MrCFD

Rates are not normally payable by tenants though (if you are renting) - depending on the city council of course.

sparkie down under

You guys are doing well

I'm lucky if we get change out of 5k a month and I don't think we are living it up either!

following is roughly

Mortgage 1800
council rates 150
country rate 80
electric 300
gas 100
sky 90
internet and phone 400
Vehicle bit an' bobs 200
fuel 800
insurance's 300
food 800

and then on top of all that there's to cost of 'doing this place up' and the animals we have (feed - vet etc) Like I say we kiss goodbye to about 5K each month

MrCFD

Good timing for this thread - I was just going through our March transactions. All depends on how you want to live. I think that expenditure in NZ is much greater than in England. I have included everything that was spent last month in case it helps anyone.

I have summarised below:

Petrol, Car, etc -2278.60
Entertainment -2467.01
Groceries and shopping -3300.35
Cleaners and maintenance -511
Childcare -3525.94
New computer -2600
Savings -5000
Bills -524.3
Rent -2390
Company Expenses -3783.49
Cash Withdrawals -820
Misc -815.49
Rotorua (1 person) -775.48
TOTAL for March 09 -28791.66


We spent just over NZ$28k last month (1 March - 1 April). The expenditure includes the following:

Petrol, Car, etc includes car payment of $840/mth.

Entertainment looks crazy, but includes a night away and a few $250-$300 dinner bills.

Shopping includes children's clothes and wife's spending.

Cleaners, etc includes two cleaners each coming once a week and a gardener coming twice a month.

Childcare is unusually high as we let our aupair go on holiday for three weeks and paid a full time professional nanny to cover her.

Computer was a one off expense and hopefully won't have that again for a while.

Savings was just money put aside last month transferred into a savings account (wasn't all bad news last month). I know that this is technically not 'expenditure', but these transactions all came from one account so I kept it in.

Bills include Sky Plus (MySky) digital on two TVs, Genesis energy bill (gas and electric).

I realise this is probably the higher end of the scale in terms of expenditure, but it is surprisingly easy to spend this much. Hope this helps someone.

Steve.

lapsed kiwi

To summarise the last two posts, you can spend as much as you like - anywhere - especially if you have more money than sense. The last two would pale into comparison compared to Paris Hilton though

MrCFD

I'm sure our incomes would as well though

Genesis

Not very realistic for the average Joe Bod aye? Who on earth can benefit from this post apart from your ego??? Sorry mate but your expenditure is complete bollocks to the likes of 'normal people' who would struggle to save $5k in 2 years let alone one month. My monthly expenditure in May 2005 was $440,000 when I bought an NZ shed..what use is that to anyone trying to work out a budget???

Kiwi-Irish

Well I hear ya Genesis, but then again, its good to know all the ins-and-outs (like Mr CFD's post), and we'll be running a business also. I'm not sure it'll have all those hard-core expenses (in fact I can almost guarantee we won't be that fortunate) but its good to know anyway. Hey - we have a cleaner at least here, hoping we can afford one there! When I lived in Christchurch years ago, in my early twenties I was sooo skint the entire time, but since I've lived in England I've noticed its ssoo much cheaper to live here. If you work the cost of things out they're much the same when you're converting pounds to dollars, but in the UK you earn so much more. For example, we were looking at a set of kitchen scales in the mall here last week while we happened to be talking about going to live in Auckland (couldn't go back in live in Chch the cold and no central heating would kill me now), and found that I could buy the scales out of half an hours wages, whereas in NZ, for what I get paid for what I'm doing - it would take me an hour and a half wages - scary. I'm hoping that when we run our own business up there we will earn more than working for someone else per-say. I would need to earn $80 dollars an hour to have the same lifestyle there as I do here - and thats just "me", not my other half.

janek

If you are in a rental I don't think you should be paying for the gardener, that ought to be the responsibility of the landlord, best have a word with him/her...
Probably best to purchase a car for cash too, 'paying them off' can't be too economical, although I suppose it depends on what you want to be seen in whilst driving.....

MrCFD

Cheers for the advice Janek. The landlord has a landscaper come in to sort out the gardens and we cover the lawns.

