How cheap is Oz

Zambia

Sydney is not cheap ...

Father Damo

Zambia232 wrote: »

Sydney is not cheap ...

I can never fathom this opinion from the Irish here. FFS I live a stones throw from the CBD for the equiv of 10 euro more per week in my own room than my old room in Dublin that was a 40 minute bus trip from town. I earn more than 250 euro more per week here than when I worked back home and can get a pint for under 3 euro on certain days. Cheap Tuesdays in bars, restaurants, cinemas. Cheap clothes.

Mind you, due to the fact we can drink 24/7 here rather than being forced home at 3am back home I probably spend way more here anyway :pac: Cant bate stumbling out of PBH or Courthouse as the sun rises on a Sunday morning

Zambia

Yeah we have different outgoings Damo.

Father Damo

Zambia232 wrote: »

Yeah we have different outgoings Damo.

Like what, out of curiousity? Im hard pressed to think of anything that is equal to or more expensive here than back home (fcuk sake, it really says alot about Ireland when a pint of Guinness imported from x thousand miles away costs around 3.70 euro in Sydney and 50 cent more back home). The only thing I can think of that is of equal price is offy booze, there isnt nearly as much decent carry our discount beer here as there is back home.

jank

A pint of the black stuff for 3.70 please do share or are you againmaking $hit up on this forum. I bet on the latter.:D

Yea Sydney is not cheap, rent is very exepensive unless you want to live in an apartment with 15 other backpackers....

mandrake04

Yeah please share!!! I want to know where you can get a Pint of stout for $5.14

Xavi6

The cost of living, I find, is cheaper in general, and anything that is on a par is generally better quality than back home.

It's a first world country so anyone expecting a cheap ride is kidding themselves anyway.

Zambia

I have moved this little discussion on to its own thread because its not really On topic on the sticky.

Damo you could say the same thing about vice versa. A sixpack of crown lager in Belfast cost me 5-6 sterling. Thats less than 12 dollars. Yet here I would pay close to 18-19 bucks. (Never buy 6 packs here though).

I have never paid less than 6.50 Dollars for a pint of guiness. But the last one I had was in the Celtic club in Feb 2009 it was not pretty or nice:(.

So where are you getting one for eur 3.70 because when I googled todays rate that equals $5.13? :eek:

In relation to household expenses here things are expensive. Shopping here is no way as cheap as in the UK. Tescos woud destroy the Duopoly here.

Petrol while being cheaper is off set by the standard car uses a lot more. Note to new comers buy < 2.5 Engines

Insurance costs are high Car, House , Medicare etc.

I love living in Oz but its not cheap.

Xavi6

How is car insurance dear here?

Doc

Well to be fair the dollar has been climbing steadily ever since I arrived here against the euro. (which is great for me earning dollars but sucks for people just coming over with the euro)

I was living in London before moving over here to Melbourne. I was paying 150 pounds sterling a week for a room in a shared house in London I am now paying $150 a week for a bigger room in a shared house in Melbourne so I’m happy enough with the cost of things here.

old_aussie

Zambia232 wrote: »

Sydney is not cheap ...

Compared to what, how cheap the Irish are or another place?

old_aussie

Xavi6 wrote: »

How is car insurance dear here?

Yeah, I'd like to hear Zambia232 explain that one.

One care registration/greenslip insurance in Oz and all 4 people in my house can drive the car.

We don't require all 4 to have insurance, just the car

Mackman

I dont know if its cheaper on the whole. Some things are, some arent. Like alcohol is expensive here.
e.g. $42 for a box of miller here > 20yo-yo's back home.

I think there is far more variety here so there is better scope for shopping around and more competition. Plus you have the super stores like Big W, K-mart, & Target.

The wages here (WA) are higher than back home too which helps

Mackman

old_aussie wrote: »

Yeah, I'd like to hear Zambia232 explain that one.

One care registration/greenslip insurance in Oz and all 4 people in my house can drive the car.

We don't require all 4 to have insurance, just the car

Thats only 3rd party insurance, he's probably talking about fully comp.

