Hokey-pokey

You are quite correct - I really do agree with you ! It would be so fantastic if parents would teach their kids to swim especially in this water mad country. Doesn't seem to happen though and we have too many deaths by drowning each summer. Also sad to see children who are too afraid to participate in water sports because they have poor/ no swimming skills.

Agree with the maths comment too. Just doesn't seem to happen from my observations.

I think most professionals would like their children to get a tertiary qualification. So yes we do put money aside each month in a growth fund in the hope that it might just be worth something in 10 - 12 years
Agree with the Insurances . I like paying rates off one year at a time too, as it makes budgeting easier IMO.
You certainly sound like you've got things very well sussed. I wish you all the best.

Charismatic

Not too much of a problem, we have a very high rate of graduates. Finding someone to hire them afterwards can be more of a problem at the moment however.

Madmaxdeux

Thats $40k combined income before Tax.

Hokey-pokey

Yep, retiring to Oz to be near the kids has to taken into consideration too ! How about nursing graduates ? Wonder what the degree of choice will be in 15 years ?

Charismatic

Nurses that are trained here can do pretty well overseas .

Hokey-pokey

Heh, heh!! I know what you're saying, expect the kids to leap frog over the ditch. Good thing Im quite fond of Australia, quite like the average Aussie too. ( can't believe I said that ! )

luvwelly

To think someone called me smug yesterday...

Genesis

I was aimed at your comment and I added patronising today.

ukkiwi

Yes but houses in Wanganui are omong the cheapest in NZ - though gone up a lot from 4 years ago when you'd of paid $50k!

TeamEmbo

I'm amazed you only spend $160 on food for 3 of you each week - what's the secret? how do you do it? We're a family of 4 - 2 adults, 2 teenagers, and I can't get my weekly bill under $300 That though is not just food, it includes toiletries/hygiene products for all four of us, household cleaning stuff, 1 sack of chicken food ($10) and 1 sack of dog food (around $18) and enough stuff for packed lunches x4 for 5 days. Everything gets cooked/baked from scratch, I only buy what's on special but I can never seem to get it down below this amount. Any advice much welcome!

Do you not have any insurances? - car, contents, life, health or pension contributions, or school costs?

love30stm

Ummm yes of course and my friend bought a nice house for $370,000k in Napier and that's not the cheapest place!

TeamEmbo

We paid $320,000 for our house. We only had $20,000 to put down as deposit when we came over and yes we could have chosen to rent which would have been way cheaper and given us more monthly disposable income but we didn't want to risk not being able to get back onto the property ladder in the future, wanted for us and mainly the kids, to be settled in our 'own' home and be free to do what we want to our house. We could have bought cheaper - at the time for what was available we could have got somewhere for around $280,000 but those properties would have needed an awful lot of work to make them liveable homes (repairs, insulation, modernising etc) and we simply didn't have the spare cash to be able to do that at the time.

Even with huge mortgage we had to go back to the bank and borrow more to fund getting heat pumps put in and we chose a repayment mortgage so that capital is being paid off at the same time. So each month the budget is tight and but long-term we have an investment in our home which will be paid off in full and I guess that's our retirement plan.

We made what we considered to be the best choice we could at the time given the circumstances. Our house isn't big or flash. Compared to what we had in the UK is huge to us but its nothing special compared to what is around.

But like I've said countless times before, I love my life here, my house, where I live and I wouldn't change it for anything. Sometimes the juggling is fun - there's a great sense of achievement in living on a budget and more appreciation for what we do have, though equally sometimes it can get you a little down, but it's all part of life's rich tapestry and no-one's starved to death yet so it's all good

vicejw

These posts are really interesting but I feel partly like I'm toturing myself reading them.

Our Container has left today and we have decided that we'll do this no matter what now.... the point of no return has been and gone.

These whole financial posts got me thinking a lot and calculating and recalculating our financial projections out there. I think though that the cost of living here isn't really as cheap as it sounds like people think it is. It seems to me if you go to NZ which massivley high expectations financially you may be dissapointed. We however, had a four year plan and pretty low expectations for the first few years.

I have to say also that we really struggle here, we live in London commuter land and house prices are silly. We struggled to buy a 3 bed house in a place which had a great school but the mortgage has been a real millstone. Neither of us are high earners, we're both public sector and I only work part time. We could manage if it was just the two of us but with kids and the stuff that goes with them it means we have NO extra cash, plus we find such huge pressures here for giving them things - big parties, toys, extra classes etc. Also yes you can go to Tescos and buy things cheaply - a top of 2.50 or something but I find that all those 'cheap' items added onto a weekly shop really add up. Ok i should be more restrained but I am actually looking forward to not having the option. I personally feel that here we have too much stuff, too many toys, too many clothes - we really don't need and having no option to buy cheap stuff will hopefully mean less waste and will possibly focus our attentions and finances or more important things which benefit us as a family.

If that all makes sense. I'm not saying I'm looking forward to being poor but I am looking forward to being out of the material rat race we seem to have fallen into and which seems to be exceeding our monthly incomes.

NZ for us is much more than the money it's about the lifestyle and I hope that remains true. We'll wait and see......

Genesis

We too do lots of baking and cooking from scratch and I reckon for the five of us we spend $350 plus a week easy(all our kids are small and under 9!!!!!). Fruit and veg is a good $70 a week outta that!!

I worked out our expenses monthly and the house bills alone, a couple of tiny life insurances and running 2 cars costs about $900 per month.

If we had the average mortgage they reckon its about $850 a fortnight(??) we would be $200 a month in the red out of a $65k salary (Kate clears $1920 a fortnight). The only thing that would keep us above water is the family tax credits we get. All the above expenditure does not factor in anything for breakdowns, dental or holidays.

lardyl

must say that the swimming teaching here is way ahead of the UK practice that I've seen. I'm a decent smimmer and learned "properly" in the UK and the missus was qualified as a pool attendant but we could never have taught the kids to swin in the way that it is done here.

I suppose the proof of the pudding in that case is the number of Kiwi parents who use a particular swim school.

As far as dealing with maths, etc tuition then it depends on your kid, some will thrive with just parent attention and the odd help, others need professional assistance, suggesting that any parent can do it for their kid irrespective of the strengths/weaknesses is a little, erm naiive IMHO - that's just one of the those "unknowns" that can suck the disposable income dry -

We have one that we never knew about when we left the UK and this takes $350 a month out of our budget. It's an essential too as it means that our eldest will not grow up with oppositional defiance and most likely end up in the big house - it also allows him to learn and interact at school, money well spent and something we would never be able to deal with on our own.

At the end of the day the whole issue is about where you choose to spend your income - some areas are cheaper in NZ (compared to hours worked, which to me is the only truly fair comparison) and some are shockingly expensive. So if you need very good teeth, desinger clothes and hate going to the beach or the outdoor life then NZ is not for you.