Over the coming months we will be hosting Intern Options Summer 2010 Internship blogs to help our users who are looking to gain work experience abroad. Make sure you check them out, in order to hear from current students and graduates who are in Australia and New Zealand doing their internships, and those planning their internship abroad.

Let’s get into some numbers; we will be looking at the cost of getting you to Sydney or Melbourne and what it will cost to live there. The individual living costs in each area vary slightly between Sydney and Melbourne, but the overall cost of living in either city is about the same.

Now some research is going to be needed on your part, so we have included a couple of websites you will be able to get quotes from so you can tailor your budget. We will also have some of our students writing on the blog, about how much they are spending each week in Sydney or Melbourne.

• Flights - £500/ £900 Usually around June flights are at the lower end and this depends on your departure and return date. You can compare flights on a website like Ebookers.com
• Insurance – £40/ £150 It pays to look around, it also pays not to take the cheapest quote you find! Check out the article on: Finding Insurance for your Australian Internship
• Visa- £90 Done online and Intern Options helps you out
• Accommodation – £80/ £150+ pw We can organise you accommodation sharing with three people to a room for £75 or you can have your own room for around £140. This includes all bills and sometimes wireless . Alternatively check out Hostel World which is the best website we’ve found for reviews on hostels in Australia and to book a hostel for when you first arrive.
• Food- £40/ £60 pw This cost depends on how many meals you eat out per week which can increase this cost a lot.
• Transport – £8/ £25 pw Transport costs in Sydney will be bus, underground, ferry’s and for Melbourne also trams. This cost will depend on how far from work you live.
• Entertainment - £ ?? This is so hard to guestimate as everyone is different, have a look at the list below for some common areas you will spend money on entertainment

This should give you a start on budgeting for your 2010 summer internship. Excluding entertainment you should budget between $300 and $600 per week for living costs which roughly translates to UK£150 to UK£300 per week depending on the exchange rate at the time. Below are some estimated costs for entertainment, they are all in Australian dollars so you will need to divide them by the current exchange rate. At the time of writing that was 2 Australian dollars to 1 pound. So divide the figures below by 2 and that will be the cost in pounds (hope you’re not reaching for your calculator).

• Movies $15
• Eating Out $30+
• Take away food $10 – $15
• Lunch in a café $8 – $10
• Cup of coffee $2.50 – $3.50
• Fast food (McDonalds, KFC, food courts) $5 – $10
• Nightclub entrance $10 – $25
• Pint of beer (570 ml) $5 – $7
• Taxi $1.55 per kilometre

To visit the original blog follow this link – Summer 2010 Internships – How to Budget