Zambia

Car insurance of course is the least one in that little example. But it is by no means cheap and Old_aussie is right cheap should be defined in comparisson to what we are discussing here.

But compared to my car insurance in Belfast its more here for both me and the wife. However it is dropping the next renewal is due soon.

Compared to Irish car insurance its way less.

Defining cheap is a hard one but its always gonna be relative to your income. At the moment Im in the middle of paying rent and a mortgage. Nothing to me is cheap anymore I have no income.

Zambia

Mackman wrote: »

Thats only 3rd party insurance, he's probably talking about fully comp.

This is correct so I pay rego + Insurance.

uglyjohn

dont forget about the changing exchange rates. when i first came over i was getting two dollars to the euro. now i would get $1.39.



some things are cheap but no way could you say that drink is. in my local a pint is $10 or 7.20 euro.(aprox)

Xavi6

Zambia232 wrote: »

This is correct so I pay rego + Insurance.

I have two cars (3l Pajero 4x4 and 1.6l Hyundai Accent) and even with going fully comp I'm paying less than I would be at home.

The ability to drive anyone's car if needs be is fantastic as well.

Tigerandahalf

It depends where you go really. Some bars and restaurants have good deals. Other places in the heart of the CBD are expensive as theyre going to be. Transport Bar opposite Flinders..good place for women etc but you could pay upto 10 bucks for a drink. I find there are some great deals available around especially during the week. It's the one thing I never saw at home, you very seldom get a bargain on food or drink. I find supermarket food pretty similar in price to home. Some things are dearer, some are cheaper.

Mackman

Xavi6 wrote: »

The ability to drive anyone's car if needs be is fantastic as well.

^ This is probably the best thing about Australia.

Zambia

Xavi6 wrote: »

I have two cars (3l Pajero 4x4 and 1.6l Hyundai Accent) and even with going fully comp I'm paying less than I would be at home.

The ability to drive anyone's car if needs be is fantastic as well.

Yeah but thats Ireland (South)

I cant even begin to debate that, hands down Irish insurance is robbery.

Father Damo

jank wrote: »

A pint of the black stuff for 3.70 please do share or are you againmaking $hit up on this forum. I bet on the latter.:D

Yea Sydney is not cheap, rent is very exepensive unless you want to live in an apartment with 15 other backpackers....

Can you show me one thing I have made up on this forum? (I can see from the "thanks" Mandrake still cant get over me knowing more about student visas than he does and harking back to an honest mistake I made regarding the price of one course. Pathetic really)

I have my own spacious room in a 5 bed house with mates, not a two dozen people sharing a rat pit type joint at all. Shop around, theres always a bargain to be had here.

Im fairly sure O Malleys in the Cross does a pint of Guinness for 5.50, and Scruffys does (or has done it) for 5 to 5.50, at least on certain nights. A bottle of Budweiser in there was a square fiver there a few weeks back, which is certainly cheaper than home. IIRC the Porterhouse does very cheap Bulmers on Sunday. There was 3 dollar pints of Bulmers in the Cock and Bull for their Christmas in July night (mind you the word had been spreading all week and it was so packed it wasnt worth staying there even if the drink was cheap) As for non Irish beers/ bars, numerous bars do schooners for 3 to 3.50 all day and night (Bar Century on Lpool St for starters). Theres tons of deals around if you know where to look, unlike Dublin where the only cheap drink I ever had was 3 euro pints of Fosters draught.

Mackman wrote: »

I dont know if its cheaper on the whole. Some things are, some arent. Like alcohol is expensive here.
e.g. $42 for a box of miller here > 20yo-yo's back home.

Yank beer is barely drank here. Hence, less market for importing it, less quantities imported, more cost etc.

Mackman

Father Damo wrote: »

Yank beer is barely drank here. Hence, less market for importing it, less quantities imported, more cost etc.

