UK v Aus Outgoings

[HarryStyles]

Ok so i know there are loads of threads on this topic but this is one of the biggest worries of mine before we arrive in July. As a family we have been in Perth many times most recently in January this year.  In the Uk we live within our means, I do always look for the best bargains when shopping and try not to spend on rubbish we don't need.  We pay a mortgage on a property we will retain and will have family moving into who will cover the mortgage payments.  I have no intention on buying a property here for at least 12 months until i know we are all settled so will continue to rent.  I have budgeted the following based on what we spend in the UK and what i have seen prices to be like in Perth. In the UK we live in a 5 x 3 house in Perth we will be looking to rent a 4 x 2 preferably with a pool

Food £100 per week  $250

Gas £50 per month

Elec £50 per month

Diesel £50 per week 

Rates £200 per month (this inc's water & sewage)

Phone/Internet £25 per month $100

Mobile Phones x 4 £50 per month  $100

Various life ins policies £50 per month  

Dog Ins £20 per month

Car Ins £45 per month  $100

Home Ins £40 per month

 

I am budgeting $500 per week for a house hopefully NOR between Ocean Reef and Quinns due to family up there.  I believe that while we rent we won't pay rates but will pay water coming from scotland this will be new to us as we are not metered here so no idea how much we use or the costings.   In there UK we have the heating on for around 8 months of the year which will be cancelled out by the higher electric bill to run the A/C so no idea how much our Gas/Elec bills will be out there.  We don't use any pay for tv service in UK and see no reason to want to in Oz as we don't really watch a lot of tv however unlimited internet is a must.  If anyone have offer advice on Car Ins for a ford focus sized car or reasonably priced home & dog Ins that would be greatly appreciated.

 

I must also add that neither of the 2 adults in the family smoke or drink alcohol although i don't know how people can afford to when I saw the prices recently perhaps the UK should consider a price hike!

 

We will be bringing out approx £40k but will be looking to purchase 1 second hand car initially I will be working for family business on $75k whilst hubby goes out looking for work

[Admin]

Dog Insurance will depend a lot on the breed, we pay $110 per month to insure our Rottweiler with Petplan

Electric, every household is different, but we pay $50 per week by direct debit and that pretty much covers it when we get the bill

Contents insurance cost us around $39 a month

Four mobile phone contacts for $100 seems a little low, unless you're looking at SIM only / Bring Your own phone. 

[Rossmoyne]

As you will be renting, the only water bill you will receive will be usage, and this can differ a lot between properties depending on whether there is a pool (will need topping up because of evaporation), whether the garden is watered by mains scheme water or a bore.    Your electricity costs will depend on whether you have evaporative or refrigerative air conditioning and how long you run them for.   Over a year, your cost for gas for cooking, heating, hot water, would be about right.

Pet insurance can be expensive and will depend on the size and breed of dog.... probably between $65 and $100 a month.  

Overall your estimates are pretty spot on.

[HarryStyles]

Thanks for that.

Yes we will be bringing unlocked iPhones that we currently run on monthly sim only deals.  

The pet insurance is for Jack Russell

Thanks for the info on the air condition prices i did wonder what the differences in cost would be between the different types.  just out of interest which is the cheaper and more expensive types of air con please?

[Rossmoyne]

Installing ducted  reverse cycle aircon is the dearest - I was quoted around $13000 for a 4 x 2 family home 4 years ago as against $4500 for ducted evaporative.   Went with the Evaporative and it works very well except on really humid days.   Perth doesn't have too many of those, but this summer was an exception and we had many humid unbearable days, so I am looking at installing a reverse cycle wall unit in my main living area.   I am in the process of getting quotes and so far they have come in from $1000 to $1700 installed depending on make and size.

[2871094]

Hi HarryStyles,

You won't technically need car insurance as the 'rego' (tax) automatically covers you for 3rd party insurance.  However topping it up with your own policy to make it fully comp is recommended.  Allow around $700 per annum for that.  That's on top of your compulsory annual rego fee typically around $700-800 per annum depending on what car you have.  My Xtrail just cost me $371 for 6 months rego.

The following statements are based on my household of 2 adults 2 kids in a 4x2.

My gas bill is $1300 per annum just for hot water.  WA gas water heaters are mostly old technology with pilot light and are 'always on'.  No timers.  They stick them outside (no worries about pipes freezing in winter of course) and they require no power supply because they're 'always on' and require no external controls.  They do regulate to a thermostat within, but the stats do not require an electrical supply to operate.

