How much cash to settle in

[ArnoW]

Hi everyone!

We plan to live in either Sydney or Melbourne, and we were told that living expenses are a bit on the steap side especially in Sydney.

I have a question about this please:

We plan on transferring $30,000 AUD into our bank account on that side before we come. Will that be a sufficient amount to keep us going for the first 3 or so months while looking fir a job etc? (accomodation, groceries, travel, cellphone etc).

[Jordy]

That would keep you going a very long time. Rent will cost you $1600 a month and food for two $600 a month. So if you just sleep and eat it will cost you less than $2500 per month. $30 000 could keep you going on minimal for 9-12 months. Spending more lavishly will mean 6 months easy!

[rozellem]

In Sydney, we pay $700 per week for a small 3 bed, 1 bath house. When you secure a rental home, remember that the owner will want a 6 week deposit (so 6x $700, in our case). This eats into your settling budget, big time. We spend about $150-$200 a week on food, we are foodie gluttons, but make every meal ourselves, from scratch.

[OubaasDik]

Don't think your numbers are realistic, Jordy.

Not from Sydney, but in Canberra, probably keep them going for 6 months - no luxuries. $500 / week rent (4 weeks up front as bond) (Canberra prices) and so on.

[Sunnyskies]

Depending on where you are willing to live you can get a rental for $500 a week or less in Melbourne. There are apartments in Port Melbourne for about $400 a week (granted they will be small, ie 1 bedroom 1 bathroom) but on the upside they are really close to the CBD so very convenient for job hunting and centrally located to enjoy the Melbourne lifestyle. Alternatively you can rent something bigger but further out of town, which could have other costs associated with it such as transport.

On top of food, which I think may cost you a bit more than $600 a month unless you are going to eat very basic food, also factor in that you have to pay lights and water (lights expensive but water less so), and public transport ($6.80 a day). I've assumed that you are not planning on buying a car initially.

$30,000 will keep you comfortable for 6 months in Melbourne, and if you live more frugally you could stretch it out to about 9 months. It really is all a question of how much of your lifestyle you are willing to sacrifice while you look for work.

You won't be able to splash out on restaurants and pubs, but buy some good runners (sorry tackies) in South Africa (as I think they are cheaper there) and you can exercise in Port Melbourne by running along the bay boardwalk or even into the botanical gardens. When looking for work or otherwise stressed I always believe in keeping active as it allows you to blow off steam and get your mindset right. In fact it doesn't really matter where you choose to live as there are generally lots of good running paths that you can run or walk on.

[Jordy]

Don't think your numbers are realistic, Jordy.

Not from Sydney, but in Canberra, probably keep them going for 6 months - no luxuries. $500 / week rent (4 weeks up front as bond) (Canberra prices) and so on.

I disagree OBD, this is a family of two people with no kids. Of course any answer to this question is very subjective. But if you coming with no work and need to know the max time you could last on $30 000 I truly do recon you could make it last 9 months to a year living on minimal requirements. Obviously if you go to restuarants and buy cars and rent a $500 or $600 a week house it will last less.

Of course the normal may be $500/week house which is going to be nice but if you know you have a total of $30 000 to last you then rent a $400 dollar house or a $300. Then when you get the job move out.

Honestly if you going to arrive and expect the same standard as you had before while neither of you have jobs then perhaps4 months might be more realistic.

[rozellem]

Arno, I see somewhere you dont have kids and say you might want to come out ahead of your partner. Many people do this and I think its a great idea. There are some who just "verlang" too much and others who argue that the first month together here is all very exciting and a bonding experience or something. At the end of the day, you do what you must to get that elusive job. Good luck.

[ArnoW]

I disagree OBD, this is a family of two people with no kids. Of course any answer to this question is very subjective. But if you coming with no work and need to know the max time you could last on $30 000 I truly do recon you could make it last 9 months to a year living on minimal requirements. Obviously if you go to restuarants and buy cars and rent a $500 or $600 a week house it will last less.

