in the clubs, $7 to enter the nightclub in all honestly you are looking at $200-$300 for a good night out for 2

Mobile phone X2+home phone+net is $2460 before I have even made a phone call.

Yep I am definately a little miffed where these average prices come from

Oh and can you really get a 4 bed $300k house in Perth cos even up here in Gero you'd be hard pushed to get one for that price

Kala

ABCDiamond

I'll agree with you, I see my wifes clothing shoppping bill !! :scared:
Must be 4 times that on clothes, but we get by with spending only half of that grocery bill (and that's for 3 of us)

JayDeee

How do you do it??

honestly I went and bought food for 2 meals last night
STIRFRY
2 chicken breasts
brocolli
onion
mini corn on the cob things
2 capsicum (yellow and orange so admitedly more expensive)
noodles
stir fry sauce sachet

Pasta
Fresh pasta spinach and ricotta raviolli
Fresh mixed vege pasta sauce (a bit like ratatoui(SP))

and a 2 pint carton of skimmed milk

Came to $39

When I am at the checkout I Average things at $4 each counting the more expensive stuff such as body wash at its real price of about $8-9 and usually get the total price right within a few dollars.


Kala

steve99

How weird I went out yesterday night to buy food and bought almost the exact same ingredients for a stir fry as you mine came to just under $15.
So your pasta meal must of been expensive?

2 of us spend around the $120 - $150 a week, the $150 is probably once a month when we have to buy toiletries/cleaning stuff etc.

Still not sure how your getting near $250 per week though, Even if you always manage to spend $40 for 2 nights you should be around the $140 mark for a week.

Im not taking into account Booze in my $120 maybe thats a difference?
I wonder if the price for the same items is dearer where you are? the price per KG of veg/meat might be higher due to transportation costs???

Steve

MrsDagboy

My guess is that your groceries are so much more expensive because of where you live. You havent given a specific price for any of your things, but here are a few comparisions with my grocery bill last week & this week from Woolworths when I bought similar stuff.

STIRFRY
2 chicken breasts Chicken breasts, skinless & boneless - $8.88/kg
brocolli Got it last week for $2.99/kg
onion 1kg bag - 99c
mini corn on the cob things No clue on this one
2 capsicum (yellow and orange so admitedly more expensive) Last week I bought a 1kg bag of red capsicum for $1.95
noodles Packet of 2 stay fresh packs of hokkien noodles - $1.39
stir fry sauce sachet No idea on this one

Pasta
Fresh pasta spinach and ricotta raviolli Meat Ravioli - $2.99
Fresh mixed vege pasta sauce (a bit like ratatoui(SP)) No idea, but last time I bought a fresh pasta sauce it cost me around $3.50 from memory

and a 2 pint carton of skimmed milk We dont buy skimmed milk, but 2l normal milk is $1.98

So even working on buying a kg of each of the things like chicken & brocolli etc (which I doubt you would have) my bill (without the stir fry sachet & corn) would have only come to $24.67.

So the answer to "how do you do it?" is simply "We live somewhere that its much cheaper".

renth

"Investing" what's that?

I haven't had enough left over to "invest" ever, especially with kids.

MrsDagboy

I spend bugger all on clothes , I got my twice yearly clothes shop over & done with yesterday, 5 new tops @ $19.95 & 3 pairs of trousers @ $29.99 all less 20% equals a total of $152. I also bought 4 new pairs of shoes for between $21 & $28 each (yes leather shoes!) to bring the grand total to $249.

Apart from some underwear, thats probably all I will buy now until next winter .

Edit : BTW, I know Im not the norm, most people spend more than me on clothes .

ozzieeagle

Ahhh, well your in the same kind of mode as my wife at least.


When we do our bi-yearly clothes shop, It's normally centred around K-mart, when the sales are on. Plus a go, at what is probably the best value = for quality clothes shop, in Just Jeans, where one can haggle greatly with the price.

Re the above list on expenditure.

Food way under, but we are x 5 people our is somewhere between 230-330, weekly. I'm including cleaning products, and all other variables in that.

Water, way under, and apparently we are very economical users according to our bill, we are on an average of a 2-3 person household. our water bill per quarter is circa 130.

Our Gas and electricty is Double the quoted price.

We would spend about 30 bucks per week on restaurants over the course of a year.

Phone and Internet, and we are heavy users, changing from two Iprimus, dial up bundles to their broadband bundle = 512 megs, 12 gig download, + 100 pct free local calls = 99 bucks per month. Orange mobiles x 2, free orange to orange, + 16 cents per min, mobile calls, std calls, oseas calls = circa 60 bucks per month, so less than 2,000, for the Telephony.

The rest of the prices are close to the Mark.

Petrol, is creeping up into the 90 bucks per week bracket, Not to sure what to do about this, as I love my ford falcon Station wagon. I had Ideas of getting rid of the Datsun 120y next year, it's stubbornly refusing to die. May get rid of the Datsun, (which the wife, hates driving) use the Falcon for weekends and holidays, and buy a Brand new 4 cyl, which the wife hopefully will drive. with the barganing power of the following.... (long as i get close to 2,000 trade in on the dato lol)

Any home owner, with 50 pct equity in their house, should surely be on a 'line of credit' type loan, which would bash the crap out of those car finance and other loan type expenditure figures ????? Come in ABCD, Megs ? Loan mortgage rates, about 7.02, Line of credit rates, about 7.22.

jad n rich

The $17 petrol bill they quoted is interesting, I see many new car ads are offering $1000 free fuel to encourage purchasers, large car sales are quoted as down 52%, reckon there will be a lot of pajeros for sale soon, we had a second hand one few years back and it drunk like a fish, $150 of petrol would be a light snack these days

We have struck it lucky with petrol, partner is filling up 3 times a week but he negotiated a fuel card into the project (50klm to work and lots of driving around) , wise move its saving us almost $200 a week :scared:

Megalania

No good looking to me, old mate - I keep my change in my socks - total personal expenses last year $16,500, wifes, dunno, not allowed to know. I bring my work to me so I don't have the cost of working on top of the cost of living, no mortgage, no debt, no responsibilities.

I figure a normal person, in the sway of the marketeers, should allow about $25,000 per adult and about half that per kid as a basic living + working + schooling + entertainment cost.

Should add: add mortgage on top and savings on top of that and taxes on top of that and the gross pre-tax income required is more like $130,000 per year. See: Whole Of Life Finances SpreadSheet.