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That’s pretty remarkable... can you give more details on monthly budget: After $500 for rent that’s only $750 left. Food: $500? Cell phone/ internet:$70? Clo

That’s pretty remarkable... can you give more details on monthly budget: After $500 for rent that’s only $750 left. Food: $500? Cell phone/ internet:$70? Clothing: goodwill? Car insurance: $100? Utilities:?

JacobSuperslav 6y ago
Europe is cheaper than most people think. My family of 3 spends less than 20k/year including renting a house in Spain, 100 meters from the shore
- checkyoursudo 6y ago
  Ah, yes, I maybe should mention that my house is about 50 m from the Baltic? The view of our bay is a significant benefit. Of course, it's covered with ice for several months of the year, and not everybody likes that. >.<
checkyoursudo 6y ago
I'm really sorry that I don't have accurate numbers at hand, but I can give you some estimates. I will also note that the SEK/USD exchange rate is not quite the same as when it sort of got fixed in my mind. I think of it as about 10:1, but I guess it's really more like 8.3:1, so instead of approx. $15K USD maybe it's more like $18K. Anyway, here are some numbers that I know or can give pretty accurate details for: Rent under 4500 SEK/mo Phone data SEK 400 per 6 mo. -- pay as you go - 20 GB for 6 months and never have had to add more. Wifi at home, on the train, and both in the city center and at the University means I rarely use my own. Phone calls SEK 100 has lasted me god knows how long for minutes. I don't think I add minutes more frequently than every six months or so. Car insurance is something like SEK 2500 or 3000 per year for a <10 year old car. Food ~1500 SEK per week -- we are vegetarian and rarely buy anything fancy; we also grow fruit and veg in the summer; this of course can be quite variable, with some weeks being SEK 1200 and others SEK 2000 or more. Utilities: we have a geo heat pump; we don't pay very much in utilities; we mostly charge our EV at the train station for free. Clothes: H&M primarily, Amazon.de occasionally (I guess we have Amazon.se now too) -- my wife and I don't buy new clothes very often, though my children definitely need new stuff regularly. Still, we don't spend very much on clothes, but I will freely admit that this is the one I don't have as much sense of. So, minus an exact number on utilities and clothes, it looks like a bit more than SEK 10,000 per month. Add some exact amount for utilities and clothing, and I think we are within a $15K-18K range.
rahkiin 6y ago
Here in Dutch students it is more like this: 350eur for rent. 200eur for food. 25eur for internet, no car needed. Utilities included in student rental, otherwise 30eur. clothing and fun things: everything else. Current system provides a government backed loan at 0.00% interest of up to 800eur/month, which you then need to pay back depending on income in 35 years. (Much like ISA, but with the government). You get 100eur/month for health insurance (basic health insurance costs the same). and 100 euro/month for renting. These last 2 are based on income and available for everyone under a certain income limit. (Almost all students are below this limit) We had a system where you received 300/month and could then get a loan on top of it. But that was replaced by the neoliberals. Hope that enlightens it a bit.

JacobSuperslav 6y ago

Europe is cheaper than most people think. My family of 3 spends less than 20k/year including renting a house in Spain, 100 meters from the shore

checkyoursudo 6y ago
Ah, yes, I maybe should mention that my house is about 50 m from the Baltic? The view of our bay is a significant benefit. Of course, it's covered with ice for several months of the year, and not everybody likes that. >.<

checkyoursudo 6y ago

I'm really sorry that I don't have accurate numbers at hand, but I can give you some estimates. I will also note that the SEK/USD exchange rate is not quite the same as when it sort of got fixed in my mind. I think of it as about 10:1, but I guess it's really more like 8.3:1, so instead of approx. $15K USD maybe it's more like $18K. Anyway, here are some numbers that I know or can give pretty accurate details for: Rent under 4500 SEK/mo Phone data SEK 400 per 6 mo. -- pay as you go - 20 GB for 6 months and never have had to add more. Wifi at home, on the train, and both in the city center and at the University means I rarely use my own. Phone calls SEK 100 has lasted me god knows how long for minutes. I don't think I add minutes more frequently than every six months or so. Car insurance is something like SEK 2500 or 3000 per year for a <10 year old car. Food ~1500 SEK per week -- we are vegetarian and rarely buy anything fancy; we also grow fruit and veg in the summer; this of course can be quite variable, with some weeks being SEK 1200 and others SEK 2000 or more. Utilities: we have a geo heat pump; we don't pay very much in utilities; we mostly charge our EV at the train station for free. Clothes: H&M primarily, Amazon.de occasionally (I guess we have Amazon.se now too) -- my wife and I don't buy new clothes very often, though my children definitely need new stuff regularly. Still, we don't spend very much on clothes, but I will freely admit that this is the one I don't have as much sense of. So, minus an exact number on utilities and clothes, it looks like a bit more than SEK 10,000 per month. Add some exact amount for utilities and clothing, and I think we are within a $15K-18K range.

rahkiin 6y ago

Here in Dutch students it is more like this: 350eur for rent. 200eur for food. 25eur for internet, no car needed. Utilities included in student rental, otherwise 30eur. clothing and fun things: everything else. Current system provides a government backed loan at 0.00% interest of up to 800eur/month, which you then need to pay back depending on income in 35 years. (Much like ISA, but with the government). You get 100eur/month for health insurance (basic health insurance costs the same). and 100 euro/month for renting. These last 2 are based on income and available for everyone under a certain income limit. (Almost all students are below this limit) We had a system where you received 300/month and could then get a loan on top of it. But that was replaced by the neoliberals. Hope that enlightens it a bit.