Of course the normal may be $500/week house which is going to be nice but if you know you have a total of $30 000 to last you then rent a $400 dollar house or a $300. Then when you get the job move out.

Honestly if you going to arrive and expect the same standard as you had before while neither of you have jobs then perhaps4 months might be more realistic.

We are not under the illusion that we will have the same standard we have in SA (especially in that first few months after arriving on a limited budget). If we can just rent a place, buy food, have enough for transport cost, and also airtime to be able to be connected on the internet that will be fine. We are not people who go out to reastaurants that much in any case - prefer staying home and do our own thing.

I basically just want to be sure that our budget will last until we can get jobs etc (which I certainly hope will not take 6 or more months!!)

[ArnoW]

Arno, I see somewhere you dont have kids and say you might want to come out ahead of your partner. Many people do this and I think its a great idea. There are some who just "verlang" too much and others who argue that the first month together here is all very exciting and a bonding experience or something. At the end of the day, you do what you must to get that elusive job. Good luck.

Rozellem, this scares the living daylihgts out of me - thinking that I will have to do this for 3 or so months all alone... But in the end i suppose it will be worth it! I'd feel more comfortable if one of us can get a job before the other comes over permanently.

I can also understand that the first month can be a bonding experience... It is really not something I would prefer to do alone permanently!

But at leas we know some friends in Sydney and Melbourne who would be willing to let me stay with them for the first while - at least that way I can save on the rental part for the first few weeks.

[qwerty]

We opted to stay in SA another two years, but my gut feel is still that we should go sooner rather than later. So now I'm also considering going over alone to look for a job, whilst hubby continues working in SA. Only issue is whether I would be able to leave my daughter behind for a couple of months...not sure I can.

[Donovan83]

$30 000 would probably be enough to buy one, maybe two flat white coffees in Perth.

I kid, I kid

That would keep you going easily for 8 to 12 months.

[MarcK]

@Donovan I believe Perth has the most expensive coffee in Australia

[GideonVD]

I think you should be fine with $30k for the initial period while your looking for work. The sooner you can rely on a steady income and not on your nest-egg... the better.

We're also aiming for Melbourne and will most likely be coming in with about $50k worth of freed up assets, the rest will be brought in once our annuities are cashed in and transferred to our Supers in Oz.

Also, another big tip I've received... don't purely rely on agents and Seek for job hunting, they say the secret job market is actually trolling the companies' websites you are interested in and checking out their specific job offer pages (some companies don't like spending money on Seek and agents).

[onefootout]

Hi Arno

We've been in Adelaide (quite a bit cheaper I understand) for about 6 weeks now and have spent about $4500. This is for a family of 4 and includes some settling in basics for the house until our container arrives. We did buy a new couch as well. The first couple of months are a bit more expensive than normal as you will be restocking from scratch - salt, pepper, brooms, cleaning stuff etc.

We've been quite frugal but not prohibitively so - there has been take out and a few meals out, but nothing major. Certainly don't feel like we're depriving ourselves.

Based on our experience and some projections going forward I'd tend to agree with the general range of 6 months with 9 being a stretch. It really depends on the standard of living you're going to benchmark for yourself and whether or not you manage to find a rental with easy access to public transport so you don't have to buy a car straight off. That was key for us to make our Rands stretch that little bit further. Our place (a two bed townhouse at $350pw) is within walking distance of just about everything for day to day living as well as close to local bus and tram routes for further travel.

It's all very confusing when you are in Safrica, but once you get here it is much easier to figure everything out.

Good luck.

[derricksmith75]

I'm just moving to Sydney and got about AUD25k from my Rand. Luckily, I got 9.19 which seems to be very good (Standard Bank offered 9.48!). If your moving money around, send Tim Lewis (tim.lewis@currenciesdirect.com) an e-mail as he got me those 2 extra coffees!

[LizM]

I'm just moving to Sydney and got about AUD25k from my Rand. Luckily, I got 9.19 which seems to be very good (Standard Bank offered 9.48!). If your moving money around, send Tim Lewis (tim.lewis@currenciesdirect.com) an e-mail as he got me those 2 extra coffees!

