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-   -   cost of living? (https://britishexpats.com/forum/new-zealand-83/cost-living-731094/)

lianne1985 Sep 4th 2011 12:07 pm

cost of living?
 
hi my husband and i have been looking at immigrating to auckland or hamilton and would appreciate any advice! I am a registered mental health nurse. I am pretty alright with the process of registration and immigration. but am unsure of the cost of living in relation to salary. if i am on the basic $44ooo a year will this let me lead a satisfactory life (ie not poor)

concretepump Sep 4th 2011 6:44 pm

Re: cost of living?
 

Originally Posted by lianne1985 (Post 9599631)
hi my husband and i have been looking at immigrating to auckland or hamilton and would appreciate any advice! I am a registered mental health nurse. I am pretty alright with the process of registration and immigration. but am unsure of the cost of living in relation to salary. if i am on the basic $44ooo a year will this let me lead a satisfactory life (ie not poor)

hi
rent your looking at $250 two $350 a week food if you go basic about $150 two $200 a week bills on top phone elec water ect about $50 two $100 a week, should not be a problem when we went in 07 we were spending about that for two people hope it gives you some ideal try looking on trademe will give you some ideal on cost of living

barnsleymat Sep 4th 2011 7:06 pm

Re: cost of living?
 
The cost of living is proving VERY hard for us, it's certainly much more than we anticipated. Almost everything is way more expensive than back home, rent, groceries, utilities, socialising, goods etc.

It's a worry.

HelsnLee Sep 4th 2011 8:13 pm

Re: cost of living?
 

Originally Posted by barnsleymat (Post 9600185)
The cost of living is proving VERY hard for us, it's certainly much more than we anticipated. Almost everything is way more expensive than back home, rent, groceries, utilities, socialising, goods etc.

It's a worry.


Oh this is concerning...when did u leave the Uk as we a have noticed a dramatic increase in our outgoings here over last 18 months just wondering if NZ has seen its fair share of inflation in this time and are your wages going up as here in UK myself and OH haven't had pay increases in 2 years but costs have increased significantly. :confused:

lardyl Sep 4th 2011 9:11 pm

Re: cost of living?
 

Originally Posted by HelsnLee (Post 9600272)
Oh this is concerning...when did u leave the Uk as we a have noticed a dramatic increase in our outgoings here over last 18 months just wondering if NZ has seen its fair share of inflation in this time and are your wages going up as here in UK myself and OH haven't had pay increases in 2 years but costs have increased significantly. :confused:

Having been in NZ for nearly 5 years it's the same here, particularly in the cost of food and transport. Our rent hasn't gone up too much and we don't buy much in the way of consumer durables, other than toys for the kids. But the NZ dollar's strength has meant that those things don't seem too expensive. Salary-wise there has been hardly any increases, certainly in the public sector and little, if any, in the private sector. We're in a double dip recession too.
Living on $40k without your own home to live in would be a killer in Auckland, and probably very tight in Hamilton (don't live there). We find it hard on over twice that much with 2 kids and a pretty frugal lifestyle.

martyc Sep 4th 2011 9:14 pm

Re: cost of living?
 

Originally Posted by lianne1985 (Post 9599631)
hi my husband and i have been looking at immigrating to auckland or hamilton and would appreciate any advice! I am a registered mental health nurse. I am pretty alright with the process of registration and immigration. but am unsure of the cost of living in relation to salary. if i am on the basic $44ooo a year will this let me lead a satisfactory life (ie not poor)

Hamilton is more affordable than Auckland. :) I lived near Hamilton which to my mind was a nice city (albeit small) with everything I needed.

Moliknickers Sep 4th 2011 9:16 pm

Re: cost of living?
 

Originally Posted by lianne1985 (Post 9599631)
hi my husband and i have been looking at immigrating to auckland or hamilton and would appreciate any advice! I am a registered mental health nurse. I am pretty alright with the process of registration and immigration. but am unsure of the cost of living in relation to salary. if i am on the basic $44ooo a year will this let me lead a satisfactory life (ie not poor)

We have been in Auckland nearly a year. Hubby has good full time job (Salarys are 20 to 30% less here) I work part time have a young daughter. Everything except Petrol is at least 30 to 40% more expensive than the UK. I do comparisons and chat with friends about their household expenses back in the UK.It seems the cost of living globally has increased. You also pay tax on every dollar you earn here.You pay more for health care too. We love a lot about NZ but cannot affordand won't stay long term and then retire here. Just my opinion of course others will have different wants and needs :) (we own our house which helps)

RobDon Sep 4th 2011 9:18 pm

Re: cost of living?
 

Originally Posted by lianne1985 (Post 9599631)
hi my husband and i have been looking at immigrating to auckland or hamilton and would appreciate any advice! I am a registered mental health nurse. I am pretty alright with the process of registration and immigration. but am unsure of the cost of living in relation to salary. if i am on the basic $44ooo a year will this let me lead a satisfactory life (ie not poor)

You wont be just on the basic wage, you will also get penal rates for shift work. :)
We get double time for working Public Holidays, also we get time and a quarter or time and a half, depending on the shift.
Its all laid out in the Mecca. Try this link for some ideas of pay. P16-21 is the info you need. HTH. ;)
http://www.nzno.org.nz/LinkClick.asp...k%3D&tabid=436

BEVS Sep 4th 2011 10:18 pm

Re: cost of living?
 
$44K gross would be tight in my opinion however if your OH gets work then you'll manage.
Cost of living here has gone up. No doubt about that. Wages , for us at least, has reduced due to less working hours available . The rate of pay hasn't changed in around 5 years.

barnsleymat Sep 4th 2011 11:30 pm

Re: cost of living?
 