Newer gas heaters are starting to go condensing, but they're not compulsory and cost more because they need a power supply for a flue fan.  I have no gas heating or gas cooker.  My gas consumption last 12 months was 4800kwh.  In UK it was 25000 kwh.  So I use considerably less gas now despite the inefficiency of the heater.

Electric is the tricky one.  As Admin points out, every house is different.  My house has no mechanical air con, just an evap cooler.  There are only a few days a year I would like to have proper AC.  As it's so infrequent, I can live without it.  The problem is winter.  As I have no gas heating, winter heating can get expensive as I plug in electric fires.  The case for proper AC actually stacks up better for winter heating rather than summer cooling.  My annual bill last 12 months was $2200.  My pool uses about $360 of that at cheap night time rate 13c/kwh.  Standard rate would double that cost.  My consumption these last 12 months was a rather high 9600 kwh (the pool uses around 2600 kwh of that, or 27%).  The Aussie average annual consumption, they say, is 6500.  My UK consumption was around 5000 kwh.  UK average, they say, is 3300 kwh.  (That would just about keep your pool going.)  Bear in mind I'm using electric for heating.  My carbon footprint is actually rather lower as I burn much less gas here compared to UK.  That said my wife's new spa hasn't quite filtered in to my calcs yet, and that thing pulls some major juice when it's heater is on.  Keeping it at 37C isn't cheap, but the heavy use it gets once every 6 weeks or so justifies it.  Not.

You are correct that as you're renting you don't need to worry about paying rates.  If you ever buy, allow around $1500 per annum for that.

Water is dirt cheap to consume, surprisingly.  The high part of its cost is built into their standing charges.  As Admin says, you will only pay for what you consume as a tenant (no standing charges).  This is because the Water Corp are an antiquated government QANGO, and they're old fashioned processes means it's too difficult for them to bill tenants like everyone else seems to be able to do without any problem, so they only bill the landlord direct because it's easier for them.  So we have this weird arrangement where landlord can only ask the tenant to pay the consumption.  Like the landlord doesn't factor in the total water cost when setting the rent fee!

Water fees are staged.  The more you use, the more each m3 costs.  Top rate is $3 per m3.  So if you have a 50000 litre pool and decide to refill it, it will cost you $150.  I reckon you can expect a charge of $20-$40 from your agent every couple of months.  My last 12 months water bill was $1650 for 194m3, or 530 litres/day.  My personal view, being Perth is one of the driest populated cities on Earth, is more weight should be given to consumption and less to the standing charges.  At the moment there isn't much deterrent to use lots of water as if barely affects the cost of your bi-monthly bill.

My UK consumption was 450 litres/day.  Not massively over considering the pool uses a fair bit. 

Drinking is on average $10 pint.  Some more, some less.  You might get a pint of Guinness in an RSL club (working mens club) for $8.  6 pack of beer $14-16.  Kilkenny 6 pack is $20.50.  Worth it in my opinion. 

I just renewed my home and contents insurance and it cost $1100.

I can keep 2 phones going for $30 each per 28 days with Telstra Prepaid.  Depends on your usage if that deal sees you right, but I doubt you will spend less.

Hope this helps..

 

[qprdan123]

Thanks for this, very useful info and answers a lot of questions we have.

 

Dan

[Arwen]

On 5/26/2017 at 15:15, 2871094 said:

Hi HarryStyles,

You won't technically need car insurance as the 'rego' (tax) automatically covers you for 3rd party insurance.  However topping it up with your own policy to make it fully comp is recommended.  Allow around $700 per annum for that.  That's on top of your compulsory annual rego fee typically around $700-800 per annum depending on what car you have.  My Xtrail just cost me $371 for 6 months rego.

The following statements are based on my household of 2 adults 2 kids in a 4x2.

My gas bill is $1300 per annum just for hot water.  WA gas water heaters are mostly old technology with pilot light and are 'always on'.  No timers.  They stick them outside (no worries about pipes freezing in winter of course) and they require no power supply because they're 'always on' and require no external controls.  They do regulate to a thermostat within, but the stats do not require an electrical supply to operate.

Newer gas heaters are starting to go condensing, but they're not compulsory and cost more because they need a power supply for a flue fan.  I have no gas heating or gas cooker.  My gas consumption last 12 months was 4800kwh.  In UK it was 25000 kwh.  So I use considerably less gas now despite the inefficiency of the heater.