Was there a mnimum in terms of what can be transferred?

[Eonl]

We will also be coming with about 30 to 35k to last us till we have jobs, so looking at this post, i can say we can last for about 4months

on it, to get jobs and some AUS dollars, will my estimate be right? we will of course not be living a wealthy life, but i hope we will be able to get a

rental, food, travel cost, and so with the money till we have a job, then get a car and so forth.

[Cranzy]

@Donovan I believe Perth has the most expensive coffee in Australia

The downside of being a programmer and coffee addict

[RobertWD]

It's good to know that there are a few of us with similar plans. One never knows what the best way of making the big move is, but when so many are planning a similar route and others are validating that it can work, it makes me feel a whole lot better.

Thank you to everyone who shares their experiences and makes planning so much easier for us.

God bless...

[motladi0210]

What about the average living costs for a family of 4 - kids aged 10 & 14?

[Jacques Voogt]

We are also planning Sydney/Melbourne but with a much tighter budget.

Have a look at www.aussiemove.com

Some prices may be old and it is more for a settled lifestyle, but it gives some idea of living in Aus. Re work it to your liking and adjust for time difference and inflation.

Go back to basics. Live like a student if you can and rent a room or bachelors for $150/w. Yes you can get that in Sydney and yes it will just be big enough to sleep in and you will be able to open the closet if you climb on top of the bed. You may also be able to wash the dishes from bed or get into the shower from the bed without touching the floor.

You may very well find work on the other side of the city so put your container in storage in RSA at least until you have a job.

Then with job in hand start looking for a bigger place to stay, if you really need something bigger or closer to work.

Have a look at average Aussie household income here "what-is-the-typical-australians-income-in-2013"

We are 2 people and assuming we would perhaps earn average of $64,000 disposable after tax per year it means we would be able to live like average Aussies at an average cost of $5,333/month

If we are prepared to slog it out in a 1 bedroom place at $250/week and use public transport until we BOTH have jobs I am sure we will be able to live of $2,500 a month.

I thought getting our household contents to Aus was going to be expensive. If I took everything in our 3 bedroom house with, I'd need to rent a 3 bedroom house in Sydney.

That could cost up to $400/week more compared to a bachelors. So our furniture would cost us $10,800 extra to "store" and use in our rental for the first 6 months.

Our plan is to split our household contents into 2 movecubes and store it with our parents in RSA. We will live from our backpacks use laundromats and re-use plastic cutlery and coffee mugs. When we then get 1st job, we will ask them to send the primary cube with the crucial things we need and that will fit in a 1 bedroom/bachelors apartment. When we have job 2 we will look for a slightly bigger place (2 bedroom) if we still feel like it and ask them to send cube 2 with the less crucial, but nice to have stuff. We have been joking about who will wash the paper plates and who will have to dry them.

Good luck to everyone moving across and remember your struggle. Once you have 2 jobs, come back to the forum and offer to help others settle. Even if it means they need to hit the couch for a while, you will have made it a lot easier for them and chances are they will pay it forward too.

[Kanniewagnie]

Hoe lank tyd het mens om jou container oor te vat? As ek reg onthou, moet mens invoer belasting betaal as jy die container laat kom na 12 maande vandat jy daar woon. Ek het self gewonder of ons die container kan pak en dit dan hier stoor by familie wat op 'n plot bly todat ons daar werk het en dit dan laat kom.

[Jacques Voogt]

Goeie vraag, maar dit gaan nie vir ons 'n opsie wees om so lank te vat om werk te vind nie.

[rozellem]

Jacques, send me a message when you get to Sydney and I will trow a box of things together for you, so you can at least wash your plates ( instead of burning them). But, I agree with you whole heartedly, its amazing how little you need. Great life lesson too.

[Jacques Voogt]

Hi Rozelle

That would be just amazing, thanks.

I think we can add to that and pass it on one day as a SAAustralia.org starterpack.