Re: Looking at Auckland – Cost of living , trying to gauge salary I need to aim for
 

Ah yes, seaonal fruit n veg
$8. for a cucumber and $24 for a kg of tomatoes !!

Re: Looking at Auckland – Cost of living , trying to gauge salary I need to aim for
 

On noes.

Are we going down the real , really, reality of the tomatoes route again. :cry_smile:



Yup. Get your nashers sorted before you arrive. There seems to be no issue with false nashers or no nashers :p

Has anyone actually ever been called a whinging pom , apart from those with reverse syndrome who need to call their own countrymen whinging. :zzz:

Nopes. If one will encounter racism or prejudice it is far more extreme than that. Either subversive or in your face.


...and TimmyChch is a mate but I am not. :sad_smile:

Re: Looking at Auckland – Cost of living , trying to gauge salary I need to aim for
 

Thanks for that. We don’t eat expensive food and I shop at Tesco which I find very well priced.

So I should be budgeting $480 a month on shopping in NZ.

To be honest I don’t keep a strict account of grocery bills, that’s a rough guess.

The position I don’t want to be in in NZ is – budgeting to have a nice coffee in a café if I feel like one.;)

Cheers for the input

Re: Looking at Auckland – Cost of living , trying to gauge salary I need to aim for
 

Geez - Auckland sounds scary :eek:

Re: Looking at Auckland – Cost of living , trying to gauge salary I need to aim for
 

It depends on how you shop. If you spend £50 a week in Scotland then yes $480 a month would cover it. I would aim for $600 myself. Next time you do a average shop, jump online and look up the NZ prices at countdown.co.nz

Re: Looking at Auckland – Cost of living , trying to gauge salary I need to aim for
 

Thanks for that. To be honest I really don’t count how much I spend but in context of considering NZ I need to look at this. It could actually be £40 (my spend) a week but to be honest the difference of £10 a week here is not a big thing as you probably know.

I am going to have a look at countdown online thanks. I did have a look a Newworld and something I need to spend a bit of time on.

Cheers for that

Re: Looking at Auckland – Cost of living , trying to gauge salary I need to aim for
 

Pak n Save is the nearest to Lidl/Aldi.
We thought the general grocery prices were a lot more than the UK.
At least at the exchange rate of 2.2NZD to 1UKP.
This makes £50 equivalent to $110 and I would have said that a general shop was quite a bit more.
Wine is reasonably priced, but fresh veggies are more expensive (don't mention tomatoes) and the processed meats - bacon, sausage etc are "different".

Meat cuts are slightly different as well; we found strange things such as NZ lamb was cheaper in the UK than NZ.

I would recommend a pessimistic pricing - if you work out that you can just manage then this isn't good. Perhaps 25% in your budget for contingency?

One thing - AFAIK you don't need car insurance (partly because if you injure someone then the State just picks up the tab). Not sure what happens if you bend someone's car - I assume that they might expect you to pay but then I think most people fix their own dents and if you crash your car then that's your problem. No car. Still haven't fully got my head around it but it seems that you either accept that you will pay for any damage to your car or you take out insurance.

Re: Looking at Auckland – Cost of living , trying to gauge salary I need to aim for
 

Thanks for that info but not my style. Would rather be able to afford insurance or not go to NZ, I really don’t see myself in that situ. With all due respect.

Most of the roles I would pitch for usually offer Co car or car allowance.

Cheers again

Re: Looking at Auckland – Cost of living , trying to gauge salary I need to aim for
 

You'll be fine. Especially in tartan with your knees showing.:tounge_smile:

Re: Looking at Auckland – Cost of living , trying to gauge salary I need to aim for
 

And no teeth - geez Johnny Rotten comes to mind :lol:

Re: Looking at Auckland – Cost of living , trying to gauge salary I need to aim for
 

Some of the others have already mentioned the cost of schools and children activities, but I'll give you a breakdown of how much those things are for my kids.We are in Auckland so the figures will be similar to what you have to pay.

