When you’re studying overseas far from your support mechanism, i.e., your family, relatives, and friends, things you normally take for granted back home can get magnified, and you’re forced to deal with them. Because you cannot just drop by your parents or grandparents house for a quick chow when you’re hungry or crash in their house if you need a place to sleep, budgeting is one of the important things that you have to be aware and careful of as an international student.
Your tuition fee is not included here. Our scope is budgeting for your living expenses in Australia as an international student. And besides, your tuition fee is an investment, not an expense. What’s the difference? Expenses are things that have short term benefits, for example you spend for food now and later you’ll be hungry again and you’ll need to spend for food again. The benefit of your education meanwhile is lifelong. Every tuition dollar you invest in your Australian education, be it to finish high school, learn a trade, or earn a degree, will continue to benefit you as long as you live.
In this article we’re going to look at the things or expenses that internationals students and their families should consider when budgeting for their cost of living in Australia, present a sample budget with key takeaways, and discuss some tips on how to maximise your cost of living dollar.
Things or expenses you may need to budget for
- Accommodation
- Food & groceries
- Utilities (electricity, gas and water)
- Phone and internet
- Transport fares
- Sundry, i.e., clothing, entertainment, stationeries, haircut, etc.
1. Accommodation – Please refer to our article on Australian Accommodation Options for International Student for a detailed discussion of your accommodation options as an Australian international student. Your accommodation options will mostly be:
- Homestay – Involves living with a local family with room, a bed, study desk and 2-3 square meals provided each day. Everything is included in the weekly fee. For our sample budget we’re using the average homestay fee provided by Australian Homestay Network. Homestay fees charged by state/ territory governments and private school school network are lower by as much as 18% although they have different offerings on provided meals so it’s hard to use them for comparison.
- Managed accommodation – Such as school boarding house, residential colleges, purpose-built student accommodation and student hostels – Accommodation options range from room share to your own room or your own apartment. It can be on-campus accommodation run by education provider or near campus accommodation run by 3rd party providers. It can be catered or self-catered, etc. The permutation of options is extensive. The weekly fee in a managed accommodation is usually also all-inclusive.
There are many types of managed accommodation, as well as providers having different prices, price variations between capital cities, and extensive combination of options and preferences available. For the purpose of our sample budget we are using rates for purpose-built student accommodation provided by Unilodge and Urbanest.
- Private rental – Involves renting a room or house or apartment from landlord or their real estate agent. Apart from the rental fee, you also pay for utilities like electricity, water and internet or phone (except when only renting a room as room rent typically covers utilities). For our sample budget we’ll be using the surveyed rental cost for 1-bedroom apartment in city centre of each capital city found in numbeo.com
2. Food – Included in this item are your food and groceries (including lollies, toiletries and other personal effects) expenses. If you’re staying in homestay accommodation or school boarding house or catered college residence you don’t have to worry about food budget. Our budget assumes you’ll mostly cook your own food and occasionally eat out (with the help of your Sundry budget). And that you’ve got average appetite.
3. Utilities – This item is for those opting to go private rental as an accommodation. Students availing of all other accommodation types don’t need to bother with this expense item because it’s already included in their weekly fee.
4. Phone and communications – Cost of mobile phone calls and data.
5. Transport – Cost of public transport. Assuming you take public transport twice a day (in the morning and afternoon), 7 days a week at discounted student fare.
6. Sundry – We lump here infrequent expenses such as entertainment, stationeries, clothing, shoes, haircuts, etc.
Sample budget table
Please note that these figures are only indicative. Meaning they give you an idea of what to expect but they may not be exact prices. For our sample budget we pulled suggested budget amount for food and groceries, utilities, phone & communication, transport and sundry figures from the website of major universities in each capital city and tweaked them a little to a level that we believe is realistic (a.k.a., we reduced them).
