It has been so long since I lived in town – 15 years actually – and I am curious to know how much it costs. So it is time to spill everyone. What are your expenses? How much does it really cost to live in town?
From talking to friends I know that electricity is a total killer, but what are your other bills? Groceries, phone, water, rates, rent, mortgage?
Mr Chardy and I would get the shock of our life if we had to live in town and pay all of these bills. After holidaying and spending up big in the supermarket we got a taste for how much it all costs. The biggest shock to me was the Butcher Shop bill. The boys went and purchased all of the meat for our holiday, no expense spared obviously, as it came to $400.00. Steak, steak and more steak and some corned beef. Can you believe it – we are on holidays and they bought corned beef….who are they? But I was shocked to see that this meat that I consider “budget” was labelled $30.00, wow. And then there was the $100.00 worth of Rump. We take it all for granted. I just go to my freezer and pull out a bag of steak, that would probably cost over $25.00 in a supermarket, and think nothing of it.
How much does your trolley of groceries amount to each week?
Oh and here is one I forget about – fuel. How much does it cost you to run your car each week? I can get into town and back on a tank of fuel in the Pradie Dard…..yes this Devil Drives Prado and she has the biggest fuel tank, and I am loving it sick. We can get about 1,300km on a tank of fuel. There you go Toyota – a little plug for you. No need to thank me.
So what am I missing, what other expenses do you have? When I go to town I spend that much money it isn’t even funny. So I can’t even imagine what would happen if I lived there full time. For starters I would be that fat from driving through Macca’s and sucking back their coke (and I am not a huge fan of coke either, but that Macca’s coke gets me every time).
Have you moved from a station into town? Did you get the shock of your life?
Well everytime I step foot outside , money is spent ! Groceries I dont even know what I spend because you buy odd bits here and there, I’m 3 mins away from Coles _ meat is expensive! Electricity $1000 a quarter. Kids after school activities $ 500 a term. We were lucky to get a whole lot of bang for your buck in a house , having moved to gold coast from Auckland where prices are not far off Sydney ,so winning there. I would dread to think what mortgages are like in Sydney! Fuel about $50 a week , kids buses $40 a week. Teens and their mobile bills are an increasingly escalating bill in our household. Approx $200 month for internet and phones. Rates around $2000pa and we pay close to $5000 pa body corporate fees.
And I popped out yesterday for a stapler and came home with pants,2 tops and a skirt. You see Miss Chardy that is the real cost of living in the city – the temptations.!!!
Oh good lord Angela – ELECTRICITY $1,000 PER QUARTER…..far out!!! And to think I have 8 split systems running pretty much 24/7 out here, imagine what my electricity bill would be if I lived on the Gold Coast, I would fry! Love that you popped out for a stapler and came home with pants, 2 tops and a skirt, that is gold. ha ha ha. I am pretty bad with internet shopping, and so so bad when I go to town, I just love popping to the shops and buying stuff, quite a novelty, but an expensive one, ha ha ha.
Loving your Corned Beef purchase. I thought that was just us that did those weird things. It is surprising just how quickly it all adds up, especially when you’re on holidays. Our groceries (including F&V) for six adult people probably sits around $300 per week and our meat would come in at another $80 per week. Our normal quarterly rates (near Brisbane) are about $460 but then our water (also a quarterly bill) is another $480 as we are a household of six. Our fuel isn’t too bad at $1.32 per litre and we take advantage of the public transport with the kids to save on extra fuel. Living is a dear enough excercise but raising kids makes the bills a punishing mistress.
Thanks so much for sharing Jeaniene…..SO EXPENSIVE isn’t it!
Our money disappears in a big lump, and we’re kidless, but it’s all about $700 a week. That’s rates, electricity, insurance (health, house, dog – yep him too), phones, Internet, water (I think our bill for water is like $250 a quarter) and food. I have a hungry, hungry husband. I don’t guzzle lots of fuel (my commute to work is about 10km but takes me half an hour).
And then there’s the other life essentials on top, like the occasional bit of kate spade or a new pair of fancy flats a gal needs to keep herself going!
Not to mention social outings and the like, that is all at your doorstep in beautiful BrisVegas Andrea!!!
