cost of living in aus

[mogwai]

just to get an idea

what do the following cost??

Pint of milk (or litre) - predictably
Loaf of wholemeal bread
Gallon or litre of fuel
six tomatoes
tub of spreadable butter

thankyou!

loaf of bread, 3 or 4 dollars, litre of fuel 1 dollar 40 ( usually about half of whatever it costs in the UK )..tub of spreadable butter about 4 dollars, litre of milk I'm not sure...usually get 2 or 3 litres at a time...and not sure with tomatoes...
With a car, you don't have to MOT it every year, and road tax is alot less than the UK ( I think)...

Hi (again) Mogs,

I bought a litre of organic full-fat milk today for $1.78 and a half litre of skimmed for $1.25.

A tub of spreadable butter is around $3.50, a loaf of organic wholemeal bread $3.90 (but I think you can get this quite a bit cheaper).

6 tomatoes (bog standard) is $2.40.

If you go to food markets & greengrocers you can get these prices down too.

If you want to look at one of the online shops go to www.homeshop.com.au. It's woolworths, which I think here is the top end of the supermarkets. Prob Sainsburys equivalent rather than waitrose though.

Fuel is 138c per litre. You can check out fuel prices here at www.motormouth.com.au

I walked past the hospital at Randwick today and thought about you .

Bloody hell arfy, this so much cheaper that here.
Transportation costs inflate the price of so much over here.
And we have no online supermarket. Not fair

Ooh. Didn't realise I was on to a good thing. I thought I was going to be flamed for going to Woolies instead of the farmers markets.

Suzy wong you're in Perth, right? I have (awful) rellies down in Rockingham.

Great fish and chips at Hillary's boatyard, though??!

thanks for your replies.

Ooh I'd really miss sainsbury's!

Hey Fishy, I googled the hospital at Randwick and looked at a satellite photo instead. So I'm there thinking "hmm, centennial park looks like it has a duck pond and a cafe...so worst case scenario I can be mad crazy alone mother chucking bits of bread at ducks there followed by smoothie and choc chip muffin in the cafe"

Sigh. DH still has to sort out a job yet.

OOh, I'm snooping on this thread and can get my favourite tea bags whilst we are in Sydney which is nice to know. thanks Arfy

you off to Sydney too, Robinpud?

You coming to chuck bread at Centennial Park ducks as well? (jet-lagged expat emoticon)

Just visited the family in Sydney after being in UK for 5 years. I was appalled at the cost of living actually - has risen a lot since I was there last. DH and I have decided that we are actually better off in UK then Australia.
(Mind you, this could be influenced a little by the trauma of the family Christmas... never ever stay with your parents once you have moved out of home!)

for us - in Brisbane

milk full fat is about $2 for 2 litres
wholemeal bread ( often get a deal) 2 loaves for $5.50
litre of fuel here - 1.28 on the weekend - probably down to about $1.24 now
tomatoes - buy in bags of 2kg for $4.20
I buy marg - but a kg tub is $6.00

big grocery stores have sales every week - different things are on sale - for a family of four - we spend between 150 and 200 - including nappies for two - three types of nappies ( don't ask. 200 week - would be nappies, lots of cleaning things, and a very bare fridge.

Instead of just converting to pounds - dh says it is a truer representative to look at things as a % of your wages - and then compare with the UK %.

Suzy we are no online supermarket either!!

$1.28 for fuel!!!!!!!!!!!

it's soooo expensive here and even dearer in the country. I 'm considering LPG for my next car.

Mogwai- we are off with dh's work for 1 year, arriving Sydney on 22.01.07 after a month travelling around New Zealand.
Arfy has promised to meet me for a coffee as both kids will be at school and I will be a lady of leisure. Are you joining us?

suzy experienced that when I lived in a little country town everything was so much more expensive.

god robin, we are hoping to land in sydney the same week

how strange!

of course I'm joining you

(feel obliged to add caveat that we haven't secured jobs yet)

where are you going to live? We're looking at unfurnished and wondering how the hell we will furnish it and look after our 18 month old.

Am even considering asking the in-laws to come out with us for the first month, though could live to regret that!