Electric is the tricky one.  As Admin points out, every house is different.  My house has no mechanical air con, just an evap cooler.  There are only a few days a year I would like to have proper AC.  As it's so infrequent, I can live without it.  The problem is winter.  As I have no gas heating, winter heating can get expensive as I plug in electric fires.  The case for proper AC actually stacks up better for winter heating rather than summer cooling.  My annual bill last 12 months was $2200.  My pool uses about $360 of that at cheap night time rate 13c/kwh.  Standard rate would double that cost.  My consumption these last 12 months was a rather high 9600 kwh (the pool uses around 2600 kwh of that, or 27%).  The Aussie average annual consumption, they say, is 6500.  My UK consumption was around 5000 kwh.  UK average, they say, is 3300 kwh.  (That would just about keep your pool going.)  Bear in mind I'm using electric for heating.  My carbon footprint is actually rather lower as I burn much less gas here compared to UK.  That said my wife's new spa hasn't quite filtered in to my calcs yet, and that thing pulls some major juice when it's heater is on.  Keeping it at 37C isn't cheap, but the heavy use it gets once every 6 weeks or so justifies it.  Not.

You are correct that as you're renting you don't need to worry about paying rates.  If you ever buy, allow around $1500 per annum for that.

Water is dirt cheap to consume, surprisingly.  The high part of its cost is built into their standing charges.  As Admin says, you will only pay for what you consume as a tenant (no standing charges).  This is because the Water Corp are an antiquated government QANGO, and they're old fashioned processes means it's too difficult for them to bill tenants like everyone else seems to be able to do without any problem, so they only bill the landlord direct because it's easier for them.  So we have this weird arrangement where landlord can only ask the tenant to pay the consumption.  Like the landlord doesn't factor in the total water cost when setting the rent fee!

Water fees are staged.  The more you use, the more each m3 costs.  Top rate is $3 per m3.  So if you have a 50000 litre pool and decide to refill it, it will cost you $150.  I reckon you can expect a charge of $20-$40 from your agent every couple of months.  My last 12 months water bill was $1650 for 194m3, or 530 litres/day.  My personal view, being Perth is one of the driest populated cities on Earth, is more weight should be given to consumption and less to the standing charges.  At the moment there isn't much deterrent to use lots of water as if barely affects the cost of your bi-monthly bill.

My UK consumption was 450 litres/day.  Not massively over considering the pool uses a fair bit. 

Drinking is on average $10 pint.  Some more, some less.  You might get a pint of Guinness in an RSL club (working mens club) for $8.  6 pack of beer $14-16.  Kilkenny 6 pack is $20.50.  Worth it in my opinion. 

I just renewed my home and contents insurance and it cost $1100.

I can keep 2 phones going for $30 each per 28 days with Telstra Prepaid.  Depends on your usage if that deal sees you right, but I doubt you will spend less.

Hope this helps..

 

 the rego only covers 3rd party for injury to people.  Does not cover any damage to vehicles.  

[HarryStyles]

On 26/05/2017 at 08:15, 2871094 said:

Hi HarryStyles,

You won't technically need car insurance as the 'rego' (tax) automatically covers you for 3rd party insurance.  However topping it up with your own policy to make it fully comp is recommended.  Allow around $700 per annum for that.  That's on top of your compulsory annual rego fee typically around $700-800 per annum depending on what car you have.  My Xtrail just cost me $371 for 6 months rego.

The following statements are based on my household of 2 adults 2 kids in a 4x2.

My gas bill is $1300 per annum just for hot water.  WA gas water heaters are mostly old technology with pilot light and are 'always on'.  No timers.  They stick them outside (no worries about pipes freezing in winter of course) and they require no power supply because they're 'always on' and require no external controls.  They do regulate to a thermostat within, but the stats do not require an electrical supply to operate.

Newer gas heaters are starting to go condensing, but they're not compulsory and cost more because they need a power supply for a flue fan.  I have no gas heating or gas cooker.  My gas consumption last 12 months was 4800kwh.  In UK it was 25000 kwh.  So I use considerably less gas now despite the inefficiency of the heater.

