Hi, I am originally from the UK been here 4 years and Australia does seem expensive in comparison to the UK at the moment (as all our relatives constantly tell us - in some bizarre hope we will go back) but when we arrived 4 years ago alot of things were cheaper so is swings and roundabouts - but I do get visitors to bring over stuff as is so much cheaper in UK currently.

We don't manage to save any money when on one income, but when we were on two we did so had some savings prior to DD which got depleted while I was off work, and then topped up a bit when I went back part time, and now are depleted again while I am off after having number 2. It is depressing sometimes (I graph our status and currently is just down down down) but I know it isn't forever and we will replenish when I am back part-time. Everything goes into our offset mortgage and we can redraw without any penalty whenever we want. Our mortgage is more like 50% of one income though.