$55k a year...is it enough?

[Caven]

Thanks very much guys

Love the kids idea John If there's no sweeps needed, there's always open-cast mining or gold panning! Gold panning, now there's an ...

Thanks very much for putting figures down ruthyroo, kiwi, moorf ( you got the dog in a post - AGAIN! ) and Jodie.

Kiwi, come on, how do you do it?

I had a bit of a wobble over all this, but I guess it is going to be conservative spending to start with mixed with a good bit of job-hopping

[Paul and Linda]

This is a fantastic thread I hope those with experience keep it going.

I am looking to start work on exactly this sort of salary and we have had a few sleepless nights of late (res app submitted 31 jan) as reality starts to bite and the true cost of "upping sticks" and heading off to paradise (I'm from the north east of england so I can quite confidently use the word paradise) sets in.

Is there a prize for the longest unpunctuated sentence? :?

We've just cancelled Sky, the movies package and my gym membership in preparation for a different life in NZ (were also wearing jumpers instead of turning up the heating) ......... and it feels great. :mrgreen:

I never grew up with all the mod cons that we provide our kids with (and we have!) and what I'm seeing is that they are missing out on all the outdoor stuff I used to do (when it used to be safe to go out of your house!).

I can't wait to get there, live the life, for real and get some use out of the fortune I paid out for camping equipment that we get to use once a year!

Mmmm little too much to drink methinks....and so to bed

Thanks to all, keep it going gang.

[RoadRunner]

Consider this another plea for Kiwi to share secrets!

I easily spend US$150/week on food, wine, beer (that does cover our lunches for the week, too). Plus another US$60-75/week eating out.

Kiwi! Share your secrets!!

I'm hoping the cost of eating out will be cheaper in NZ, ditto wine. Can anyone confirm/deny that?

RR

[ruthyroo]

Honest I don't live on caviar and champagne! We don't eat out except once in a blue moon, don't go pubbing / clubbing (living in the sticks with no public transport helps), we never get takeaways. it's probably mostly to do with preferring a low carb diet - so lots of good quality meat / fish / chicken, veggies etc and very little cheap filler-uppers like pasta, bread, tatties. Because of that I prefer to buy meat at a good butcher rather than Pak n Save / Mad Butcher. And the $200 includes wine!

On the whole I would not agree that food costs are lower in NZ, and certainly not as a porportion of your NZ$ salary. I spend porportionally far more here than in the UK on food and wine. Wine can be cheap if you go for the bargain bucket stuff, which is actually quite decent, but the NZ wine industry is small and boutique compared to the mass producers of Europe - gosh I miss yearly access to French vineyards! As always, it's individual choice how much you spend on grub and booze - but I can't see us ever getting it down to under $200.

[kiwi]

yeah sure Ruth, bollie anyone!

I have no secrets peeps, it is all I know...living on a sniff of a coissant.

I do the specials at the local grocery shop...I know the price of EVERYTHING! I know when it is cheaper/on special so I buy it,(toilet paper / washing powder..never the same,....whatever is on special) if it is more than $9.99 a kilo..it doesnt get bought, and I buy in season..so if it is apple season (which it isnt...cos they and oranges are soo dear at the moment) then it is apples in the fruit basket..if it is mandarin and banana season which it seems to be, along with apricots then it is them.

I have tried the soya meat thing and the bean thing (lima/chickpea etc) to try and save money and it just got thrown out...kids cried, husband sobbed, not fun.


The best way for me is to write out 14 recipes that I love to cook, put the ingredients in a book and that is what you take to the butcher/ greengrocer every fortnight and you buy the stuff in the book.

if something extra is cheap..say a chicken get one of them too incase you go mad and invite people over for a roast..at least you have one!


At the grocery store you get the ingredients you need plus extra like shampoo etc and then you know you have on hand a complete meal.

Usualyl I will have a cook up that night as stuff wont fit in our small fridge and we now have a friends freezer in the garage and I will cook say 5 meals...butter chicken 2 lots and freeze one, bolognaise sauce for 1) spaghetti, 2) nachos 3) lasagne and you freeze the sauce, and make it up to what you want when you need it, same with say sweet and sour fish, ..do a double lot so you have 2 meals..same work as one meal huh!?

Just do meals you love, cos then you will cook rather than text hubby and say bring home chips which is what I do if I havent organised my life!

Nic
ps we dont drink..this is a big saving remember...sorry!
we also have ice cream each night...in a cone or with fruit maybe! but no fancy puddings etc so that saves $$. I do spend $10 on junk for school, my one vice.

[susanlin]

Hi Nic

Butter chicken sounds yummy! Definately think you should share your recipes - you superwoman you! I can imagine you being the kind of person who can turn a couple of spuds, 3 baked beans and a cabbage into a gourmet dinner!

Sue

[kiwi]

ha ha, I would also need a tin of tomatoes to really do it justice!!

If you really want recipes....(I hate writing recipes out) you would have to get me on a really good day...and I dont see one of them happening for a wee while!!!

Nic

[ruthyroo]

The no drinking must be a big help, financially. We generally get through maybe four bottles of wine over the weekend and maybe a couple during the week - so that's a minimum of $60 on the shopping bill. And then there is the malt to keep topped up (well gotta have some reminders of home!) and a wee gin and tonic on the terrace goes down very well on a hot evening (or a cool one). Hmmmm I think I can see why our grocery bills are at odds - I am a boozer! At least we are drinking less than when we first arrived - that was down to shock horror and a bottle of wine a night for the anaesthetic purposes!!

[Moorf]

As I type this there is a very interesting debate on the Breakfast show here in NZ... seems the Kiwi's are feeling the pinch too with increased housing costs, food and general living costs.. so it's not something that just us immigrants are finding shocking..

Kiwi - perhaps you should share your budgeting skills in a book or website... I spent a day last week cooking up five meals and froze them.. my shopping for 1 week lasted 2 with just a few trips for fresh stuff inbetween!

[Moorf]

Can I also add that my part time job at the surf shop will bring in c. $600 a month after tax for approx 3.5 days a week split across the week. This is pocket money and it will go a LONG way to making our life more enjoyable here.. once the necessities are paid for (mortgage, power, food, etc) your disposable goes alot further that it would in the UK (imho).