yjx1nt7

Hi
Just about to send off our ITA,
I ve landed a great job in the place we want to live {North Island }. I ve been offered $30 an hour, My partner an electrician is getting all his papers ready to be verified and our two children can t wait to go .
However .... recently we ve been reading about poverty , racism , and Brits just not being able to cope financially once they arrive.
We don t want the world but to live comfortably and give our children a better life than they will have in the UK.
What are the views of the Ex pats whom have made the move ? I realise everyone experience is different but I would be grateful for all your comments
Jo

Justcol

My personall opinion is for $30 ph and your OH being a spark (also around $30 ph) you will be fine.
You wont feel any better off and you will do what the rest of us do and get
annoyed at some of the things that really shouldnt piss ypou off but they do.
My kids (15 +18) really miss friends and some UK stuff but they are more balanced and less pressured to grow up before they are ready.
where are you thinking of moving to

Genesis

$30 an hour is $62400 pa. If you say earn half that again (assuming you will be a part time working mum) that gets you close to $100k. Even with a mortgage and rent that will get you by comfortably. It would be a squeeze in maybe Wellingto or Auck (relative to the extra cost of living in these areas) but its more than doable. One assumes you are bringing a lump sum for set up costs. The only thing you should consider is your job security. make sure you have researched your employers viability as a long term employer. Good luck.

Tomsk

I'd agree, of course it depends a lot on the kind of lifestyle that you want to achieve, but it sounds as if you should be comfortable. It also depends on which area you plan to live in...Auckland can be expensive by all accounts, and whether you have any lump sum to bring over for start up & towards a new home etc. $30 an hour x2, and small mortgage or even mortgage free would be very comfortable indeed

Jo.Ru_onway

I think the lady says she has been offered the job - she wont be a part time stay at home Mum......

yjx1nt7

Hi Thanks for your comments
Yes I will be working 40 hrs a week,
We are heading too Timaru Canterbury,
We hope to begin with that I will be the sole earner so one of us will be there for the children until they are settled in to there new lives and feel comfortable
Do you think this is possible ? We shall be bringing after expenses around a hundred grand but that would be our deposit for a house
Jo

MOSO

We've only been here (a small town on the kapiti coast about 50 mins to Wellington) 4 weeks but my kids are definitely living the dream. They are playing outside in the street with friends at every opportunity, something they never did in the UK. They love the space and freedom. They are walking to school by themselves which also they never did in the UK. On Monday we went to the beach after school and they took their bodyboards and played in the sea in their shortie wetsuits (bought in Argos!). We can just pop to the beach, park without problems (or even cycle), there are no amusements, rip-off shops etc. Just a cafe and a corner shop selling icecream and the beach just goes for miles in both directions.

They have settled into school fine. My youngest in year 2 is finding it very easy in comparison to the UK but he's enjoying all the sport and activities they do. He certainly seems to be having more fun, so I'm going with the flow on that one. He'll move to year 3 in Jan which is where he would be in the UK and that seems to be when the work starts more here. My older one in year 4 says the work is of a similar level but the behaviour of the kids here is much better (her words not mine!). Also there are no high fences/security code entrance etc. at the school.

Prices in the shops are more than we expected so stock up on clothes before you come and squeeze everything into the container you can. Having said that I can just drive to the local shops, park for nothing without any problems which beats £3 everytime to park in Sainsburys. We've had to adapt our eating habits to be more frugal and you just have to accept that you have to buy what's in season, use the freezer more and that some things are different or just not available (it is trivial but my son misses shreddies, weetabix tastes like mdf and he wishes they sold fromage frais in tubes!). You can checkout shop websites such as woolworths.co.nz and do a virtual shop online to help you see what's here .

The MAJOR downside at the moment is the exchange rate so we can't afford to shift the equity we made from our house sale in the UK. It was much harder than we thought to find a rental as well. But now we're in and gradually meeting more people it's getting easier.

Financially everyone's lifestyle/expectations/budgets etc are different just as they are in the UK so I don't see any difference there. Obviously it is a foreign country with differences to the UK, but I'm enjoying it so far and have found everyone helpful.

Is there any chance you could come over for a reccie first? We came over last year and found it very useful in finding out where we wanted to live, what was available in the shops, prices, schools etc. It may be too late if you've already got a job offer though.

Good luck with your application. Certainly do your sums, but don't be put off it it's what you want to do and my kids are certainly having a ball

MOSO

With the exchange being so dire at the moment you may not want to shift your money to buy a house anyway.

