What financial sacrifices have you made?
Mar 10th 2005, 7:14 am
#1
BE Enthusiast
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2004
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 567
What financial sacrifices have you made?
A lot of people on this site have houses and are selling up in order to go to Oz. Me and my husband are not property owners and are saving like mad in an attempt to get together enough money as we can to buy a house in Oz (we would like to save £20K for a house and £5k for start up costs). Living in London and spending £900 rent on a pokey one bed flat and £125 a month on Council tax is a lot of money each month before we even considered paying the bills and saving. 
I'm also a contract worker and don't get paid for time off, so as a result I have only taken about 4 working days off in the last 12 months. My husband has a normal job but doesn't get paid as much as myself. We also have stopped drinking as we can't afford the money anymore. I'm finding it really hard constantly working and not havingmuch of a life. I don't know if we'll make our target.
Is anyone in the same position? Has anyone done it and was it worth it? I would really appreciate some shared experiences.
Parko
I'm also a contract worker and don't get paid for time off, so as a result I have only taken about 4 working days off in the last 12 months. My husband has a normal job but doesn't get paid as much as myself. We also have stopped drinking as we can't afford the money anymore. I'm finding it really hard constantly working and not havingmuch of a life. I don't know if we'll make our target.
Is anyone in the same position? Has anyone done it and was it worth it? I would really appreciate some shared experiences.
Parko
Mar 10th 2005, 7:34 am
#2
Forum Regular
Joined: Apr 2004
Location: Pontypool, S.Wales UK
Posts: 94
Re: What financial sacrifices have you made?
We are in similar situation too - both of us are permies non contract work though. House is on the Market for some time, no interest - but just changed estate agent (with some great help). So hopefully things will pick up.
Money wise its getting really hard, our salaries are not that great - yet every bill has gone up. For us its not a case of stopping things to save, but forced to stop doing most things just to pay the ever increasing bills. Its basically paying for existence lately not what I wanted at my age - and they talk about saving for pensions - really !!!!.
We have applied for countless jobs (better salary) and no joy there either. So morale has its moments.
Our Water has just gone up and council tax so we are really struggling here. We have no savings at all now, all blown on the fees getting to OZ, paying mortgage and the like (just had a 3 month payment holiday too) The equity is all tied into the house.
Some days are bad some are ok but the dream keeps us going. For us its worth it, well will be worth it.
Good luck to yourself.....
Hmm need some karma now sounded a bit negative......but were happy !
Money wise its getting really hard, our salaries are not that great - yet every bill has gone up. For us its not a case of stopping things to save, but forced to stop doing most things just to pay the ever increasing bills. Its basically paying for existence lately not what I wanted at my age - and they talk about saving for pensions - really !!!!.
We have applied for countless jobs (better salary) and no joy there either. So morale has its moments.
Our Water has just gone up and council tax so we are really struggling here. We have no savings at all now, all blown on the fees getting to OZ, paying mortgage and the like (just had a 3 month payment holiday too) The equity is all tied into the house.
Some days are bad some are ok but the dream keeps us going. For us its worth it, well will be worth it.
Good luck to yourself.....
Hmm need some karma now sounded a bit negative......but were happy !
Last edited by MikeMc; Mar 10th 2005 at 7:37 am.
Mar 10th 2005, 7:43 am
#3
Loving it in Bundy
Joined: Sep 2003
Location: Bundaberg, Australia
Posts: 1,775
Re: What financial sacrifices have you made?
Originally Posted by pako
A lot of people on this site have houses and are selling up in order to go to Oz. Me and my husband are not property owners and are saving like mad in an attempt to get together enough money as we can to buy a house in Oz (we would like to save £20K for a house and £5k for start up costs). Living in London and spending £900 rent on a pokey one bed flat and £125 a month on Council tax is a lot of money each month before we even considered paying the bills and saving.
I'm also a contract worker and don't get paid for time off, so as a result I have only taken about 4 working days off in the last 12 months. My husband has a normal job but doesn't get paid as much as myself. We also have stopped drinking as we can't afford the money anymore. I'm finding it really hard constantly working and not havingmuch of a life. I don't know if we'll make our target.
Is anyone in the same position? Has anyone done it and was it worth it? I would really appreciate some shared experiences.
Parko
I'm also a contract worker and don't get paid for time off, so as a result I have only taken about 4 working days off in the last 12 months. My husband has a normal job but doesn't get paid as much as myself. We also have stopped drinking as we can't afford the money anymore. I'm finding it really hard constantly working and not havingmuch of a life. I don't know if we'll make our target.
Is anyone in the same position? Has anyone done it and was it worth it? I would really appreciate some shared experiences.
Parko
I hardly ever see Andrew... he's self employed so like you doesn't get paid if he has a day off. He works 7 days a week and since he's been on this job he is up at 5am and doesn't get home until about 6.30 PM. He has a bath and his dinner and is usually in bed by 8.30 ish. We never go out, not even for a meal anymore as he is always too tired. Looking on the bright side, he is able to bank a stupid amount of money each week that has covered all our Visa application costs, it has also paid for the freehold on our property as it was leasehold and it paid for us to have some time together over Christmas as work was quiet then anyway.
On the property front, our house was not over priced but we has still had to knock 10k off asking price. Still getting no viewings even though it is a beautiful house and needs nothing doing as we totally renovated it 2 years ago. We have now gone one stage further and offered to pay 5% deposit just to try and get some more people through the door. If it sells at that price we will have dropped the price by a total of 17k to to get out of here.
I really feel for you. Living in London is not the cheapest of places anyway without the extra costs you will incur, if it what you both really want, keep at it. You will get there. Good luck to you and yours, keep me updated on how you are doing.
Hugs
Sarah
