My living costs as a student in Australia

Sydney is the Business Capital city of Australia. The living costs in Sydney are much higher than the other cities of Australia followed by Melbourne. Most of the students choose to study in Melbourne, but I was bit reluctant to study in that city. I had chosen Sydney as my place to study and I feel I have taken the right step in doing so.

Sydney is expensive but place for opportunities too. After I landed in Australia, I got a temporary accommodation for 1.5months with a young family. It was really nice time living with them. However, they have decided to move out to USA and they had to vacate the unit/Apartment. So my struggle to look for accommodation started. Luckily, I have found the accommodation to share the unit with one of the classmate’s family. So temporarily I moved in there.

My new friend in the college was looking for accommodation too. Then we decided to rent a unit and live independently just by ourselves. This is the best decision we have ever made. This costed us a bit initially in the form of rent but saved us a lot in other things. It was very peaceful after we come home and no issues in cleaning and cooking. We used to write down every expense we incurred for the house or food and share equally among us. This was easy and manageable.

We have seen other friends sharing with 5-6 people in one unit and had complaints all the time and unable to concentrate on their studies.

The below are the expenses given by studiesinaustralia.gov.au, a government website that showed the minimum and maximum expenses. These all depends on where you live, some cities you might be paying the maximum amount. If you live close to the city or within the city, you definitely pay the maximum rents as the rents are expensive in the cities than suburbs that are bit far to city.

In this case, City is a place like a main district with offices, entertainment and other areas. In India we have Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi etc are called cities and the areas situated near or far to these cities are called ‘suburbs’ in Australia.

Accommodation

• Hostels and Guesthouses – $90 to $150 per week
• Shared Rental – $85 to $215 per week
• On campus – $90 to $280 per week
• Homestay – $235 to $325 per week
• Rental – $165 to $440 per week
• Boarding schools – $11,000 to $22,000 a year

Other living expenses

• Groceries and eating out – $80 to $280 per week
• Gas, electricity – $35 to $140 per week
• Phone and Internet – $20 to $55 per week
• Public transport – $15 to $55 per week
• Car (after purchase) – $150 to $260 per week
• Entertainment – $80 to $150 per week

The above costs have been given as per 2016 index.

The expenses in Sydney from my point of view:

Accommodation: These days, the rents have increased very high; when I was renting a unit in the suburb of Penshurst one of the South Eastern suburbs which was 30 minutes away from City. We were paying $230 per week (pw) for 2 bedroom unit in the year 2006 and now the same place has got average rent of $420 – 450pw. However there are other suburbs offer rent from $350 pw. The train ticket to Town hall where my University was located, it was $5.50  two way tickets but now it is $7.31.

These are the two expenses which we do not have control over. The other expenses all depends on you and your life style. They are same across Australia. If you want to maintain a simple lifestyle while you are a student, you can cut down those expenses in other living expenses mentioned below. I will tell you how you can do it:

Groceries and eating out: When my friend and I were renting out, it was bit expensive rent than comparatively to other places. But we have saved in other areas like Groceries and eating out, we used to buy only the groceries that are on sale and hardly used to eat out.

We used to stick to a routine to eat out once a week. So we used to budget everything carefully and minimise waste in throwing food. This has helped us in saving to the students who share accommodation with 5 other people. I still feel I paid more for groceries I wish I had known about Cashrewards then. I would have saved more money.

They might have paid low rent but end up paying more on other things and dealing with different mindsets of people.

Gas, Electricity: We used to be very frugal in using the electricity and gas. In winters, we used to cover ourselves with warm clothing rather than switching on the heater. This also helped us to avoid dry skin during winters. I have seen students paying $200 a quarter for their share just in electricity bill. For us we used to pay about $70-$90 per person a quarter in these bills.

Phone and Internet: These are very important but I strongly suggest you to go for minimum packages than paying so much for internet. This helps you to limit yourself using Internet and utilise valuable time on more important things. I opted for minimum phone contract and these days the cost of the phone services have gone down.

If you want a simple smart phone with national and international calls would help you serve the purpose. I used to pay $29 per month and used a calling card to call overseas that was $10 each. Now a days you are getting all in one package.

Entertainment: We used to have very limited time for Entertainment. I strongly believe if you are serious in completing your studies, you do not need much entertainment at this stage. We used to go to movies on special occasions like birthdays or New Year.

One advantage of sharing with less number of people is less hassle and more productive in concentrating on your studies. I find student life is very stressful especially managing job and full time study, so you need to have some peace after going home.

The above is shared from my experience; students may have good experience living with a large group of students. It all depends on your preferences; if one does not work try the other way. All the best! But never panic; if you have a strong will, you definitely succeed.

Summary of Expenses (my point of view) if you consider frugal living:

Shared Rental: $150 – $180 per week (in Sydney)

Travel: $50 per week (Sydney Transport)

Groceries and eating out: $50 per week (if you cook yourself, it costs less than this)

Gas, Electricity:  $20 per week

Phone, Internet: $10 per week (if you consider cheaper mobile plans and internet)

Entertainment: $10 per week (this was not in my list until I completed my studies)

Stationary, books: $5 per week (not including subject text books; I borrowed them from Library and made notes)

Miscellaneous: $5 per week (clothes, shoes etc)

Hope the above information is useful. Share your living costs as a student.