We have moved to town from a station life doing the same as you Miss Chardy. We once had our electrocity, phone, meat, private health all covered in our package, as you know. Now living in town yes it nearly kills me to buy meat, but having a Coles near by is so much cheaper than IGA and better quality produce. Electricity is expensive, kids after school and in school activities, private school fees, running two cars, phone internet etc, rates and mortgage. It all adds up and then you try to put some away for a holiday. Sometimes I wonder how we do it but we do. I just love going shopping now and not buying 45 loaves of bread, 30 litres of milk etc and completely filling the back of my Landcruiser. Haha! A bit like you after mini school, but that was me once a month. Oh and I am loving the gym. Enjoy your day.
Buying the meat would kill me….ha ha ha. Oh, the braces…I look forward to that one Beth!
That’s not mentioning the braces that the girls need on their teeth. WTF!!!
I think it’s crazy because you get sucked in by too much temptation surrounding you when you live near things! For us, the stuff that adds up quickly are those little moments where you don’t feel like eating something you already bought for dinner, so you drop into the shops and grab something else. Or you think, oh I’ll just grab a *insert snack or take away meal here* on my way home. All those times you socialise at places that cost something.
We’ve (and by we I mean me – hubby has a way to go haha) been working on cutting down on this! I think I’ll have to pretend I live on a station and ask myself if I really need those things – what would Chardy do? 😉
So much temptation Kez!!!!Too funny that you need to ask “what would Chardy do” …I tell you what she would do…she would, say, have a craving for a, oh I don’t know….chocolate eclair….and make one herself…because she is so desperate and hasn’t been to town for 2 months….this may or may not have happened…:)
Lol! Love it! What would Chardy do? Sounds like a blog worthy series
Ha ha ha, Chardy would usually “go to the wardrobe and cry” on most occasions, ha ha ha, although since I have sorted my shit out I am a lot more in control. 🙂
I miss station life 🙂 would give anything to be out there again, but hubby has interest in the family farm.
it costs us $100 a week for day care after the subsidy without that it would be $230 a week for one child. Fuel is $200 a week. Groceries around about $100 a week. we are really spioilt as we grow and eat our own beef, lamb and pork, Electricity, Rates, phone, Insurance and Rego for 2 cars works out at $200 a week.
I am a sucker for shopping though, I just love clothes, necklaces, interior goodies the list goes on. the internet my biggest downfall as well don’t get to a big shopping centre very often.
although I miss station life I really love having my mum & dad 45min away from me.
Must be nice having your folks so close Jess. Living is just so expensive isn’t it…and as for the internet, I am pretty sure I have no money left after all of the online shopping I have done lately….:)
It is quite pricey where I live. We pay rent of $400 a week. We want a buy a house buy the average house price is between $450,000-$550,000 to live in an ok suburb. Groceries per week are about $300 and our utilities (power, water, gas, phone) about $200 per week, fuel about $100 a week between my husband and me. It is quite hard to save and get ahead with the price of everything at the moment 🙁
I am loving that you are all sharing with me, thanks so much and it seems that most people spend about $300 on groceries, $200 on the utilities and $100 on fuel…I think I should put $600 extra away a week a pretend I have to pay all of this and see how much extra I save…..would be interesting.Thanks so much Larissa.
I actually did a meal plan this week and it has saved us so much money on groceries, also not dashing out to get a few things as I usually get $80 worth of stuff. Petrol a lot of money as Kluger thirsty around town. Power bill $800 to $1000 every 3 months. Rates and water $3000, keeping 2 cars insured and running. The list goes on. I’m actually trying hard to be a bit more mindful of costs right now… and the booze bill, might start making some moonshine – ha ha!
Look at you go Em, decluttering and meal planning….. WTF – who are we? I am scared for us, very scared!!!! Are we growing up and maturing? I think that meal plan idea would be so worthwhile if you lived in town…..and try to use stuff out of your pantry. So excited that you have saved money by doing this…imagine how impressed Kat from The Organised Housewife would be 🙂
We are still living ‘on farm’ even though husband is now working ‘off farm’, so we’re kind of fence sitters here! In previous manager jobs it’s varied a bit as to what ‘deal’ has been struck (ute/fuel/meat/dogs etc.) but I do VERY much miss having a freezer full of beef like when we were working up north! In fact I miss the lamb very much too…miss see if I could pilfer one of dad for husband to butcher 😉
Electricity we now pay ourselves, but we don’t pay rent or have a mortgage, but then I don’t draw a wage off the farm either so I work for rent!
