[clg]

I am now getting a fairly good handle on what sort of salary I could expect to earn. I have a good sense of housing costs and I have been using the calculator on this site for the rest.

For those of you already in NZ. Do you feel that the calculator accurately refelects the cost of living in NZ? We are Wellington bound if that makes a difference.

Thanks!

Chris

[Moorf]

I find the calculator to be a very good representation of costs... in fact I just went back and had a look at it - last time I looked we had no jobs and were living on UK£. The "modest" category matches our expenditure pretty well now that we are earning and have "settled" into a routine and know the supermarkets better.

[clg]

Very glad to hear that! I am taking a bit of a worst case (I hope) scenario when it come to costs with the expectation that SOMETHING always comes up that you are not prepared for.

Chris

[Hannah-NL]

First time I tried this one out, didnt know it was on the site but found it here:
http://www.emigratenz.org/cost-of-living-in-new-zealand.HTML
Thanks for putting it on here, dont know who did that, but I like it :clap

[richard]

I have to agree with Moorf. Having been here for over three months now our expenditure for most items falls somewhere between the Modest and the Good Living columns.

To break even for day to day expenditure the calculator reckons that we need to earn around $55k. That will reduce considerably though if we buy our own place as we won't be paying rent anymore.

[adamsat]

Just been playing around with the cost of living calculator and the mortgage calculator, and I'm a lot happier now :P

I've been really worried about the house prices since I got here as originally we hoped to be able to buy outright. Now it looks like we will need a mortgage, equivalent to a year or two’s salary.

From the calculator though pitching the levels between modest and good living (we have 5 mouths to feed after all) it looks like we could live on $55k a year even with a mortgage.

Best news I’ve had for days :nice1