The cost of Living in NZ?
Oct 11th 2011, 11:32 pm
#1
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The cost of Living in NZ?
Hi all,
the family and I are finally decided that for various reasons we MUST leave the U.K. (BEFORE anyone asks, NO the police are not after us...)
In order to get sufficient points however I must get a job offer first but I feel, from research I have done and discussions with job agencies, that there is demand for my I.T. skills so hopefully this can be done.
What we are most worried about is a feeling that we are going to end up GREATLY financially worse off if we do move to NZ. Though our reasons for wanting to leave the UK are not particularly about the money and are in part about a change in life-style we do not, nonetheless, wish to have a worse lifestyle because we have spent all of our savings or because wages have not covered all necessary expenditures.
How do you all feel about wages v. the cost of living?
Stephen
the family and I are finally decided that for various reasons we MUST leave the U.K. (BEFORE anyone asks, NO the police are not after us...)
In order to get sufficient points however I must get a job offer first but I feel, from research I have done and discussions with job agencies, that there is demand for my I.T. skills so hopefully this can be done.
What we are most worried about is a feeling that we are going to end up GREATLY financially worse off if we do move to NZ. Though our reasons for wanting to leave the UK are not particularly about the money and are in part about a change in life-style we do not, nonetheless, wish to have a worse lifestyle because we have spent all of our savings or because wages have not covered all necessary expenditures.
How do you all feel about wages v. the cost of living?
Stephen
Last edited by Stephen Jones; Oct 11th 2011 at 11:34 pm. Reason: bad grammar in the original
Oct 11th 2011, 11:37 pm
#2
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Location: Was Torbay, NZ now North Yorkshire UK
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Re: The cost of Living in NZ?
Hi all,
the family and I are finally decided that for various reasons we MUST leave the U.K. (BEFORE anyone asks, NO the police are not after us...)
In order to get sufficient points however I must get a job offer first but I feel, from research I have done and discussions with job agencies, that there is demand for my I.T. skills so hopefully this can be done.
What we are most worried about is a feeling that we are going to end up GREATLY financially worse off if we do move to NZ. Though our reasons for wanting to leave the UK are not particularly about the money and are in part about a change in life-style we do not, nonetheless, wish to have a worse lifestyle because we have spent all of our savings or because wages have not covered all necessary expenditures.
How do you all feel about wages v. the cost of living?
Stephen
the family and I are finally decided that for various reasons we MUST leave the U.K. (BEFORE anyone asks, NO the police are not after us...)
In order to get sufficient points however I must get a job offer first but I feel, from research I have done and discussions with job agencies, that there is demand for my I.T. skills so hopefully this can be done.
What we are most worried about is a feeling that we are going to end up GREATLY financially worse off if we do move to NZ. Though our reasons for wanting to leave the UK are not particularly about the money and are in part about a change in life-style we do not, nonetheless, wish to have a worse lifestyle because we have spent all of our savings or because wages have not covered all necessary expenditures.
How do you all feel about wages v. the cost of living?
Stephen
Hi Stephen,
Wages are usually low here compared to cost of living.
How big/old is your family and what area of IT do you work in? Does your wife work?
With those answers we may be able to offer more advice.
Carole
Oct 12th 2011, 6:33 am
#3
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Posts: 4,298
Re: The cost of Living in NZ?
Hi all,
the family and I are finally decided that for various reasons we MUST leave the U.K. (BEFORE anyone asks, NO the police are not after us...)
In order to get sufficient points however I must get a job offer first but I feel, from research I have done and discussions with job agencies, that there is demand for my I.T. skills so hopefully this can be done.
What we are most worried about is a feeling that we are going to end up GREATLY financially worse off if we do move to NZ. Though our reasons for wanting to leave the UK are not particularly about the money and are in part about a change in life-style we do not, nonetheless, wish to have a worse lifestyle because we have spent all of our savings or because wages have not covered all necessary expenditures.
How do you all feel about wages v. the cost of living?
Stephen
the family and I are finally decided that for various reasons we MUST leave the U.K. (BEFORE anyone asks, NO the police are not after us...)
