Funds for New Zealand and cost of living?

kraggy

Hi guys,

Started a new thread because I have some more questions and thought they might not get answered in another thread.

My girlfriend and I are making a move from Korea, probably next February. Thinking of NZ...

So, my questions are:

1. If we were to land on New Zealand soil with 3500 euro each, would that be safe enough? We'll have more, but just thinking worst case scenario.

2. How much would rent be for a 1 bed apartment in either Wellington or Queenstown?

3. How long would the average wait be for a job. If it came down to it, we'd do any job that meant not having to leave after a few weeks.

4. What sort of jobs are most plentiful at present? Bar? Labouring? Warehouse?

5. What jobs could one get with no experience (I'm a qualified primary teacher but can't teach in NZ as far I know).

6. How much are the following?

a. cinema ticket
b. a beer
c. sandwich from shop
d. 10 minute taxi journey


7. How much would someone in the jobs listed in q.4 get per hour?

8. Is it possible to save if working in one of those jobs? Even a little? We'd like to have at least what we entered NZ with when leaving.

9. I read on another thread (people comparing Oz with NZ) and a lot of people were quite negative about NZ saying:

a. New Zealanders are very conservative
b. New Zealand cities are no craic and the only good thing about NZ is the outdoor pursuits.

How accurate are these two statements?



That's it. Any help at all would be great.

Thanks.

Cookie_Monster

kraggy wrote: »

Hi guys,

Started a new thread because I have some more questions and thought they might not get answered in another thread.

My girlfriend and I are making a move from Korea, probably next February. Thinking of NZ...

So, my questions are:

1. If we were to land on New Zealand soil with 3500 euro each, would that be safe enough? We'll have more, but just thinking worst case scenario.
7k eur is about 12k NZD, it'll do you but not for that long I imagine

2. How much would rent be for a 1 bed apartment in either Wellington or Queenstown?furnished or not? very few furnished places in comparison to Irl and unfurnished means nothing apart from oven and fridge. unfurnished is cheap enough where we are, but furnished is expensive enough. generally quoted weekly rent, 350 a week will get you an unfurnished 3 bed house here. trademe.co.nz again to check out rentals

3. How long would the average wait be for a job. If it came down to it, we'd do any job that meant not having to leave after a few weeks. totally industry dependant, my gf is engineer, had job before coming, I'm accountant, 3 months still no job. Applied for dozens, haven't even got an interview

4. What sort of jobs are most plentiful at present? Bar? Labouring? Warehouse? no idea in those cities, try seek.co.nz and trademe.co.nz

5. What jobs could one get with no experience (I'm a qualified primary teacher but can't teach in NZ as far I know).should look at that, primary apparently will be in short supply in the next couple of years due to a lot of teachers reaching retirement age, a friend of mine is a teacher here and she was saying there a huge % of teachers in the 55+ bracket now close to retirement

6. How much are the following? all where we are in New Plymouth, so may be slightly cheaper

a. cinema ticket 15NZD
b. a beer 8 NDZ, 4.80 EUR for pint, more often sold in 440mls, booze is really expensive :mad:
c. sandwich from shop 7-10 NZD
d. 10 minute taxi journey 10ish NZD


7. How much would someone in the jobs listed in q.4 get per hour?no idea

8. Is it possible to save if working in one of those jobs? Even a little? We'd like to have at least what we entered NZ with when leaving.I'm sure it is, esp if no need for a car for instance

9. I read on another thread (people comparing Oz with NZ) and a lot of people were quite negative about NZ saying:

a. New Zealanders are very conservative not so much IMO, very open, very casual, no BS suing and insurance nonsense, very very friendly, drink as much as the Irish, lots of religious diversity if into that, every sport imaginable available
b. New Zealand cities are no craic and the only good thing about NZ is the outdoor pursuits. All the NZers I've met don't like Auckland, Wellington seems more popular, was in Auckland, it's not that nice. Yet to make it to Wellington

How accurate are these two statements?



