TheColebecks

Yikes! Can I ask if you had a mortgage in Oz?? If we go over we wont have and i was hoping( ) that we would have a more laid back life work-wise - your post has scared me a bit!

I try and read as much negative info as positive but its making the decision harder now!!

Kari

janeyray

We did have a mortgage in OZ. It was higher than we had in the UK and on longer terms.

We had to live on Hubbys wages, which started off at a meagre $13 an hour!!!!!!!!!!!!! But when you are in the UK and first arrive in OZ, as may people on here keep saying....." I'll do anything just to be in OZ" He moved jobs and the wage went up but in the end he was still only earning $16.50 an hour which compared to what he was earning in the UK was harsh We still had bills to pay for and food shopping isn't cheap compared to the wages people earn.

We found that if you were on a tight budget it was harder than if you're on a tight budget in the UK. There are far more cheaper shops to use here if you have to.

I managed to get a job with a friend a few days a week but it was only pocket money. In the UK we had holidays abroad, a nice car and lived well. In OZ we did find it a struggle financially but maybe that was because we were still having to pay for our house.

If you can live mortgage free then at least thats a weight of your mind but my advice to anyone is don't sell your house just to move to OZ, do what you have to do to gain other finances to move there. You may be a lucky one and love it, then you can decide about selling everything.

The best of luck and if you go with an open mind without those 'Rosetints' you'll be fine!

TheColebecks

Thanks for the reply - Im glad you re-discovered happiness back in good 'ole England in the end and at least you can always say you gave it a go.

IF we take the plunge, we wouldnt have a mortgage and all the bloomin trappings of insurances that go with it (for us all that amounts to around GB£1,000 per month!) - if we decide that Oz is a place for us to try then thats one HUGE amount that we dont have to find each month - we just dont want to move out there and still find we need to work as hard or harder just to put food on the table and pay all the other bills .. tough one to answer as we dont even know where we'd end up living and all the taxes etc seem to differ so much from one place to the other.

This forum has been so useful in answering a few of our hundreds of questions so far so I'll keep reading and making notes - good AND bad, to keep those rose-tinted specs at arms length lol

Take care
Kari

ABCDiamond

If you had been earning a $1,000 per week, (the national average wage), do you think it would have made a difference to whether you stayed in Australia or not ?

janeyray

I don't think so, but maybe if I'd been able to get work then I wouldn't have felt so home sick? Our daughter enjoyed school out there but still longed for the UK so not sure at all.

One thing I do know, if I had free flowing money (lottery win or something) we would buy a beach home there to stay in for a few months of the year. Being rich enough to take family with you and not have to worry about a thing would make a lot of difference, then again if I won the lottery theres a whole world out there to visit, not just Australia.

ozzieeagle

Found It, This is the post that spurred me to Join this BBS, I'm Sure there have been plenty like it before, but it has tons of info in it that seems to suggest that poor ole Jane and Ray were badly ripped.

Firstly It doesnt say how Jane and Hubby managed to qualify to come to Australia, But I will take a punt and say most people that succeed are Tradesmen, Or maybe Jane is a nurse.
I have luckily accumulated a few tradesmen freinds in my time here, I dont know of one that earns less than 40 bucks per hour. So maybe hubby wasn't a tradesman. So how did you qualify to get here ??

Coincidently My wife is a nurse, I'll admit she works Night shift, but only 3 days a week, With a few extra shifts now and again, and pulls in around 55,000 aud per annum gross.

Now heres the crunch, even if hubby wasn't a tradesman, here in Melbourne, there is always a shortage of Postal workers, of which I am one, possibly the highest paid clean unskilled work you can get in Aussie at least. Sure I work nights, on the sorting, but I hardly do any overtime. Gross salary once again circa 50,000 aud.

I own my house, I own a large Caravan and annex with the Goulburn river right at my back door. We support 4 kids (although two are self supporting in their twenties, we dont take board of them though) The younger two are 10 and 7 and bloody expensive to run lol, with sporting activites etc.

I doubt in England in our chosen occupations we would own and be able to do what we like at a similar level, However I would like to be proven wrong ?

BTW, Its taken us less than 12 months to fully save and fund a 3 month holiday in England at circa 26,000 aud full cost (hopefully that will be enough spending money in that), although I will admit, that is taking into account free accomodation.

When I get back, I would love to employ A british tradey for 3 months at circa 25 bucks per hour CIH, to help me or basically do some improvments on my Victorian house here in Coburg. I would be getting a bloody bargan at that price as well. I reckon he would stay employed for years at that rate just through personal contacts.


Jane and Ray what the hell did you do wrong ?