We are living in the 'burbs south west ofSydney. dh is working in the middle so has a long commute. I have a visa to work but doubt I will bother. We are exchanging so accomodation all sorted. The amount to do is horrifying tho' so am snatching a few moments now and then to get jobs sorted . Has dh got a job yet?

so where is cheap in brisbane to grocery shop then? when i las lived there it was franklins or bi-lo, buy we are talking a while ago now.....also, does anyone drive a lpg car? any pros or cons? dh counted the weeks today & reckons we have 13wks max left in UK
so much still to do.....

sorry for typo's, left-handed whilst dd2 feeds

scully we have a 6cyl ford falcon futura and the most our petrol is - almost a full tank - is $60.00 I generally use about 1/2 a tank a week and that is all my running around with dd1, going for drives on the weekend, etc. A 4 cyl would use less than that.

Cheap shops - action, aldi and Bi-lo which is still around.

I shop at Coles though as I like their stuff iyswim.

IF you do your meat separately and your fruit and veg from a greengrocer - cheaper than the supermarket - I am too slack to do three different shops. Probably when the dd's are older and we have a larger freezer would do the meat in bulk. Plenty of ways to shop cheaply.

My aunt had an lpg car - fine... although for us by the time you put the tan in the boot - lose most of your boot space. I just always get my petrol on a tues night or wed when it is the cheapest.

robinpud, he's on the phone to Aus right now, speaking to a number of docs at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick.

I've been perched at the top of the stairs listening to him speaking on the phone and feeling excited about the whole thing. When I came downstairs I could hear the bloke he was speaking to had a great big aussie accent - so that really was Sydney - all seems very real now.

Swapping sounds great, you're really lucky. I think I will also have a work visa and I'd like to work a couple of days as a speech pathologist but I'm not sure what the job situation is in Sydney. Like you say, loads to organise. I would also need to find good childcare for my daughter (she's 13 months right now) so I don't feel I could organise any employment prior to arriving.

And I still haven't mentioned it to my boss...I'm entitled to a career break which is how I'm going to approach it, but unfortunately I have been discussing it with some people in the department and feel it's a matter of time before she finds out our plans - just waiting for dh to secure a job so I can give her firm plans. I should learn to keep my mouth shut

eidsvold - I'm confused....petrol is cheaper on some days than others??

How come??

Hi Mogs & Robinp

Don't worry Mogs, you're not going to be the mad duck woman when you get here, me & Robinp will look after you.

I'm just trying to think if I need to warn you about shoppping now for summer clothes in the UK while they're on sale. I think if you arrive in Jan you'll be ok, all the shops won't have their winter stuff in.

When I arrived in August I couldn't buy wellies for love nor money, nor winter coats etc. I had to get a load of stuff shipped over.

Hmm. You'll need to sort out childcare if you're coming to the East too. It's horrendous. Most nurseries have 2 year waiting lists. I only got dd into mine because it had newly opened and was charging double . I phoned every other nursery in the Eastern suburbs and not one had a place.

I split DD's care between a nanny (3 days) and 2 days at nursery. My nanny is lovely. I think with the shortage of nursery places quite a few mums are doing nanny shares.

If you're still worried about things to do, take a look at Sydney's Child . Sydney's child is a great, free, monthly magazine that has everything in for children and babies. The printed copy is much better than the online, but it gives you an idea of things you can be doing.

Thanks for the tip Arfy. Just last night we were trying to make a list of stuff which we take with us for the month travelling round NZ; what needs shipping to Sydney for our arrival (dh's work stuff and essential toys) and what we will need for the uk winter but would be useful to have in Sydney later on for their winter. The kids are likely to have outgrown a lot of their winter clothes between december and next august so will probably not ship much of their stuff, but I hate clothes shopping for me so will probably send over some stuff to wear in oz for winter and then bin before we come back home.
I have been frantically trying to buy essential stuff for the kids and me in the sales so that we have enough lightweight stuff for the first few weeks. It's back to school in the shops!
Is there a cheap and cheerful place for clothes like H and M or Primark?

Hope the job thing works out Mogwai

cheap and cheerful clothes - big W, k-mart and target. I usually buy dd1's kindy clothes from BigW, best and less and K-mart. Good clothes- target, and others buy them for us - can't remember when I had to buy the girls a 'going out' outfit.

They last though - dd1 is pretty rough on her clothes and they are still going well.

mogwai - petrol goes up for the weekend and comes down midweek every week - crazy I know and Dh keeps telling me they would not stand for it in the UK but it can vary up to more than 10 cents in a week. So this week - weekend $1.28 a litre, I paid $1.22 yesterday, tonight - saw it for $1.20?!?!? so the idea is usually to fill up tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

i even buy dd1 clothes from charity shops - gotten some good bargains..... great brands hardly used.

does the petrol thing apply throughout australia or just in Queensland (I have it in my mind that you are in FNQ??)