That's it. Any help at all would be great.

Thanks.

bolded replies

kraggy

Thanks a lot Cookie.

It seems more expensive than what I thought it would be.


So basically, 3500 isn't enough? How many NZ dollars are needed after rent per week to live on?

How's the economy over there at the moment? Are things steady or slowing down a bit?

What would casual workers get per hour do you know?

Regarding the Primary Teaching, I don't have the experience they require for visa purposes. It has to be 3 years FULL TIME experience.

Cookie_Monster

It seems more expensive than what I thought it would be.

Yeah it is for some things. Groceries are pretty reasonable though, and fuel, cars, elec and gas, DIY and so forth are all cheap enough. Booze, mobiles and furniture are expensive though


So basically, 3500 isn't enough? How many NZ dollars are needed after rent per week to live on?

for living expenses alone?: (food, elec, phone, broadband) say 250? 150-170 food, 150/4 elec and gas, 120/4 phone, 100 bb and tv...
that's more or less what we pay in New Plymouth...

How's the economy over there at the moment? Are things steady or slowing down a bit?

NP is gas city so it's picking up very well, Auckland is financial capital so also doing well enough. In general the country seems to be doing better than Europe, the agri sector is the basis over here so a lot more stability. There are a lot of jobs on the websites and the recruitment agencies I've been to were confident I'd have gotten a job in Auckland or Wellington already cos the industries have picked up a good deal.

What would casual workers get per hour do you know? no idea, 8-12 dollars I reckon, maybe less. I'm not sure.

kraggy

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

It seems more expensive than what I thought it would be.

Yeah it is for some things. Groceries are pretty reasonable though, and fuel, cars, elec and gas, DIY and so forth are all cheap enough. Booze, mobiles and furniture are expensive though


So basically, 3500 isn't enough? How many NZ dollars are needed after rent per week to live on?

for living expenses alone?: (food, elec, phone, broadband) say 250? 150-170 food, 150/4 elec and gas, 120/4 phone, 100 bb and tv...
that's more or less what we pay in New Plymouth...

How's the economy over there at the moment? Are things steady or slowing down a bit?

NP is gas city so it's picking up very well, Auckland is financial capital so also doing well enough. In general the country seems to be doing better than Europe, the agri sector is the basis over here so a lot more stability. There are a lot of jobs on the websites and the recruitment agencies I've been to were confident I'd have gotten a job in Auckland or Wellington already cos the industries have picked up a good deal.

What would casual workers get per hour do you know? no idea, 8-12 dollars I reckon, maybe less. I'm not sure.

Sorry Cookie, just to confirm, those bill amounts, are they Nz dollars or euro?

We may as well speak in terms of NZ dollars.

We could do without tv and landline and any other luxuries while we're looking for work.

Much to think about, thanks a lot.

Cookie_Monster

all NZD unless stated

Mrs OBumble

kraggy wrote: »

7. How much would someone in the jobs listed in q.4 get per hour?

...
9. I read on another thread (people comparing Oz with NZ) and a lot of people were quite negative about NZ saying:

a. New Zealanders are very conservative
b. New Zealand cities are no craic and the only good thing about NZ is the outdoor pursuits.

How accurate are these two statements?

Minimum wage is $13/hour. The Labour party has a $15 level as an election campaign promise. I'm only visiting though, don't have any else of how many jobs/hours are out there.

Conservative? Yeah, right. NOT. My observation is that in general, NZ is about 10 years ahead of Australia on social issues and 20-30 years ahead of Ireland. For example, I'm currently sitting in a motor camp in NZ, listening to someone from the Maori party campaigning for the election. Cannot imagine a Traveller party in Ireland!

