ekiec

Yes I agree, i think the relative cost of living is higher than the Uk, we are in NSW. If you search around and get fruit and veg from a veg market, meat from a good butchers etc, rather than from a supermarket, I think this will bring your costs down. Have you tried 'bulk billing' with respect to the dental and medical bills. hope this helps. Eamon.

sazzle76

My partner is a Panel Beater in the UK and earns £30k I cannot find any info on the web regarding the average wage for Panel Beaters in Aus.
All I can find is job searches and they show weekly earnings of approx AUD720 which is only 15K!!! Is this correct?

augigi

How do you get $720/wk -> $15K pa?

720 x 52 = 37440.

I'd say that would be about right.

sazzle76

sorry i should have put £15K.
as AUD39000 = £15000
i would have thought that a skilled job in demand would bring higher wages as it grants an immediate migration visa!
Are there any panel beaters out there that can give me a tru reflection of salary? or anyone who knows a website (apart from the job centre searches) that may help.
cheers sal

Mike and Kathy

Shopping around isn't very convenient as I have two three year olds. I have looked into childcare and that costs $65.00 a day for each child. I have looked into occassional care but in my area there are waiting lists I have been on since May. It's catch 22, I could shop around and bring down my shopping bill if I didn't have the kids with me, but to have them in care costs too much. In the evenings my older children are home and need help with homework, baths, reading, etc, and then the toddlers don't want to go to bed so if I went shopping in the evenings it wouldn't be fair on my other kids or my husband. Also I have spoken to other people who can shop around much easier than I can and their savings aren't that significant, although its hard to compare different people's shopping lists.

sazzle76

Hi, We are currently looking into moving to Aus, the child care price you quoted seems ok as I pay £37.50 per day in the UK. (not sure on the diff in standards tho) I take it the wage your husband earns is a lot less than when you were in the UK? Is it worth the move for a better life? or is it hard because the wages seem so vastly less? Just worried about submitting visa application if the wages and cost of living will mean we are worse off.

ekiec

Sorry Kathy, I can see where you are coming from and agree it is very difficult going from shop -in and out of the car with two three year olds. If and when you get to send the kids to kinndy, you should mix with other mothers as much as possable. In return you will get non-funded help from the other mothers allowing you abreak from them for yourself and to do things that need doing. School mothers can be a great help. just as a matter of your interest, I spoke to a plumber here in NSW and he wanted $55 upwards an hour. (licensed) The plumber I used charged me $1340 for 10 hours work which with a guess there was about $400 of materials and GST included with that. I still had to pay it. Eamon.

augigi

Ah ok Sal. GOd knows with the prices they charge, they should be earning more

Here is some info with some contacts re the union/training organisations which may be able to help you further: http://www.jobguide.thegoodguides.co...70&state_id=NT

Don't forget the cost of living is a lot less here, so it may even out. I imagine the salaries change a lot depending on the level of experience, training etc so your hubby may be on significantly more - hope the links help.

Mike and Kathy

My husband brought home about 1000.00 pounds a week in the UK and we managed really well on that money. Here he is on about a $1000 a week, some weeks less, $850.00, but we have found the cost of shopping, clothes, utilities to be about 2.5 times more than in the UK. We have asked our friends and most of them agree, but it depends on your job, for instance two friends of ours are nurses and they earn much better money here than they did in the UK, so its not better for us, but it is better for them. I hope that helps. You can actually shop on line with Coles so you could try putting in your own weekly shop and find out how much it would cost? Also go online for health care plans, even shops like Pumpkin Patch give UK and Aus prices - at the end of the day the percentage of our wage that goes on necessities has more than doubled and we are struggling.

Mike and Kathy

Thanks for the good advice. I have made friends but I seem to pick people that have full time jobs and we meet up on the weekends but I do know what you mean about finding someone in the same boat and helping eachother out. As for the wages they sound much more promising - and is the cost of living going to be similar in NSW - we pay $400 a week for a 3/4 bed house in a suburb with good schools.

Paula223

Hi there my name is Paula,just wanted to say i agree with you totally,my husband was earning 1000 pounds+ in UK aweek and is now lucky if he comes out with $800,i earn different each week,$30 an hr self employed cleaner,working for the defence at moment cleaning houses b4 families from navy move in,you get 10hrs to do the one house were you can do the full 10hrs in one day or do it over 2 days,but i find it better to do it in 1 day then i can get more houses,each house you get $300 so i find this good but the work is hard.
Average weekly shop even if you are being carefull easily amounts to $300 and i find i still have to go shop in middle of week.
We have been here 3yrs now and i have seen a rise in our weekly shopping
But you do get a better standard of living here,my kids love it and if you are an out door family there is always something you can find to do which wont always cost you

ekiec

We have just bought, but we were renting up to last month a 3 bed house for $340 a week. Rents vary a lot, a friend was renting his for $600. Area not as good. there is 2 and 2 in the household with average shopping bill i think about $120 to $150 a week. About the wages when i look at employee jobs in the local paper they are, e.g. a carpenter's wage working for the council was offered at $740 a week. Someone I know working self-employed is charging about $300 a day. So wages do vary a lot.

sazzle76

Thanx for that augigi. i will email them to ask for info.
There is so much to think about before hand as well as dealing with upset mothers!!!
We live pretty well in the UK but there is no future here for our kids. The UK needs to take some Aus advise and also introduce a scale 6 in fluent English before letting anyone in!

MFORM

Hi all,

I have a SAP CRM consultancy in Australia. We are one of the few (if not the only) companies that focus on SAP CRM. Was wondering if there is anyone out there who has senior level SAP CRM skills who is coming to Australia? Would be interested in talking.

Regards,

MFORM
email me at: [email protected]

BugBabe

Hi, Could anyone tell me what a HVAC design engineer could expect and also a secondary school teacher in the Perth area.

Thanks, Claire x