lynnbrooks

I've heard that whilst housing in Oz(except Sydney)is 'more for your money' than Britain amongst other things, some things are actually cheaper in the u.k.
For example,I was told that Duvets etc was cheaper in Britain...
Anything else...can be anything from food,drink,services,clothing....to cars,furniture and so on....fire away..............
What is a 'Better Buy' in the uk?
Lynn

lee/jane

Lynn

What we do up this time of night do you think we have a lot playing on our minds :scared:

Jane

lee/jane

I must be half a sleep, I can even type the words the right way round

Jane

lynnbrooks

You think your spellings' bad,look at my title heading!!!!
Do you think i should go to bed???
Lynn

lee/jane

I missed that, now I don't feel so bad I DO think we better go to bed.

Jane

surfdude

Definitely lawnmowers ! As stated in other threads, if you want a 'driven motor' they are very expensive about $1000.00 !

My hubby has never forgiven me for selling ours in the UK and he didn't even mow the lawns I did !

Still, we now get someone to come around every two/three weeks to cut ours - costs $22.00 and worth every penny.

SD

Coulterk

Remember the more you bring the higher the shipping cost. Not that it will make a massive difference, as the biggest cost is the container size.

Some things:

1) White goods are cheaper here for local brands but if you want a european brand you can pretty much pick them up pounds for dollars. If you have something, then bring it.
2) Furnature can be very cheap here as a lot is available from Indonesia. Depending on what you like, you may not be able to get it here if it is of European style.
3) Electrical goods are all over the place with their price, some are cheaper here and some are in the UK. Do your homework. The more you bring from the UK, the more plugs you have to change!! (recommendation to bring some UK 4 way sockets and keep the UK plugs on and only change one plug).
4) Clothes can be cheap here but you may not get what you like. A lot of synthetic fabric is used, so if you want the good stuff, I think it is cheaper in the UK. Depends what you like.
5) Cars are very cheap here for the locally produced (Ford & Holden etc) or the local imports. If you want a European car - VW, BMW etc, then they are very expensive here. If you have one, consider shipping it, but work out what it will cost. You need to have owned it for over 12 months etc but add up the costs. There are other threads on this forum about importing cars.
6) Food and drink you have to be careful with. Drink they may charge duty on it and certain food imports are restricted.
7) Remember to go to the customs website to check the things that they do not like - shells, certain woods, foods, plants etc etc.
8) A lot of second hand stuff is a good buy. In Perth we have a local paper called the Quokka ( www.quokka.com.au ) that is free to advertise in and has loads of stuff. I should think that similar papers exist in other states, and is a good way of buying stuff. The website is a bit hard to find what you are after, but the actual paper is great. A bit like an Exchange & Mart, but better!

MrsDagboy

I just bought a good quality 50% down/feather quilt for $89. There were cheaper ($59 for down/feather), but I bought the slightly better one. I also bought 400 thread count (yes 400! brilliant quality) sheets for the same price.

The only thing that Dagboy has ever mentioned as more expensive here than the UK is paint! Dont know how true that is though, I just bought 4 litres of Taubmans Living Proof Silk (the one with teflon in it that you can scrub) for $34! (reminds me, I must go & get some more)

I have absolutely no clue what any of that stuff costs in the UK, Im just saying what you can get it for here.

Coulterk

If you bring things like this, and say mountain bikes etc, you must make sure they are very clean - i.e. no mud, not plant matter (like grass) etc. If you do not do this then customs will offer a steam clean or disposal service which costs. I am not sure exactly how much but I was told that the steam clean is of the order of $200 and disposal is $80. Someone else here who has direct experience may be able to provide this info.

We opted not to take the risk and sold the mower in the UK and hired the man to do it!!

Larissa

Yeah, definately the duvets and duvet covers and sheets. They are pricey here, in the UK you can get kids duvet covers cheaply and update your own duvet covers fairly cheaply, but there isn't much mid quality stuff here. It's either too cheap and nasty, or high quality and expensive. Duvets - get the ones you can put together to make a thick winter one, then you can vary them with the change in season which is more noticeable here.
I would pick up lots of discount summer clothing in the UK summer sales and you'll get to wear it when you come over.
Towels, get some in the sales - Egyptian cotton washes really well, I haven't bought Aus towels yet as I bought some in the UK before leaving, but they don't feel so good.
Books are a bit pricier here too.
Can't think of anything else, I miss the quality of UK clothing, which wears and washes better. You can get OK stuff here but you need to be careful.

JayDeee

You always manage to get such great prices on things.

Feather duvet here, cheapest I have seen is $189
and the price of that paint is really realy good.

I bought the trade British paints non washable (cheapest option) magnolia for all the rooms in the backpackers 10 litres cost $108

maybe it is a country WA thing being overcharged for everything

Kala

JayDeee

OMG yeah Books, absolute rip off, I'm suprised anyone can read over here with the price of books

a basic paper back approx $25 (Bill Bryson for example)

Kala

the plumber

I think you could put on a postage stamp " whats cheaper " than oz

I 've not found anything......


all the best plum

MrsDagboy

Maybe, or maybe just a WA thing?

The paint was on special at Bunnings, the duvet & sheets were at PillowTalk, they are probably even in their latest catalogue online but I havent looked. I almost always buy my manchester ( ) from them as they have the best quality & prices. BTW that was a king sized duvet & sheets that I bought, they also had some of the ones Larissa mentioned (2 that you clip together) in wool for only a little bit more.

Partly the reason that I always get good prices may be cos I've grown up here & know where to shop? Im betting that if I went to the UK I would pay through the nose for everything whereas you would get it alot cheaper .

ABCDiamond

I was going to say the same thing, but you beat me to it

When my wife moved over to the UK, she said everything was very expensive.
Mind you, the towels she bought in Harrods are very good !!!

But even normal things were expensive to her, because she was shopping in the wrong places, and a local would have known better