ABCDiamond

I think that there are actually cheaper shops in every country, you just have to know where to look And being new to a country, that is very difficult.
When my wife came to England, she hated the prices in the UK shops, but she didn't know which ones were best etc, so everything was expensive. (not just in Harrods !! )

Someone recently mentioned paying $51.25 per Kilo for Eye Fillet steak, I pay about $24kg for the premium eye fillet, but I can also get the slightly lesser quality at about $19kg.
They also had Chicken breast fillets on their list at $14.50kg, but I can get them for $7kg.
It comes down to knowing where the best shops are, for both quality and price.
Many UK people will know where those shops are in their local UK area, I know that I used to.
But by the same principle, many Australians will have the same local Australian knowledge, and that is what migrants need to find out.

wannalollipop

the whole thread about aussie being more expensive is in my opinion absolute rubbish.

although housing prices have risen here and the occiasional grocey item is more pricey i.e bread, sometimes meat. you only have to look at the quality of produce you are getting to know that you are gettng a better deal.

having been back to the UK every year for the last 5 i know the price differences and i assure you that unless the pig is royalty nowhere in aus will you pay $3 per slice compared to the 1 pound a slice i experienced in the UK.

alcohol for instance - fine aussie wines for under 10 bucks - in the UK you are paying 20-30 pounds for some vinegar tasting slop.

shoes and clothes are all dependant on where you shop - and your tastes.

im in melbourne and can quite easily afford to go out for a lovely italian or grrek meal two or three nights if i wished...

however i have heard that perths cost of living is higher and that there is no work there - many UK immigrants - as did i - make the mistake of assuming work is easy to find here - a big miscinception.

everything is relative - look at where you are - how could we complain!

Ceri

A pound a slice? do you mean a loaf? How many slices in a loaf? around 24 say - I've never counted them, perhaps some people here have though.

So if it's per slice, you are telling me that you paid 20 odd pounds for a loaf of bread in the UK lol.. come on. If you mean loaf, well I can tell you that I pay around $3 here for a sliced loaf from the supermarkets "UP" brand ( sometimes it's a bit less if it's on special, but more often than not it is $3). A pound a loaf is less than $3

Fine Aussie wines for under $10? The ones that costs under $10 here are anything but "fine" ,they are the cheap rot your gut out vinegar wines. You need to fork out more than a $10 to get anything decent, most of the wines I consider to be decent starts at around $20.

$20 to $30 ( pounds) in the UK for wine . If you say so, you'd be hard pushed trying to find an average supermarket wine in a supermarket that costs 30 pounds. The cheap plonk in the UK on the shelves is the Aus wine, it tends to be the cheapest wines there - most of them are all under a tenner. The Uk is absolutely flooded with cheap vinegar Aus plonk, the more expensive on the shelves is French, Californian and Italian wine.

I've just come back from the UK, so I know the prices



cheers

wannalollipop

if you read my post you would see that i was refering to meat - as i mentioned the pig (or did you miss that out so you could make fun of my post?)

All I can give is my experience, also it would depend on what part of the UK you visit.

I did not quote fine in the context that you took it - when refering to wines under $10 - but again its all about your taste and how you take the context in what i am saying.

I was attempting to establish that on the whole some things outweigh others in value and quality and not just basing my equations on pricing..

unfortunately it appears that things are taken literally that are actually meant generally.

Ceri

1 pound a slice of pork, where are you shopping? Harrods. Always thought it was per kilo you buy stuff by.

No "fine", ie good wine in Aus is under $10.

" in the UK you are paying 20-30 pounds for some vinegar tasting slop".

Try the main supermarkets, I doubt very much Tesco's and Asda UK wide alters that much on prices - you would have trouble buying most of the wines at that price in the main supermarkets. Most of the very cheap wines on the shelves ( under a tenner) are Aus wine. So for your "slop" plonk in the UK - it is the Australian wines. Try French wine , much more refined than the Aus vinegar lot

HUP

I think, in my opinion, you have the prices on wine a bit high. If you look on Tescos.com prices are a lot lower than that.

Koza

Getting clearer with wine... what about cheese?

Pollyana

I used to drink some pretty reasonable Aussie wines from Sainsburys for uinder a fiver; my fave here is Yellowglen - sparkling wine - which you can get for about $8 a bottle, if you buy in bulk. Depends on your taste in wine I guess - I don't go for "fine wines" as such, I just drink what I like the taste of!

ozzieeagle

I find it difficult to comprehend, that someone could go through the tedious process of Migration, with all the form filling and heartfelt waiting, seeing if ones attributes help cross that points threshold. That has skills that the Australian workforce so desperately needs, that they have to import workers. Travels 12,000 plus miles here and earn a miserly Aud 16.50 per hour. I hope this is a well isolated case

Supermarket night fillers get more than 20 bucks per hour, My 20 year old daughter in her 2nd year of work at office admin gets more than 18 bucks per hour. Could it be that the Melbourne jobmarket is that Different, Theres only 5 pct or less unemployment (supposedly) for xsake ???

How can you get a Mortgage on 16.50 per hour ?

There has to be money in this, Surely british people ain't that easy to exploit ?