Australian Education Agents & Consultants: The Cost of Living in Australia

Houses:

Visit those links

The Cost of Buying or Renting a House in Australia

Cars:

Here are some great resources for checking out the price of cars in Australia. The first one is the big one; it’s where both private sellers and dealers can advertise their cars for sale online.

CarSales

Here are some other options to search for second hand cars, in fact all…

Second Hand Stuff

Not just a place to buy and sell second hand stuff using video instead of conventional listings, but a great website to discover emerging handmade designers and entrepreneurs…

Pitchi

Then there’s …

Food:

Our two major supermarkets here are called Coles and Woolworths. We used to have a couple of independent websites that would check both of these supermarkets prices side-by-side, but sadly those websites no longer exist. So it’s down to checking out Coles and Woolworths separately…

So click below to find out the prices for your grocery shopping…

Utilities:

This is a difficult one, because there is gas, electricity, water and telephony as well as rates. Prices vary from state to state too and with eight states there would be a lot of links.

To make things worse, utility companies hide their pricing structures behind plans, tariffs, peak times, off-peak times, they build in surcharges, standing charges and sometimes make the whole lot inaccessible by insisting you enter your address and postcode before giving you a price.

Electricity:

There are really only three tariffs to look at.

Domestic
Super Economy Plan
Economy Plan

When comparing prices it only makes sense when you compare like-for-like. With this particular cost of living exercise that is sure going to be difficult.

The Australian tariffs were slightly easier to understand in so much as the economy plan tariffs were simple night rate tariffs that could be connected to certain appliances, namely your water heaters and swimming pool filters and some permanently connected freezers.

Anyway, forgetting the economy plans the cost for domestic electricity here in Australia is 17.13c per kwh.

And solar…

Water:

Water prices in Australia are the best kept secret in the world. Here are links to five of states water suppliers.

Here’s a tip though, don’t bother trying to look for prices, life is too short.

Telephony:

The national telephone company here in Australia is called Telstra. You can find out about their various plans here…

Telstra.com.au/homephone/

Clothing and small household items:

The following three stores are among the most popular in Australia. So they are like a mix of John Lewis, Debenhams and Marks & Spencer’s, but if anything, a little downmarket. You can buy all sorts of stuff from these people and their websites now show pictures and prices….

Baby and Nursery Goods

Insurances:

There are hundreds of insurance companies, all will require you to speak with them at length before they will quote you a price.

Home – Allianz
Car – Bingle
Private health – Medibank Private

Electrical goods:

This is one of Australia’s biggest electrical goods retailers, but more important than that, they have a good website….

Harvey Norman

Entertainment:

I’ve divided entertainment into 3 sections, alcohol, TV and going to the pub! Use these links to find the prices of alcohol and your digital TV package.

Find bargains here:

And for product reviews, go here….