42 replies to this topic

[Garrick]

Hi everyone,

Brief intro: my wife, baby girl and I got our 175 visas just over a month ago.
We've been reading these forums intently to research many of the questions we have, so thank you all for all the info you provide.

I have a question about Melbourne relating to the CoL (topic). How much should we earn (combined) to be able to live in a normal house of say 3 (or 2) bedroom with 2 (or 1 - yes...noticed the 'lack' of extra toilets in older Oz houses) bathrooms, with garden and a middle-class second-hand car (or cheap new one), and live "ok"? We're not party animals and are quite good with our money.

Just rough estimates are ok. Will settle my heart a little.

80k? 90k? 100k? 120k!?

We'll be doing our LSD in August to Melbourne primarily, but also take a peek at Sydney too.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

-G

[Mara]

Quite frankly, you would get buy quite nicely on 80k, even less, if you are budget conscience, absolutely no problem. If you are prepared to stay on the fringe of the city you could even afford to rent a lovely large home, with four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a double garage, and plenty of space to swing a cat!

[polly]

With only three of you, 80k will be MORE than enough. Like Mara said, all depends on where you want to stay. With 80k you should be able to afford to rent a 2 / 3 bedroom in the area we stay (Balwyn North). Further out you could afford much bigger (Doncaster, Box Hill, Templestowe, Berwick, Cranbourne, Sunbury, etc.).

[IamInACT]

Any comments or updates on this topic?

[Mara]

Hi WannabeACT, as requested I have updated the info, but only the water, petrol and train/tram/bus travel has changed, the rest is still relevant. Fortunately Australia does not have the high inflation rate that exists in South Africa.

[Mara]

I have updated the initial information in my starting thread.

[MG Family]

Thanks for the update Mara, I did an exercise late last year of summarising water, electricity and gas over a 6 month period to get to a combined average of about $10 a day for our family of 5 (3 teenagers), would this be the norm?

Groete
MG

[Mara]

You know, as much as I would love to, I cannot comment on that. We are only two in our household. A lot would depend on your figures. Is your home more electrical than gas (which is our case), gas is cheaper than electricity, do you have a big garden, do you have a rainwater tank, do you use your grey water? I could go on and on.

Unfortunately, we can only give a very broad guideline, it is dependent on personal circumstances.

[Mel-B]

Hi Mara, thanks for updating for 2011. I am putting together a budget and it has helped ALOT~ wondering if you could help me with ideas about the following costs:

*Comprehensive household insurance, lets say for a 3 bedroom home in the South or East?
*Bank fees per person?
*Clothing? I have NO idea whether clothes are expensive or not. I buy clothing seasonally for my growing toddler and then we just replace clothes for hubby and myself as things get old, worn, torn etc. I do feel we need to budget for it though, can't not be able to buy clothes if someone needs it!
*Cellphone costs to be on a network? No idea again how it works there. Here we are on a R135 a month contract with Vodacom, our phones get recharged with R135 call time a month and we top up as we need more. How does it work in Melbourne? What could I budget for this for 2 cellphones?

Would a family of 3 get by on a 85k per year salary? We are waiting for our 175 visa but are considering get a sponsorship rather that's why I'm budgeting to try and see what is doable on different visas... differences would be...? higher tax on sponsorship visa as well as no benefits from state?

Any advice is much appreciated!

Thanks in advance

Edited by Mel-B, 06 October 2011 - 06:39 PM.

[Mara]

Hi Mel-B

*Comprehensive household insurance, lets say for a 3 bedroom home in the South or East?
As I do not live in the South or East, but on the North West, that is all I can comment on. Insurance is calculated on the suburb you live in, however, I do not think the differences would be huge. For around $200,000 contents insurance with our insurance, Alliance, will cost approximately $625 per year. I have no idea whether age or the fact that we own the property comes into play.

*Bank fees per person?
We bank with ANZ, as we both have our wages paid into our transaction account and we have money in a savings account, we do not pay any bank fees. I must say though, that we mostly use our credit cards during the month, and just pay them in full at the end of the month. I do think there is a limit on the number of transactions that we are allowed per month. I have never been charged anything though.

*Clothing? I have NO idea whether clothes are expensive or not. I buy clothing seasonally for my growing toddler and then
we just replace clothes for hubby and myself as things get old, worn, torn etc. I do feel we need to budget for it though, can't not be able to buy clothes if someone needs it!
There are a number of places where you can shop around for toddlers everyday clothes, Big W, K-Mart, Target, Best & Less, etc. Then I have a friend who buys a lot of stuff for her kids from the second hand shops. Her argument was that most growing kids wear something for one season, so why should she spend a lot of money on their everyday clothes. She has often bought excellent little t-shirts from the seconds store for around $2-$5, and in Australia it is not a shame to shop there, a lot of people do. As for adults, the same shops sell everyday clothes for them as well, perhaps you can google them to get an idea.

*Cellphone costs to be on a network? No idea again how it works there. Here we are on a R135 a month contract with Vodacom, our phones get recharged with R135 call time a month and we top up as we need more. How does it work in Melbourne? What could I budget for this for 2 cellphones?
This is a really difficult one, as I am not a technical or mobile phone expert. I would suggest that you go on line with either Optus or Telstra and see what they offer.

Here are links to some of the places that I have mentioned:
http://www.bigw.com.au/bigw/home.jsp
http://www.kmart.com.au
http://www.target.co...age/home_fw.htm
http://www.bestandless.com.au/

http://www.google.co...116l3-2.2.1l5l0

http://www.telstra.com.au/
http://www.optus.com.au/home/

Would a family of 3 get by on a 85k per year salary? We are waiting for our 175 visa but are considering get a sponsorship rather that's why I'm budgeting to try and see what is doable on different visas... differences would be...? higher tax on sponsorship visa as well as no benefits from state?
If you can budget, yes, $85k would be fine. I know of many families that have lived and still live on less. It is how you budget that determines how well you will live on it. You would pay the same taxes on a sponsorship visa as what you do with PR, but yes you will not have access to any benefits from the state. You would also have to take out private health cover for the family, and that can be expensive, as it is not the same cover as what folks on PR can get.

I hope that has helped you with some answers.

[Mel-B]

Thank you Mara, it has helped a lot yes, I've finished my budget and come to the conclusion that we can live on 85k a year with PR and on 95k with sponsorship. Anything more is a big bonus

Thanks for your time - have a great day!

[Dirtbikerider]

Mara, on 06 February 2009 - 02:05 PM, said:

Let me state again, the rental market has become extremely tight in some areas of Melbourne. If it is a popular area and there are 20 different people chasing after one house, which happens, believe me, then your six months up front payment is certainly going to give you a 95% chance of securing the property. If, however, you are the only person going after the house, or perhaps the best of three, then the owner will happily let you have it at the normal 1 months rent as deposit and 1 months up front rental! After all, the last thing the owner wants is for the house to remain open.

A friend went to a rental house 15 minute viewing the other day, in the Doncaster area, there were 15 couples wanting to see the house....need I say more?

It really is a case of supply and demand, the more in demand the property is, the bigger the hoops they can make you jump through in order to secure the rental!

Hi Mara,

we are maybe going to be moving to Melbourne soon.

How long would it take to travel from Sunbury to Deer park?+-

[Mara]

Hi Dirtbikerider

Google Maps says 32 minutes which, for Melbourne, is not bad. Here is a link, so if you do want to check other places, it is easy to do. Just bear in mind that it does not really take note of peak traffic.

If there is any other info I can help with, feel free to ask.