What does it cost in your area?

We have recently moved house from Auckland to Dunedin and have found the cost of certain things substantially different... so just out of interest... what does it cost where you live?

At our local Video Ezy we get new release DVD's for $5 a night - in Auckland I remember them being put up to $9 a night before we left!

We rent a 4 bedroom house in a good area with a huge section for $290 a week, and are renting our teeeny 3 bedroom, in average area with pathetic yard in Auckland for $320 a week which is mates rates and the median rent in the area for 3 Bed is $360 and climbing.

To go to the local pool, it costs $3.50 for 1 child under five plus the caregiver. It cost $6.70 per adult (and children free I think) at our old local pool in Auckland...

Our insurance premiums also dropped when we moved down here too!

I am doing the same job down here as I did in Auckland - working remotely. DF's income has dropped though however he is getting perks from his job that make up the difference.

I haven't looked much at what jobs pay around here but would say that it would be less.

The house we used to rent in Hamilton - 3bdrm, 1 bathroom, garage was $280 pw. That was nearly 3 years ago now, because we ended up buying a house.

We don't tend to hire DVD's. For $3 more you can buy them from the Warehouse. We have quite an extensive collection of DVD's now.

Parking is pretty good. There is one carpark building that charges like $1 an hour after 5pm, so that's pretty good. Otherwise it's free parking at The Base and Westfield.

We have a four bedroom with a study in a pretty nice area in Auckland with lots of good schools etc around.
We pay $420...which is considered very cheap for where we are...

Cripes. We pay $320 p/week in mortgage!!!

We're in Wellington. Rent is generally high depending on where you are and what kind of property you want to live in. At the moment we are in Miramar which is probably on the more expensive side of average - when we were renting we were paying over $500 pw for a 4 bedroom house which still wouldn't be considered that expensive for the area. Peter Jackson has a lot to answer for in that regard - house prices are also very high by comparison with the national trends because of all the overseas people wanting to live near his studios and/or Weta Digital. On the other hand, that means that the area generally is becoming a lot nicer and better serviced by amenities, money is being pumped into the schools etc.

We don't rent DVDs as it costs about the same to buy them from the Warehouse. Swimming (at Council pools) is $1.20 for under 5s, $3.50 for 5-14 yr olds and $5.70 for adults (if swimming otherwise $1 for spectators). You can get family passes which make it cheaper but only if you have three kids (or one parent and four kids).

I have also lived in Palmy and generally everything is much more expensive here. Especially parking - here it is $4 an hour in town, with a max time limit of 2 hours unless you go to a parking building which is usually more expensive but you can stay longer. In PN I used to park outside Centrepoint for $2 all day! So I hardly ever go shopping in town - much easier to drive out to Westfield or North City where there is free parking and you can stay as long as you want. The public transport system is OK for us because Miramar is quite well serviced but only if you want to go into town. The buses aren't particularly pram friendly either and it's not cheap.

We're on the West Coast and rent here for a decent 3 bedder is $280+p/wk generally more like $320-380 (thats for something with decent heating and insulation which can make all the difference through a crappy winter), vege prices are ridiculous, new release dvds are $9 and the pool in Greymouth just put their preschool entry price up to $5. DHs pay went up sure but thats coz of the lack of competition and the mine work more than anything else. I've had to double our living budget since moving down here and thats after living on a significantly lower income for the 18 months before we moved when DHs hours got cut with the recession, paying a mortgage and having more overall bills and costs. Food alone is costing us almost 4 times as much down here.


Edited by Babe

Wow Babe I'm surprised how expensive it is on the coast, crazy!!! I suppose the remoteness of it is the reason?

MamaT wrote: Wow Babe I'm surprised how expensive it is on the coast, crazy!!! I suppose the remoteness of it is the reason?

The rents are so high because yeah you kinda have to live on the coast to work here which cuts your options down (like y'know to work in wgtn you can live as far away as palmerston north if you want but not here) and alot of the rentals are owned by like Fonterra or the mines or people who work for them and come down from auckland usually on occasion for set times and want a place to stay then rent it out the rest of the time for auckland prices. We were looking at a place that was near DHs work and its on the market and its only a 3 month at a time contract and it was $320p/wk. You can get cheaper places but you have to drive further which pushes costs up even further. We could get a cheaper place further out for $250ish but it would be in an area similar to Highbury, Palmerston North. Its abit astounding, same with the dvd and pool prices but then again nobody seems to question it.
As for the food uhm I actually have no idea why its so much more expensive but I know its not freightage. It only costs $50 to get something like 5 TONS of fruit and veg over here so :shrug: dunno... Atleast living in Auckland you get a huge range of shops and activities lol on the coast you get the huge prices, miles of driving to get anywhere and a handful of shops and activities damn!

we are in lower hutt - pay $350 for a small 2 bedroom house nothing exciting nice bathroom kitchen could do with a revamp, close to everything for us tho daycare, parks, public transport, our parents, fairly quiet area. - dp works in the hutt i work in the city -
we will be looking at buying a house soon - much the same as we are renting i guess but will be looking at 350,000k ekkkkk
our super market bill is high 250-300 per week but that cause we REALLY need to cut this down that includes $30 formula