But like craic, it all comes down to who you make the effort to meet. And you have to be open to the ways of finding craic being a bit different. Kiwis go to the pub with their friends, not to make friends. etc.

irishh_bob

JustMary wrote: »

Minimum wage is $13/hour. The Labour party has a $15 level as an election campaign promise. I'm only visiting though, don't have any else of how many jobs/hours are out there.

Conservative? Yeah, right. NOT. My observation is that in general, NZ is about 10 years ahead of Australia on social issues and 20-30 years ahead of Ireland. For example, I'm currently sitting in a motor camp in NZ, listening to someone from the Maori party campaigning for the election. Cannot imagine a Traveller party in Ireland!

But like craic, it all comes down to who you make the effort to meet. And you have to be open to the ways of finding craic being a bit different. Kiwis go to the pub with their friends, not to make friends. etc.

maoris are a genuine ethnic group in new zealand , nothing about them is comparable to travellers in ireland , the point is altogether spurious

pclancy

$12K is a plenty of money to come here and set up shop. I can easily live on $700-1000 a month living expenses and that includes running a car, rent, broadband etc. A typical night out in Wellington will set you back $50-200 depending on your madness level or how upmarket your taste. Cookies figures are pretty much the same as what im paying in Wellington.

There seems to be plenty of work here but i havent been lookng for the last while. Most Irish i know here have found work in any industry within 1-2 months of looking, often a lot faster.

As for the two last statements well you'll just have to come make up your own mind. I think Wellington is very liberal and bohemian in parts and then quite cosmopolitan in other parts so you can socialise in whatever way you want be it an expensive upmarket cocktail bar or a down to earth craft beer pub. Kiwis are very relaxed and open minded and dont let life stress them out. Political parties are very outspoken as described above, theyve even got a legalise cannabis party so I wouldnt class it as very conservative

They're very like Irish people in that they love the craic, a good bbq and some sport. Theyre always curious about Ireland and often proud of their celtic routes as many emmigrated here from Scotland/Ireland/Wales during the old days and they still keep the family ties to the old world alive.

Playing in a band ive played to the poorest working class hard-drinking bogans out in the countryside and had great craic, and the same when ive played to suits in upmarket bars theyre all good people. At nightitme out in the country towns nightlife can be very quiet and dull after dark but the cities are certainly not boring and theres something for everyone.

kraggy

pclancy wrote: »

$12K is a plenty of money to come here and set up shop. I can easily live on $700-1000 a month living expenses and that includes running a car, rent, broadband etc. A typical night out in Wellington will set you back $50-200 depending on your madness level or how upmarket your taste. Cookies figures are pretty much the same as what im paying in Wellington.

There seems to be plenty of work here but i havent been lookng for the last while. Most Irish i know here have found work in any industry within 1-2 months of looking, often a lot faster.

As for the two last statements well you'll just have to come make up your own mind. I think Wellington is very liberal and bohemian in parts and then quite cosmopolitan in other parts so you can socialise in whatever way you want be it an expensive upmarket cocktail bar or a down to earth craft beer pub. Kiwis are very relaxed and open minded and dont let life stress them out. Political parties are very outspoken as described above, theyve even got a legalise cannabis party so I wouldnt class it as very conservative

They're very like Irish people in that they love the craic, a good bbq and some sport. Theyre always curious about Ireland and often proud of their celtic routes as many emmigrated here from Scotland/Ireland/Wales during the old days and they still keep the family ties to the old world alive.

Playing in a band ive played to the poorest working class hard-drinking bogans out in the countryside and had great craic, and the same when ive played to suits in upmarket bars theyre all good people. At nightitme out in the country towns nightlife can be very quiet and dull after dark but the cities are certainly not boring and theres something for everyone.

$1000 includes all rent, food, bills and the running of a car?! That's a very low cost of living.

Just to clarify, we'd be coming with a TOTAL of $12-13,000.
i.e just over $6,000 each.

It appears to be enough going on your living expenses but Cookie_Monster reckons it would do for a while but not that long. We'd be prepared to look for work after just one week.

