Wondering if anyone could help - if you are/were returning to the UK, what do you think is worth buying here in Australia, and what is worth waiting until you go back to the UK e.g. furniture, electrical, clothes.
It would be great if you could consider it both in terms of Australian dollars converted into Pounds (as in, taking Australian dollars to the UK to buy stuff vs. buying it in Australia) and price parity (earning pounds and buying in pounds vs. earning dollars and buying in dollars).

Good question. I have been pondering on this for a while.
You have to weigh up the cost of shipping the stuff back as well as the price comparison between the 2 countries.
For us I think it will be better to get shot of most things, although there are c ouple of furniture items i couldnt bare to part with on top of personal stuff.
We were going to ship the lot including washing machine, fridge freezer etc, but not sure it is worth it now.

We been back 7 months now, we bought all our stuff back with us, to be honest the linen and stuff is cheaper here i mean Asda doing double quilt with pillows for ten pounds!!!

Just bring it all back, Argos doing really good 3 piece suites reasonable price, depends on what you want but IMO i think its cheaper here, white goods etc (but we did bring our big fridge freezer with us)

You wont get much selling stuff off in oz people want it for nothing.....

Kath

Definitely agree with you about Argos. I couldnt believe how cheap things were in there last year. In fact I did buy a duvet and some bed linen whilst i was there which i have stored at my daughters place. Plus a few pillows.
Our dilemma is that even the small amount of stuff we would bring back will cost around $5000. I keep looking at websites to cost up not bothering and buying over there. In fact its doing my head in!

hey migami, you can go online and get a really good idea of what stores are offering in the UK - Argos in particular, but even clothing stores etc. Shipping costs can be pretty expensive and with some things you are better off buying in the UK anyway (electrical stuff, winter clothes). Plus compared to Oz a lot of UK places rent furnished so you won't be completely desperate straight away (and it could take a while for your stuff to arrive anyway).

As I've always been planning to go back to Scotland but not sure WHEN exactly (a job could come up any time etc) I've hesitated to buy anything in Australia at all - it has made life a complete misery at times, particularly as I couldn't go back straight away as planned and my exile in Oz has dragged on for 3 years - I drive a crappy car that only cost a couple thousand dollars because I don't want to bother taking out a loan to get a decent one then suddenly find out I'm moving to Scotland. I've loaned stuff off familiy and friends and accepted hand me downs and dodgy second hand stuff.

It's a good question - are you going over for a reccie before the big move? In that case you'd be able to get a better idea of what to take/what to sell. I probably won't get a chance to reccie so the online sites are invaluable.

At the end of the day - remember what it was like going over like a backpacker (if you were anything like me!) - 3/4s of what you took was surplus and you should've bought a smaller pack and just bought on arrival

Thanks folks - we are planning on taking over furniture (we know we are moving into a house, and will take the time getting there for furniture to come over) but not white goods - our top-loading washing machine would be near useless in most places, and we are due for a new dishwasher anyway. Some of our electrical we are taking - it is very good quality and my husband can rewire it with the right plugs. We also have quite a bit of art we are bringing. We are probably going to be taking a container, so it is going to cost that much whether we fill it or not (of course we have to pay more for insurance the more we take). I guess I should have been more specific - I was thinking about things you can live without if it is worth waiting, like new winter clothes, kids things, kitchen appliances, that sort of thing.

saoghalbeag - before we took our first trip to the UK, we had moved from share housing to our first place and bought relatively little furniture because we knew it would go into storage when we went away. So yes, re-fashioned boxes for the TV cabinet and grandma's old dining table for us!

I'd be cosying up to the local Freecycle network for the short term I think - there is some very reasonable stuff that people just want rid of but no one actually wants to buy. Works both ways - you can do it before you go and get warm fuzzies if not actual cash!