verystormy

Hi guys
I know there has been lots of discussion on this, but wanted to check what you thought of my costings for living in Sydney. We are a couple with no children and i will be working away from home two weeks out of three.
Rent - $1600 pm
Food - $400 (we currently spend about £30 per week for two of us)
Elec - $60
Tele - $50
Broadband - $50
Car - $70
Misc - $100

We dont use mobiles, I drive but OH doesnt, so car will only be used 1 week in three, we never use supermarkets, i we prefer to cook in bulk and freeze, will only be using phone occaisionaly as i will use skype to chat to the family back home.

shannon9

sounds to me like you are a bit of a tight arse. What are you eating beans and toast for every meal.

quoll

Insurances? medical costs/prescriptions? the electric could be a bit more IMHO, car will cost you more in terms of depreciation, registration and insurance $70 a month is going to be about one full tank a month and that wont get you far.

I think this would be very basic and you would be struggling. $400 a month on food is not going to go that far either unless you do some judicious shopping.

Kooky.

verystormy - did you see the thread on this last week? Would be worth comparing.

Re. cars, my friend that's lived in Sydney for ten years without a car told me about some scheme where you can rent a car by the hour. He hasn't given me details yet but I would assume there is some kind of annual membership fee, then you just pay for the time you have the car, by the hour. I'm sure he said it's about a fiver an hour! Worth looking into.

verystormy

Thanks for that Seasider, but because we will probably want to make some trips out of the city when i am home, we will want a car.

deryans

It looks a little tight to me to be honest, is the 400 for food a per month figure ? Broadband is about right, so is elec, what about gas ?

Car looks ok if you only use it on and off, I would include 20 dollars per week on top for tolls, with Kids , your "misc" is going to be about 200 I suspect.

Buying a car, choose an old 10 year old Japanese make, forget the shiney european stuff, it's simply poor value for money.

Nu-Shooz

Double everything mate only joking, but i would expand most things abit more, just incase...

bcworld

$70pcm for car looks a bit low. Insurance + rego will probably cost more than that. Or is your $70 just for petrol?

comet555

What about Petrol? We spent about $60-70 a tank at the moment. Not sure how much you plan on driving.

Also.... I noticed you've conveniently forgotten student loan repayments Sorry, I couldn't help but mention. Each to their own though!