Comparison - cost of living Australia (out of interest)

[MangoTango28]

Random post, no real purpose but I find cost of living fascinating around the world. Always have. I have been reading posts about increasing costs in the UK and was keen to compare it to Australia where I live (orginally UK)

People are always saying to me how expensive they believe Australia to be but I don't see it that way to be honest. Food is sky rocketing though at the moment (lettuce and berries are off the shopping list for the foreseeable!!!)

I have been redoing our figures ready for a finance planning meeting (need to sort some extra insurances) and done a breakdown of our costs and thought others may find it interesting (or maybe I'm strange?!) I have converted to GBP based on Google conversion . I am not gloating just thought and interesting topic discussion .

We are 30. No kids (yet)

Monthly avg costs
Joint earnings per month after tax (avg) = £7190

Mortgage = £1146
Rates = £55 (more next year)
Electric = £85
Gas = £17.25
Water = £100
Contents insurance = £25
DP phone = £17.25
My phone = £46.93
Car 1 Insurance = £30
Car 1 Registration = $43
Car 1 Petrol = £114
Car 2 Insurance = £17.83
Car 2 Registration = $36
Car 2 Petrol = £40
TV subscriptions = £20
Spotify = £11
Food Shopping = £450

Leaving approx disposable income = £4936

Disposable is spent on savings, days out, hair, beauty, clothes , all the crap!
Possibly one or two items I may have missed that will come to me!

Last year we saved really hard for our house deposit whilst renting. We were lucky to be able to put a big chunk (DP does do lots of overtime )and this year has been doing up the house .

Is anyone suprised by the cost comparisons at all or as expected compared to where you live?

Bulk billed *

Not going to battle back and forth as you clearly have misunderstood me and saying things such as 'hard of thinking' is just unnecessary to be honest. Have a great day!

No? I have a really good bill billed doctor at the end of our road.

And she works for free?

Slightly confused what your asking me here now.

you queried how much a smear test was. I said free of charge for my last one?
no private health, a bulk billed doctor? therefore no out of pocket fee?

Our rates and gas/electricity are both over £200 a month so considerably more than yours.

I probably spend about the same on food for 2 adults and 2 dc which would suggest Aus prices are higher. Esp as pp are saying they think that looks low.

I'm in WA and have a great bulk billed doctor so its free at point of service. I do pay for any prescription I need but its not expensive. I can get an appointment easily within 24 hours. I do pay about $100 a year for family ambo insurance.

I'm in Perth as well, and have a very similar set of income and outgoings to the OP.
I also use a bulk bill doctor so no costs for medical- perhaps people are unsure of what this means but basically you don't need to pay to see a doctor in Australia - if you have a specific doctor and you want to see them and they are private then you would pay but otherwise it's free in a 'bulk billed' clinic.
My daughter is in primary school and her school polo so around $5 from Kmart or target -£3. It doesn't need to be a school branded one, just school colours.

My rates are $1200 per year and I do have private health cover which is $200 per month for family of three.
Diesel is hovering around $2 per litre.
I would spend approximately $200-$250 per week for a family of three and a cat.
Wages are definitely better here- For a similar job I was earning 26K in the UK And the equivalent of 60 3K here

*63k

Buy your berries.

We're very comfortable financially with three adults on pensions in Australia. But the crucial thing is that we bought a house 20 years ago and have been mortgage free for several years. If we were paying a mortgage or paying rent we'd be fucked. It's perfectly possible to live on pensions comfortably if you have a home paid for. The scary bit is those people who were never in a position to buy and are now retiring.

Thanks for explaining a little better - and glad to hear we are similar I was starting to doubt did I miss something 😅
I really need to sort out private health and will be going through at our finicial meeting. Even just for the extras and dentist ....

yep I earned 25k in the UK also and I wouldn't have got much more to be honest ...

good to know about not needing the school branded polos! What a win!

Mango- TBH private health is a rort- the only reason we pay is that if we don't we are required to pay the Medicare levy surcharge at tax time which is more than the cost of private health (2% of your income I think)...

I'm going back to UK shortly and I'm very interested to see what it's like now, what cost of living is like. I moved to Perth 10 years ago now.

My employer has just announced a 15% pay rise (over the next 3 years), plus we all get in WA a $400 electricity bill rebate so I'm pleased that efforts are being made to mitigate the cost of living