The outs and ins of your Australian family budget

June 29, 2011 No comments

All figured out?

Mum wonders if Family Mum’s gone 2 Aus are alone in finding the planning and management of our family budget in Australia a little frustrating.

The cost of living in Australia is high; everyone’s talking about it, and it’s true. There is also the cost of health care and private health insurance to consider, which we didn’t need to worry about in the UK.

However, it’s not so much the price of products and services that is bothering Mum, but the number of payments families have to make up front, then claim back later.

Families need a large ‘up front’ cash flow

We recently published a series of articles on Family Assistance in Australia and the different payments provided by the Australian government to help families with the cost of raising children. Mum thinks the Australian government are generous with what they offer. Families get Tax Benefit and help with the cost of child care. But, depending on your circumstances, this help works on a pay now, claim later basis. Families need a large ‘up front’ cash flow to sustain themselves.

Throughout our first year in Australia things were a struggle financially. Mr Mum’s gone 2 Aus was out of work for longer than we planned and things have been more expensive than we expected. But now that we’ve completed our tax returns and understand which Family Assistance payments we’re eligible for, we’ve discovered we’re getting more money back than we realised. If we’d known this as the past year or so progressed we would have been less stressed.

Mum wonders how many families can only plan holidays and other luxuries once they know what payments they’re going to be eligible for, following their tax returns.

In years to come our incomes might be more stable and we may be able to arrange for child care payments to be paid quarterly, fortnightly or direct to our child care service. In the meantime, we cover everything and hope it will come good at the end of the tax year.

Keep receipts and remember to claim

Something else that can leave families and individuals out of pocket is paying for medical fees up front. Mum wonders how many health receipts go unclaimed.

We know from experience that it’s easy to get a refund for Doctor’s receipts, read Mum’s got a Medicare refund! but it’s always going to be one of those things that you keep putting off.

Other payments like the Education Tax Refund are great, as long as you keep receipts.

How are you getting on?

Is Mum alone in finding the outs and ins of our Australian family budget a bit of a challenge? Perhaps you’ve been here longer than Mum and can tell us that things get easier, or share some tips on how to manage the financial quirks of life down under.

What? No Overdraft?!

Finally, a positive negative about our financial setup in Australia, compared to the UK. When we first arrived in Sydney we were horrified that our bank only offered a $100 overdraft. “What’s the point of that?” muttered Mr Mum’s gone 2 Aus. “Will you increase it the longer we bank with you?” I asked desperately. The answer was NO.

We were used to a much larger buffer in the UK, and the thought of living without this backup left us both a little panicked. But, eighteen months on, we are a million times better at managing our family budget than we were before, and the lack of overdraft has had a major influence on this positive change.

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