Cost of Living

WARNING! Warning to anyone who is planning on visiting us in Sydney, Australia. START SAVING NOW!

Okay, so maybe I am over exaggerating… just a little bit. We thought living in San Diego was costly and visiting LA and New York expensive. None of that compares to our lovely new home, Sydney. Let me break it down into a few examples so you can have a fuller picture.

Our first day in Sydney, after dropping off our many bags at the hotel, we decided to grab lunch. We found a simple café, Wynstop, in Wynyard Train Station and sat down. To our surprise, the sandwiches (a simple turkey, cheese with cranberry sauce) were $13. Each. It did come with a handful of baby greens on the side. A similar sandwich back in the “States” would only be $6.00+tax+15%tip= $7.37. Food in general is very expensive. Cherries are $16/kg or greater, that is $8/pound! Limes retail for $1.68 each (they are 10 for $1 at Henry’s at home!). Chicken breasts are $16- $20/kg on average, although I did purchase it once on special for $12.99/kg. I miss Costco’s chicken breast for $2.99/pound.

I went to Target our second week to check out the prices. I absolutely adore Target back home. Not so much here. First off, Sydney Target is tiny! I am use to the multi level big beautiful Target in Mission Valley or at the very least, the lovely Target in Clairemont where my girls and I spent many glorious hours. A $40 microwave back home is over $100 here. My John Frieda Brilliant Brunette (retails $5.80 at Ulta) is $15.99 at Target.

Cells phones (otherwise called mobiles here) are very different as well. In the US you pay for a plan that includes x amount of minutes, generally with nights/weekends and mobile-mobile free. Here, you pay for a plan that include x amount of dollars towards calls. You pay a “flag charge” of $0.25- $0.40 for each initial call made. Then each 30 seconds costs $0.25- $0.40 cents. There are no nights/weekends free and I only have the first 5 minutes free when calling Ron since we are on the same account. Sounds a bit confusing, right? Good thing I don’t really have any friends in Sydney yet so I don’t go over my allotted plan.


I have found a few bargain places to shop. Paddy’s market is a great place for fresh produce and sometimes they allow you to bargain. They are open Thurs-Sunday in Haymarket (Chinatown). You can find bananas for $2/kg instead of $3.50/kg at the supermarkets. They also have a lot of souvenirs so it is a great place for tourists to go. Fantastic! is a discount furniture store. We purchased an entire living/dining set and bedroom set there for a reasonable amount. It is IKEA style so Ron will be assembling all the furniture when they deliver it on Saturday. (Good luck, Ron!).

Coffee here is fantastic! It is the same price for black coffee, cappuccino and lattes. Why would anyone get a tall black when you can get a cap for the same price? The only thing is that the coffees here are small! The medium is a “tall” and the large is smaller than a “grande” at Starbucks. BUT the coffee here is much better. So much so that they are closing 61 Starbucks here in Australia.

I won’t even get into the renting market in this blog post. It deserves it’s own post.