In order to get sufficient points however I must get a job offer first but I feel, from research I have done and discussions with job agencies, that there is demand for my I.T. skills so hopefully this can be done.
What we are most worried about is a feeling that we are going to end up GREATLY financially worse off if we do move to NZ. Though our reasons for wanting to leave the UK are not particularly about the money and are in part about a change in life-style we do not, nonetheless, wish to have a worse lifestyle because we have spent all of our savings or because wages have not covered all necessary expenditures.
How do you all feel about wages v. the cost of living?
Stephen
Oct 12th 2011, 8:42 am
#4
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Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 968
Re: The cost of Living in NZ?
Hi all,
the family and I are finally decided that for various reasons we MUST leave the U.K. (BEFORE anyone asks, NO the police are not after us...)
In order to get sufficient points however I must get a job offer first but I feel, from research I have done and discussions with job agencies, that there is demand for my I.T. skills so hopefully this can be done.
What we are most worried about is a feeling that we are going to end up GREATLY financially worse off if we do move to NZ. Though our reasons for wanting to leave the UK are not particularly about the money and are in part about a change in life-style we do not, nonetheless, wish to have a worse lifestyle because we have spent all of our savings or because wages have not covered all necessary expenditures.
How do you all feel about wages v. the cost of living?
Stephen
the family and I are finally decided that for various reasons we MUST leave the U.K. (BEFORE anyone asks, NO the police are not after us...)
In order to get sufficient points however I must get a job offer first but I feel, from research I have done and discussions with job agencies, that there is demand for my I.T. skills so hopefully this can be done.
What we are most worried about is a feeling that we are going to end up GREATLY financially worse off if we do move to NZ. Though our reasons for wanting to leave the UK are not particularly about the money and are in part about a change in life-style we do not, nonetheless, wish to have a worse lifestyle because we have spent all of our savings or because wages have not covered all necessary expenditures.
How do you all feel about wages v. the cost of living?
Stephen
One issue is that you may well find most jobs in Auckland or Wellington, from where you may find it hard to get the 'lifestyle' that you seek.
Dont spend all your savings and have no way of getting back to UK though, particularly if you havent got permanent residence visa.
Oct 12th 2011, 9:25 am
#5
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Joined: Sep 2009
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 1,111
Re: The cost of Living in NZ?
My input:
Beer costs a bloody fortune, it's bonkers.
But the locals only comment on the price of one drink, Milk. I bet I don't drink one pint of milk a week, beer on the other hand......
Beer costs a bloody fortune, it's bonkers.
But the locals only comment on the price of one drink, Milk. I bet I don't drink one pint of milk a week, beer on the other hand......
Oct 12th 2011, 9:30 am
#6
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Location: In a large village called Auckland
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Re: The cost of Living in NZ?
@ Stephen Jones, I don't recall your story nor your previous posts, but it seems you have been about this forum for as long as I have and you still have to ask about the cost of living?
I don't also recall, despite numerous threads on the matter, anyone arriving here and saying how cheap it is, or how they found the cost of living to be cheaper than they were expecting. So, it begs the question, what exactly were they expecting? Nearly every one of the 'We have arrived / two week or one month updates' begins along the lines of 'We were surprised / shocked at how expensive everything is.. '
How are they surprised and shocked? Didn't they do their homework? People on this forum bang on and on about having to do the maths and always advise to figure out the costs for your own circumstances - for only you know what you already have, what you like to spend money on and what are your priorities. If keeping warm under blankets and eating one hot meal of porridge per day will suffice or perhaps you simply won't get by without designer shoes, wall to wall central heating, the best organic meat and veggies all washed down with a bottle of Bollinger for lunch.
Piece of paper, local search engine (google.co.nz) , spreadsheet and/or a calculator is what you need, not stories about how other people get by or find things because they don't and won't be living your life.
Still it seems many people do all the maths, yet after they find the answer is not to their liking, they feel some strange masochistic urge to keep calm and carry on. The outcome usually ends up with 'stuff it' lets do it anyway, we've gone too far down the track, we've already paid money for our EOI and Mr Tiggywinkel on BritishExpats said the views are nice and he manages just fine on $60k pa living in central Auckland with three kids and a wife to support, so if he can manage then why can't we.
