northernbird

I get the 'I hate it here its worse for me' statement.

Possums

thats fair enough and I totally agree with your comparison to the life you have here now to what you had in 2006 but it sounds like what many are saying on here re the UK these days, will you be finanically better off living in an equivilant city life back home now?

Grayling

I would be.

House prices here are horrendous and , as you know, the Peak district was hardly cheap.

I went for a drink in my local yesterday and it cost $6.50 for a 375 ml. glass ....that works out to around $10 a pint (£5 in sterling).....just one little example.

G

Possums

mmm when you put it like that bloody hell though it was getting on for a fiver in the local back home.

we are much better off only because of the money we brought from the house sale and choosing to live in a cheaper area but I fully understand living remote isnt for everyone

Grayling

It was £2.40 in my local a month ago.

I am not complaining about it.....simply pointing out the reality.

I could also buy a tremendous house in Derbyshire for what this one cost.....and it would be a damn sight warmer

G

talbot

I can relate to that too and have found my best friends are from other countries.

The Crow

I'm with you - hardly any of his gripes affect me. In fact we recently flew up to QLD for $10 each way And bland food - I don't cook bland food

melbournegirl

Things haven't worked out for you financially and of course that is effecting how you feel about life in Sydney now. Two years ago you said you loved living there. So the difference is mainly financial with rising rents and house prices. Food expensive and bland - yes food prices have gone up as they have all over the world but bland definately not. Australia has such a diverse range of food from all over the world and some of the best produce. Nigella Lawson was being interviewed last week and said that the produce here is amazing. Jamie Oliver said that Melbourne was one of the great food cities. Maybe you are just hanging around the wrong places. Grab yourself a copy of the Cheap Eats guide if they have one in Sydney and try again. Yes you pay big $$ for the best restaurants but there are still plenty of great, cheap options around. I know there are in Melbourne and I assume Sydney is the same.


According to American 'Food and Wine' Magazine the 10 best food cities in the world are:

From Food & Wine magazine:

10 Best Restaurant Cities

1. Tokyo
2. Paris
3. New York City
4. London
5. Barcelona
6. Sydney
7. Madrid
8. Chicago
9. Stockholm
10. Vancouver

Mikeyc

Oh don’t get me wrong Sydney is a great place, just with the cost of things now I find that I can just get buy, but not much left over at the end of the week, and when you struggle in Oz, you really struggle.

I just had a lot more disposable income living in Europe than I do here, I don’t see the point in me staying in place where every week you just get by and can’t afford to do everything you want to do.

I’ve also noticed since coming back things that I really miss that I did’nt think mattered to me, like Culture for one. The food, Ok, yes food here is nice, but compared to the range you get overseas! Or now just finding things here that irritate me so much. I’m starting to get sick of the whole attitude that “Australia is the best country in the world” It’s certainly not! You know, silly things like that, which I think will get worse over time.

It was just a wrong choice to come back, I know that now and at least I’ll never wonder, I just hope it doesn’t get to bad or I will start to hate Sydney, a city I used to love.

It’s not home here.

Mikey

melbournegirl

I suppose you can't really enjoy a place if you are struggling financially. I remember living in London on a strict budget quite a few years back and I can't say I really enjoyed it as I couldn't afford to go out much, I thought the food was rubbish because I couldn't afford the good quality places and I couldn't afford to travel either so I can understand where you are coming from in a way. It affected my whole experience of living in London in a negative way which is shouldn't have. The same thing happened in Paris. I found it so expensive to eat, to live, to go anywhere that it left a negative impression on what should have been an amazing experience.

Have you thought about giving Melbourne a go - less of a rat race than Sydney but still plenty of opportunities.

alipally

Hey Mikey,

Things have become a whole lot more expensive everywhere recently. It's a worldwide phenomenom.

Fuel in the UK has risen 30% in the past 12 months.(£1.31 a litre of diesel yesterday and £1.18 a litre of petrol)My shopping bill has risen by about the same amount. Wheat and cereal crop prices are at an all time high, because of poor crops for the last 3 years and increased demand. (a loaf of bread now costs around £1.29) Dairy prices went wild a year ago and a pint of milk is almost 50p now.