Sample budgeted amounts for student accommodation in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide were taken from Urbanest as cost of a single ensuite room (with own bathroom) in a 4-room apartment. Sample budgeted amounts for student accommodation in Perth, Canberra and Darwin are from Unilodge for a double room in a 4-room apartment. Our Hobart amount was taken from the University of Tasmania website for their studio apartment student accommodation offering.
| Capital Cities | Accommodation | Food & groceries | Electricity, gas & water | Phone / communications | Transport fare | Sundry | Total per week | Total per year | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sydney | Homestay | 363 | 25 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 60 | 496 | 25,792 |
| Student accomodation | 495 | 123 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 60 | 726 | 37,726 | |
| Private rental | 596 | 123 | 20 | 20 | 28 | 60 | 846 | 43,996 | |
| Melbourne | Homestay | 355 | 25 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 60 | 488 | 25,376 |
| Student accomodation | 435 | 118 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 60 | 661 | 34,346 | |
| Private rental | 436 | 118 | 20 | 20 | 28 | 60 | 682 | 35,440 | |
| Brisbane | Homestay | 330 | 25 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 453 | 23,556 |
| Student accomodation | 319 | 113 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 530 | 27,534 | |
| Private rental | 387 | 113 | 20 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 618 | 32,133 | |
| Perth | Homestay | 325 | 25 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 448 | 23,296 |
| Student accomodation | 235 | 120 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 453 | 23,556 | |
| Private rental | 340 | 120 | 20 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 578 | 30,080 | |
| Adelaide | Homestay | 333 | 20 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 451 | 23,452 |
| Student accomodation | 340 | 113 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 551 | 28,626 | |
| Private rental | 309 | 113 | 20 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 539 | 28,033 | |
| Hobart | Homestay | 323 | 20 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 441 | 22,932 |
| Student accomodation | 263 | 90 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 451 | 23,452 | |
| Private rental | 299 | 90 | 20 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 507 | 26,368 | |
| Canberra | Homestay | 355 | 20 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 473 | 24,596 |
| Student accomodation | 230 | 108 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 436 | 22,646 | |
| Private rental | 420 | 108 | 20 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 645 | 33,542 | |
| Darwin | Homestay | 330 | 20 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 448 | 23,296 |
| Student accomodation | 230 | 113 | 0 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 441 | 22,906 | |
| Private rental | 282 | 113 | 20 | 20 | 28 | 50 | 512 | 26,643 |
Key take away points from the sample budget
- Accommodation is your biggest expense item. It may take up to 70% of your overall weekly cost of living budget.
- The fact that cost of living is higher than eastern states like Sydney and Melbourne than other cities like Adelaide is mainly driven by the higher property (and thus accommodation) cost in these cities.
- From a purely financial point of view, staying in a homestay accommodation is the most cost-effective option. Staying in a purpose-built accommodation can increase your budget by as much as 47%, and staying in a private rental can increase your cost up to 72%. But please note that the cost comparison doesn’t really give an apple-to-apple value comparison between homestay and, say, purpose-built student accommodation. Fact is purpose-built student accommodation can at times be a better value proposition when you take everything into consideration.
- Private rental is without a doubt the most costly option, and not to mention cumbersome as it involves being responsible for electricity, gas, water, internet, rubbish collection, simple maintenance, etc. Plain and simple preference (for total independence for example) is what will attract international students to this type of accommodation. However, if you don’t mind the additional effort there’s actually a way to make it more cost-effective than purpose-built student accommodation. Read on.
- Food and groceries are your next biggest expense items. Thanks to uniform taxation across Australia and the efficient logistical system of major supermarket chains, there shouldn’t be any significant difference in prices of cooking raw materials between the eastern cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and other cities like Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, and Darwin. For example, when you do online grocery shopping in Coles and Woolworths or check Aldi website you’ll notice that the price of a liter of milk or a loaf of bread is the same regardless of whether you’re shopping from Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide or Perth.
Eating out in restaurants is where you’ll notice the discrepancy in prices between the eastern cities and other cities. Due to higher rental (property) cost, and because wages are higher in cities like Sydney or Melbourne (think of the chef’s and server’s salaries), restaurant prices are usually more expensive in these cities than in Adelaide, for example.
- Things omitted –
- Bond requirement for your accommodation equal to several weeks of rent (depending on your type of accommodation and what state or territory you’re in). You get this bond back when your lease ends.
- Textbooks are not here because they’re irregular, and no, we don’t mean there’s something wrong with them. We mean there’s no telling when or if you’re going to need one because they’re not regularly required. Unless perhaps in certain courses like medicine, in which case please do consider it in your budget.
- Laptop, we assumed you have one as it’s a necessary tool of the job, so to speak.
- Health expenses. As an international student you’re required to have an Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) that is meant to take care of your hospital expenses, GP consultation and $300 worth of prescribed medicine. Typical cost is $600 per person per year.
- Gadgets like smartphone unit, etc.
- Your possible employment income doing part-time work is outside of the scope of our article. Please read our post entitled “Work options for Australian internationals students” (coming soon) exploring the matter.