Pen, paper, google, lists and more lists is the only way.
I don't also recall, despite numerous threads on the matter, anyone arriving here and saying how cheap it is, or how they found the cost of living to be cheaper than they were expecting. So, it begs the question, what exactly were they expecting? Nearly every one of the 'We have arrived / two week or one month updates' begins along the lines of 'We were surprised / shocked at how expensive everything is.. '
How are they surprised and shocked? Didn't they do their homework? People on this forum bang on and on about having to do the maths and always advise to figure out the costs for your own circumstances - for only you know what you already have, what you like to spend money on and what are your priorities. If keeping warm under blankets and eating one hot meal of porridge per day will suffice or perhaps you simply won't get by without designer shoes, wall to wall central heating, the best organic meat and veggies all washed down with a bottle of Bollinger for lunch.
Piece of paper, local search engine (google.co.nz) , spreadsheet and/or a calculator is what you need, not stories about how other people get by or find things because they don't and won't be living your life.
Still it seems many people do all the maths, yet after they find the answer is not to their liking, they feel some strange masochistic urge to keep calm and carry on. The outcome usually ends up with 'stuff it' lets do it anyway, we've gone too far down the track, we've already paid money for our EOI and Mr Tiggywinkel on BritishExpats said the views are nice and he manages just fine on $60k pa living in central Auckland with three kids and a wife to support, so if he can manage then why can't we.
Pen, paper, google, lists and more lists is the only way.
Oct 12th 2011, 9:35 am
#7
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Joined: Dec 2010
Location: Wanganui, New Zealand
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Re: The cost of Living in NZ?
ROFL 
To true and just to funny !
To true and just to funny !
Oct 12th 2011, 9:54 am
#8
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Posts: 14
Re: The cost of Living in NZ?
My wife recently attended a job interview in Auckland which involved a week's stay in Auckland.
We are both reasonably well paid professionals in the UK with 2 school age kids.
She was absolutely shocked by the cost of living in NZ, and was told by an expat, recently arrived from the UK, that the cost of food,for example, was 50% more in NZ than in the UK - yet wages are shockingly low.
When my wife did some research in a local supermarket she found that the 50% estimate was correct.
Had we moved to NZ my wife would have been paid around $170k.However,even on that salary, we would have to accept a greatly reduced standard of living in NZ once housing costs (in Auckland) were taken into account and as someone else has posted "you can't eat the beach"!
In summary my wife was of the view that the cost of living in NZ (certainly in Auckland) now outweighs the standard of living and would make any move uneconomic for us - even if we both worked.
We are both reasonably well paid professionals in the UK with 2 school age kids.
She was absolutely shocked by the cost of living in NZ, and was told by an expat, recently arrived from the UK, that the cost of food,for example, was 50% more in NZ than in the UK - yet wages are shockingly low.
When my wife did some research in a local supermarket she found that the 50% estimate was correct.
Had we moved to NZ my wife would have been paid around $170k.However,even on that salary, we would have to accept a greatly reduced standard of living in NZ once housing costs (in Auckland) were taken into account and as someone else has posted "you can't eat the beach"!
In summary my wife was of the view that the cost of living in NZ (certainly in Auckland) now outweighs the standard of living and would make any move uneconomic for us - even if we both worked.
Oct 12th 2011, 10:17 am
#9
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Location: In a large village called Auckland
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Re: The cost of Living in NZ?
How very odd, having have since read some of the OPs history and it seems he's been around the world and back; with talk of coming to New Zealand / Auckland/ Australia/ Brisbane/ Adelaide/ Canada / USA some time soon - for the past six years. So perhaps we shouldn't hold our breathe to read the 'We've arrived' thread from the Jones family. 
Oct 12th 2011, 10:35 am
#10
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Posts: 1,967
Re: The cost of Living in NZ?
My wife recently attended a job interview in Auckland which involved a week's stay in Auckland.