Stupid things that are not necessities have stayed the same (games consoles, dvd's and CD's are the same) Interest rates have risen, because of the credit crunch.

There are a plethora of members here who can not sell their house for love nor money, many people are losing 10's of 1000's of £'s and selling at knock down prices.... People are having their home reposessed, because the interest rate on the mortgage has risen beyond their means.
Redundancies are on the increase.

You choose to live in one of the most expensive cities in the world..... but don't go imagining that Ireland is the same price as when you left it, because it simply is not. Things change markets change and we should be aware that we purchase everything in a global market....

Is it worth playing 3 billy goat's gruff, imagining the grass is cheaper elsewhere. I don't think so.... If you are unhappy with your environment then move by all means, but if the source of all your disappointment is financial, don't expect to find cheaper living in Europe, it's just the same Shit in a different bucket!
Ali x

Mikeyc

I only left Ireland a few months ago, been looking at rental and it's still the same as it was when I was there.

Dublin is a lot more expensive than Sydney, but the wages (in my industry at least) are much better. In October when we decided to move here, we had 1 month to get things organised, in that 1 month we saved up over AUD$10,000. Just to come back, there is no way on earth we could save that in 1 month in Australia.

But it’s not just financial, I prefer Europe, it’s my home and it’s where my heart is, not Australia. Like I said, in Australia I can afford to live, but just. The difference for me is too large, this time last year I was living in Ireland flying to Paris on the weekends to buy clothes! Now it’s a struggle to go see my family in Perth $600 for a flight.

It’s just too much of a difference for me here, everything is different from home, the people, the life, the place.

Me and my partner will be moving back next year, although not Ireland, we are going to head for France as that’s the dream, we should be able to save up enough within a year to get there, I speak French and my Partner already has an opportunity to work there, we found the cost of things very cheap there, loved the place and couldn’t believe how cheap apartments where compared to Ireland and the UK.

If it fails and goes belly up then we will just head on over back to Ireland. Still young in our early 20's so have plenty of time to balls things up, plenty of mistakes to learn from also, this being one of them.

Mikey

alipally

Good Lord!!!

I couldn't afford to live in Paris! Just had a chat with a recruitment consultant in Adelaide, who informed me that my salary will be about the same as it is here.
I guess that working in banking is valued differently in Australia to Europe. You may have to take into account that Ireland is in the Euro Zone and so didn't take the same hit as the UK did when the sub prime market fell in America. Being in Banking you will know that the governor of the Central European Bank (a Frenchman!) planned better for this crisis and was able to bail out lenders quickly by injecting billions of Euros into the system. No such facility was set up by the Bank of England. He warns though that the crisis is ongoing and will continue to challenge Europe for the next few years..... You may find it difficult to get a mortgage as a consequence.... The French property market is as stagnant as the UK one at the moment. I know of at least 3 people who have been trying to sell their second homes for years, so you'll probably be able to pick up a bargain.

With reference to flights to Perth.... are you travellling 1st Class? Seriously, I just did a quick search on Virgin blue and found return flights for $360.... that's way different to £600 you quoted!

All in all, everything is down to personal experience and expectation. Once you find that you are unhappy with one aspect of your existence then the other things start to niggle more and more until you find there is no way to get away from the fact that you don't want to be there anymore.

Lastly, very few people earn $10,000 in a month total! So I guess that you have VERY different expectations to most of us mere mortals on here..... If I could save that sort of money and live every month, I would certainly be considering what I was leaving behind VERY carefully before I made the move anywhere, I would be looking to maintain that sort of disposable income!

Possums

mate dont get me started come down here and tell me

Mikeyc

Yep, it certainly is.

Yea, that would be a Wednesday flight, I need to go at peak, on the weekend (can’t afford to take time off and not entitled to holidays yet as have not been working there long, cheapest is $309 each way so $618.

LOL, that’s for both of us, not just me, it was AUD $5,000 each, so we are still pretty mortal. And yes being able to save that in 1 month compared to what we can save no has made us see how big a mistake we actually made.

But hey, if we didn’t come out here would never have known. At least now when we go back we won’t sit and think “do we miss Australia”.

Mikey