Milliemoo
12th May 2007, 01:01 PM
The cost of living in Auckland is cheaper than Edinburgh but probably more expensive than a lot of smaller towns in the UK. Some things are more expensive and some things are cheaper. I think a lot of things sound expensive because you sometime look at $’s and see £’s. It does take a bit of getting used to. Our gas and electric bills are no where near as expensive as they were in Edinburgh and at the moment we’re using a lot more electricity than we would normally because we have to use a tumble dryer. We knew that the wages are a lot lower in New Zealand and for us, we find that if we’re stuck at working out if something is good value or not, we half the price to convert to £’s eg: a meal for two in our local Indian restaurant (BYO) usually comes to $40 or £20 which is great value. Obviously this conversion won’t work for everyone, but it does for us and we find it quite helpful at times. I do tend to see prices in $’s now though and I don’t know whether it’s because it always sounds more in $’s, but I’d say I’m a lot more stingy when it comes to spending money, which can only be a good thing. I love getting a bargain and always stock up when something’s on special at the supermarket. I think our weekly food shop is cheaper than it was in Edinburgh and the quality of food is much better. We always buy fresh ingredients and cook from scratch, so nothing’s changed there, but the quality of the food is much better. I buy the most amazing smoked tuna from the market and it actually works out cheaper to make salads and sandwiches using that, rather than cans of tuna. We also get the best tasting pressed apple juice from the market that’s a 100 times better than even the posh cartons you get in the supermarket and it only costs $4.50 for 2litres. I do try to buy organic where possible and I found a great organic whole foods store that I do a big shop in once a month. That said, we’ve just received a flyer through the door this morning about a new organic whole food / fruit & veg shop that’s opening in Devonport, which I’m very excited about. On average we spend about $700 per month on food and wine for the two of us. In Edinburgh we’d spend on average about £275 per month but with less organic produce, much less fish and not as good quality.
We’re very lucky to have made some great friends in the short time we’ve been here and that’s really helped us settle. We don’t have a huge social circle, but I don’t think we’re doing too badly for 6 months. The summer was great and we’d go out for lunch or meet friends in the beer garden, but now the weather’s a bit more variable we’re not going out quite as much. The weather so far has been fantastic compared to Edinburgh. The summer was hot with plenty of long sunny days and the autumn has had its fair share of great weather too. We’ve had rainy spells and one great big storm, but nothing to get depressed about. It’ll be interesting to see how cold in gets in the next few months.
There are a few things I don’t like about New Zealand, but in the scheme of things, they’re not that important. They put far too many adverts on TV and most of them are really annoying, although you do get the odd gem. All the radio stations have adverts, which is a bit annoying when you’re used to Radio 2. TV isn’t as bad as what I thought it would be and there are lots of American imports on most channels so we still get House, ER, Desperate Housewives etc. For all the programmes we miss off the BBC, we just download them and watch when we want, so we get to see Doctor Who on a Sunday instead of a Saturday night. The Internet is quite expensive compared to the UK and the service and packages available poor in comparison. We pay $100 per month with Inspire and don’t really have any problems but we’ve heard a hundred different horror stories about Telecom.
I think it will be strange to be back in the UK in a few weeks time, but it will be great to see family and friends. I think it will be the little things that will surprise me, like nobody in the shops or supermarket saying “Hi, How’s your day been” or just the sheer numbers of people on the streets. I am looking forward to going shopping though. There’s plenty of great shops in Auckland and I really don’t think it’s that hard to find nice clothes and shoes, it just there’s obviously so much more choice in the UK.
We have family coming out at Christmas, so we’re hoping to have found a home by then. I’ll definitely feel more settled when we buy somewhere, but I can see us being in New Zealand for a long time to come. We’ve treated the emigration process a bit like an adventure and have never said that we’re moving to New Zealand and that’s where we’ll be forever and ever. Never say never, but for now, we’re just loving it!
Milliemoo :)
We’re very lucky to have made some great friends in the short time we’ve been here and that’s really helped us settle. We don’t have a huge social circle, but I don’t think we’re doing too badly for 6 months. The summer was great and we’d go out for lunch or meet friends in the beer garden, but now the weather’s a bit more variable we’re not going out quite as much. The weather so far has been fantastic compared to Edinburgh. The summer was hot with plenty of long sunny days and the autumn has had its fair share of great weather too. We’ve had rainy spells and one great big storm, but nothing to get depressed about. It’ll be interesting to see how cold in gets in the next few months.
There are a few things I don’t like about New Zealand, but in the scheme of things, they’re not that important. They put far too many adverts on TV and most of them are really annoying, although you do get the odd gem. All the radio stations have adverts, which is a bit annoying when you’re used to Radio 2. TV isn’t as bad as what I thought it would be and there are lots of American imports on most channels so we still get House, ER, Desperate Housewives etc. For all the programmes we miss off the BBC, we just download them and watch when we want, so we get to see Doctor Who on a Sunday instead of a Saturday night. The Internet is quite expensive compared to the UK and the service and packages available poor in comparison. We pay $100 per month with Inspire and don’t really have any problems but we’ve heard a hundred different horror stories about Telecom.
I think it will be strange to be back in the UK in a few weeks time, but it will be great to see family and friends. I think it will be the little things that will surprise me, like nobody in the shops or supermarket saying “Hi, How’s your day been” or just the sheer numbers of people on the streets. I am looking forward to going shopping though. There’s plenty of great shops in Auckland and I really don’t think it’s that hard to find nice clothes and shoes, it just there’s obviously so much more choice in the UK.
We have family coming out at Christmas, so we’re hoping to have found a home by then. I’ll definitely feel more settled when we buy somewhere, but I can see us being in New Zealand for a long time to come. We’ve treated the emigration process a bit like an adventure and have never said that we’re moving to New Zealand and that’s where we’ll be forever and ever. Never say never, but for now, we’re just loving it!
Milliemoo :)