How much is your rent in Wellington pclancy? That's where I'd like us to live.

Rabies

pclancy wrote: »

$12K is a plenty of money to come here and set up shop. I can easily live on $700-1000 a month living expenses and that includes running a car, rent, broadband etc. A typical night out in Wellington will set you back $50-200 depending on your madness level or how upmarket your taste. Cookies figures are pretty much the same as what im paying in Wellington.

:eek::eek:

Holy fvck!

How the hell do you do that?

I live in Auckland. Below is a rough weekly bill

Rent $160
Car $50
House bills $30
Shopping $100
Dining out $70
Taxi $40-80
Drinks $100-$200 (every second week usually)

Some weeks I'll easily spend $1k a week especially if I go shopping for a few bits for the house or myself


OP, New Zealand is not a conservative country, far from it.
People a great. Weather is good up in Aucks, wet and windy winters. Hot summers, but not excessive.

Price of a beer here in the CBD is 7.50-$8.50, spirits are about $8.
Places like the Belgian Beer Cafe will charge $12-15 for beer, but if you like good beer its worth it.

Normal city 2 bed small apartments are about $300-$400 a week.
2 bed apartments with a bit of a view and more importantly room to swing a cat in, are about $400-600 a week.
A small 3 bed house in a nice city suburb would cost $450-$700 a week.

Power bills for a small house usually seem to be about $140-$160 a month.
Internet is expensive here for restrictive data caps. Phone line and broadband will set you back $90-$120 a month.

Cookie_Monster

irishh_bob wrote: »

maoris are a genuine ethnic group in new zealand , nothing about them is comparable to travellers in ireland , the point is altogether spurious

lower education than average
higher crime rates than average
higher unemployment than average
have their own spokerspeople outside of mainstream (maori party / pavee point)

There are plenty of comparisons tbh...

irishh_bob

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

lower education than average
higher crime rates than average
higher unemployment than average
have their own spokerspeople outside of mainstream (maori party / pavee point)

There are plenty of comparisons tbh...

all of the above examples equally apply to residents of sheriff street or ballymun and people form those areas have spokespeople aswell , thier called TD,s

TrueDub

Let's keep it on-topic please folks.

kraggy

Ok, so minimum wage x 40 hours = $520 before tax.

Would much tax be taken off that? Say the result is $480, would that be very difficult to live on per week?

(My girlfriend and I would be sharing an apartment).

Rabies

kraggy wrote: »

Ok, so minimum wage x 40 hours = $520 before tax.

Would much tax be taken off that? Say the result is $480, would that be very difficult to live on per week?

(My girlfriend and I would be sharing an apartment).

Here is the tax rates

http://www.ird.govt.nz/how-to/taxrates-codes/itaxsalaryandwage-incometaxrates.html

pclancy

Rabies wrote: »

:eek::eek:

Holy fvck!

How the hell do you do that?

I make a budget and stick to it! I had to to get myself out of credit card debt a while ago and its stayed with me. My rent and house bills average $700-900 per month but i share with 5 others so its quite cheap. Petrol and transport vary but usually not much more then $100-200 per month. So yeah $1000 a month is very acheivable and could be lowered if needs be. I dont include going on the piss or eating out as living expenses, thats a discretionary expense If you eat and drink out a lot then of course the figure jumps up.

I think their figure of $6K each is plenty to get them going and find a job etc. When you go travelling and want to settle in a new country you've got to tighten the belt until you get a job. That amount surely would get you going and give you 3-4 months to get sorted.