We are both reasonably well paid professionals in the UK with 2 school age kids.
She was absolutely shocked by the cost of living in NZ, and was told by an expat, recently arrived from the UK, that the cost of food,for example, was 50% more in NZ than in the UK - yet wages are shockingly low.
When my wife did some research in a local supermarket she found that the 50% estimate was correct.
Had we moved to NZ my wife would have been paid around $170k.However,even on that salary, we would have to accept a greatly reduced standard of living in NZ once housing costs (in Auckland) were taken into account and as someone else has posted "you can't eat the beach"!
In summary my wife was of the view that the cost of living in NZ (certainly in Auckland) now outweighs the standard of living and would make any move uneconomic for us - even if we both worked.
We are both reasonably well paid professionals in the UK with 2 school age kids.
She was absolutely shocked by the cost of living in NZ, and was told by an expat, recently arrived from the UK, that the cost of food,for example, was 50% more in NZ than in the UK - yet wages are shockingly low.
When my wife did some research in a local supermarket she found that the 50% estimate was correct.
Had we moved to NZ my wife would have been paid around $170k.However,even on that salary, we would have to accept a greatly reduced standard of living in NZ once housing costs (in Auckland) were taken into account and as someone else has posted "you can't eat the beach"!
In summary my wife was of the view that the cost of living in NZ (certainly in Auckland) now outweighs the standard of living and would make any move uneconomic for us - even if we both worked.
Wow $170k - what kind of lifestyle do you lead that you couldn't live on that salary
Oct 12th 2011, 10:55 am
#11
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Re: The cost of Living in NZ?
Having done a direct comparison NZ (Auckland) v UK (not London) we would not enjoy the same standard of living in NZ that we enjoy in UK when the cost of housing/travel/food were taken into account.We live a fairly modest lifestyle in UK
It's highly subjective I know but just our experience.
For example my wife has a 10 minute commute to work in UK.In Auckland it would be an hour with the associated increase in cost.
We could not afford to buy comparable cars in NZ.
To buy a similar house to our UK house in Auckland would probably cost us $200k more.
If you add in the cost of food/clothing/travel etc..the NZ figures do not compare favourably.
Having done some sums in the UK,and having accepted a higher cost of living in NZ, we had still clearly underestimated the cost of living in Auckland by some way.
Again it's subjective and just our experience.I'm sure others will have different experiences to us but the view we took was that it would be uneconomic for us to move.
It's highly subjective I know but just our experience.
For example my wife has a 10 minute commute to work in UK.In Auckland it would be an hour with the associated increase in cost.
We could not afford to buy comparable cars in NZ.
To buy a similar house to our UK house in Auckland would probably cost us $200k more.
If you add in the cost of food/clothing/travel etc..the NZ figures do not compare favourably.
Having done some sums in the UK,and having accepted a higher cost of living in NZ, we had still clearly underestimated the cost of living in Auckland by some way.
Again it's subjective and just our experience.I'm sure others will have different experiences to us but the view we took was that it would be uneconomic for us to move.
Oct 12th 2011, 10:58 am
#12
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Location: In a large village called Auckland
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Re: The cost of Living in NZ?
He didn't exactly say they that couldn't live on $170k (who couldn't) he said that they would have had to accept a greatly reduced standard of living.
Most of us have no difficulty in spending all that we earn, but prospects of taking a vast drop in the take home undoubtedly will present some 'hardship', no matter whether you are on the bottom or the top of the payscale. Doctors come to mind and the difficulties NZ has with keeping them here. If it were a simple matter of whether they can afford to live comfortably on what they earn, then there would be no shortage, eh?
Oct 12th 2011, 11:07 am
#13
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Re: The cost of Living in NZ?
I have to say that with one wage of $170k plus another unspecified, I can't see how you wouldn't have an amazing lifestyle even in 'expensive' Auckland. Pretty shocked by that, if leading a "modest" lifestyle in the UK.
Oct 12th 2011, 11:28 am
#14
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Re: The cost of Living in NZ?
My wife is a hospital consultant with 20 years experience in a speciality where there is a chronic shortage in NZ
She could attract a salary of £100k+ in UK or $400k+ in Aus.