ALL of our expenses are put into a monthly spreadsheet though – all receipts, we go through the bank statement (and paypal statement, oh dear…) and in it goes. It makes me much more accountable for my spending, and saving, as we put interest earned in there too and any extra income so it’s a little reward to see that column stack up sometimes! Oh what an exciting life I lead…ha! I haaaaate doing the budget spreadsheet, but once it’s done it really is good to see exactly where our money is going, especially as we would really like to buy some dirt or stock of our own sometime soon. Maybe. If I stop all those pesky paypals popping up…
Hello Emma, so funny that a little comment is here on my blog from you, I just commented on your blog, after Baby Mac gave you a little plug (god love her) and also liked your Facebook page – how was I not following you? All I can say is SORRY! Oh goodness, I think I would be to scared to see where my money is going, I am liking living in the dark…..although that may change in 2017 when Tom is off to boarding school…..hmmmm. You definitely need to get a killer from your Dad!!! Thanks so much for sharing, so interesting to see what others do.
Hi Miss Chardy, yes mainly once my school fees began i too took a long…long hard look at our finances and decided that at least the food bill was something i could control better , so decided to try meal planning once a month. I dabbled in it, then stopped as i reverted back to old ways, but now am quite into it (very sad i know), but it actually does save you grocery money and encourages you to organise dinners/meat around the Supermarket specials catalogues we city/town folk receive as junk mail. I try to stop looking at the clothes catalogues that come now & force myself to check out the grocery ones instead. – has been a big learning curve haha. So glamorous i know. And teens love screen time so i have to limit that electricity useage soon. Thats the next challenge….that is, after i get all my house ‘sorted’!!
That meal planning sounds like a great idea, I would definitely be doing it if I lived in town. Good work for swapping clothes catalogues with supermarket ones. Now you go forth and sort!! ha ha ha. 🙂
Life in town is up there Miss Chardy let me tell you… there is food…. about 80 a week. Rent 170 a week. Power about 80 a week. Beer about 500 a week. Blue cheese and crackers about 50 a week. And apparently you have to pay the bank card also. I tell ya its all take take take….. then you have to save for holidays so you can go overseas and send your money on food, beer, accommodation etc etc etc…. its a vicious circle. After all that there is the cost of constantly buying new socks as my washing machine seems to eat every second sock and you just cant wear odd ones you know. This isn’t the boondocks! !!!
Ha ha ha ha ha, think you should start your own blog Ralph!!!! And can I just say I am now a convert to the Blue Castello…..what the hell is happening to me??? As for the odd socks, my washing machine does the same, but since getting “clean” it doesn’t seem to happen, I am all over it like a fat kid on a cupcake. And what about all of the Midori/Cointreau/Lemon Juice we have to buy??? That is a killer I tell you. 🙂
We have just moved to Darwin and are looking at paying $750 a week (we haven’t had to pay rent for 10yrs because we have been in company housing!!) for a 4bedroom house with a pool (for us with two kids it’s a must have!). I spend around $300 a week on food (my hubby has just gotten himself a smoker so the meatspendings will go up!…expensive but soooooo delicious!). Our Electricity Bill was $560 for just over a month (in saying that I haven’t owned a dryer in about two years and I have been using it non-stop with the rain (also something we are unused to coming from the pilbara!) $200 per child for swimming per term. (I have two). $200 for footy per child. We got a shock when we went from the Pilbara to Townsville for a holiday…..we got six meals from maccas for the price of FOUR in the Pilbara! I had to double check she got the order right!! We have take away once a week as a treat for the boys after swimming on a Friday night (they finish at 6pm.) Everything just seems so expensive these days!!!!! (and I won’t even mention my husbands hobbies…I swear you’ll cringe because I do!!!!)