My wife has a couple of cars that we paid cash for, but I got mine on finance when we first arrived back in NZ. Not long to go now so I figured I would just keep going with the payments until they finish.

MrCFD

Good on ya for starting a business. It does work out better in the long run as you are taxed on your profits and not your income. Also it is a lot easier in NZ than in UK and the Inland Revenue are very helpful when you are getting your business up and running (Working for families tax credits, childcare assistance, etc) all based on profits (which should be low at least in your first year!). They don't try to screw you at every turn like HMRC!

In the last week or two I have had messages from people either starting businesses or in lines of work that would bring in a very healthy income, so hopefully the post is of help to some people. We don't have an over the top house or cars, but we do have in-home childcare, eat out once or twice a fortnight, have a cleaner, and like to spend the occassional night away from home (Granted, when we do go out we like to have good food and wine and enjoy ourselves).

All the best of luck with the business venture Kiwi-Irish - this really is the best place in the world to start a business.

Am Loolah

Well, you've all inspired me to work my expenditure out for the very first time ... Could happily have lived in ignorant bliss ... however;

For the month 01/03 - 01/04

Food, alcohol and fags (2 professional smokers and drinkers) Family of 6 - 2,721
Petrol & Expenses for 2 cars (Excluding Ins. & 2 X AA membership) - 1,370
Telecom, Sykpe, 4 X mobiles - 271
Go-Karting & Golf - 1,965
Cash Withdrawals - 1,376
Meals Out & Takeaways - 441
Clothes etc - 244
Stationary/post/books etc - 177
Electric & gas - 351
Pharmacy & doctors - 130
Gym Membership (X3) - 196
4 Day trip to Wellington for 1 - 655
Gifts - 497
iTunes & Sundry - 35

Not including house or cars insurance, AA membership or dog food (for 2 dobermans) a total monthly spend of $10,559 ...

sparkie down under

That is so right Kiwi Irish. To make any sort of proper comparison it should be on how many hours to work to purchase. Funny enough we were having this conversation only yesterday. We used to go to Amsterdam for a weekend break 2 or 3 times a year. There's a lovely bar opposite the railway station and they serve the most wonderful hot chocolate. Made with rum and cream Anyway at 9 euro per cup it would take me 6 minutes to earn one, (back then). Now today, earning the kiwi dollar, it would be 13 minutes.

And I'm not knocking NZ, before you all go off on one. It is the economy of scale. More people, more choice, less cost.

Yesterday we spent 2 and half hours walking around just about every shop that sold pillows in Palmy for a new, certain type, of pillow. One shop sold themOne! What does the sale's assistant say when we come back to the shop, "Back again"! What does he say when I try and get a discount on a $200 pillow. "No sorry mate, can't (won't) do (cos we are the only ones selling these and you had to come back)

Choice!!!

And good on you for starting your own business. Be prepared for an uphill struggle - but keep at it

CarolineSwan

[QUOTE= I would need to earn $80 dollars an hour to have the same lifestyle there as I do here - and thats just "me", not my other half.[/QUOTE]

i would say every person on this forum in same boat.. we had our own business and hubby made a fortune an hour , but give me less wages and less stress with heaps more family time any day of the week..

we dont scrimp and scrape by and we unlike most find it cheaper over here to live, maybe we are just lucky but we do always have some of hubbys wages left at end of the week plus mine sit in account getting saved, yea we dont go on nights out but thats cos we have a 2 year old and didnt go out in britain either but we do get take aways and a couple bottles of wine a week, days out at weekends and treats so all in all its great

oh but i must say the au pair does put our budget up

caz

sparkie down under

I always thought AuPair's were just in TV sitcoms from the seventies

Kiwi-Irish

Do you work for yourself? sparkie down under?

We'd be looking to get into the drainage/plumbing business which is what we do here.

Yeah, I have to face facts that when we move that things are more expensive there ... its like comparing the US to the UK, they get things even cheaper than us in the UK I reckon - same reason, cause there's more people, more choice. NZ shops have a "captive" audience.

Its actually bloody hilarious cause people who've never lived and worked in the UK always say "but its so expensive in England" - well yes, but only if you're visiting/a traveller.