Blog about moving to perth and living in perth

[benj1980]

I know it's hard not to, certainly when you first arrive but comparing prices isn't healthy. Pay is generally better and bills a little less so there's going to be other fluctuations. I see ALDI and LIDL are going to start popping up, it will be interesting to see how this effects food prices!

 

when I was over, all I compared was beer prices

[Guest Guest6235]

Its not just coffee gate, you think 'Rip off Britain' is bad, just wait till you get here, 'Rip off Oz' makes 'Rip off Britain' look like a bunch of cheap amateurs

.....and you've just built a house here lol! As I mentioned earlier in thread, stamp duties for car/houses and obviously house prices themselves I see as the most expensive things, obviously I maybe wrong, everything else is not that bad (regarding prices only). We're looking forward to Aldi too, Coles & Woolies already knocking some prices and staff as well unfortunately for those families. The last few months we've been writing down all our grocery spends and we don't think it's that bad. At the start of the month we do a months shop, meat at drovers & rest at coles/Wooly, then during rest of month we only pop to the above for bread/milk/nappies which comes to $450-550, around £250 mark. Every few months we stock up on toiletries such as deodorant/shower gel (love the big 2l tubs) etc from Big W & toothpaste at reject shop which is about $80-100.

We think it's definitely cheaper for a day out with the family, although we do tend to take picnics out with us most of the time but we do have the odd meal out also (when little un behaves) and train prices are great.

Edited June 18, 2015 by Guest6235

[Druid]

I have been here for nearly 4 years and still find it bloody expensive, you have hit the nail on the head when you shop around, in the UK I just hit Tesco's once a week, life is too short to spend the weekend shopping around to get the best deals

[Guest Guest6235]

Once a month takes 2 hours !

[Laz]

What about things like going out for dinner? and kids after school activities? We want to live the same standard lifestyle we lived in the UK but it will be hard. One child's sport and after school activities for next term cost $580....and that's not including the football fee I paid last term. I agree grocery shopping is on a par with the UK, although there aren't so many buy one get one free bargains etc. And clothes here are expensive ....I just bought school shoes for my son from the UK via Amazon for £43 delivered - the Clarks equivalent were $129! But the biggest factor in the household budget (housing) is so much more expensive that it takes such a whack from the budget that everything else has to be cut...well, that's how I see it. I don't see how anyone could say Perth isn't expensive.....

[Guest Guest6235]

This is why a forum to anybody coming to Perth could be confusing. We'd all heard about the prices of things before we came to WA but we still came. Some find it not that bad and others do, that and other topics is why it could be confusing as everybody is different. It's the same with my gripe about the crime, yes I know you get crime everywhere but I didn't realise it would be this bad in the outer suburbs and then you get the people it doesn't really bother. Also the driving over here but this is because somebody has already slammed into the back of my wife's car and we've had two near misses on Mitchell freeway, one when traffic was stationary and the 4WD was thundering in behind us and had to slam on screeching his breaks, I'd left room in front of us and the shoulder was there so I had contingency plan. This is why unless you try it for yourself, an individual or a family you'll never know. I just wouldn't in the current climate unless you have a bit of $$$ or a job lined up. If you try it and you or we don't like it we can always decide to try elsewhere or return back to wherever we came from.

Edited June 19, 2015 by Guest6235

[Laz]

I had to call an electrician out this week - $140 plus GST per hour for the first guy, and $80 per hr (plus GST) per hr for his helper! Sorry, but that's just crazy expensive....

[Druid]

.....and you've just built a house here lol!

 

There is reason behind my madness about building a house here, we didnt sell our Uk house before moving here, not for the lack of trying though, so we ended up here with no money, I hate renting as I dont see the point in paying someone elses mortgage off, we looked at buying a house in Harrisdale SOR! The house was $550k, I approached Aussie to see if we could afford it, basically they said I needed $55k in cash in the bank account before I could proceed, I didnt have it, so there went that idea, we looked at building in Harrisdale, I could have built a house in Harrisdale for $500k, the bank only wanted $25k deposit, that made it doable, and started us thinking, we didnt really want to be in Harrisdale, we wanted to be closer to the beach, SOR was out of the question as we had already lived in Rockingham and decided that was too far out, so we headed up north, the closest developments were Beaumaris Beach in Iluka and Burns Beach, Burns Beach being slightly cheaper was the obvious choice, we saved like mad for whole year to get the deposit together and bought one of the smallest blocks and found a cheap house to put on it, the bank only wanted $37k in a deposit and we got the first HOG of $10k back, we couldnt have even dreamed about buying a house in Burns Beach ready built, the deposit would have killed it, we both have good jobs so paying back a huge mortgage is not a problem, and if the UK house ever sells, most of the mortgage will be paid off, so you see, there is method in my madness................I still find Perth rediculously expensive, in the UK we both had good jobs, on my wifes salary, we could pay the mortgage, all the bills and buy groceries, my salary was a bonus, here its the other way round and we dont lead an extravagant lifestyle, money just seemed to go a whole lot further in the UK