Lived Experience Forum

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its same work I've been doing for years @NNY  its more about survival than interest, I have bills to pay. It can be hard, dirty, pressured etc, just have to get through until find something else

[NNY]

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It's funny how you spend lots of your time looking after others, eg: your Dad.

But who is looking after you?

It's a pity the government can't afford a little extra financial help for you.

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I think that was @catladybookworm  re father and caring, ok mines a lot older, but I am interstate @NNY  I am getting newstart atm, just cant live on it, managed to last months on what savings I had, I cant afford bills or food on newstart, Ive had to spend most of my savings to keep going,am just trying to get some money to pay bills

[NNY]

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oops. Sorry you and @catladybookworm 

I too was on new start for several months. But finally got a job cleaning toilets and then got my present job.

The only way to live on New Start is if you live in a boarding house. There you only have to pay rent and not gas, electricity or water etc. Plus most people who live in boarding houses eat for free at local churches etc. It's an ok life for a single male, but I always felt sorry for girls who would stay there from time to time. Except for one girl, she was a nurse from Bathurst, and she only used the room when she worked in Sydney. I think she and me were the only ones who never took drugs or alcohol.

I remember one girl, she was on ice for her whole stay there, she was always having constant arguments with her fridge, she ended up getting kicked out because she stopped the automatic payment of her rent and used that money for more ice. She use to chuck CD's at us when the Salvo's came and set up the BBQ every Wednesday. She was trying to be nice by sharing her music with us. The manager of the boarding house, he called the government for help, but they said she wasn't bad enough to need help, so she was kicked out. The last time I saw her, she was literally in the gutter at Kings Cross, talking to herself, inbetween two parked cars. I wanted to help her, but just didn't know how.

Sorry got side tracked. Back to New Start.

But after I bought my little house and couldn't get a job, half the town I live in is unemployed, New Start was no where near enough to live on for even a boarder line ok life.

Just wondering do you live near any chuches or anything. They are a good source of free food and tea and coffee. It took me years to save enough money to buy my house. I subsidised my existence by eating at churches etc. My house cost $80,000 by the way, so I'm not rich. And it was all I could buy because no bank would lend me any money. When the everage income is $50,000 plus and all you earn is about $25,000 a year, banks don't want to know you, even if you are the best saver of money in the world.

Anyway, hope you get a good job sooner rather than later.

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yeah i dont know if I could live in a boarding house again @NNY  it was scary couple times did, one place  had lice in mattress no screens on windows etc 

I might end up back in caravan park dunno, am renting house  worth similar value to yours for 250 a week so doesnt leave much plus phone internet, power, water, running a car, food, never get around to asking for it somehow

well done re house. I would rather not live where I am I think, its in middle of nowhere, but some houses cheap. yes all sorts of stories in boarding houses

I think I just have to be working more regularly, sick of getting put in work situations I cant deal with and am not getting any younger lol

..anyhoo .. thanks for your post. interesting.

[NNY]

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Agreed on boarding houses, ok when you are younger but they get harder and harder to live in as you get older and older. 

And agreed on living in the middle of nowhere. I do a 200km round trip just to buy food for 3 weeks. The local IGA is so incredibly expensive when it come to fresh fruit and vegetables it's not funny. Bread here is $3.50 a loaf and I eat 5 loaves every 3 weeks. Just by buying bread at ALDI's, it saves me enough money on the fuel to do the 200 km round trip.

I looked at caravan parks also but I've never lived in one though. I've dropped people off at them when I drove taxis.

How was or were the caravan parks you've live in?  What is the system they work by?

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sounds tough re food @NNY  food is around the corner here, just if not working no good reason to be here

all places had one thing in common little privacy and crap or non existent aircon lol

one caravanpark lived in for years was okay when it was okay, when neighbours werent being feral as they were literally other side of wall at back, could hear tv wen it rained, not really secure, think people were stealing power. and gas plus stupidly got refills from park so cost more than double if had own cylinder

anyway was 20 metre walk to showers, learnt how to avoid people, no one would visit well except 1 person, and if people found out you lived there, often never heard from them again plus I smoked then so I reeked even when thought clothes were clean lol cos smoked inside so rent and bills here at house around 300 a week, at caravan was free water around $190 rent 30-50 a week for power, so slightly cheaper but had to move out before summer as a/c was no good, not liveable

re system in this state after 3mths transfer to bond and lease. Have lived in motel before, just negotiate weekly rate was like equiv to 3 nights fees a week but noise and no privacy, could work short term at some places if right deal tho

[NNY]

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Noise is always a problem.

Even if you own your own house, noise and feral neighbours can still be a problem.

The good thing about owning a house though is, although you still have to pay rates etc, they are only about $2,000 a year, plus gas and electricity which are about $1500 a year, so about $4,000 a year all together. But boarding houses in Sydney are about $180 a week = about $10,000 a year. So you save money in the long run if you can buy a cheap house. But cheap houses are not in very convenient places though. Brocken Hill is about the only place I've seen cheap houses lately in an ok place. Don't know what it'd be like to live there though.

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yeah some cheap places in WA, even under $30k but really bad areas and remote and would take years to sell,if ever  i have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent and have no savings , might work something out with super  since moved to this house have paid nearly half of its reduced market value in 3 years renting lo @NNY l

[NNY]

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Just mowed the lawn. When I bought this quaint little old house, I thought wow, half an acre and a house for $80,000. But I didn't realise how lazy I am and how much effort it is to mow half an acre. I think I need to buy a sheep that sheds hair not wool like the Wiltshire Horns, Van Rooys or Damaras. It's actually an offense to not sheer your sheep when their wool grows too long, don't know how much though. I found that quiet interesting.

Yeah, there is something about our system here that seems unfair.

With just a little help from government, I think a lot of people, could become independent home owners. It's almost a type of slavery. We work for other people who become rich enough to buy several houses and they rent those houses back to us for money. It's as if we actually earn far far less money than it seems.

I think I'd also prefer to pay rent in a nice area than own a house and live next door to feral's, but too late for that. But it could be worse, they don't steal, which is good. They throw their rubbish on my property and blast music at odd hours in the morning, they used to be much worse though, but they have quietened down a lot since last year.

In Germany and Switzerland though, the government is very strict on noise and rubbish. I wish I could move there, but that would be impossible, I doubt they'd let me stay and live there.