Monthly Expenses

[4Coetzees]

Hi...

I would like to know what the average monthly expenses are for a household in Australia (2 Adults and 2 Children 4 & 8)?

I have the following as expenses - what else can I add?

Rent

Electricity

Medical Insurance

Other Insurance

Gas

Groceries

Telephone & Internet

Bus Transport

School Fees

Entertainment

[Serendipity]

Which territory do you intend on heading to - this and the areas within them can make a huge difference on pricing.

EDITED: Just seen you applied for WA SS, so ignore the top piece.

Sure the folks from Perth can help you out on this one

All the best

[4Coetzees]

Which territory do you intend on heading to - this and the areas within them can make a huge difference on pricing.

EDITED: Just seen you applied for WA SS, so ignore the top piece.

Sure the folks from Perth can help you out on this one

All the best

We are heading to Canberra - in process of applying for ACT Sponsorship.

I am on the MODL list and WA is v e r y s l o w on their processing.....

[sysie]

Hi , we do not have children and we are in Melbourne so it is not very relevant but let me give it a shot :-),

This is typical figuers that you would spend per month:

Rent $1500 (4 bedroom about 30km out of the city)

Electricity $80

Medical Insurance $230

Other Insurance ??

Gas $30 ( includes water)

Groceries $600

Telephone & Internet $60 ( this will give you a wireless Adsl connection with around 30GB and a home phone line)

Bus Transport If you make use of the public transport every day then the best is to buy a monthly pass @ $110 per person

School Fees dunno :-)

Entertainment this can be allot depending what you find entertaining :-)

my 2c

[zetman]

We're in Perth and happy to help.

Rent = $1600 - $2400pm depending on house size and suburb

Electricity = around $200 per 2 months (billed every second month)

Car finance = around $700pm per $25,000 if financed over 3-4 years

Medical Insurance (around $250 for hospitals and intermediate level extras cover, Medibank Private)

Other Insurance = we pay $70 PER MONTH for our car and $140 PER YEAR for our home content through AAMI.

Gas = also around $150 per quarter (billed quarterly)

Groceries = tough one, I'd say $500 - $1000pm depending on luxuries and how hungry everybody is (exlcuding dining out, which is expensive)

Telephone & Internet = $49pm for a reasonable mobile phone plan; $39pm for mobile internet with a 6gb cap or around $60pm for 20gb naked ADSL at your house through iiNEt.

Train Transport = $6 - $9 per day to the city and back depending on how far you travel. That's if you have a Smartrider card (you don't get monthly passes in Perth, but Smartrider is a prepaid card which gets you a discounted rate versus buying tickets cash). Bus transport is harder to judge because it will depend very much on distances.

School Fees = I'm not 100% sure as we don't have kids in school, it will also depend on private versus public.

Entertainment = tough one. Some entertainment in in Aus are free (e.g. bbq at the beach or picnin in kings park) and some not. Here are some examples.... movie tickets $16.50 per show, 10-pin bowling $15 per person, a return ferry ticket for a day trip to Rottnest $75 per person, entry to wildlife parks around $22 per person per day (Caversham), a beer at a pub/bar around $8 a pint, dinner for two $100 upwards (main course and a bottle of wine only ). In Aus there is also always a way to save money on entertainment if your savvy, for example there are often promotions or you can buy an 'Entertainment Book' (a 350+page little gem full of discount vouchers for movies, takeways, restaurants and entertainment. They come out once a year at around $65 but you recover that back in savings many times over!)

Hope that helps.

z

[Gizmo]

Zetman has summed it up for Perth very well.

Additional ones:

School fees - government schools - between $60-$80 per annum.

Daycare fees - full day - anywhere between $50-$90 per day!

Entertainment:

Some of the more budget activities for the family:

There are loads of very well priced and free activities over here.

There are loads of national parks that are free - eg Yanchep, which has beautiful parks around a huge lake and hiking trails, a Koala walk along an elevated boardwalk (you see a lot more koalas than you do at Caversham - and its free here), a quaint tee room, an old hotel with beer garden. There are also caves and you can hire row boats (these are pay-items).

Kings park is our absolute favourite though - it is huge - Perths equivalent of Kirstenbosch, but with huge play parks for the kids, BBQ facilities, a spectacular botanical garden with elevated boardwalks, and a freaky glass bridge etc. All this is free.

The John Forest National park is the most beautiful forest with lots of abanoned train tunnels. There is a great walk where you go through a looooooong train tunnel with torches - come out the other side, amble down the road to the pub have a beer, then walk back. Lovely on a hot summers afternoon!

There are lots of reasonably priced family activities:

For family entertainment - Sci tech centre is well-priced and the zoo is fantastic. We buy annual memberships for the zoo, which costs the equivalent of 3 visits. We went over ten times last year, so well worth the money! Oh, and kids under age 4 are free.

Besides the set entertainment venues - there are lots of festivals and fairs etc. For example the Joondalup festival is on this weekend - lots of free concerts, acts, market stalls, dancing, etc etc.

I will never forget - when we first moved to our new house - the city of Joondalup put on a free concert in our local footy oval. It was two revival acts - Billy Holiday and the Rolling stones. Was really awesome - we walked down with our camping chairs and picnic - listened to fab music, our daughter had her face painted and went on fair rides.... all completely for free. What a great evening out. There are lots of events like this in and around Perth. No money needed!