Maximising your cost of living dollar
Amounts in our sample budget are not too conservative nor are they too stingy. It’s just about right. However there are still some ways by which you can reduce your cost:
a. Note that the purpose-built accommodation being offered by Unilodge and Urbanest are relatively new and crisp properties. There are other companies offering purpose-built student accommodations that may offer cheaper accommodation. Shop around. If you’re currently overseas we understand the difficulty of shopping for accommodation in Australia, if you’re keen give us a holler and we can help you shop around.
b. Consider scaling down to a double occupancy units, meaning sharing a room with someone else, instead of a private ensuite. This can significantly reduce your accommodation cost. As a general rule, the more ‘exclusive’ or private the accommodation is the more expensive it gets.
c. Consider living outside of city centre. Location is a big factor in property rental. Student accommodation in city centre will be always be more expensive than those outside of city centre. There will be accommodations that are 2 to 3 kilometers away from city centre and are 10 to 20% cheaper.
d. If you can gather some of your friends and rent together a 3-bedroom house for example, you can divide the total rent amongst yourselves and usually this results into a significantly cheaper accommodation compared to other accommodation types. Even with the cost of utilities and procurement of furniture and white goods factored in. If you’re an international student coming here with your parent/s or family, this may be the best option for you. When you’re all settled in and if you have a spare room you can let the room to others to help offset your rental cost.
e. Food and groceries are significant expense items but shopping wisely can extend your purchasing power. Every week major supermarket chains like Coles, Woolsworths (or Woolies), Aldi and IGA print out catalogues of items they have on sale. Especially watch out for those items that are on half-price (50% off) sale. They have it every week and they usually rotate the products they offer on sale. For example, if toothpaste and soaps are on half-price sale (50% off) this week buy what you’ll need for a month or so. Next week they might have deodorants and shampoo on half-price, do the same. Stock on long shelf life products that you will surely consume. Also different supermarkets offer different products on sale at any given week so shop around. Subscribe via email to their weekly catalogue and check who’s offering what for that week. Shop around without a plan and shop around following this, you’ll notice the difference.
f. There are lots of Asian, African and other ethnic grocery shops in every city in Australia. For some reason someone started calling them all as Asian shops. Note that just because it’s an Asian product does not necessarily mean it’s cheaper to buy in Asian shops. Some Asian food products are in fact cheaper to buy from Coles or Woolies, sale or not. Another thing is rice. Major supermarkets regularly offer rice on sale, if rice is part of your diet we suggest you take advantage of this. Rice in supermarkets can be significantly cheaper than in Asian shops (when they are on sale).
g. Get rewards card offered by Coles and Woolies and use them when you shop. They earn you points which you in turn can redeem as a rebate to reduce your overall receipt.
h. There are Asian shops where you can buy your meat, vegetables and other groceries, and there are producer’s market (usually on weekends) where you can buy meat and vegetables at much cheaper price. Every city has several of them.
i. If you’re living close or within your school, VET or university campus you might probably be able to save the $28 weekly transport budget simply because you don’t need to commute.
j. Australian universities are a treasure trove of freebies and discounted things. Free WiFi, free medical consultation (for medical teaching universities although you technically don’t need it because you have OSHC), free e-textbooks, discounted gym facilities, free entertainment nights, and sometimes free stationery, and meals! Join some student clubs. The amenities and benefits can be well-worth the price of membership. Some don’t even have fees to become a member. Many student organisations in universities hold days when they hand out all sorts of free stuff to students.
If you are being required to have a particular textbook for your course, check your university library for an e-copy of the textbook. They’ll usually let you access and read the textbook electronically as long as you need it (meaning you can read but you cannot download or save it to your pc or mac).
University WiFi are faster than many internet services, it’s unlimited and it’s free. Take advantage of this. As secondary, VET or university student you can get free Microsoft products like Word, Excel, and, depending on your course, even free Adobe Creative Cloud, etc. Need tutoring? Universities usually have tutoring sessions or classes for your current course, on top of or outside of the regular classes. Need help in math or in your presentation or assignment or project? There are people or companies you can pay to help you, but there are also free quality help that you can get from several peer volunteer groups in your VET or university.
k. Use internet-based messaging system like Messenger or Viber when calling home instead of regular phone line. Some mobile phone plans offer free call minutes a month to selected countries (see item m below).
l. All students in Australia gets discounted transport fare. If you use public transport a lot you can even get further discount if you buy monthly pass.
