It was getting tough in 2006 and the workhouse still threatens us in 2011

shelley_crow

Softstuff wrote: »

A friend of ours is in Toronto at the moment. He's been living there over a year now and enjoys it, he's a vet though, so will be earning a reasonable amount which influences a lot! He says that it's the first place he's lived where he isn't thinking of the next place to go, and he's lived in a few different places.

I live in what I'd consider one of the loveliest places in the world to look at, but it's perhaps not one of the most sensible places to live :rotfl:

Australia looks beautiful, I'm no good in the heat though so we are having to pick a slightly colder country :rotfl: The most jobs I have found in the area I work in is Alberta. Apart from the high food prices and heat, what is Australia like to live in? It may be a cliche but do you see many of the nasty spiders and snakes?

katieowl_2

shelley_crow wrote: »

Australia looks beautiful, I'm no good in the heat though so we are having to pick a slightly colder country :rotfl: The most jobs I have found in the area I work in is Alberta. Apart from the high food prices and heat, what is Australia like to live in? It may be a cliche but do you see many of the nasty spiders and snakes?

I don't know about spiders and snakes, but they have a fairly robust admissions policy. You really do have to be in a 'wanted' trade before they'll let you in. Might be a few more jobs for the Brits here if we did the same!

Kate

greent

rachbc wrote: »

We pay £145 pm for out electricty only!!!:eek:

mainly due to arrears when the insisted on only collect £35 pm dd when I told them we would need to pay more. OH's insistence on running an elec heater in the cellar to keep it dry drives me nuts (I sneak down and turn it off when I think i can get away with it)

That really is :eek::eek::eek:

We're still on a competitive tariff and would need to buy our way out of this one if we left it. TBH, we were paying this figure a couple of years back 12 months a year - if I end up paying it for 6 months/ year that's much better.

onion breath - there are 6 of us in a large 3 storey 5 bed, 3 bathroom, 4 reception room house. 4 laptops in use most days (OH & mine for work, DD & DS1 for school) a desktop (used occasionally by DS2 for play), washing machine used every day (about 10 - 12 loads/ week), heating hasn't gone on yet and will hang on to do so, dishwasher once a day (wm/ dw and f/f all A rated), lights are energy bulbs. Water is heated as and when - our combi boiler heats it instantaneously, pretty much - we have no hot water tank in the house anywhere. SHowers are heated from the combi boiler, as is washing up water and bath water. Smallest two have baths (aged 5 and 2) but only 2-3 of times a week unless really dirty or smelly - not from an eco pov, but from a they don;t need it every day pov. I rarely tumble dry (towels get fluffed for the minimum poss time, which is 20min - and I do that twice a week - saving towels to wash together) We have an energy monitor - our standard daily electricty usage in summer months is 15. In the depths of winter it's 25 kwh. The worst culprit for energy usage is the oven - scary:eek:

Glitzer

DH and I would love to emigrate to Australia. He used to work with a lot of Aussies who came here for a year or two but always went back, the standard of living sounds so much better as does the relaxed lifestyle. It will never happen though. For one I simply couldn't move that far from my family, secondly DH has a criminal record, he's a chef and I am a Business Analyst, don't think there's any shortage in jobs for those! Mind you my company are ALWAYS advertising for jobs in their Australian offices so who knows?!

Softstuff

shelley_crow wrote: »

Australia looks beautiful, I'm no good in the heat though so we are having to pick a slightly colder country :rotfl: The most jobs I have found in the area I work in is Alberta. Apart from the high food prices and heat, what is Australia like to live in? It may be a cliche but do you see many of the nasty spiders and snakes?

Spiders we don't get indoors, we're border pest sprayed once a year which means anything crossing the threshold carks it, roaches, spiders and other assorted things that make me :eek: You see a lot of geckos and skinks, which are very cute, even if they fall off the ceiling and land in your lap like one did to me. Snakes not that often, but when you do they're 6ft pythons on your porch.

The heat to be honest isn't that bad here, Australia is pretty diverse and there's hot regions and more temperate ones. We *never* use air-con at home, we're pretty cool indoors with a few ceiling fans. You wouldn't go for a walk at midday, but aside from that it's not bad.

Though it's an English speaking country, it's a world apart from England. So many differences in work attitudes, going out, shopping... it can be a bit odd sometimes.

ginnyknit

I wanted to post regarding all thats been said today but am just ranting. I had a friend round yesterday who has had a breakdown and all he is getting is stress and forms to fill in instead of someone letting him talk through the root cause of his depression. OH is hyper again to day which worries me no end so have got him to go upstairs to do some model making.

On a positive note ( which I look for everyday now) Ds has nearly finished moving into his new house today. He said when they walked in it was cool and they had windows to open! His apartment was like a sauna and the last few days have worn him out trying to pack. The landlady had left them a 'new home' card and a bottle of wine which I thought was really nice. Now he will have room to stock up for the winter and make life easier for him and his partner so no more rushing to the shops after a long hard day at work - they are both in debt management and as you can imagine they are very busy.

As I read the thread I can see so many of us struggling with what should be our basic needs - how to get to work seems to be the biggest and most expensive problem after food and bills.

redlady_1

I point blankly refuse to pay for energy by dd. I put the money each month into a savings account. I hate the though of these companies altering the DD without me having any control over it. My electric bill has just come in and was £101. It wont get any lower than that really. After the last quarter with the dehumidifier on it I have been super frugal. The thing that really racks up my electric are the boxes attached to lappies and radios etc and also the oil fired rad. The immersion is next to nothing.

rachbc

redlady_1 wrote: »

I point blankly refuse to pay for energy by dd. I put the money each month into a savings account. I hate the though of these companies altering the DD without me having any control over it. My electric bill has just come in and was £101. It wont get any lower than that really. After the last quarter with the dehumidifier on it I have been super frugal. The thing that really racks up my electric are the boxes attached to lappies and radios etc and also the oil fired rad. The immersion is next to nothing.

The discount I get for paying by dd is greater than the interest I'd get having the money in savings. The arrears should be cleared next month so i will ask them to recalculate down then - fingers crossed

Pink.

rachbc wrote: »

The discount I get for paying by dd is greater than the interest I'd get having the money in savings. The arrears should be cleared next month so i will ask them to recalculate down then - fingers crossed

It's the same for us, we get 4% discount off our bills for paying by dd.

Pink

redlady_1

I do it purely so I can have control rather than earn interest. But Christ £145 per month is flipping frightening! That's £1740 per year!!! The problem is that there is little alternative to electric.

Fingers crossed for you rach because you dont want that over Chrimbo.