Oh….my…..god Melissa….I am seriously sitting here looking at the computer screen with my mouth open…speechless…..WOW. I knew Darwin was expensive…but holy hell…..that is unreal….$750 a week rent, geez I wish we owned a rental house up there!!!! Far out. And yes, I agree a pool is a must, we have one down here on the Barkly, you would definitely need one in Darwin. And the electricity bill, shit – yes you would be having to use the dryer quite a bit wouldn’t you, not to mention air conditioners…. wow, you certainly would be getting a shock after having company housing for 10 years (as would we – I think we would quite possibly be homeless…..after reading this….ha ha ha ha). Thanks so much for sharing…..do the kids really need to learn how to swim??? ha ha ah – just kidding.
It’s crazy hey! To buy a nice modern 4bedroom with a pool we are looking at $750 000 (you could buy a mansion on the gold coast for that price!!)….hopefully by the end of next year we will be able to buy one but I cringe at the wasted money for the next two years!! On the plus side, the food is cheaper here then anywhere else we have lived in the past ten years. (Nhulunbuy/Gove we were paying $7.30 for 3L milk.)
Love your blog too by the way !!
Hello Miss Chardy,
Our household costs about $85K a year to run. Yes you read that right. The city is fricking expensive. That does include mortgage, two cars (one of which is leased), private school fees, all manner of insurances, utilites, rates, biking hobby for Husband & Son, dancing fees for Daughter blah blah blah. Groceries/household bits & pieces alone are $18K. And I meal plan, shop at markets and am a light/powerpoint nazi. School fees finish the end of next year. Hoo-bloody-ray.
SHIT!!!!!!!!! I am so gobsmacked by everyones comments Judy, everyone has been so honest in sharing. That is just crazy Judy. Oh god, you won’t know what to do with yourself once you don’t have school fee’s to pay!!!!!
I was thinking about it later, and I should have added that in general wages and salaries are higher in the city than regional areas to accommodate the higher costs of living. Of course there is a whole load of variables on how much you can earn; education, skills, where you want to work/live. And there is also choices like whether you send your children to private schools, live in an area that is more expensive to buy/rent than others etc etc. Often regional areas don’t have the choice of anything.
When we first moved to Melbourne (18 years ago) I was really excited as I got a substantial payrise. That was before I had any understanding of just how much my cost of living had increased and I soon realised that I was only just keeping up………..
Wow Miss Chardy …(as i laugh at your fat kid on a cupcake comment lol!!!!!) you must be all over your washing if you now dont even lose random socks, i am impresssed! Mr Chardy and the kids must all be very happy that their socks actually match these days haha!! I know i for one try to sometimes slightly mismatch Mr Twinings socks when random ones get gobbled by the washing machine, but i never get away with it…. (Sorry, i am getting off the money track here !!)
Ha ha ha, I know – who the hell am I – we don’t even have odd socks anymore, I think someone should send help for me ASAP!!! As for Mr Chardy’s socks – they are all exactly the same so it doesn’t matter if there are odd ones, ha ha ha. The 10 year old is a bit OCD and he needs good matching ones “that don’t fall down” – give me strength…. yes, it is because I am so on top of this washing caper that the socks don’t actually get lost – amazing…..:)
Living in Perth is EXPENSIVE! They seem to think we are all mining magnates over here. If I was to break everything down to a weekly amount I’d say we are probably around $1500-1700 per week. That’s everything so just under 90,000 to live per year! And we aren’t fancy or anything, that’s just living…..
oh…….my…… god….. I am sitting here with my mouth open…gobsmacked…speechless…. thanks so much for sharing x
Though our farm is tiny compared to your station, it is still a lot cheaper to live here (mostly). Our vegetables and meat are all home grown, and the distance to town means we do a lot less shopping and eating out etc that we did when we lived in the city. Our internet bill is crazy high though. Our only option is mobile broadband with a high gain antenna (we don’t have regular mobile phone reception), and we only get 15gb a month – not much for a blogger! Would love to know your internet situation!
Hi Jo, so great to hear from you. I can’t believe your internet – are you able to get the NBN? Our internet it Satellite through the NBN. It is pretty good, and we have 60gb per month (although that is 30gb peak and 30gb off peak, so really it is only 30gb).