Its not just yank beer, most of the Aussie beer is around the same price, or dearer. Buy anything cheaper than that and your buying ****e

Father Damo

Mackman wrote: »

Its not just yank beer, most of the Aussie beer is around the same price, or dearer. Buy anything cheaper than that and your buying ****e

Well as said at the start offys are about the only thing of a similar and even greater price. But apart from that and branded sportswear (the quality counterfeit available at Paddys means you dont need to buy it anyway) I am yet to think of one thing that is of a greater price here.

Well, bar yips :pac:

mandrake04

Ah now Damo maybe that $5 pint was a concession rate for those students on the old 'Martial Arts visa' :D

CiaranC

Father Damo wrote: »

I can never fathom this opinion from the Irish here. FFS I live a stones throw from the CBD for the equiv of 10 euro more per week in my own room than my old room in Dublin that was a 40 minute bus trip from town.

Im renting a nice big 1 bed in Kilmainham for less than I was paying for a room in a house in St Kilda 5 months ago.

Times have changed here.

jank

Father Damo wrote: »

Well as said at the start offys are about the only thing of a similar and even greater price. But apart from that and branded sportswear (the quality counterfeit available at Paddys means you dont need to buy it anyway) I am yet to think of one thing that is of a greater price here.

Well, bar yips :pac:

Em... rent, house prices and beer in Liquor shops. Public transportation aint exactly cheap either!
Some things are cheaper but some things are more expensive.

Doc

jank wrote: »

Em... rent, house prices and beer in Liquor shops. Public transportation aint exactly cheap either!
Some things are cheaper but some things are more expensive.

Pfft trams in Melbourne are free ;)

thecandle

Father Damo wrote: »

IIRC the Porterhouse does very cheap Bulmers on Sunday

Yeah, think it is/was $5 pints

CabanSail

I have been to Ireland on holidays in '89 '97 & '03 and on all those trips the Pacific Peso did not go very far over there. It was much the same when I moved to Dublin in 2006. When earning the local currency you do soon adjust. At one stage there with the exchange being low I remember it was costing me over $12 a Pint of Bulmers.

Since I have come back I have noticed that the difference is not as much now as it used to be. There are some things which are now more expensive here than in Ireland. A lot of this is due to the exchange rate with a now strong Aussie Dollar to a weaker Euro.

What I have found is much more here is Telephone/Broadband/Mobile costs. I know that Ireland has the reputation of the highest costs in Europe but there are now better packages there than here.

When looking at Booze prices you have to compare like with like. Remember that in Ireland a Pint of Guinness is normally the cheapest of those offered on tap as it's the local brew. Here it's seen as being a more exotic drink and even though it's brewed locally it is more expensive. The horrible Lagers on offer would be the comparison.

Another cost of living is energy and while it's expensive here in most places you do not have to heat the house most of the year. That is a big saving and allows the luxury of living in bigger houses. Solar Hot Water is also now very common and reduces the costs further.

Cars devalue in Ireland a LOT faster than they do here. In '06 I bought a '98 model 2 litre Diesel car. It was quite cheap and did me until it was stolen recently by our Travelling Friends. An 8 year old car here is not considered that old and has more residual value. At work people were changing their cars as they were getting too old being '02 models at the time. I did find the Insurance & Tax a lot more there than here & shopping around with a Lifetime No Claim Bonus means you can get quite good deals. Anyone moving over here should get documentary evidence from their insurers to get No Claim Discounts here as paying the full whack is not cheap.

Also you should try getting out of the Cities and into the rural areas where the cost of living is often much less.

tl/dr It is still mainly cheaper here but not as good as it used to be.

myhorse

Its changed so much over the years. When I started first coming out here in the mid 90's everything seemed so bloody cheap it was a joke. Now it seems its getting much the much.

The punt was getting me about $2.60 ('ish) if memory serves so that was handy but I always did a like for like comparison as if they were at parity and still seemed cheaper especially the real big things including property. Also cars seemed so cheap BUT all the aussies I knew who had been to the UK reckoned that australia was way more expensive for cars. Coming from Ireland cars seemed like they ere being given away here.

The only thing I do find way cheaper here throughout is eating out.

Ah I remember when it was all green fields and there wasnt a gaa jersey to be seen