[cornerofsilence]

We are now in Hamilton and we love it but how do people manage to live here?

My husband is a plumber heating and air con engineer and has had his own business for 35 years but the starting wages for tradesman here appears to be 16$ an hour.

We are lucky we have no dependants but we would struggle on that sort of money.

New Zealand is a great place but it must start rewarding it workers.

Prices here are not cheap we lived in Spain for 6 years earnt more money and the cost of living was less.

There are so many good things about NZ and we realy wants to make a go of it here but I would like to hear from others how they manage on such low earnings

[dave k]

New Zealand is a great place but it must start rewarding it workers.



Damn right!

I'm constantly appalled at how little people earn over here. If the cost of living was in line with wages it wouldn't be so bad, but for a lot of basic things it's not that much cheaper than the UK. I'm a musician (or I should say was a musician back home :wah ), so I'm used to living on next to no money. I could just about sustain a living in the UK, earning about 200-250 quid a week on average...but over here, gigs pay peanuts & there's not enough places to play to make it viable.
So I do bits and bobs of labouring work & what have you for $18 per hour..which is actually pretty good for unskilled drudgery. I would've expected a skilled tradesman to be earning at least $30 ph.

Still, me & my partner seem to manage between us. We eat really well, go out for drinks every so often (but spend more time at home just lately..) and live in a pretty nice (rented) house in a nice area of Welly.
As long as you don't want holidays in Fiji, a nice shiny new car & meals at top restaurants every night it CAN be done.


Actually, come to think of it, I do want those things :laugh

B****r.

[Carol]

and dont have kids!!

That was the end of OUR bank balance!
:yes ;)

[GeorgeM]

and dont have kids!!

That was the end of OUR bank balance!
:yes ;)

Same for us, but that was even before we got to NZ :wah

[acisman]

I guess we were fortunate in that by coming to NZ we were able to retire on the basis that we got twice as much for our house in UK as we had to pay in NZ.

This has allowed us to buy a house that does need some work doing to it and to invest enough money to live on. It is here that NZ is right for us. Firstly we can get much higher investment rates,but more importantly, those improvements we need to make cost so much less than they would in the UK. Unfortunately that is because wages are much lower in NZ and we really admire those of you who come to NZ, often with children, for a better life and have to struggle to start with.

For what it is worth, we really do think that the overall quality of live is so much better in NZ and the early sacrifices will reap the longer term rewards.

Pam & Dave

[cornerofsilence]

Hi
We were in Cambridge fo a while but now we are in Hamilton becuase of my husbands work.

Hope you will be very happy in your new home.

All the best

Susan & Alex

[Carol]

and dont have kids!!

That was the end of OUR bank balance!
:yes ;)

Same for us, but that was even before we got to NZ :wah

We put photos in our wallets though George - where the money USED to be.....just to pack them out a bit...
;) :laugh :laugh :laugh

[kiwidebs]

and dont have kids!!

That was the end of OUR bank balance!
:yes ;)

Same for us, but that was even before we got to NZ :wah

We put photos in our wallets though George - where the money USED to be.....just to pack them out a bit...
;) :laugh :laugh :laugh

Ah ha, that's what I can do with those deep empty spaces. Have to chase the moths and spiders out first :laugh :laugh :laugh

[acisman]

Hi Susan and Alex

Many thanks for your kind words. We liked our time in Cambridge, but there is nothing better than owning your own home. We couldn't find anything that suited our needs in Cambridge so we have bought near Morrinsville.

Morrinsville is very much a farming town where those of us from the UK seem not to settle. This was very clear when I found that Pam's cigarettes are not available here, despite being very available in Cambridge and Hamilton !! Still it suits us and both Cambridge and Hamilton are in easy reach.

We are not big town people, but we really like Hamilton, where several ex-pats seem to have settled. Must be enough of us in this neck of the woods to arrange a get together. We will certainly be looking to Hamilton for our social life.

Pam & Dave