Electric is the tricky one.  As Admin points out, every house is different.  My house has no mechanical air con, just an evap cooler.  There are only a few days a year I would like to have proper AC.  As it's so infrequent, I can live without it.  The problem is winter.  As I have no gas heating, winter heating can get expensive as I plug in electric fires.  The case for proper AC actually stacks up better for winter heating rather than summer cooling.  My annual bill last 12 months was $2200.  My pool uses about $360 of that at cheap night time rate 13c/kwh.  Standard rate would double that cost.  My consumption these last 12 months was a rather high 9600 kwh (the pool uses around 2600 kwh of that, or 27%).  The Aussie average annual consumption, they say, is 6500.  My UK consumption was around 5000 kwh.  UK average, they say, is 3300 kwh.  (That would just about keep your pool going.)  Bear in mind I'm using electric for heating.  My carbon footprint is actually rather lower as I burn much less gas here compared to UK.  That said my wife's new spa hasn't quite filtered in to my calcs yet, and that thing pulls some major juice when it's heater is on.  Keeping it at 37C isn't cheap, but the heavy use it gets once every 6 weeks or so justifies it.  Not.

You are correct that as you're renting you don't need to worry about paying rates.  If you ever buy, allow around $1500 per annum for that.

Water is dirt cheap to consume, surprisingly.  The high part of its cost is built into their standing charges.  As Admin says, you will only pay for what you consume as a tenant (no standing charges).  This is because the Water Corp are an antiquated government QANGO, and they're old fashioned processes means it's too difficult for them to bill tenants like everyone else seems to be able to do without any problem, so they only bill the landlord direct because it's easier for them.  So we have this weird arrangement where landlord can only ask the tenant to pay the consumption.  Like the landlord doesn't factor in the total water cost when setting the rent fee!

Water fees are staged.  The more you use, the more each m3 costs.  Top rate is $3 per m3.  So if you have a 50000 litre pool and decide to refill it, it will cost you $150.  I reckon you can expect a charge of $20-$40 from your agent every couple of months.  My last 12 months water bill was $1650 for 194m3, or 530 litres/day.  My personal view, being Perth is one of the driest populated cities on Earth, is more weight should be given to consumption and less to the standing charges.  At the moment there isn't much deterrent to use lots of water as if barely affects the cost of your bi-monthly bill.

My UK consumption was 450 litres/day.  Not massively over considering the pool uses a fair bit. 

Drinking is on average $10 pint.  Some more, some less.  You might get a pint of Guinness in an RSL club (working mens club) for $8.  6 pack of beer $14-16.  Kilkenny 6 pack is $20.50.  Worth it in my opinion. 

I just renewed my home and contents insurance and it cost $1100.

I can keep 2 phones going for $30 each per 28 days with Telstra Prepaid.  Depends on your usage if that deal sees you right, but I doubt you will spend less.

Hope this helps..

 

Thank you so much that was very informative.  it's mainly the added cost of running the pool that scares me however i keep thinking about how the kids will use it and how much i would save by not having to find other ways of entertaining them!  coming from Scotland we are used to having to find wet weather activities and we seem to have exhausted all the free ones.

The price of alcohol is quite scary but thankfully we don't drink so thats not a worry 

I spend most of my life telling people to turn tv's off if not being used. I have one child who goes round switching off all plug sockets much to hubby's annoyance

[2871094]

I assumed my pool pump is 1.1kW for 6 hours per night to get my total.  I think my pump is about that size, but some pumps are a little as 0.75Kw rated.  That would be considerably less power consumed.  Some are bigger...  The 6 hours comes from getting 2 pool water changes per night through the filter (recommended).  So a 50,000 litre pool needs 100,000 litre change in 6 hours which is 280 l/min.  That's how your size your pump.  You could in theory have a bigger pump and reduce the time, but your pipes will get too small at some point.  You can also go the other way and run longer with a smaller pump.  Sometimes that pays but the reduced flow power can affect your kreepy Krauler cleaner from working properly.  In winter, you don't need 6 hours.  1 or 2 would do, but most people never think to adjust their timers.

Forget the TV.  They are drops in the ocean!  Biggest electric drains are electric fires, dishwashers, washing machines, pool pump, spa, tumble driers.  You'd be surprised how few people seem to hang out their washing in preference to using the old tumble drier in Perth.  Terrible really.  Retic (sprinkler) bore pumps can be juicy but they only run a short time, 10-15 mins 3 times per week September to May, banned June to August (winter).

My kids love the pool but you'll only want to use it in summer around December to March.  Some kids will go either side say November to April, even May.  Forget June to October unless you have a wetsuit.  Too cold.

 

[Arwen]

I work for Synergy.

Basically anything that heats, cools or pumps is going to suck your power.

[HarryStyles]

i don't think i can go back to not having a dishwasher, i try to be economical with the washing machine and even in Scotland i rarely use the tumble dryer.  Instead i got a good old fashioned pulley installed and its been my best purchase for a long time.  only things that go in the dryer are towels to soften them up.