Originally Posted by HelsnLee (Post 9600272)
Oh this is concerning...when did u leave the Uk as we a have noticed a dramatic increase in our outgoings here over last 18 months just wondering if NZ has seen its fair share of inflation in this time and are your wages going up as here in UK myself and OH haven't had pay increases in 2 years but costs have increased significantly. :confused:

We've been here 3 months and things are just so expensive especially the supermarkets, I was shocked walking around Pak n Save when we got here. They bleat on about how cheap it is, it's an absolute fortune for pretty sub standard groceries.

Genesis Sep 4th 2011 11:39 pm

Re: cost of living?
 

Originally Posted by lardyl (Post 9600345)
Having been in NZ for nearly 5 years it's the same here, particularly in the cost of food and transport. Our rent hasn't gone up too much and we don't buy much in the way of consumer durables, other than toys for the kids. But the NZ dollar's strength has meant that those things don't seem too expensive. Salary-wise there has been hardly any increases, certainly in the public sector and little, if any, in the private sector. We're in a double dip recession too.
Living on $40k without your own home to live in would be a killer in Auckland, and probably very tight in Hamilton (don't live there). We find it hard on over twice that much with 2 kids and a pretty frugal lifestyle.

Totally agree. Unless you are going to be rent/mortgage free $44k will be almost impossible in Auckland. We have no mortgage (we are a family of 5) and we regularly plough our way through around $70k after taxation. No private school fees, no flash hols, no big toys factored into that annual expenditure and I am a very frugal shopper. We don't live in Auckland either we live in a cheapo rural town.

Charismatic Sep 5th 2011 1:53 am

Re: cost of living?
 
Well you could probably live on $44k in Hamilton (not so much Auckland)

We have a bit of a stagflation problem.
Current Cash Rate (OCR): 2.5%
Current Wage increase June 2011: 1.9% (1.7% in 2010)
House prices June 2011: -4.3%
Current Inflation rate June 2011: 5.3% (target rate is supposed to be 1 to 3%)

lisamct Sep 5th 2011 5:27 am

Re: cost of living?
 
I'm just about to move to Auckland from elsewhere in NZ. I'm a midwife, on my own and earn $52,000/year and I know I'll struggle financially.

Depending on where in Auckland you want to live you'll struggle to find somewhere decent for less than $400/week. I looked at lots of 1 bedroom places around the £380/week and there was nothing I would live in. I do admit to being fussy and liking nice bathrooms and kitchens but by nice I dont mean posh, just intact floors and tiling and surfaces that you could actually put food on to. Pretty much everything other than petrol is a good bit more expensive here too.

I do 'get by' on my wage but there's certainly nothing left over for savings or luxuries and every penny is accounted for.

mickey_d Sep 5th 2011 12:23 pm

Re: cost of living?
 

Originally Posted by concretepump (Post 9600162)
hi
rent your looking at $250 two $350 a week food if you go basic about $150 two $200 a week bills on top phone elec water ect about $50 two $100 a week, should not be a problem when we went in 07 we were spending about that for two people hope it gives you some ideal try looking on trademe will give you some ideal on cost of living

So, working on the highest figures, that would be $40650 including income tax.
Add to that things like Kiwi Saver, Life Insurance, contents Insurance, running a car, buying clothes, entertainment/eating out etc.etc...you could easily be up to $50k+

We found it very hard living on 62k in our 1st year back in 2006/7 (2+2 kids)(Auckland). That was with a $350/week rental.

5 years on, it's a bit easier, but can still be a hell of a struggle at times. Food prices are a killer at the moment, particularly fruit & veg, even seasonal prices were high this year. The worse for us is petrol, costing us $100-120/week, it's gone up 50-60% since we moved to Hawkes Bay, certainly not as cheap as it's sometimes made out to be on here. It's at 1.08 GBP/L now, so not too far behind the UK prices anymore.

MattandJax Sep 5th 2011 9:18 pm

Re: cost of living?
 

Originally Posted by mickey_d (Post 9601457)
So, working on the highest figures, that would be $40650 including income tax.
Add to that things like Kiwi Saver, Life Insurance, contents Insurance, running a car, buying clothes, entertainment/eating out etc.etc...you could easily be up to $50k+

We found it very hard living on 62k in our 1st year back in 2006/7 (2+2 kids)(Auckland). That was with a $350/week rental.

5 years on, it's a bit easier, but can still be a hell of a struggle at times. Food prices are a killer at the moment, particularly fruit & veg, even seasonal prices were high this year. The worse for us is petrol, costing us $100-120/week, it's gone up 50-60% since we moved to Hawkes Bay, certainly not as cheap as it's sometimes made out to be on here. It's at 1.08 GBP/L now, so not too far behind the UK prices anymore.

Still seasonal fruit and veg is dirt cheap. Kiwi Fruits as low as $ 0.49 a kg and apples for $0.59c (even Pink Lady's were $1.49kg for a while).

And petrol in the UK is around 1.35GBP so it is still a bit cheaper here.

For us some things are a lot cheaper (car servicing, water chargs, seasonal fruit & veg, chicken and steak) especially when on special (which is the key, buy in bulk when on special).

Rentals are a lot more expensive than the UK and generally are rubbish quality. However when we bought a house we were surprised at how much we could get for our money.

Cinema's are also definitely cheaper here especially on $11 Tuesdays :)

Personally I also find my mobile phone tariff of $40 for 3gb, 2500 texts and 60 mins calls amazing compared to the UK, however home broadband and sky are expensive.

I could go on and on as being an accountant I seem to have a knack of keeping track of how much things cost!!

Matt


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