m. Assuming you already have your own mobile phone unit, you can reduce your phone and communication expenses by opting for prepaid plans. For example, Aldi mobile has a $25 a month plan with unlimited text and calls (Australia-wide), 18 gb of data, and free call minutes to some countries. If you want to be able to check some things online every now and then while on the go like bus or train timetables, or price of certain item or google maps, 18 gb should be enough, and it only cost $6 a week. And no, that wasn’t brought to you by Aldi mobile. It’s just us thinking it’s a good deal.
n. There’s a respected book of discount coupons being sold in many institutions to raise money for charities called Entertainment Book. The book pay for itself many times over as it’s a vault of awesome deals. It’s a win-win because you’re helping good charitable causes while getting for yourself great deals like shopping discounts, car rental discounts, entertainment discount, and of course, restaurants and dining discounts.
o. Save the hotline contact number of your Overseas Student Health Cover (OSHC) provider on your phone and if you need to see a GP (General Practitioner doctor) call and ask them to refer you to one near you who does bulk bill. That means a GP that charges the same fee as the government’s recommended fee, so your OSHC provider pays for everything and you don’t need to pay extra or what we call gap fee. An overwhelming number of Australian go to a GP who does bulk bill. You’ll find plenty of excellent GPs doing bulk bill.
You’re also entitled to $300 rebate on the cost of your prescription medicine ($50 per script). Be sure to claim it from your OSHC provider if you’ve purchased prescription medicine. If you think you’ll need optical, dental or physio care putting them as an addon to your OSHC may prove wiser in the long run because they are not covered by the regular OSHC and they can be a huge out of pocket hit on your budget if you happen to need them. Or, make sure you fix all your dental and optical issues in your home country before coming over to Australia.
p. Avoid keeping cash with you and paying in cash. Australia is increasingly becoming a cashless society, meaning you can transact in almost anything without the need for physical cash. Avoid losing money when you misplaced them or when they drop from your pocket by not having them around in the first place. By paying electronically via debit or credit card, phone, or online account, reviewing and keeping track of your expenses is much easier and efficient. It also helps you have that big overview of your finances like your your available funds vis-à-vis your expenses, and you’ll gain that “mileage sense” like knowing how far you can go with your current available funds.
And yes, keep all your paper receipts. Australia has strong consumer laws and returning items you’ve purchased in shops should be hassle-free provided you can present your receipts. The reason is they need to scan the barcode in the receipt to verify the purchase. One thing you can do to ensure you always have your receipts is to take a photo of them as soon as you can and store them in your phone and/or laptop.
q. Earlier we said your university is a treasure trove of freebies, well they (university and VET institutions) are also a treasure trove of useful information that can help you save money. You’ll be surprised at what money-saving information or concession you can get by just asking, by just letting them know you need one. Also, and this is important, in case you run into financial emergency (e.g., temporary financial need due to timing issues) be aware that most universities have emergency financial assistance program in place that you can avail of. Again, ask. Ask is your friend. There is no silly question, or embarrassing question, or stupid question. All questions from international students to their education provider are welcome, and are treated with utmost respect, attention and confidentiality.
Make your budgeting work
One goal of enumerating your expenses was to eliminate any surprises. Surprises are not good for any budgeting. You’ll plan better by knowing what to expect. In coming up with a sample budget the goals were 1) to provide a visual picture, provide an idea as to the costs of those items, and 2) to see the relationships of those expense items to the whole budget. The practical tips we provided on how to maximised your cost of living dollar are current tried and tested methods. They can be life saver.
As you may have noticed, budgeting and preference do directly affect each other. Coming to Australian to study, it’d be helpful to have that student frame of mind, not the vacationer’s frame of mind. Your priority is to study. That’s not saying however that you cannot have a good time. Australia offers many entertainment and adventure possibilities. It’s very possible, in fact for sure, you will have some good times here while you’re studying. But first things first. Your studies, and your ability to study.
Lastly, budgeting skills is a frame of mind. It’s also habit. In the process of doing it you waste little, you patronise and reward good deals, you enhanced the sustainability of your studies, and simply, you save some money for some reward or for some rainy days. Even if money is not really an issue with you or your family, budgeting skills is still a useful skill to have and is in fact being used in all companies and organisations, as you will later find out when you join one. Think of your resources as finite and thus need to be utilised wisely. In return, you’ll gain more satisfaction, more appreciation and more reward from your experience and achievement.