[Serendipity]

It would appear Want to go now.... is heading for CANBERRA - Any assistance there??

@ Want to go now... Based on your signature we all think your going to WA

[Deon-Louise and kids]

It would appear Want to go now.... is heading for CANBERRA - Any assistance there??

@ Want to go now... Based on your signature we all think your going to WA

Well in Canberra:

Rent -+2000 a mnth for a 4 bedroom home (460 a week)

Electricity 200 every 3 mnths

Gas 60 every 3 mnths

School fees 120 per year.

Bus Coupon for the boys to get to school 60 per term or 9 per week. (the kids ride bikes now so passed on savings to them by increasing pocket money!!!)

Food anything thing from 200 per week or more dependinding on your tastes.

Alcohol -If you enjoy a drink a good bottle of red 20 Brandy 30

Entertainment-InCanberra there is soo many Free things to do!!! Last week it was SKYFIRE Fireworks display

This weekend open day at the airport. Both free.

Movies for 4 of you plus popcorn etc 100

Mc donalds/KFC for all of you.40

Local italian resturant 70-90 for 4 of you

Cant think of any thing else let me know if you want more info.

Internet 30 a mnth

Choose not to have a landline

Air time for all 4 cell phones 3 are on long term option 30x3 for 6 mnths. 1 is 30 a mnth. Pay as you go.

Hp on a vehicle 400 a mnth

Medical with Medibank we r on 457 300 a mnth

[CandiceM]

Hi,

This is roughly what we spend on the following (2A, 1C (6y.o) ) living in Canberra

Rent - $500 per week. We stay in Harrison, check www.allhomes.com.au for houses and pricing

Electricity - $200 a month which gets billed quarterly, winter and summer can be higher beacause of heating and aircon

Medical Insurance - We have PR and pay $115 fortnightly

Other Insurance - $50 per car (both bought new in last 2 years and this is comprehensive as you pay 3rd party compulsory when you pay the rego) House insurance costs $40 per month contents insured for $100K

Gas - roughly $50 a month and we have gas stove and gas water heating. Its also billed quarterly

Groceries - I am lucky to get away with under $250 a week, but admittedly I don't shop very smartly. And I do ALOT of entertaining and catering for church functions etc. If you are really good and buy bulk etc you should be able to get away with $200.

Telephone & Internet - Telephone is line rental through Telstra and then VOIP on top of that which is about $40 per month. Internet is $70 per month and that gives us 60 gig 30 off peak and 30 peak a month on ADSL

Bus Transport - Monthly ticket for unlimited trips during the month is $89

School Fees - my son goes to the catholic school which is private and we pay $105 fortnightly. This includes all his books, pens and pencils, tennis lessons, dancing lessons and swimming lessons (one activity per term) and school excursions

Entertainment - Foxtel (DSTV equiv) is (I think) $110 a month with IQ (which means the decoder can record one channel well you watch another) for the full package. We have the series and entertainment (food channel, MTV, E channel etc ) channels, cartoon channel, sports channels, and discovery type channels for $88 per month

McDonalds meal Big MAC +/-$6.95, KFC rounder meal $7.95, Coffee tall $5, Hogs Breath(restaurant) Steak $27.95 Chinese chow mein anything from $12 - $19

It's very hard to give an accurate amount on entertainment because it really depends on what you like to do. I went to my favourite tea place today and spent $101 on 1x fanta, two pots of tea, 2x milkshakes, 3x cocktails, 2 x scones, 1x pancakes, and 1x antipasto platter for 2.

My suggestion would invest in an Entertainment book for $50 which gives you heaps of vouchers for dining out, movies ($10 movie tickets), and all sorts of attractions where you buy one and get one free. We have two of these books and saved the $100 within no time. www.entertainmentbook.com.au

Cell phones - you can get an Iphone on a $45 cap which gives you $350 worth of calls a month.

Petrol - costs me $55 to fill my tank approx weekly and I travel about 500km on a tank

Candice

[4Coetzees]

Applied in WA - but no feedback..... now applying in ACT

THANK YOU FOR ALL THE FEEDBACK ! YOU GUYS ROCK!

[n/a]

Can anyone provide some details about Brisbane?

[benp]

One thing that is absolutely astonishing is that my Cape Town cost of living is virtually identical to cost of living in Oz, based on few posters replies. However, my monthly income in Oz would probably be 20-30% higher, based on few replies I got from agencies, and few posters who are in the same line of business. In addition to this, if I strip out medical and school cost of $1000 per month, as it is optional cost as opposed to here, where medical and school fees are virtually compulsory, than the picture becomes even more impressive. Days of considering RSA as ‘cheap’ destination to live are truly history.

My RSA expenses (2A and 3C) converted to Aus$ @R6,73 per $:

1,837.15 Mortage pay,incl insurance and life cover

264.16 Liblife life cover and disability

182.76 School 1

208.02 School 2

87.92 MNet

633.73 Discovery health

36.40 Gym

436.29 Car 1 price R150 000/$22000

435.36 Car 2 price R140 000/$20800

133.73 Elec per month

89.15 water

74.29 rates

126.30 Outsurance

111.44 Cell

29.57 ADSL

44.58 Telkom

891.53 Food (estimate, on the high side)

267.46 Petrol

5,889.86