Soon2bCanadian

My husband has been offered a position in Edmonton. The salary is $100k (and a relocation package of $10k). Do you think this will be enough money to support the two of us and a small dog?

I expect it to take me a while to find a position in Edmonton as my profession is less sought after than his! We don't live an extravagant lifestyle. We tend to eat in most of the time, as I like to cook. We probably have a takeaway once a week and eat out once a month.

Initially we would expect to have one car (until I find a job). We would want a mobile phone package each and internet access. We plan to rent initially and would ideally have a 2/3 bed property with a garden for our pooch.

Any indications of whether our aspirations are realistic would be much appreciated.
Thank you

Aviator

Should be fine, might be a struggle with the dog though, maybe if you feed it every other day it could be doable.

twist_freeride

Only $100,000pa plus a relocation fee. That's gonna be tough.

I did that with my girlfriend on less than your 'relocation package' and no job offers at all.

ookie123

absolutely doable. Finding a rental property that allows dogs could prove difficult but not impossible.

Good luck with your relocation

Siouxie

I've moved your thread to the main Canada forum as it isn't visa related, you are more likely to get responses in this one.

Welcome to BE

Soon2bCanadian

Thanks for the helpful replies and thanks for moving my post.

All of our research so far is based upon cost of living data and professional salary averages which are at least a couple of years out of date. So it is really helpful to hear from people actually living there now.

cjones

You'll probably be able to struggle by for a few months on that one salary.

We found that it was more fruitful to rent privately rather than through rental agencies while we were there. Private owners seem to be a bit more flexible when it comes to pets (we have a dog), and you can sometimes negotiate some sort of pet deposit even if their initial ad says "no pets".

We rented 3 properties while in Edmonton, all privately, all via kijiji.

Soon2bCanadian

Thanks cjones will check out Kjiji to see what they have. Ideally we'd get something sorted before we move across but understand from reading other posts that this could be a struggle (plus a little wary of scamming as well)!

haggis88

Yeah, you'll be able to do it relatively comfortably if you're not living an extravagant lifestyle

Soon2bCanadian

Thanks Haggis88. Another question I have is whether there is a rule of thumb in Canada on what percentage of your take home pay should be spent on rent and bills (gas/electricity etc - not including food).

In the UK, I always tried to make sure that no more than 40% of our income went on household bills, and Martin's Moneysaver recommend that it should be no more than a third! However, the rent appears to be much higher than rental in UK and from my early property searches I am going to struggle to find somewhere that I can make that ratio find (that is also dog friendly with a garden!!).... Any help would be much appreciated.

cjones

If you're looking to rent a house you may well go near or a bit beyond your comfort zone, depends how lucky you get with finding one. With bills, the house we eventually rented took us up to around $2500 a month.

That said, for our first year there we lived in a walk up (low rise) apartment, which was ok for the dog because there was a park across the road. It was 2 bed, $1500 a month, all inclusive (apart from phone/net). So at least you have options.