Cost of living

@cdw057

Thank you for posting your perspective on cost of living requirements for you personally.  A great factor in the overall affordability index is your priorities and expectations for a certain quality of life.  For us, my wife and I, we intend to live a humble life once we move to Turkey.  Our intended target city is Eskisehir.  My initial estimate for my monthly expenses is $1200 to $1400 excluding my residence as I intend to purchase a flat or villa.  Our intent is travel within the country as well as Europe and whatever urges we get.  In your budgeted 1700EUR, to understand the foundational expenses, what percentage is your non-discretionary (fixed) versus discretionary expenses?  For non-discretionary, I would include utilities, insurance, phone service, transportation, internet, residence fees, staple foods and whatever else I may have missed.

I used the website numbeo dot com to get a rough assessment of what we will be confronted with for cost of living in Eskisehir and it states that monthly expenses for a family of four is $1,162 not including rent and that monthly expenses is roughly 37% in comparison to the Minneapolis, my current location.

Your posts are well appreciated and your topics are relevant and opens up more dialogue within this site.  Thank you.

@Gino_C Good and sound question, Gas/Water/Electricity should be quite limited (in winter electrictiy for heating can be higher, but we living in an apartment of 150m2 +), we spend in total EUR 1000 max I would say. Health insurance we intend to enroll in SGK (EUR 70 pp per month), so sthat is quite expensive.

Insurance (for property) is rare, we take the view that if we lose our property due to disasters, so it be.

Repairs or odd things, very cheap and effective, if you spend EUR 1000 per year it is already much.

Charges for Audible, Netflix, .. the same as in Europe, very affordable.

Whisky slightly higher then in Europe, but no real differencem, smoking is very cery cheap.

For shaving, in my view better to go to barber (EUR 5.5 including tip). He also cleans ears, shaves eye-brows and even possible hairs in nose, neck and ears as well.

Once per two weeks.

Restaurants depending what you want, Turkish restaurants without alcohol tend to be very cheap (I would say EUR 25 for soup/starter. main dish and tea and possibly baklave for my wife). For Western restaurants with alcohol, the same but with Gin Tonic can Rose is between EUR 40 and 60

I spend quite a bit on cigarettes (3 packages per day) and Jameson Whisky. I would say together EUR 600 pm

I do not like to travel at all, but my wife does, but bus or taxi per month, max EUR 20 I would say

Wool and clothing shops very very cost-effective.

Supermarkets, I would be very surprised if we spend more then EUR 400 pm (this includes meat).

The so called Aidat in our case is just EUR 30 pm. in my view far too low, but another matter. A complex should be maintainted with a number of people and give the feel of luxury.

One needs support on this or that, driving license, SGK, buying furniture, TV etc, Paying helps, tips or rewards I would say TRY 5000 py (EUR 300)

Water for use (coffee, tea, just drinking (better not from tap), we use one bottle of 19L per 4/5 days, is EUR 2, so EUR 80 per year.

Telephone (one could use whatsapp, but I am too old), I would say for me and my wife (including calling abroad) EUR 20 pm (but could be cheaper I am sure)

Internet is EUR 10 pm (100 mb)

If you have more questions, please let me know (I am interested in finances), so far expenses are less than I expected. (mostly we did not go to restaurants I planned, but eating at home is also nice)

Enjoying this conversation.

Gino_C - you mentioned using 'numbeo' as a guide. I'm not too sure how good a one it is though.

Before Covid struck, I was very interested in trying to live in Turkey as I really like the country. Exchange rate fluctuation had crept in but not to the extreme it is, but rents seemed to be low. Yes, more expensive for those of us from abroad but that is understandable, yet, having recently gone on Sahibinden to check most recent prices I was surprised at the figures now being asked for.

In summer 2019 a waiter in the hotel I was staying at told me his landlord had increased his rent to 1200TRY. Remember this is before the currency went to pot. Which to me was nothing but to his wife and him it was. Another told me they had been living in the same apartment for 20 years and were only charged 700TRY. From what I've read, wages have increased due to inflation but so has everything with it, I hope they are ok. I had no preconception of paying anything similar, just to be clear.

I have yet to be back since Covid due to all the price increases. For example a Efes beer in my hotel was then £2.50, this year £4.50. Hotel acc price was 70% to 100% more and airlines nearly doubled their fares.

Living somewhere is of course different than holidaying, you eat in more, go out less etc etc.

Rent is going to cost you about 200-300 USD a month in Turkey depending if you want a furnished or a non-furnished apartment. But these prices are for living outside of tourist areas.

If you want to live in a place like Istanbul, or another popular tourist destination then double the prices for rent.

For two people I spend about 150 USD on food. That is eating out a few times a week. That could go up to 200 USD a month depending on how much you eat out. If you only cook at home, you could probably get by on 100 USD a month for food for two people.

I spend about 50-100 USD a month on utilities depending on if its summer or winter. This includes gas, electric, water, internet, phone.

And other expenses like transportation, etc that depends on if you have a car, or if you take a bus to work, or a train, etc.

I spend about 600-700 USD a month in Turkey for two people.