RebelBOK

Hey Kraggy, myself and my girlfriend moved to NZ last June on a working holiday visa, we`ve been living in Auckland since we got here so cant really give you much info on Wellington as we havn`t been there yet but will give you a rundown of how we got on Auckland. (Auckland is more expensive than the rest of the country so the difference between Auck and Welly could be comparable to Dublin and Cork at home i`d imagine!) We landed with around 18,000dollars and thrust me you wouldn`t be long goin through it! We stayed in a cheap hotel for the first 2 weeks and between that and eating out 2 or 3 times a day it really started making a serious dint in the funds, so my advice is to get a place to stay as soon as possible that would be my advice for priority number 1. Neither my gf or I have qualifications so finding work was gonna be that bit harder, however my gf got a job after about 3 weeks through a recruitment agency and she`s earning 20dollars an hour working in an office doing admin stuff. I was lucky to get a job around the same time laying paving and outdoor tiles and i was getting 18dollars an hour. When i say i was lucky, i applied for at least 30 jobs and got 2 responses so be prepared to wait! The tax you`ll pay is in and around the 20% mark! (my gf earns 780 gross but only comes out with 620 net a week) The average wage for labouring jobs seems to be 15-18 dollars an hour. (trademe.co.nz is a great site for both jobs and finding somewhere to live) We pay 400 a week for rent in a small 1 bed apt but thats expensive, ye should be looking between the 250-350 mark. We found saving very difficult, if we live like monks we could put away maybe 200-300 a week but if we go out for a few drinks or a bite to eat at the weekend then that dwindles down to nothing. But again with cheaper rent and living in a cheaper city like wellington that figure could be alot better for ye! We basically used my gf`s wage for the rent and shopping for the week and my wage for saving/anything we decide to do at he wkend.

The people are very friendly as a whole (you`ll meet a**holes wherever you go) The weather is good, not as warm as oz (which suits us fine) can get a bit wet during the winter but being Irish that shouldn`t be a problem There is`nt as big an Irish community here as in Oz but they have the GAA teams in every city and thats a good way to meet people!

So basically to sum up i`d def recommend to come here, cause the the people are nice, the weather is good most of the time and while we havn`t seen much of it yet the scenery and activities are second to none, But you def wont get rich here and work mite be tricky to find. If ye leave with the same amount ye came with ye will be doing very very well cause we def wont

Anyway best of luck in whatever ye decide.

Mrs OBumble

RebelBOK wrote: »

We stayed in a cheap hotel for the first 2 weeks and between that and eating out 2 or 3 times a day

www.hostelworld.com

Hostels have kitchens. No need to be eating out.

IMHO.

RebelBOK

JustMary wrote: »

www.hostelworld.com

Hostels have kitchens. No need to be eating out.

IMHO.

Yeah thats a fair point and would def help save sum money.

kraggy

RebelBOK wrote: »

Hey Kraggy, myself and my girlfriend moved to NZ last June on a working holiday visa, we`ve been living in Auckland since we got here so cant really give you much info on Wellington as we havn`t been there yet but will give you a rundown of how we got on Auckland. (Auckland is more expensive than the rest of the country so the difference between Auck and Welly could be comparable to Dublin and Cork at home i`d imagine!) We landed with around 18,000dollars and thrust me you wouldn`t be long goin through it! We stayed in a cheap hotel for the first 2 weeks and between that and eating out 2 or 3 times a day it really started making a serious dint in the funds, so my advice is to get a place to stay as soon as possible that would be my advice for priority number 1. Neither my gf or I have qualifications so finding work was gonna be that bit harder, however my gf got a job after about 3 weeks through a recruitment agency and she`s earning 20dollars an hour working in an office doing admin stuff. I was lucky to get a job around the same time laying paving and outdoor tiles and i was getting 18dollars an hour. When i say i was lucky, i applied for at least 30 jobs and got 2 responses so be prepared to wait! The tax you`ll pay is in and around the 20% mark! (my gf earns 780 gross but only comes out with 620 net a week) The average wage for labouring jobs seems to be 15-18 dollars an hour. (trademe.co.nz is a great site for both jobs and finding somewhere to live) We pay 400 a week for rent in a small 1 bed apt but thats expensive, ye should be looking between the 250-350 mark. We found saving very difficult, if we live like monks we could put away maybe 200-300 a week but if we go out for a few drinks or a bite to eat at the weekend then that dwindles down to nothing. But again with cheaper rent and living in a cheaper city like wellington that figure could be alot better for ye! We basically used my gf`s wage for the rent and shopping for the week and my wage for saving/anything we decide to do at he wkend.

