Originally Posted by northernbird

Not all godzone folk are like that. We came over with very little as we sold our UK house to finance our move to Canada 6 years ago. We have recently bought a house and our mortgage is a whopping $3000 per month so you don't need to talk to me about hardship. Other than my mortgage my outgoings are about the same on the whole. I pay more electric but my food shopping is slightly cheaper. Petrol is cheaper but at the moment I drive my kids a fair way to school so I fill up once a week at $70 a fill up. That will change when my kids change school.

Originally Posted by LouiseD

I know - that's is why I deliberately said "many" and not "all". I know that some people here came with nothing and have made it good through hard work etc. But I have read so many people's post who bleat on about how well they are doing and it's quite clear from their posts that they have brought money with them to finance their venture.

Originally Posted by 232Bar

You said it!

Maybe someone should start a p*** take thread in the "I can't hack it abroad forum 'cos it's not what I thought it would be and my rosie tinted's are broken" - oh, sorry, forgot - that wouldn't be funny becuse you have all Twied your vewwie vewwie best but if just didn't work out in that big bad foreign Country<sniff>

Get a grip.

Ooops sorry - better put a or two in so it doesn't upset you all too much

Originally Posted by northernbird

Not all godzone folk are like that. We came over with very little as we sold our UK house to finance our move to Canada 6 years ago. We have recently bought a house and our mortgage is a whopping $3000 per month so you don't need to talk to me about hardship. Other than my mortgage my outgoings are about the same on the whole. I pay more electric but my food shopping is slightly cheaper. Petrol is cheaper but at the moment I drive my kids a fair way to school so I fill up once a week at $70 a fill up. That will change when my kids change school.

Originally Posted by FPM

Aye carumba, $3k per month? You must have borrowed over $500k to be paying that?

Originally Posted by FPM

Blimey you lot were busy last night! I logged off after RockWiz (managed a lowly 150pts )

One comparison that I cannot do (well kind of but not really) is comparing costs as a decent wage earner, mortgage payer. I lived at home until I was 23, had a lowly job where I took home 120quid a week in 1989. Obviously I have moved up the ranks a bit now and have been a corporate procurement & contract mgr for 10yrs or so.

Plus I never actually migrated here, came out in '89 on a WHV, met a girl a year later, got married a bit later, kind of stayed by default, so I had nothing really to compare anything with.

But I did go home regularly from here and other countries I've lived in (all for work, with the exception of Colombia). I'd say things were dearer in the early to mid 90s. But something certainly happened between 2000 and now, as prices of food are quite a bit lower, at least in my area. Meat is much cheaper, fish still seems quite dear unless it's trout, as there are loads of trout farms around Somerset. Plus there are many 'two for one' deals that don't exist here.

When we moved to the UK in Feb this year I was accurately able to guage a comparitive salary for what I do. I wasn't interested in London as my wife has yet to complete her CPA, so the plan was to move to London then.

I was offered a job in Aldershot (CSC) and the money was definitely more than I get here and the tax less. We would have been better off. However, this can only really be taken advantage of if we bought a house (property), as tenants pay council tax and water rates, and the rents are bloody high (IMO).

If my wife had liked the UK more, we would have bought and been much better off, but as she confessed she didn't like it much (mainly due to the lack of multiculturalism outside of London, which I know some of you will find some what ironic ) I couldn't see how we'd be better off renting. However in my heart, I would have been much happier worse off and renting by staying there. Alas I take my married responsibilities very seriously and try to put what's best for both of us first, so we came back. But we will find that neutral place, where we're both happy I'm sure.

The only thing I'd add is that where I live (SW Somerset) and Dorset in particular, the difference in house prices and salary/wages has to be the most unbalanced in the UK. It is ridiculous (mostly due to sea changing Londoners, but not blaming them, it's a bloody nice area down there).

I would have bought in SE because that's where our work is.

In a nutshell we found:

Food: cheaper in UK (now)

Electric & Gas: cheaper here (but more choice for a bundled deal in the UK)

Cars: 2nd hand, much cheaper in UK, new, not much difference (non Euro)

Petrol: cheaper here (obviously) but the % has gone down. When I arrived it was 3 times cheaper here, now it's about half.

Insurance: Cheaper in the UK on all levels, car, contents, health (and that's in SE, let alone Somerset)

Phone: Cheaper UK

Internet: Cheaper here (just), plus I found it complicated there with Sky boxes, Telewest, digital HD signals etc.

Clothes: much cheaper there in all but the cheapest brands, but we don't buy those (I know, I know, but my wife's late mother was a fashion designer in Seoul, so where do you think we shop )

Shoes: Cheaper in UK and better quality

Cycles: much cheaper in UK (I only ride Italian

Guitars: cheaper in UK in the high end stuff


OK so maybe the last two aren't important to you (can't imagine why ) but I was pretty surprised at how much some things have come down (or how much things have risen by stealth here).

I reckon a lot of the arguments from the Godzones are because they have been here a long time and are spouting the prices from 10yrs ago, and even if they've been on holiday they were spending $$ which is always going to seem dear. Go there with a genuine desire to research stuff and I reckon they'd find a much different story to the one they keep parroting.

I know I was surprised. Now, if I could just get some more Koreans over there , we'd bet set

Originally Posted by northernbird

$430k to be precise :scared:

Originally Posted by by the sea side

I am always surprised by people who say the uk is an expensive country and Australia?Meat is cheaper here but I don't eat it anyway.Fish about the same.Fruit and veg most of it double and poor quality. Grapes for god sake $14.99 a kilo??My biggest grippe is definitely cost of fruit and veg though I have started growing some of this myself so I will see how that all goes.
If your wife is Korean she would be treated like sh** up here.All the filipino women stick together can't blame them I suppose.

Originally Posted by FPM

Do you know when your interest rate changes, was it las week or the 16th Nov. We've had a letter from our investment house saying that our rate will rise by 0.15% on the 16th. Which means despite interest rates rising by .25%, we'll only enjoy .15% extra on our money, and over a week later than the rate rise announced. We have a very sizeable amount invested so it makes a difference

Originally Posted by northernbird

We have fixed the majority of ours so I don't know. We have only left a little variable to give us flexibility of paying more off if we ever have any spare money (which we don't!!).

Originally Posted by Gibbo

People who know me think I am a caring person. However, I have no sympathy with people who blame others for their mistakes. I was in UK in July and could not believe how much more expensive basic food items were than they are here. Don't know who fed you what lies, but surely you,as an adult, can separate fact from fiction.

Originally Posted by blowfly

Utter rubbish just been to the uk, food is dearer and the fresh produce isrubbish here and more expensive.

Originally Posted by LouiseD

I'm glad someone else found the same - sometimes I think I'm going nuts

We bought some "fresh" veggies here last week - two days later they were rotten and had to be thrown away.

Originally Posted by toandfro

even in aust your not allowed to make love with possums . anyway their dirty little critters with sharp little claws and smelly