shortfatbloke

I read on a thread somewhere that the $4000 is a good estimate for monthly outgoings in the Auckland area. Can anyone break these costs down? And the stupid question is how much do you have earn before tax to clear $4k a month?

Thanks.

ukkiwi

Around $75k to clear $4k

Rent - $1000pm - $4000+ pm (depending on size and location)
Food $800 pm
Electric - $100 pm
Fuel - $200 pm
Social - $400
Phone - $50

sky

How do you keep your phone bill so low ours is always more than that even with favorite places. Our leccy is usually more than that too about $120 it was last month and we used about $300 of wood a month on top of that in the winter.

newkiwi

Biggest single item is accommodation/ housing, anywhere from $300 to $600 per week, depending on the area, size of mortgage, whether your renting etc. So that makes a big difference in what your budget needs are.

also dont forget to include money in your budget for savings, most firms will not have a pension scheme, NZ does have a national scheme for everybody but it wont be anough you will need to top it up with personal savings.

75 - 80 k per year is going to give you about $1000 per week. The marginal tax rate on anything over 60k per year is 39%, that is the highest tax rate in NZ. less than Aus (47% ?) but in NZ you start paying tax on pretty much every dollar you earn.

Ther are some tax breaks for families but i dont know the details

Servant24kids

Just an example of how costs can differ per household:-

Our phone rental is around $40 pm, broadband another $40 pm, so we are lucky to spend less than $100 per month on telecom.

Our electric bill is around $160 pm, and we use no electric heaters.

Gill and Rob

$300 per month on wood over the winter, wow that seems expensive. How many months were you buying that amount for?

Cheers
Gill

shortfatbloke

Thanks for all the information, it will be really useful.

sky

Prob about nine months out of twelve pmsl

How much do you spend? how much do you get? do you have a woodburner? who do you get it from? do you have other sources of heat too?
The wood is our only source of heat in the house but we get free hot water from that too and then our leccy bill is about $80-90 a month.

shepslady

For those of you who think the cost of living is high in NZ this little article makes for interesting reading......


http://www.tvnz.co.nz/view/page/423466/627210


Certainly food for thought huh?

bookemjano

We've just got our first bills in, but bear in mind it's quite warm at the moment, so electric bill will be bigger in the winter months:

Rent $1430
Insurance $58 (for car, including one learner driver, and house contents)
Phone and internet $135
Electricity $114 (but $102 if paid within two weeks, and this only covered a three week period in the property)
Sky $76
Food/treats/spends etc $1300*
Petrol $150

* I draw out $300 a week for food and stuff, I've found I'm much more aware of what I'm buying if I've got to be sure I've got the cash in my purse at the checkout rather than use my EFTPOS card.

This total is below the $4000 budget we'd set ourselves, but we're not paying rates and water here because we rent, and I'm at home all day so can economise on food and cooking, I can see our budget being bigger if I end up working, and we know the petrol will be more when hubby starts work, and the electricity higher in the autumn/winter.

Hope this helps.

shepslady

Jan I think you will find in most parts of NZ you wont pay a water bill. In CHCH we only had to pay a water bill if we used over the yearly limit & in all my time there (40 plus Years) I dont ever recall me or my parents ever having had to pay one. Thats the one thing I really hate having to pay here...we pay just over $50 a month for our water & it bugs me to death

bookemjano

Even better! I'll cross that off my future budget, thanks Cindy.

sky

I pay a water bill?

Gill and Rob

Hello

W e have our wood burner going for about 7 months of the year. Sometimes not all day, just on an evening, but at other times it is on constantly. It gives us hot water and we have something like an emersion heater for hot water the rest of the year. Last year we spent about $700, which equates to $100 a month for the "winter". Our electricity bill aberages about $125 a month, this is for a huge 5 bedroomed house and 4 people.

This year we have bought "out of season". Rob has had 10 meters of pine "rounds" which he is splitting himself, so we get this much cheaper cost $300. We have bought 2 meters of hardwood for over night burning, $160 and 10 meters of box wood for $100. This box wood was cheaper as it was being sold out of season and would normally for that amount cost $250

This makes a total of $560, which will definately see us through next winter

All this chopping and stacking has obviously kept Rob very busy and fit.

We are also looking to have a heat pump fitted to the "far end" of our house and a heat transfer system to take the heat from the fire in the lounge to other areas of the house.

Cheers
Gill

sky

Yes we've been told to buy eleven metres of wood still in logs and it's cheaper that way. but we still were going through an awful lot of wood I think more than you and our house is smaller. I think maybe we need to suss out the right sort of wood to burn ie hard wood/ blue gum/ pine etc to get the most heat for our money. We have one of those heat transfer pump thingys and I can vouch for them they are very effective at getting heat right up to the top end of our house.
You don't have double glazing do you by any chance maybe thats why we use more, we only have single glazing