Hi,
We came over on a wage of $50k per annum. TBH that only lefts around $150 p/w after paying the rent, we had to use savings to keep us going until I found work. We knew that living in Aus was going to be expensive but it was a real eye opener when we arrived.
Things I never thought of or didn't give enough thought to:
Schooling - although my children go to the local state school for free, I never realised that you have to provide everything for them for school, i.e exercise books, glue sticks, reams of paper (the list is massive). We spend approx $180-$200 on school equipment alone at the start of each year. On top of that you have school uniforms (there's no going to ADSA and buying generic over here).
Clubs/Sports - Each of our children plays a sport, we pay between $120-$150 per season for registration excluding sports kit or equipment. Then there is a weekly sub to pay also. You will find that a lot of their school mates play sports!
Medical - We pay local rates for our health insurance, so approx $150 p/m for a family. This only covers part of the bill should we need to claim. For example my OH needed an MRI on his knee recently, we paid $380 and received $120 back from the health fund.
A visit to the doctor costs anywhere between $65-85 per visit, half of which we can claim back from Medicare, if we're lucky the doctor will 'bulk bill' us meaning that they only charge the medicare part of the payment.
Rent - We pay $580 p/w for a 4 bed home with a pool, we actually pay less than the average rent for our area because of the pool as we have to pay for the maintenance and upkeep. For a wage of 60k, you are looking at take home of roughly $950 p/w. You need to make sure that you look for a property you can afford on this amount.
Food - We have just switched to Aldi which I think has cut approx a third off our food bill, we still spend around $300 p/w (without alcohol)
Fast food isn't cheap either, a regular big mac meal in McDonalds will set you back around $12. We have a pizza night once a fortnight (or when I can't be arsed cooking) and that sets us back $60 for 4 pizzas.
Cars/Driving - Cars are expensive over here, but even more expensive to import from home (as our friends discovered!). We pay $700 p/m for a 4 year old MPV over a 6 year term, you would only be able to fin ace a vehicle over the period of your visa. You also need to factor in rego costs (similar to road tax), which set us back approx $100 per year, not including the stamp duty you have to pay when you first ergo your car. You don't have to insure our car separately as there is a third party insurance factored into the rego cost, however this only covers the other person if the accident is your fault. Fuel is cheaper here though so that is a bonus!
Utilities - We have found that the type of heating/cooling has a massive effect on fuel bills, in our first rental our winter bill for the electricity was $1200 for 3 months, in this one we have gas heating and cooling and were surprised that the bill was $350 this winter (the gas bill had gone up by $200 but we were still better off.
We have Foxtel but I think it's a waste of money as TV is dire over here (even pay TV), but it costs us $105 p/m.
We are lucky as we were able to access the NBN for our internet, the speeds over here are so slow, but thankfully more stable now we have NBN broadband opposed to standard.
I would honestly say I think that you will struggle on that wage on a 457 visa, especially as you will possibly have to pay for education and won't be able to access medicare for doctors visits etc, I know that some of this can be claimed back at tax time, but July seems like a life time away when you're skint just before the start of the new school year with fees to pay in January.
As other posters have mentioned upthread there is a huge downturn in the car manufacturing business at the moment and thousands are facing unemployment, should your OH lose his job he would have 28 days to find another in the same industry or leave the country.
On the plus side, I find that Australia is an AMAZING place to bring up a family and I am quite jealous that I never had the opportunities that my children have!
That was more of an epic post than I meant it to be, but please feel free to PM me if you have any questions
)