Check out trademe.co.nz for rental prices and budget for the top end (remember that nz houses can be very poorly insulated without central heating and therefore cold and damp). But if you are in a rental, you'll at least know that you have money to fall back on if you need it. I'm not working while the kids are settling in and that is what we're doing for the moment.

Cape Blue

Just out of interest, why did they not walk to school by themselves in St Albans?

yjx1nt7

Thank you so much for your in depth reply , you ve alleviated a few of our concerns

BEVS

Congrats on the job offer. In all the excitement , I take it you did mean Timaru, South Island and not North Island

Janea
Kiwinow
Planty

are all down in Timaru. Perhaps send them a PM message or start a Timaru thread.

MOSO

Too much traffic/roads to cross. Also infants was not in the same place as the juniors. The juniors went in first so it would have meant my younger one having to cross over and go down the road to the infants by himself, and he did not have the road sense at age 4 - 6 to do it.

luvwelly

Kapiti coast is not the same kettle of fish as Timaru South island though.

What are you expecting to be so much better for your kids in NZ and is this the only factor driving the move or do you and your OH want a slower pace of life as well?
Pertinent questions to ask:
How often will you be able to return to visit relatives in UK on this budget, should you wish to/need to?
How isolated is NZ really? Could I easily go back if I didn't like it?
Will my kids (soon) be really bored....you didn't say how old they are.
Timaru is not that big and your choice of school will be much more limited than say on Kapiti coast or in Wellington.

On budget, I'd ask yourself whether you'd be willing to work for less than 3 times the minimum wage in UK and think you were doing ok...minimum here is 12 dollars I think.
Are you aware that there is no tax free allowance here (6k in UK) so you pay tax on every dollar earned...it makes a bigger difference at the lower end of the earnings scale.
If you are basically happy with your lifestyle in UK, have good jobs and close friends and family who you love, then I'd say with exchange rates as they are, this is not the time to make the move....I have visited Timaru and it wouldn't be exciting enough for me longterm. This is my honest opinion. I have not emigrated though and have retained a UK property, I like it here but am not here forever.
If you've never been here, then I really would say, the grass is not always greener and counting pennies is not fun (not that I have to do this but I'd hate to have to)...you can't eat the scenery...and it can be quite boring here really..especially after a couple of years.

The main thing I dislike about here, is that I simply cannot easily make day trips to different towns/places of interest (unless I fly) and also the high cost of flying out on holidays to Oz etc...in a nutshell...I feel trapped in Wellington, so I know I'd definitely feel trapped in Timaru to an even greater extent....at least Wellington has thousands of cafes lol.

Don't think it is not a big deal moving your family thousands of miles at your own expense and burning bridges because it is a big deal and many posters on here will tell you it's doable because they themselves are STUCK so they have to post on here to justify their own position....do not make this decision based on what people say on the internet about kids playing out in the street in NZ, make it based on facts and commonsense...don't come here except for a damn good salary=lifestyle because on a more limited income it is a hard move to undo. You did ask for the truth....

Genesis

(Quote) Don't think it is not a big deal moving your family thousands of miles at your own expense and burning bridges because it is a big deal and many posters on here will tell you it's doable because they themselves are STUCK so they have to post on here to justify their own position....do not make this decision based on what people say on the internet about kids playing out in the street in NZ, make it based on facts and commonsense...don't come here except for a damn good salary=lifestyle because on a more limited income it is a hard move to undo. You did ask for the truth....[/QUOTE]

How on earth do you know who's stuck and that apparently so many of us who post on here are stuck? That's like me saying you don't like your posting here in NZ because of how you write your posts and what you say. How could I possibly assume that?? Personally if I was stuck I would say so. This is an anonymous (to a degree) etheral notice board. I am not out to tell lies about my situation and I call a spade a spade..ergo my thread about the NZ economy going bent. I doubt either if there are any other posters who say its doable cos they are stuck. Who on earth has to justify anything to anyone on this board????? And do you honestly think anyone is going to move here because a few posters say its like the UK 50 years ago? I think not.

Wiz'n'Ton

Erm, respect and all but that comment is such a load of hokum. The rest has at least one foot in reality, but 'many posters'? What are we, like the wreckers of Cornwall, looking to lure prospective immigrants over to shipwreck themselves on the land of the long white cloud because our lives suck so bad?

I think not.