+1

can take me rod down the rocks and spend an afternoon fishing for free (almost) before taking to the beach

Sorry to hear that you are struggling with the job thing.

Work's pretty hard at the moment - paid $600 for my GST last month, lowest ever by a long way.

I suppose the point is, if one has little money, that finding something cheaper somewhere else really helps spread the budget. Not talking groceries, but certainly books / dvd's / cycle parts etc which are far cheaper from the UK. My primary motivation is saving money, other aspects, such as proving points, are not even secondary, probably nearer twentyry.

gotta agree on that, last week wanted a bosch drain pump OEM $180 here, could get the OEM in UK for £25 - service engineer said go for UK one. but at $8 for a wash might be cheaper to bite the bullet.

Some sites have really good shipping rates from the UK, whereas others make the postage so prohibitive - it negates any savings. There are enough people on this forum in the UK - they should help us out!!!

I'll take that and say that I had confused another post with SimonSi's, thinking that he had posted 2 "silly thread"/"stupid thread" posts. Didn't call anyone a troll, twas more of a suggestion to lay off the "stupid thread" idea.

Agree totally that average salaries are not an issue, for too many reasons that have already been posted.
Disagree with the points on averaging costs, as some goods/services have to be averaged to one degree or another. Averages are "hard facts" just because their significance is not always totally clear doesn't reduce their value if what is being averaged and how the result is reached is understood.

And don't see why I can't say that many people had the perception that NZ was cheap, certainly until a few years ago. Plenty of people still comment on it in normal conversation.

that's what parents are for
bed now fraid at it's after 2

So did I and maybe they are. But when you realise the $500K house is made of balsa wood, has no insulation, has no double glazing and is pretty much the norm then you realise, or I did, that the hard facts about prices didn't prepare me for what I found.


Mr BoJangles quote is the best thing I've read on this site

"You know sometimes when they do the weather they give an actual temperature and a 'feels like' temperature. The two can be very different"


But I don't regret trying NZ and I certainly don't regret coming back.

Read back "bordering on trolling" were your words. Happy for you to retract, less than impressed if you are just going to split hairs in your defense.

Oooh so scary. I just don't like those who try to shut down debate - and you and lardyl both try and effect that with personal and self-justifying comments.

I don't think that's being naive at all. Some people have said in this thread that NZ wages are low in comparison to the UK. How do you find out if this is true, other than just some experiences of some people who have come here to a lower wage? You take an average salary for both countries and convert them, for comparison sake, using the exchange rate. It makes perfect sense to me.

Quote of the year award!! Pure genius, fantastic!! So that's how we balance the books.

I think this should be quoted on the immigration propaganda website, it sounds just like something John Key would say and something that trips off of the tongue of one who probably doesn't even know, far less care, much about the price of a block of cheese.

So, a note to all you low wage earning poor folks who are finding life a struggle: you've got it all wrong, the milk is not expensive, you've just go to get up off your arse and find a better paying job. Let's call a halt to all these Government inquiries into the price of milk and get over yourselves.

Thank you!
So a block of cheese cost $10 - so what? Other things are cheaper, a lot cheaper.
If you're on a low wage in the UK everything is expensive there. Why do some people on this forum think that their experiences of NZ are the true ones when others have completely different experiences of NZ?

Good on ya Woodlea.

Number 1 actually and to paraphrase Mr Churchill in the morning I am sober while you are still an arrogant bully

Because therein lies a big point of difference: by our very nature emigrees to NZ we're not what could be considered low wage earners by any stretch of the usual imagination. We generally are professional or senior trades types who probably in the past 'mostly' did not have to scratch around looking for the cheapest option. We 'mostly' managed to live comfortably within our means and this comes as quite a surprise and quite a challenge to many of us to balance the books in the same way when we get to NZ. i.e. being a certain trade or profession should generally afford you xyz in terms of lifestyle.

There are people here that never in their life would have thought about joining a UK centric forum to discuss the price of fish or baked beans, people that never had to think twice about the cost of a loaf of bread; never mind the bigger worries about the issues of leaving the lights or heating on. Myself I never thought once, let alone twice about them. I was cold, I put the heating on; no debate, no guilt, no worries about the cost, there was no discussion and no shadow of a doubt that it would be any different if I were still in the UK today.

I agree it's not about averages and cost of individual items or exchange rates, however the big picture is people are not generally not better off by moving to NZ . Managing the budget IS a lot more difficult for a LOT of people. If it doesn't apply to you, then move on. I don't understand why people continue to try to close down the discussion, when it is clearly an issue for a lot of other people and has been for a long time; notwithstanding the present economic climate with recessions and exchange rates having skewed everything beyond recognition.

To belittle those people who do find it difficult to manage 'within their means' is very overbearing and condescending.