The people are very friendly as a whole (you`ll meet a**holes wherever you go) The weather is good, not as warm as oz (which suits us fine) can get a bit wet during the winter but being Irish that shouldn`t be a problem There is`nt as big an Irish community here as in Oz but they have the GAA teams in every city and thats a good way to meet people!

So basically to sum up i`d def recommend to come here, cause the the people are nice, the weather is good most of the time and while we havn`t seen much of it yet the scenery and activities are second to none, But you def wont get rich here and work mite be tricky to find. If ye leave with the same amount ye came with ye will be doing very very well cause we def wont

Anyway best of luck in whatever ye decide.

Hey RebelBOK, thanks for the long post. Some great, important info there.

So, you're earning a good bit more than minimum wage but find it hard to save? That doesn't sound to good.

The last thing we want is to arrive in NZ with around 4 grand each and to blow it all while looking for work, only to just earn enough to survive while down there. Wherever we go (Canada/NZ/somewhere else) we want to leave that country with at least as much as we entered it.

Were you looking for a particular kind of work or were you willing to do any minimum wage job at all?

It's great to get that info off you. It's really opened our eyes.

Thanks.

RebelBOK

kraggy wrote: »

Hey Rob, thanks for the long post. Some great, important info there.

So, you're earning a good bit more than minimum wage but find it hard to save? That doesn't sound to good.

The last thing we want is to arrive in NZ with around 4 grand each and to blow it all while looking for work, only to just earn enough to survive while down there. Wherever we go (Canada/NZ/somewhere else) we want to leave that country with at least as much as we entered it.

Were you looking for a particular kind of work or were you willing to do any minimum wage job at all?

It's great to get that info off you. It's really opened our eyes.

Thanks.

I was looking for any kind of work in and around construction coz thats what i was doing at home, all the 30 odd jobs i applied for were related to construction some how. If you were to expand that to include anything such as entry level sales or seasonal work than it would def give you a better pool to fish from, but again the wages would prob be in the 15-18 dollar bracket. There are loads of recruitment agencies here offering work but obviously the conditions thru an agency arent going to be as good as getting directly in with a company. My girlfriend has experience in sales and admin work at home and she got a temp job through a recruitment agency doing admin work and it was only suppose to last for a month but she ending up getting 4 months work from it so that was good. Saving is hard but i contribute a lot of that to the high rent and Auckland generally being that bit more expensive. I do know other people that have come here though and everyone i`ve talken to about it here all say the same thing, ``Great country and well worth seeing BUT money is s**t and you def wont get rich here``. It would prob be possible for ye to leave with what ye came with but it would involve a lot of quite wkends to fund any bit of travelling around or activities ye want to do, and to be honest it would be a shame to come here and not do a bit of either. Finally as for finding work, my advice is look up seek.co.nz and trademe.co.nz and see how many jobs posted in the last week ye reckon ye would or could apply for, if its a high number say maybe 20-30 jobs then ye might`nt be waiting too long but if it`s only 5-6 jobs then the wait might be a bit longer.

If ye have anymore specific questions dont hesitate to ask, we would have loved this info before we came down. :rolleyes:

pclancy

I only had about $7 grand when i go here. I made the mistake of going on a campervan tour and eating/drinking out tons and man that money vanished quick! So yeah hostels all the way for the first while if a good suggestion. There are some really nice ones not like the dumps you get in parts of Europe.

http://www.bbh.co.nz/ is a nice group of hostels that i've always found consitantly good.