Fungus and Jo

Can anyone who's already in NZ give me any idea on possible monthly out goings? I'm trying to roughly work out what kind of expenditures we'll have to see if moving to NZ is really viable? After taking into account either rent/ mortgage. How much can I expect to pay on energy bills, phone, insurance ( car/ house), broadband. Are there any other costs i need to take into account? Do you have a council tax to pay for example?.

thanks loads for anyone who can help

ukkiwi

Do a search on this forum and you'll find loads of threads about this subject - here's one.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...ight=outgoings

No coucil tax btw - but you get hit in other ways like paying tax on everything you earn.

Fungus and Jo

cheers

sparkie down under

It depends greatly on where you live as well. Any ideas?

Fungus and Jo

Probs Bay of Plenty, defently think it will be North Island although we realise there could be a vast difference throughout the whole Island due to different weather patterns etc. So we are just after what ever information we can get from as many sources as possible.
Cheers :-)

BEVS

Family budget or as a couple?

Genesis

I think you need to be looking at about $1000 (ish)..(maybe a wee bit less) a month for all house hold bills inc ins for house and contents and running 2 cars..excluding petrol. This does not include rent/mortgage or food. Food will be roughly $250 per week for a family of 4 if you shop dilligently. Mortgage and rental obviously depend upon your circs. and what you need and where you choose to set up home.


The above figs can be paired down if you scrimp and save, only have one car and can get by on a cheaper weekly shop.

Persephone

When I moved in with Mr Sue we worked out the monthly bills. We spend $800 per month on gas, electricity, council rates. Sky, broadband, phone, all food and going out for meals once or twice a week and the odd takeaway. We pay for our own cars and petrol separately

We aren't the most extravagant of people though
We haven't had to top up the joint account due to over spending yet
That is for two people with no rent or mortgage outgoings

Sue

CarolineSwan

we are a family of 3 in new plymouth and this is roughly what we are a month

360 a week rent ( no rates)
200 to 250 ish a week on shopping ( including alcahol)
84 a week nursary fees( will get this free come august)
140 a month phone/broadband this includes unlimited calls to uk
120ish a month electricity
50 a month for sky
30 a week for our friday night takeaway ( we tend to have lunch out on a sat depending what we do really)

roughly 60 dollars of petrol every 3/4 weeks as the car only gets used at weekends as hubby has work transport and i stay in same street as my work so walk

we paid car and house insurance in one go im sure was 300 for car and 90 odd for home contents, own car outright so no car payments and as new no wof etc needed yet

we tend to still have cash at end of week left , we also buy clothes for daughter every week as im caroline and im a shopoholic

cant think of other outgoinings the now

hope this helps

caz

Bo-Jangles

Council Tax = Rates and yes of course we have them, same as UK based on the rateable value of the house. You can check on each council's website. If you live in Auckland there are two tranches, one from your local council and one from the regional council, plus an extra bill for Water billed seperately and based upon consumption. Plus there's a stack of other incidentals that other people have not listed, they all add up!

For us 2 people and 2 pets:

Our Mortgage $360k = Huge $1,200 per fortnight
Rates = $280 bi-monthly + Rubbish Bags (user pays per bag)
Water Rates = Approx $70 every six months
Telephone Internet $120 per month
Electricity = Average $170 / $180 per month (Bills as high as $250 in winter)
Groceries = $175 - 180 per week
Petrol $50 or so each per fortnight x 2
Car Registration = $352 per annum x 2
Car WOF = $45 every six months x 2
Car Service $200 each
AA Membership - $160 + $120 (reduced for second vehicle) per year
Road user Charges for Diesel vehicle
House contents and 2 x car insurance = $140 per month
Buildings Insurance = $33 per month
Vets Bills ?? Annual jabs $25 something each
Doctors and Dentists Bills ?? Never been!
Travel Holidays?? What's that?

After that there's, never any left. We have no such extravagances as Sky TV in this house, scrimp and shop around quite a bit on the groceries front and buy very few luxuries or nice to haves. We rarely eat out, don't buy magazines or newspapers and I cook and bake goodies most weekends to supplement our fairly meagre existence.

Fungus and Jo

Its a bit of a strange one I have joint custody of my kids so I have them roughly half and half. My ex and her hubby are aiming to move over before we do with the kids then when we come over we'll resume back as we were. so one week will be as a couple and the other as a 4.

I'm a nurse and it looks like by the time we come over I'll probs be earning $40-45,000 p.a. basic. Jo works in an office doing admin stuff so we're presuming her wage could be pretty crappy. Maybe $20,000 max once she finds a job ( if she can find one). We don't have a house here in blighty so we're trying to save like mad to get as big a deposit saved as possible towards a mortgage. But depending on how long we have to rent for it could eat chunks outta that.
We'd have to have a car but i'd be willing to bike/run/walk to work if we could be about 30 min walking distance from the hospital.
I used to be a chef so i'm already thinking about hopefully growing our own veggies etc.. for me to bake, preserve and do lots of nice things to. If we need to do food cheap we can easily live of pasta and varying cheap versions of that, as we all lurve pasta. Same goes for most foods actually. We very rarely buy processed foods, sauces etc.. the only tins we ever buy are tommies and baked beans.

Regarding medical stuff is it better to get health insurance or save up as some seem to indicate on here? I presume their could always be the temptation to delve into it if saved when times are a bit hard.

luvwelly

If you can afford it, I'd take out private cover for medical (unless you are happy with public sector waiting lists situation) but save for dental. Dental only seems to be available as a private add-on to existing medical anyway...there don't seem to be any stand-alone policies on the market here.

ukkiwi

Talking of dentists - a friend of mine found it cheaper to fly back to his UK NHS dentist to get some major work done.

Kiwi-Irish

NO council tax? isn't that the same as "rates"?

ukkiwi

yep i stand cottected on that one