Costs for 1 child:

School donation, decile 8 school $200 per year
Plus extra for stationary and class books $50 per year
Plus if you go to a BYOD school thats $200 per year

School Uniform, when we arrived my initial layout for the entire summer/winter uniform was $600. That gave us a school jumper, 3 polo shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, 3 long sleeve shirts, 2 pairs of school trousers, P.E. kit and school hat.

Swimming lessons are $11 per lesson
Dance lessons are $10 per lesson
Piano lessons are $30 per lesson
Art classes are £10 per lesson
Scouts are $5 per session
Football is £10 per session

School stationary and books for the beginning of the year cost me about $70 for each child.

My children are 10 and 7 so still in the growing like a weed stage, so they need new shoes and clothes fairly regularly. I buy trainers on sale at Rebel sports for about $100 a pair. You can get cheaper but I have a thing about my kids wearing decent shoes.

I don't buy them clothes here. I find the quality shocking and the variety boring so I still buy their clothes from Next, M&S and Boden.

Your grocery budget does look high, I don't even spend that for the 4 of us weekly but what you must remember is that variety is limited here. There might be staple items in your weekly shop that you just don't get here and you'll probably have to go to 3 or 4 different shops to do you weekly shop because even the supermarkets don't have everything you need.

Petrol use is subjective to where you live and how much time you will spend in traffic. You may only live 20 mins from work but if you're in Auckland prepare to spend hours in traffic. That's just what it's like here. My husband works 25mins form home but easily spends at least 3 or 4 days a week stuck in traffic for up to 2 hours. He spends $100 every 10 days or so on petrol.

You forgot to add water to your list. We pay about $80 per month.
Also some places have gas heating or wood burning stoves, you need to add that cost in.

I think that about covers it but if I think of anything more I'll post again.

Re: Looking at Auckland – Cost of living , trying to gauge salary I need to aim for
 

We're two adults and we go mega minimal on the groceries, shopping at Pak n Save for the most part and rarely is it less than $140 and then usually some extras at fruit and veg shop, bread, milk and such like during the week. Cat food is another extra from vets.

$25 won't go far in the way of entertainment - a beer or glass of wine is $8 to $9, normal price for adult cinema ticket $18.50 ($13 Child), soft drink, tea or coffee at a cafe $4.50, eating out, parking, ice-cream etc. all adds up.

Our most recent electric bill was $136 - supposedly cheapest summer month / usually nobody home all day but would have been a bit extra over the Christmas holidays. The only way from there is is up and Winter can be anything upto and around $350pm

I know it depends a lot on what sort of a car you are insuring but mine is $49 a month (fully comprehensive on a small old nanna car).

Re: Looking at Auckland – Cost of living , trying to gauge salary I need to aim for
 

Yes that is true, although I would personally never go without car insurance. Just to clarify - if you are at fault during an accident then your repair bills aren't covered by anyone or anything. Very risky financially especially if you end up with lots of damages or writing off the car.

I had an "incident" in the UK where I accidentally parked my car on the neighbours wall (don't ask). I was going slow at the time but the way the bricks hit my car it completely stuffed it up beyond repair underneath. If that was in NZ and I didn't have insurance I would be left with no car, which is a bit of a bugger if you are reliant on it! I suppose in hindsight I shouldn't have parked my car on my neighbours wall but the car had other ideas...

Re: Looking at Auckland – Cost of living , trying to gauge salary I need to aim for
 

Personally I've not come across a role that offers a company car in NZ, outside the Utilities where management may attract a branded Ute, true company cars are quite rare and attached to more senior roles than the $65-$85k salary you are looking at.

As you have seen, Seek can be ultra-vague on salary let alone benefits but be wary of assuming the roles you look at will be likely to come with a profusion of benefits.

Re: Looking at Auckland – Cost of living , trying to gauge salary I need to aim for
 

Yes company cars are a different concept here; most people that I know with company vehicles are pool cars. So they're not attached to an individual and not technically allowed to use them for personal use, some aren't allowed to take them home, others have trackers and do get pulled up if seen somewhere they are not meant to be and its not unusual to have to leave them at the office when on leave.

The difference being in the UK company cars are a perk of the job and employee pays tax accordingly so no issue wth personal use; here however the employer pays the tax and they have to declare and pay Fringe Benefit Tax to IRD , hence the restrictions on personal use.