Cost of living papakura, large family

[GoodbyeLuton]

Hi,

We are a large family from UK aiming to emigrate to Auckland in a few months. Would anyone be kind enough to give us their honest opinion as to whether we would be able to 'make ends meet'?

- Initially living on 1 salary, $92,000 per yr before tax (plus 15% annual bonus)
- 2 adults & 6 kids (ranging from 1yr to 13yrs old)
- We would be renting a 5 bedroom property in Papakura area $650/week
- We would be running two cheap cars (which we will buy outright on arrival)
- Countdown weekly online food shop circa $300 (already did virtual weekly shop)
- We live 'modest' lifestyle in UK, do not eat out much etc.

We have a job offer from an accredited employer & work visa / partnership visa / student visa's for kids already in place.

Finding detailed recent info online is much harder than we thought it would be. What other weekly bills & costs should we consider? Utilities, etc. Living a modest lifestyle, is it possible for a large family to survive on $92,000 per year?

Any advice appreciated. Thanks

[Living Life]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

We are on much less wage than what you have stated but we will be a family of three in January. We manage and still have spare cash, I cant say with the size of your family and not sure how expensive/cheap Auckland is compared to where we live in Te Aroha.
There are other places to do your food shopping though, have you looked at 'pack and save' ? It is a lot cheaper than countdown unless you buy the specials at countdown then it can be on a par but I certainly would say shop at pack and save. You also have alot of veg supermarkets that are usually cheaper than the supermarkets. we bought two huge carrier bagful of vegetables last Sunday, for evening dinners (3-4 nights worth) and to make soups (6 meals worth) and it only cost us $17 but we buy whats in season and on offer.
Its funny cause we shop differently out here than what we did in NZ, you will hear a lot on this forum that you will make things from scratch and use your cookery book more for cheaper meals which is great!!

Cars are cheaper to run as fuel is a lot cheaper and get yourself an AA card to get your 6c off certain garages - the card is free!!

I hope this helps a little as I cannot comment on salary with a bug family when our family is only just starting. This is a great forum for people helping you, we used it a lot before coming out here. If there is anything more i can help you with you can just PM if you like!!

[babscat]

Don't forget to include school expenses. Quite prohibitive compared to UK.

[zjpq13]

yes, you would do well to bring a lifetime's supply of crayola products and backpacks with you! (which is our plan!!)

[dharder]

Six, wow! We only have four. I think it is probably doable to live on that, but it won't leave much room for anything, really.

- weekly shopping: we have one weekly shop in the region of 250-300 for all of us. All meals are planned, all lunches are packed lunches.
- living in Papakura: I don't know what kind of driving you are looking at, but driving a number of children around to activities can quickly become quite petrol intensive, so even if you have a cheap car, the running costs might not be that cheap.
- as others have said, when you first come here, there will be school uniforms and stationary for school aged children and also donations to school. This can amount to a considerable sum initially.

Now while in a way I would describe our lifestyle as modest (crappy cars, not going out much, don't buy a lot of things), we are doing a lot of things that aren't strictly necessary to survive, but I consider important in my children's lives. For example, three of my four learn a instrument, so there's hiring cost and lessons. All of my children do at least one sport (three actually do two) per season, so there's club fees and sports gear (and that blasted driving them around petrol...). Just as an indication, club fees for one season of hockey for us where $165 per child, plus maybe 100 all in all for gear (was their first year). While no one actually 'needs' to do any of those things, and of course they are all terribly middle class, I do quite like being able to give the children the opportunities (music/sport, etc).

I think some of these areas depend on the ages of your children (four kids under the age of 5 won't cost as much to entertain as school aged ones) and what you consider important for them.

To make a rambling story short, I think you'll be able to cover your basics, but you won't have a lot left for other things.

Daniela

[Gran]

You could probably save about $80 by shopping in Pack N Save and going to the markets or fruit shops, at the moment apples should be about 0.99 a kilo and oranges 1.50. for instance.
http://www.newzealandfarmersmarkets.co.nz/l_Papakura
All the best
Gran

[RHT]

Don't forget to factor school fees in, they may say they're 'voluntary' but they don't strike me as being optional! We have three children and for our two school age ones we pay nearly $500 in fees and about $200 in school sports subs a year. It's worth looking at the school you're planning on sending your children to and finding out what their fees are so it's not a nasty surprise when they start! Then there are school sports kit to buy, stationery packs, sports equipment to add on.