JoolsB

Hmm just been doing some sums to convince myself we are better off here but... here are the results.

Scenario 1: Stay in Aus and move to house in more urban area-not a posh or pretty area, quite grungy/ethnic actually and buy a small 2 bed house-again nothing posh just a grotty doer upper 'shack'. After all costs & without doing any works on the house our mortgage per month would be approx $1500.

Scenario 2: Back to UK and move to a 2 bed garden flat in Twickenham (where we came from) or Brighton (which we love). After all moving back & other costs our mortgage per month would be approx 700GBP.

This is of course based on current exchange & interest rates i.e. if we went back now.

It really does bug me that we are no better off here!! If we were at least I would feel more able to accept and work thru the homesickness.

ps as regards other costs I have found some things are cheaper here and others in UK so all swings & roundabouts there

Oh, and we earned twice as much in UK too.

So in fact better in UK

Fleaflyfloflum

I agree with you Jools

I did the sums when i was back there last year. I think the biggest thing for us is the difference in earning in UK compared to here. Whilst somethings might be cheaper to buy here many are not and lower wages in comparison to UK makes it harder to afford things.

cherry6

We will actually be worse off in the UK. I know my husband wont get the same wage there. And I wont get rent assistance. Plus we will have to pay rates (which we dont now as we rent, but you still have to in the Uk regardless of renting), and tv licence and MOT etc. I STILL WANT TO GO BACK THOUGH!!! There is no price on sanity

Check out the websites for supermarkets in the UK to compare your weekly shop www.tesco.co.uk to get you started, or www.asda.co.uk

Nu-Shooz

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tillysmum

TV licence worth its weight in gold IMHO

Cherry6 although you dont pay rates and water rates to council yous still pay it really, its included in the rent.

JoolsB

Yes-I will never moan about the BBC ever again!

onceinalifetime

That's the conclusion we've come to. I remember doing internet shop trial runs in Oz while we were in the UK (in 2006), and an identical shop was about 30% cheaper. I did the same thing several months ago in reverse and the shop worked out about 10-15% cheaper in the UK (and that was before the recent exchange rate drop).

For us to get into the housing market here, we'd be in a small house, with just the one open plan room (lounge/kitchen/diner) and the bedrooms all coming off this, I know this because they recently sold the house we were renting. In the UK, we had a house with a smallish lounge, good sized kitchen, and massive conservatory. The open plan living drove me mad, there was no space for anyone to go off and do something different to what anyone else was doing, and having to sit and watch tv in the evening with the sound turned down low in case it disturbed the kids was a total pain. Buying anything decent here, we would need a mortgage of about $350k, giving repayments of nearly $4000 a month. We could get back into the market, with a decent property where we left for about 7-800 GBP a month.

I didn't come to have a bigger house, flash lifestyle, I just wanted a better work life balance spend more time as a family etc. We did do that while I wasn't working, but that wasn't sustainable.

saraJ

Hello,

Its pretty much all doom and gloom here in the UK at the mo. Although property prices do seem to be lower maybe 10% absolutely no one is buying. Inflation is up, so in real terms things seem/are more expensive. Its also v difficult to get a mortgage now and the 105% 100% mortgages all been withdrawn. You seem to need a 20% deposit now in order to get a mortgage, which is high, not what we have all become used to and will exclude alot of first time buyers.

But if you have a good deposit - It could be an excellent time to come back to the UK (over next 12 months) as predicitons are for 30% drop in housing prices. So you could pick up a bargain! Well almost!!

Margaret3

I am sooooooooooo homesick tonight i actually cant eat yes that is really, really bad for me

Also been torturing myself be looking at the properties on sale in our hometown, we could get a 3 bedroom , nice old sandstone house just now for around 140,000 pounds.

Also been looking a nursing vacancies

but still gotta stay until teen finishes school.

quoll

Must be something in the air Margaret - it's bad for me at the moment too - the upside is that I have lost weight and can fit my wedding ring on. Dunno what it is, just that feeling of not belonging.

Mychaelh

If you would be interested in taking part in a TV programme about expats considering coming home log onto the media page of the forum.

Nu-Shooz

Have you? are you anything to do with it?

Nu-Shooz

I eat too much chocolate when i am homesick and bored, then i get horrid headaches. But i can't help myself, i just eat and eat and eat the stuff. I need help, i'm a freak!

Kath & Graham

Yeh but at least your a skinny minny and dont have to worry about putting on weight lol!!!

Nu-Shooz

Hey Kath(shitty bum)

How was the hol? Bring back memories of Perth...or was it good!