Dear All

I wondered whether you could help. We are a family of 4,the children aged 9 and 11 and although we have all our correct Visas etc. 3 of us are Canadian passport holders and 1 has PR. We were waiting to move to Canada until partner got a job, but we are now thinking it may be easier to gain employment when there as thats the feedback from some job interviews and start dates have been an issue for some employers. We are looking at moving to the cambridge area. My question is what do people think would be the minimum that we would need to live for about 6 months.

We would need to rent a 3 bed place,running 1 car, gas, groceries,hydro, phone etc. We have bugeted extra for start up costs and furniture.

Can anyone help

Thanks

Hi there -

This is not an easy question to answer - there are just way too many variables here. I will do my best for you. I live in the Hespeler area of Cambridge so I can help with local rental prices etc...

3 bed houses - range from $1000 - $1450. It does depend on whether you want old or new; detached or townhouse etc. It is best to look at WWW.Kijiji.ca for specs.
We have a 4 bedroomed house with a basement (approx. 2000sq feet) So things like heating a cooling may be different for a smaller property.
My Hydro depends on the time of the year - Summer is high due to aircon. Normally $170 bi monthly at peak and $110 low.

My water approx.. £60 bi-monthly

My groceries (I have 8yr old boy and 11yr old girl + hubby) Approx. $160 per week

Our car (x2) and house insurance, both with Johnson's $201 a month but will depend on house location car make model and year (as I said; there are far too many variables to give you an exact figure.. but hope this helps.

My house gas bill depends on time of year (Higher in winter); but we pay $62 a month, and it tends to work out just right over the year. REMEMBER you may be asked for a deposit (about $245... they use this as payment for your first 6 months)

Gas prices for the car are hanging around $1.29 a litre. How often you fill your tank depends on where you will need to travel for work etc. Hubby works in Guelph (20 min drive away) and fills up the Caravan once a week – approx.. $60. I only fill my tank once every 2-3 weeks (Dodge SX)

We use a callcentrix VOIP phone which costs us about $3.50 a month. We therefore have free calls nationally and internationally

Mobile phone packages vary considerably - I'm with Koodo and have unlimited features for $41 a month; but you can do PAYG; but they do tend to eat up credit over here (remember, YOU also pay when someone calls you).

You will also need to factor in school supplies and whether you want the kids to have pizza day etc. at school.

Cable TV is pretty pricey. We are with Rogers and have 60gb Internet package too and it costs us about $170. You can opt for lower internet or less channels if you want to save more. Bell and TELUS always have some deal or other on.

As I have said, it is a scarily open question… and I don’t really know if this will help you very much…

Good luck with your move…

Hi thast exactly want we wanted. Its to give us a rough guide to costs. we are thinking that if we had enough money for the first 6 months, that would give us time to look for work. Thanks again.