Cost of living in Sofia with 2 kids?

Slava2015 wrote:

Hi,

I've got a job offer for Sofia - what it is to live there with kids? Sorry, I don't see similar topics in there...

How much would it be for a 3 bedroom apartment in gated complex near some park?

How expensive is a nanny/babysitter for 3 days a week? And how easy it is to find one?

How expensive is a medical insurance for kids (baby <1 yo and 5 yo)?

Many thanks!

Welcome to the forum...  

Please read through the posts in the forum categories list upper right hand side of this page for information.
For cost of living try www.numbeo.com

life regarding the cost /wage  is quite expensive here , except the small services ( taxi , hairdress , beer ... are cheap).
numbeo is far from being complete but I rather agree with the prices.
Its not said that in general alsothe doctors try to oversell services and exams ... It happened to me when I had to visit them.

sithrica wrote:

life regarding the cost /wage  is quite expensive here , except the small services ( taxi , hairdress , beer ... are cheap).
numbeo is far from being complete but I rather agree with the prices.
Its not said that in general alsothe doctors try to oversell services and exams ... It happened to me when I had to visit them.

Hi!

Thanks for your opinion! When you say quite expensive - comparing to what?
Could you say in numbers from your experience?

Thanks & regards

There is a "cost of living" topic if you do a search, it has a lot of info on expenses.

Well most of imported item are still the same price like in France (that's my country) : Jeans/clothes with a brand , some international branded food , electronic , even the energy price is same like in France ( remember that the strikes 2 years ago were due to the high price of energy bill) ... and the list can goes on . HM for example still display the price in Euro sold in W-E and that's actually these prices... In general the wage is 3 times lower it can be even lower depends on your work area , but some prices are still the same like in W-Europe. Another thing to consider is with your wage , the medical package is not that good/high , the pension system is bullshit , you must pay bit more to ensure that the education is good quality - all in all yoru wage in West Europe offer in general better public service , here you have to save for that meaning (prepare your pension , save for kids need ... ) . We experienced also the quality of some product may not been high as it should be. Why ? its simple International brand classify the countries by category hence the same product is not necessary the same  and they tend to sell here bit lower standard in emerging markets.
numbeo.com gives a good insight : comparing PARIS (which is expensive in term if rent flat or buy ) and SOFIA : your financial life is 2,5-3 times harder here (e-g local purchase)

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/co … ity2=Paris

And additionally as I explained , numbeo does not talk about the pension system and the education system (and that's matter when we have kids to raise) ...

Yeah when I first heard that products are not the same as the U.S. and W.E. even tho they are the same brand I didn't believe it but now two years later I've come to find out that they make same brand, same packaging but lower quality for Eastern European countries. It's so stupid it's unbelievable!! They go out of their way to make two different products put in identical packaging! That really pisses me off. Further more it's not like it's cheaper either for name brand toothpaste, shampoo, detergent and so on! And don't get me started on the selection and quality of shoes and clothing here, it's like they dump all the product that no one else wanted in the BG malls. That's why I get everything shipped from the states.