kiwi_child

2 adults and 2 kids...hmmm...could you not rent a 3 bdrm house instead? I believe you pay significantly more for that extra bedroom. A sofa bed in the lounge is okay for shortstay guests. For longer staying guests maybe one of the kids could give up their room? Or is the extra room your study/work from home centre? With a decent sized double bedroom and todays technology you might require less space than you think, or possibly set it up in the garage if it has power.

I don't know what kiwi grocery prices are like thesedays but I do know that getting a bunch of recipes and cooking from scratch can save a fair bit of money and get you healthier, tastier meals! Veges in season and using less/smaller portions meat/fish/poultry and more legumes and pulses, rice,noodles,pasta etc helps heaps.

Just a couple of thoughts that hopefully might help. A philosophy of mine: When in doubt...shop around

Lenmil

NZ being cheap is a myth. Yes if you earn pounds. But on a typical Kiwi wage you will see otherwise. Nice place though. In our experiences the cost of living is similar if not more than the UK but with the average wage being way less. But if your mortgage free and got money you should be fine.

Colin in the middle

Be that as it may the quality of life compared to the UK is way better. We have taken a couple of hard knocks over the years since being here but if those same knocks had hit us in the UK then we would have been in a hole we could not escape from. If I told you what our combined income has been in the 4.5 years we have lived in NZ and what we currently live on I am betting most people would say how do you do it? Most kiwis accept debt as a everyday part of life even in the UK, buying a house was the first bit of debt however thats offset by the other option of paying rental.
Living away from the major centres is a disadvantage and an advantage, but its the quality of life.

Lenmil

I agree with you on the quality of life in NZ. Loved it. I would prefer NZ to the UK any time after being back in the UK for almost 2 years now. We were as a family far happier in NZ with little, compared to here with trying to keep up with the Jones's. Kiwi's i found to be a happier bunch of people. Not to mention how clean and tidy we found NZ, well the South Island but i guess most is like that. We all wished we never came back here but we had no choice really.

Macd

Just joined and having read the entire thread does make you think twice, still want to go but its hard not to worry if you will have enough to live on. We are a family of 4 oh is a joiner and I do office work from reception to legal sec, so depending on where we would live would hope to have a little bit left at the end of the month. Don't have that much now, but I have only just started work again recently after getting youngest in school. On this note does anyone know rough prices for childcare and is it easy to find

Tracey

P2L

Hi Tracey

I know what your worries are & TBH I think most of us had the same thoughts before we got here, but amazingly we are coping quite well.

As someone previously said, there are lots of online calculators to use, including the one on IRD to help you calculate your net wages.

I'm actually in the middle of putting together a list of our outgoings for the month, when I have done it (and moaned at the old man!) I'll post it on here.

Only you know what you are comfortable with so the best thing you can do is research, research, research