M_and_M

Hi

Just wanted to ask how people have tackled this problem.

I fly out next Friday and have temp accommodation with a friend's family.

When hubby gets here in about 6 weeks, we will have the inevitable transition period while our belongings sail around the world.

What's the cheapest way to cope during that time?

I have looked into furnished rentals but not sure if they will allow such a short contract.

Motels would be really costly, and at the moment OH doesn't have a job.

Don't really want to put out the friends family with both of us for 3 months.

Ideas would be greatly recieved.

Charismatic

Short stay apartments? I'm sure you'll find somewhere quickly enough.

My top survival tips from my student days:
- $13.99 iron from the Warehouse. Turn it upside down and you can heat baked beans, bacon, porridge or if you can stretch to tin foil a toasted sandwich.

- Shop at night when the bakery items go on sale, freeze and take out for tomorrows lunch as required.

- Wake yourself up early on a Saturday morning (probably still groggy and hung over), fish all the money you can find out of your jeans/sofa/car ash tray and head down to the local farmers market.

Happy to help .

AndyEvs

We went for a fully furnished rental. Signed up for 6 months which we thought would give us time to find a house to buy. We also made sure it had a big garage. When our container arrived everything was stacked up in the garage. Although the rental was a bit cold it made the transition really easy. It had been organised before we arrived so we went from the airport straight there! The only thing was we had to wait until quite late in the day for the electric to be connected which was a pain as we were struggling to stay awake by then.
We found a house fairly quickly but had to extend the rental by a month. The agent was not very happy as we had said we thought we'd be there another 6 months but we gave the requisite notice so it was not an issue.
The boxes in the garage were stacked sky high so it used to make for fun and games when we went looking for specific items. Some stuff got unpacked, much didn't and that made the move into our own house, done just by us and some friends, cheap and easy.
Motels and hotels are expensive and managing on inflatable beds with just some camping crockery is not how I wanted to spend the first few months here, it is hard enough without that.

Snap Shot

We sent our container on ahead of us. It left the day we sold our house on 12 January 2011. We left Britain on 26 February, arriving in Auckland on 28 Feb. The container ship docked in Christchurch as planned in March while we were on a fruitless search for jobs and accommodation in Auckland for three weeks. First week was in a self catering place then two disastrous weeks staying in the basement flat of a relative of an in-law. Sounds complicated ? Don't go there !

So by the time we got to Christchurch and got our act together in late March, which didn't take long. Our container was ready and waiting, we just had to tell NZ Van Lines the address of our rental in Christchurch.

As AndyEvs has said motels and hotels are expensive but necessary sometimes. So, if you don't want to impose on your hosts for longer than the agreed six weeks, um dunno.

Would a shared house or a youth hostel be totally out of the question for you both when your husband arrives ? Have you looked on trademe for a short term let of a small one bed place on the understanding that you can look for somewhere more appropriate in lieu of your container arriving ? Most supermarkets have a sort of classified ads board. There are adverts for a room to let or look in the local paper for similar when you get here. Be prepared to be turned down just because you are a married couple or you are older than the average student. Don't let that put you off.

Warehouse sell household goods cheaply. It's like all the non-food departments of Tesco. Briscoes is a homewares shop, they have regular sales which are good. Mr. Rental is a good rental company, look them up on the internet. They supply everything from white goods, to furniture, to electrical goods. We rent our washing machine from them.

JPA

You might also like to consider a holiday rental. Have a look at the websites, the prices are often quoted per night, but if you contact direct you will often get a rate per week.

The weekly rates can also sometimes be negotiated lower if you agreed to 6 or 8 weeks etc. For example, we have a 1 bedroom fully furnished flat at the moment, which is $550 a week and in a very central location so we have no travel costs etc.

http://www.holidayhouses.co.nz/
http://www.bookabach.co.nz/

The only other options we tried were:

1) Try and negotiate shorter rental terms with agents/private letters. Most will not entertain less than 6 months, but some will negotiate for a 3 month term.

2) Use commercial corporate rentals, these are typically more expensive starting around $150 a night with little movement on cost for longer terms

I discovered that companies that rent such properties on terms of less than 3 months are charged tax because it is seen as running hotel accommodation. This pushes up costs for the letting agents and is the reason its difficult to get anything under a three month term.

Hope this helps.

chippy64

You can rent big items such as furniture and white goods. Buy cheap plates/cutlery/towels etc from K Mart, Briscoes or The Warehouse.

MrsFychan

we had a rental ready (yeh to their cleanliness not mine) for 3 days after we arrived, MIL had booked a hotel stay for 3 nights to help with the jet lag. lucky she did as gave me time to get some cleaners in.
Don't underestimate how you will feel about not having necessary(?) items. I had it in my mind that I could "camp out" at the rental for 2mths but boy.... I had people loan us table and chairs for the kitchen, we bought camping chairs but by a month and a 1/2 I just needed a sofa to sit on. Got me down big time, if I had known that plonking me butt on something soft and comfortable was quite a need I would of called Mr Rental at the time of getting the washer and got some comfy chairs in. Our container was held up by 10days so by then I had had enough. We had an rental inspection and got told off for having the mattresses on the floor but could hardly do anything about that as bed frames where on the container.
So if I had to do it again I would rent the furniture like sofa's and beds until the container arrived

simonsi

We were loaned some pots and blankets (thanks Foxecho!), bought air beds and a new small set of crockery, rented TV and washer from Mr Rentals and all had fun camping in the rental lounge for 6 weeks til the container showed itself.

We had a holiday rental on the Shore booked for two weeks after arrival which gave us time to find a rental.

DandJMay

Hi M&M

Whilst I don't furniture to loan, I do have plates cups iron etc etc you can borrow, so don't buy that kind of stuff. PM me when your ready to move into your own place and we'll see what can to help you out.

Jo