youngy73

We arrived back into the uk 3 days ago and it has been 3 1/2 years since our last visit. the uk now seems a very affordable place to live. with the exceptions of fuel and cars everything is considerably cheaper than where we live in australia. things we have found cheaper are the average house, a pint of beer ( in fact xxxx is cheaper in sainsburys than in qld), a loaf of bread. basically groceries are a fraction of the price. things like clothes, tools a sausage roll from greggs. day to day living expenses. i can imagine lots of people who are migrating now will find oz a very expensive place to live. when you add all the extra stuff that you have to pay for. schooling, medical expenses and the fact that the exchange rate is crap. i imagine oz is becoming less appealing to many. just about everyone i know in oz who has migrated did so for a better life for there family but with the comparisons in living costs we have made i can see many peoples expectations of there new life abroad very different to the reality.

nearly forgot. what do they call a flat white in this country. ive ended up with just about every coffee option but the simple flat white is not available.

NKSK version 2

As has been said previously, nobody should be under the illusion that moving to Australia will provide a financial gain. Especially as many of the jobs pay a lower salary than UK equivalent.

deryans

We live in Sydney.

I joined Tesco's online a few weeks ago, and ahem (during a quiet time at work ) I went through and did a "typical" shop from our (2 adults, one 6 yr, one 4 yr and a 8 weeker).

Typical shop = food for the week, nappies, baby stuff, 2-3 bottles wine, noting major , same as we would do in UK.

Aside from speciality stuff, I would agree that the UK is cheaper, especially so in basic groceries, however, in tropical/exotic veg the UK is much more expensive.

spartacus

Agreed. There can't have been a worse time, financially, to migrate than now, and its likely to only get worse in the short term.

Is a Greggs' sausageroll recognised as a standard method of measurement for comparing relative living costs?

Amazulu

I think, overall, that COL is similar in both countries. Maybe Australia is slightly less with cheaper housing, utilties, insurance, cars, fuel, school fees etc. Most other things are cheaper or the same in the UK.

LayaboutSi

Firstly, Youngy73 - that's my name and birth year; you got to it first.

Secondly, I am in the North East of the UK and am keeping an eye on as many of the major financial differences between the UK and Oz before we (hopefully) migrate next Summer.

I have no worries about groceries costing a bit more, especially when fresh fruit will happily take the place of Greggs stodge. I see the move as an opportunity to eat better as the local produce should make it an easy choice.

Grocery prices over here are relentlessly moving up. All the essentials have gone up significantly over the last twelve months and continue to rise. Tescos, and others, continue to keep them down by removing any profit the supplier earns but this will eventually buckle under the strain.

The big concern now if the property prices in Oz; they appear to have gone barmy. Hopefully, we will still be able to get a nice little pad to make our home, and still be able to afford some sort of social life.

Is it becoming a struggle financially for Aussies?

LayaboutSi

If you go to one of the A1 roadside cafes you've got a better chance of getting a normal white coffee. All the high street cafes are now part of a chain - they should be happy to do you an Americano with milk though!

Amazulu

Same here.

onceinalifetime

"The big concern now if the property prices in Oz; they appear to have gone barmy. Hopefully, we will still be able to get a nice little pad to make our home, and still be able to afford some sort of social life.

Is it becoming a struggle financially for Aussies?[/QUOTE]

Yes the Aussies are starting to feel the pressure too. I know that increases in the prices of wheat and rice are a global phenomena, but it's certainly eating into spare cash. Most of our friends are Australian, and certainly over the last six months they are all complaining about increased food costs. The other problem with Australia is that because they don't import that much food, the costs of fresh produce can jump markedly in a short space of time, and prices are thus adversely affected by things like cyclones. When we got here in 2006, bananas were $14 a kilo. Then there's the predicted return of the el nino, possibly as early as next year, despite all the rain we've had in the summer, the areas out west are still very fragile in terms of dam levels etc.

You can do dummy runs for shopping on Coles and Woolworths sites, and I know someone will come back and say it's cheaper to shop in the markets, but that assumes you have a local market to go to. We don't. Yes it's a nice thought to be able to be eating lots of fresh fruit, but there is a much smaller choice here than in the UK, and it's much more seasonal. Has to be said though that the watermelons are superb.

As far as housing goes, it depends what you're looking for. I won't buy at this point in time, a $350000 mortgage will cost just under $4000 a month, according to a mortgage adviser we saw recently, and the interest rates are predicted to raise further.

somme

Never heard of a flat white until we came to Oz, don't think they they do them in the UK

Vash the Stampede

Excellent points, well made.

Forget it. After more than four years of living in the UK, I have given up all hope of finding a proper café and a decent mug of real coffee.

Most of them don't even know what a barista is.

LayaboutSi

I suppose a lot of impact is made by the current exchange rate too, which is hovering around the AU$2 mark at the moment.

4/5 years ago when I was last in Oz, it was around $2.80 to sterling. Seeing it from the UK point of view, that too makes the property market appear a lot more expensive (on top of the increase in prices).

What is now $4,000/£2,000 a month would have cost £1430 then - and psychologically it makes it look even more expensive.

Also, from an Oz point of view, everything will look cheaper in the UK at the current exchange rates; wait until the exchange rate starts creaping up again.

Wendy

They do, it's called Nescafe

lauralollipop

Youngy, have you moved back to UK?

I must admit we were back at Christmas for a holiday and I couldnt beleive how dark it was! We also found it very very cheap compared to Perth! We were glad to get back to Aus after 2 weeks in the cold and dark, but we are now feeling a bit home sick and struggling here with the high costs of living. Our mortgage is HUGE and we only have a very modest 3 bed house with 1 bathroom and its in a very lets just say 'average' suburb.....yes its deffo harder here now than it was 3 years ago when we first arrived.....

northernbird

I was sorting out some old bank statements today. In July 2005 I was spending on average $200 a week on shopping. Now I am spending on average about $260. I filled the car with petrol today. When I first arrived 3 years ago it was about $60 to fill, today cost me $90. That is a weekly increase of $90 on 2 things. Ridiculous.