spaceace

Hi,

On average, what would be the average total outgoings for a family of 4 in Victoria BC?

I have a job interview and I need set my sallary expectations to the correct level.

TIA
Jay

Tangram

Depends on the wedge you bring with you, no mortgage or $400,0000 mortgage makes a big diff.

Auld Yin

Cannot but agree, but that applies wherever you choose to live. Because of its wonderful locale Victoria is regarded as expensive from housing costs perspective. The median house price in October was just under $500K whereas Toronto was $375K. One of the reasons is its desirability by retirees.If you haven't visited yet you should do so and you'll be gobsmacked at how beautiful it and the surrounding areas are. For what it's worth, if I had visited there before arriving here, I wouldn't be here. If you like the outdoors you'll love it.
Remember, compromise, compromise and even more compromise.

PaulandNikki

Do you want to buy or rent? Average price for a single family home here is $550k, rental would be around $2500 per month plus utilities - another $300 or so on top I guess. Some places are more, some places are less.

Food-wise, I'd allow $1000 a month, we spend less than that but there's two of us (plus cat).
If you want to eat out then allow around $30 each for an average meal with a drink or two.
If there's anything specific then just ask

spaceace

Thanks guys.....

We will be renting I guess for the first year or 2 and I doubt we will have much equity left in the house....maybe $50k if we are really lucky.

So really it would be;
rent
2xcar
car fuel
utilities
food
clothes
other hidden taxes or stuff I don't know about

ESarge

This might help - census data from stats canada
http://www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/famil10h.htm

Auld Yin

I can't speak to BC, but in Ontario, apartment rental includes all utilities. house rentals on the other hand would generally be net of heat, hydro and water but include realty taxes. A reasonably decent apartment can be rented in Toronto for about $1,500 p/m but house rental prices can/would be considerably more. Please remember in Canada most Provinces exact a sales tax on most sales and services (PST) and the Federal Government exacts GST of 5%. With BC's PST of 7% you would have to add on 12% to prices of most things to get the full/real price so a car advertised @ $30K actually costs $34.5K plus whatever other Mickey Mouse charges they'll try to/get from you. Unlike the UK VAT, the PST/GST is not integrated into the prices, although I certainly, for one, wish it was.

PaulandNikki

rent - family of four I'd reckon $2k+ depending on how fussy you are
2xcar - depends on what you want, a 2nd hand mid-range, couple of years old will cost anything from about $10k up to $30k. Domestic stuff is a fair bit cheaper than imports and 2nd hand cars aren't as massively cheap as the UK. New domestics are crazy cheap really so maybe worth looking at financing something there if you can.
car fuel - currently around $1.04 a litre (was nearly $1.50 a couple of months ago!)
utilities - no idea, but TV/internet for us works out at about $100 a month
food - $1000 a month
clothes - anything from WalMart (think George at ASDA) prices up to designer gear costing a bomb. Most of it isn't what you'd call stylish though, Canadian "style" tends to consist of diamond patterned fleece.

kastan

We are a family of four,and spend $500 dollars on food per month.We do not buy processed food,and make our meals from scratch because i like to know what i am eating.

PaulandNikki

Good for you
We make everything as well, but decent ingredients are expensive here, the "fresh" stuff seems as processed as anything else, fruit and veg is for the most part pretty tasteless I find (hot house produced I guess).

spaceace

so ideally I need to command a minimum salary of $90k

PaulandNikki

Whatever you feel comfortable with really, it does all depend on what you expect and what you want to have.

What field are you in?

spaceace

This is what I am trying to establish. I don't want to take a salary that would make our life difficult, especially combined with the move to Canada.

I've been in corporate and government IT for 18 years and I am currently working in Hosting as an Applications and Security Developer where I work with customers on complex managed solutions

JonboyE

You also need to find out what the going rate for the job is. It is no good asking for 90k if local staff are getting 60k.

Obviously, it all depends upon your lifestyle needs. If moving to Victoria is important then it may be a good idea to take any salary you can get to become established. IMO 90k will give you a comfortable existence. If Mrs spaceace can add to your income then you'll be able to afford a few extravagances as well.

PaulandNikki

If you want to get into Government IT here (and they are by far the largest employer of IT people on the island) then you will be on a fixed payscale with other people of the same level.