Hi again everyone,

My family and I are planning our move to Brisbane hopefully in October, we are a family of four, my children are 12 and 3 yrs old, I'm am trying to do my sums but come up with some conflicting opinions regarding living costs.

If anyone with similar family size could help out, I'm looking to find out the cost of a weekly grocery shop (cheaper the better) and utility bills for a standard sized 3 bedroom house, I also need to know how much I would pay for a used but fairly new one year old-ish car and how high finance is over there. We will be on a 457 visa so I think the interest would be higher?

Thanks

Not all weekly shops are the same. What is your current weekly shop, times it by 2.5, that will be a reasonable indicator of your weekly shop here.

Buy a new car- there will be almost no difference between a new one and a second hand one- for some reason second hand cars are very expensive out here. You can bargain hard with the dealers and get a new model for almost the same price as an old one!

Our weekly food bill has decreased dramatically over the last 3 months... But that's because we are living on baked beans...

Have you logged onto Coles online? Or woolworths and done a "usual" shop .... Ok, there are savings to be made once you know the local area/markets... But it will give you SOME idea...

Ditto on cars... Second hand cars are STOOPID expensive....

Utilities... ? some one may be able to help give you an idea.... But it depends on things like are you going to be running aircon 24/7 coz you have a 3 yearn old at home? Whether you do 6 loads of washing a day or 1, whether younhave a clothes linenor tumble dry...and how electricity consumption conscious younarebin general

The only good thing about the hot weather is the fact its killed my appetite. Haven't eaten a decent meal for two weeks, I actually have some spare cash for once

Mate we aren't eating baked beans on toast coz of the weather.... It's because I took this bloody research post and take home $500 a fortnight less than working as a RN on the floor

My staple diet before this was baked beans out of the tin for breakfast, then tuna'n'sweetcorn for dinner

Thanks for your responses guys, went on the Coles site and got a rough idea of costs. I have estimated my annual costs, could anyone tell me if these seem realistic...

$20800 rent - based on $400pw

$7500 utility bills

$7800 food - based on $150pw

$5000 car payments & fuel

$3700 health insurance

thanks.

Your food is likely to be closer to $300. I'm single and spend about $150 per week and try to be economical.

I compared a food shop we would usually do here and did it on the Coles website, I was under $150 and a lot of the items on the list is things we wouldn't buy every week.

I would be interested to see what you buy every week. $150 doesn't go far in any supermarket, but perhaps Brisbane is a lot cheaper than other cities.

I'll budget $300 anyway to be safe! Thanks

$300 is much more realistic for a family weekly food shop. We're a family of 3 adults (2 adults and an 18 year old) and we spend about $300/wk on groceries. Mind you, both my daughter and I put together would eat about what a normal adult male would eat, so really we shop for the equivalent of 2 men. At $3 for a jug we spend $10 per week just on milk. I would imagine with young children you would spend a similar amount.

I would go $300 per week for food too. We are a family of 5, baby, toddler and 6 year old. Normally do around $200 in the supermarket but then pop on throughout the week for fresh fruit and veg, milk etc. All the popping in visits seem to mount up quickly!

Other costs you might need to factor in:
House phone and Internet if you want them, we pay Telstra $105 per month for a home bundle. That's a very basic home phone though we don't use it to make calls as the costs are ridiculous. This package has a t-box to watch tv through too and 3 months free foxtel (sky)

Car insurances - one of our cars, the new one is $53 a month, the other a 2003 old car just used to get hubby to and from work is $42 a month.

Contents ins - was about $250 for the year.

Mobile phones - we have two virgin contracts - about $50 per month for both.

Cost of toiletries and medicines can add up, just simple things like paracetamol and ibrupofen. Are GP prescriptions covered by the 457 health insurance policy?