isgraham

What you will find in Australia is that in all likelihood you will spend more on housing as a proportion of your salary food is also more expensive so you will notice that you have less disposable income. Also salaries except for mining are pretty poor in Australia as are contract rates.

ldticp

I Currently pay £570p/m on a mortgage which will be paid off before I go, I'll then be renting this house a 3 bed semi out valued at £750p/m. On a 2.2 conversion thats $1650. I'm looking at renting in Brissy at a $350/p/w basis which would total $1400 so actually cheaper than to rent my own house in the UK for a much larger house.

I just hope people can be a bit more realistic about the conversion rates and actual costs. To run my house costs per year plus a few other costs for you to get an idea with dollars at 2.2 next to it:

Gas/electric: £2000 ..$4400
Council tax: £1450..$3190
Water: £500..$1100
Phone/broadband/tv with Virgin: £840..$1848

Cinema ticket for 1 adult in Bradford/UK: £7.50.. $16.50
2 litres milk: £1.65.. $3.63
1 loaf of bread: £1.40 .. $3.08
1 bus ticket 5 miles £2.40.. $5.28
1 can of coke 70p..$1.54
2.7kg pork leg £9..$19.8
KFC wicked zinger meal £4.99..$10.98
1 litre diesel £1.38..$3.03
400g cheese £2.50..$5.50


Can anyone check these costs and tell me how they actually compare in Oz to the UK, these are actual prices I have paid in the last week.

Pollyana

A bit more realistic than what? Most people quoting the cost of living in Aus on this thread and other ones in this forum are living in Aus and in some cases we have been here for years. We are totally realistic about the cost of living - we've watched it rise steeply here over the last few years. No-one is "fiddling the conversions", they're just telling it as it is.

paulf

$350 a week for a house in Brisbane?
Good luck.

Turban Explorer

A schooner's alot smaller than a pint. Seriously, these threads aren't made up from nothing. It's expensive here and the work situation for many is very difficult. Plus when you consider your UK savings are worth so little here now it can be a very tough place to be.

papilon

How many people get a salary increase of 2.2 tho when they first move over. Many would not be doubling there salary.

itxrd

Wait till you get here. Maybe your justifying your figures to make yourself feel better about coming over. As turban said we're not saying this for the fun of it. I wish it was cheap/er here.

I always say x 3, not 2.2. Thats for me anyway. So if you earn 30k in UK for equiv standard of living thats $90k. If you think you'll come here on $70k and be rolling in it then you are a fantasist ;-)

Come to think of it for someone that is such an expert have you even been here?

itxrd

Think he's inc currency conversion. Yeah you're right not many would earn that much more. Those that do are the ones that actually will be better off here

slapphead_otool

I think one of the issues is that migrating is more costly than it appears.

You take a salary hit because you are an unknown, you don't know where to buy, and what to buy, and you have to buy a lot of new utilities.

I think it takes at least 5 years to get back to where you were in the UK.

After 25 years here I would be in the same boat if I returned to the UK, so the Uk would appear to be expensive and work wouldn't pay as much.

And of course, by the time you have been here for the 5 years required to get on top of life in Australia, you have lost track of the wages and costs in the UK.

BadgeIsBack

We can be realistic about costs, but noone really knows what the conversions are!

BadgeIsBack

Actually, many people do; it's not so rare. I got almost triple.

I used to say that I COULD use the FX rate *at that time* as my helpful 'multiplier', but I knew it was flawed or unreliable for others.

Turban Explorer

It's different for those of you who transferred their savings around 2.5, used them and a new job to purchase a house, car and start again. For those coming sub the pound's fall through 2 it means taking a huge financial hit if they transfer that lump sum over or feeling the pain with every quid withdrawn from the ATM and spent here. Even if you get a job paying 3x your ex-UK salary it still means you have to start from scratch again as you don't have that nest egg of funds in Australia.

I think anyone coming over now is mad, unless they are aware that the money they have coming in from a job already lined up at 2.5x the UK salary, is ALL they will be spending - ie, no mortgage, no capital assets purchase unless they are prepared to return to the very bottom of the ladder.

If they have no job and are chancing it then do it as a backpacker and bring nothing! If you're risking shipping everything over, family, belongings without employment lined up then sorry, but you'd have to be a worth more than a million or so in the UK for it not to feel like financial suicide.

Wendy

Me too...and I'm single here

When I went back in November I spent over 80 quid on a night out! Even with a taxi thrown in (usually around $40) I've never spent over $100 on a night out here in Aus! You can't tell me that 80 pounds is less than $100 no matter what 'conversion' rate is used


I was really surprised at prices when I went back, I was expecting everything to be really cheap...but it wasn't.

My brother was putting 10 pounds of gas in his meter every other day (Ok it was minus 10 most of the time, but still 5 quid a day! ) there wasn't anyone in all day either!

My winter gas bill last year (for gas heating, cooking and hot water - just the same as his house, only our house was twice the size) was $110 for 3 month.

It really is a case of some things are cheaper there, others here. I really don't see there's much in it overall.

chris955

A night out can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be, for me when I was in the UK last year a great night at the pub was certainly way cheaper than a mediocre night at a plastic Irish theme pub here.
I found food especially to be cheaper and other things as well, other things were more expensive, swings and roundabouts.
We don't have gas here and our electricity is about $550 every quarter.

BadgeIsBack

Absolutely - the one-off shot that people don't enjoy now.
There was a time when moving to Australia could buy you time and breathing space and made it actually worthwhile for a lot of people even if they realised it was not quite what they had hoped for.

Like I say - Australia is for niche arrivals...