scottishstacey

Thanks! Will do. Havent started visa stuff other than police checks which was for another job elsewhere but he didnt get it. Want to be sure before we definitely start but no harm in meeting them when they come to scotland and having all our questions answered in person. I'll let you know how we get on!

ddem

Hiya... First of all good luck with everything...
Secondly, we are a young couple with 2 small children and are quite comfortably living in Christchurch on a salary of $56k.
You just have to be careful with rent and the rest you can control yourself. We pay $380 a week in rent (can get cheaper, but we wanted to be in a good area). That is for a 3 bed brick built house with a double garage and a lovely garden... And 15minute walk to the beach!! The only other costs we have are electricity, which we pay around $230 a month as we run a heat pump through the winter (it has now been switched off as the weather is much warmer, we have only lived here a few months so dont know what the cost will be during the summer). We pay contents insurance $20 a month, Internet & phone $100 per month (we have international package too) and sky at $65. But other than those costs, it is only food and petrol. We manage on a budget of $150 per week for food and that does us all comfortably.
We left UK 28 Feb this year and initially moved to Hamilton, but work brought us down to Christchurch. We actually really love it here, the quakes aren't anything to worry about, barely noticeable! But just prepare yourself for the destruction and bumpy roads!! If you get sea or at sick, then Christchurch is not the place to be at the moment!!!

Good luck! :-)

Jan n Neil

What a nice positive post ddem, as everbody says you can live reasonably on it you just need to cut your cloth accordingly, see you when you get here

Neil

scottishstacey

Great post! Cheers for that!

Pomwi

Great question and thanks ddem for your in depth reply. Which area of ChCh are you in (i.e which is a good area). Not sure how old your 2 small children are but did you find it easy to meet other mums and get out and about while hubby is at work (am making an assumption that you are not working)?

Tom1983

We pay contents insurance $20 a month

Where the devil did you get that?

I've been here for 11 months and finding anyone that would happily provide contents insurance for me in Christchurch is like finding a Tortoise that can defeat 20,000 man eating hungry saltwater crocodiles in one go.

Insurance and bank companies have all said no.

ddem

It's with Tower insurance, they only started insuring to Christchurch again about 2 months ago... Give them a call :-)

ddem

Reply to pomwi:
We are in tamara park, Burwood, its north east of the city, the older suburbs of burwood were affected, but tamara park is all good.
I have a 3&5 year old, so eldest is at school and youngest goes to Kindy. I've found Kindy invaluable - get chatting to lots of people, some have even invited us to dinner. Others have invited us over for the kids to play.
Lots of places to meet mums, local library's have the toddler sessions and local playgroups... Even just going to local parks and get chatting to other mums :-)

happy camper

Thanks for the details ddem, really helpful, it seems that we might be able to afford a nicer place than we were originally looking at!

Rikshawala

If you dont have the costs associated with kids - and therefore dont need to rent a big house - then I think you would be fine on $60K.
This is actually a very respectable income for New Zealanders and people survive on a lot less (even those with kids)
When I graduated from University my partner and I were each on $26K a year and we could afford a nice apartment in Auckland, going out, holidays in Australia etc. As long as you watch your outgoings then I think you would be comfortable in Christchurch.

happy camper

Thank you, that's really helpful!

Rikshawala

Maybe check out this cost of living in NZ calculator link here:
http://www.enz.org/cost-of-living-in-new-zealand.html

I havent tested it but it gives you an idea of what high medium and low expenditure would be on food, rent etc etc etc so could be a good sanity check for you. The costs I quickly looked at look realistic to me.
But I would say the supermarket estimates look relevant to a medium family and your costs for two people would be a lot less.

I think the other links on the site look possibly useful too

good luck!

Pom_Chch

Hi everyone,

Really great thread with some informative posts. I think my OH and I will be in a similar situation when we arrive (hopefully early 2013). It's expected (but not set in stone) that his salary will be around $60k so it's good to know we will be able to get by until I also get a job.

dden - your post was really reassuring too thank you! It's good to know you are doing well on 56k with two kids. Also good to know you're finding Christchurch a nice place to live as we are looking at settling here.