I'm afraid $170,000 (c.£85,000) is not a huge salary for the profession and, as another contribitor said ,not enough for NZ to retain or attract the doctors it needs.If it was there would not be a chronic shortage of doctors!
On returning to UK from NZ my wife commented that people she met in NZ seemed to have confused the concepts of "standard of living" and "quality of life".
The former was (again and subjectively) low the latter quite possibly high relative to someone who lived in say a large city in UK.We live in a rural area in the UK and so except for the beaches in NZ (which were fantastic) we would not gain to move.
I suppose the point I'm (badly) trying to make is simply that in our particlar case NZ would have proved to have been a low wage high cost country where we would not have gained from the move - financially or otherwise but that does not mean that NZ is not perfect for many other people.
She could attract a salary of £100k+ in UK or $400k+ in Aus.
I'm afraid $170,000 (c.£85,000) is not a huge salary for the profession and, as another contribitor said ,not enough for NZ to retain or attract the doctors it needs.If it was there would not be a chronic shortage of doctors!
On returning to UK from NZ my wife commented that people she met in NZ seemed to have confused the concepts of "standard of living" and "quality of life".
The former was (again and subjectively) low the latter quite possibly high relative to someone who lived in say a large city in UK.We live in a rural area in the UK and so except for the beaches in NZ (which were fantastic) we would not gain to move.
I suppose the point I'm (badly) trying to make is simply that in our particlar case NZ would have proved to have been a low wage high cost country where we would not have gained from the move - financially or otherwise but that does not mean that NZ is not perfect for many other people.
Oct 12th 2011, 11:34 am
#15
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Re: The cost of Living in NZ?
We have been here three months and whilst I agree that rental and food are more expensive (our rental is approx. 20% more, food is around 30% more) its not the complete picture... other things are not quite so bad (petrol is around 15% cheaper, utility (fuel) is around 10% cheaper, mobile phone contract is 15% less, car and motorcycle insurance is 20-30% cheaper).
The nightmare stories I heard about clothing and shoes being expensive just isn't true... we've all bought some nice clothes since we've been here and its no more expensive than the UK. I also think some electrical items are a lot cheaper (TVs for example).
The only thing that annoys me is that I'm paying through the nose to register my motorcycle here... around $550 per year (combined with my insurance, its around $1000 per year) but then back in the UK the tax and insurance wasn't that much cheaper (maybe 10%).
It swings in roundabouts... some things are more expensive, some cheaper. We are currently surviving on my salary alone and run a car, motorcycle and rent a lovely place near Waitakere ranges thats only 25mins to CBD in rush hour (motorcycle!).
One thing I haven't done yet is have a night out on the town... and I'm sure the price of beer will annoy me here, but thats just life... I much prefer our lifestyle here, my wife loves it and my daughter is in her element.
There is no doubt that we'd have a little more money in our pocket if we were back in the UK... but thats not important... we've never been happier.
We never moved to NZ to be financially better off... but what we've gained so far you couldn't put a price on.
The nightmare stories I heard about clothing and shoes being expensive just isn't true... we've all bought some nice clothes since we've been here and its no more expensive than the UK. I also think some electrical items are a lot cheaper (TVs for example).
The only thing that annoys me is that I'm paying through the nose to register my motorcycle here... around $550 per year (combined with my insurance, its around $1000 per year) but then back in the UK the tax and insurance wasn't that much cheaper (maybe 10%).
It swings in roundabouts... some things are more expensive, some cheaper. We are currently surviving on my salary alone and run a car, motorcycle and rent a lovely place near Waitakere ranges thats only 25mins to CBD in rush hour (motorcycle!).
One thing I haven't done yet is have a night out on the town... and I'm sure the price of beer will annoy me here, but thats just life... I much prefer our lifestyle here, my wife loves it and my daughter is in her element.
There is no doubt that we'd have a little more money in our pocket if we were back in the UK... but thats not important... we've never been happier.
We never moved to NZ to be financially better off... but what we've gained so far you couldn't put a price on.