Living Expenses and School Information

Hi and welcome to the Forum.  At the top of the page are a series of links; the Handy Tools option will take you to a further set of links that will provide you with a lot of information on the formalities of moving to and living in Holland.

To answer your specific questions; this link will take you to a website that provides information on current costs of living in Eindhoven.

With regards to education; when we looked at it (and I have no reason to believe that much has changed), private schools were very expensive, to the extent that we just couldn't afford it.  Every child is different and has different requirements; if you use Google to find the local international schools in Eindhoven, the links will provide you with details of what's provided and current costs for those schools.

Our twins were the same age as your daughter and went to the local state school - they had no problems at all and had picked up Dutch within a month of starting, to the extent that you couldn't tell them apart from the local kids.

After you have read the links I referred to, if you have any further specific questions, please come back to us.

Hope this helps; best of luck with you future in Holland.

Thank you very much for your valuable answer Cynic.

The truth is that, i am not worry about the living expenses because i am currently living in Germany, so i know that expenses without School can go up to 1700 Euro with 800 to 1000 Euro for accommodation (Flat), 250 Euro for Health Insurance, 200 Miscellaneous expenses and 250 Euro for Food.

What i am worried about is education of my Daughter, because i know that private Schools are very expenses and can go up to 1500 Euro per month. On the other hand, State Schools are tuition free but medium of instruction is Dutch Language.

"Our twins were the same age as your daughter and went to the local state school - they had no problems at all and had picked up Dutch within a month of starting, to the extent that you couldn't tell them apart from the local kids."

Referring to your above statement that your "Twins" were in same age as my Daughter, now i think that my Daughter can also cop with it but can you please let me know that when you admit your Twins in School,
Did you teach them Dutch Language before or they started to learn Dutch after admitted to School? and did School Management argue about Language barrier or not?

One thing more, can you please let me know that what is the transportation cost in State School for children (School Van ) and what are the monthly charges for the Family of 3 of Transportation Ticket in the area of Eindhoven.

You have already help me a lot. Thank you very much for your kind answer and valuable help .

Hi,

Our twins were very much brought up in a British environment prior to us living in Holland; when they were small and because we lived in a British Forces community in Germany, we all spoke English at home.  However, my wife is Dutch and when we moved to Holland, we had her whole family about us; their older sister was fluent in Dutch - mainly because she had spent a lot of time with Oma/Opa in Holland), so lots of support and Dutch was not a strange thing to any of us.

That said, they weren't the only non-Dutch kids at the school (lots of Syrian and Turkish kids), none of them struggled at that age.  Kids birthday parties had only one unifying feature - everyone spoke Dutch, race/colour/language just doesn't feature in there lives.  My opinion is that at 4-years old, it's not an issue.  Elder children (teenagers) may have an issue in as much as they tend to get grouped into the lower level of education.  One thing to consider is your future intentions; if you intend to stay in Holland, then the state school system is fine.  However, if you're only passing through and intend to move on, then an international school should be considered as in (say) 5 years time, bringing a 12 year old kid to say a UK secondary school and not speaking English may be a disadvantage; to counter that, our eldest did just that, thrived and went on to Uni in the UK, but she was trilingual (English/Dutch/German) at that stage of her life.  She is now back, living and working, in Holland.

To admit the kids to the Dutch school, we first had to register at the Town Hall (Gemeentehuis), then went to our local school and registered them there - it was really simple.

There is an organisation in Eindhoven that helps expats; they are called "The Hub" and have a website you can access via this link.  I have no experience of using them and I would always warn people that information on the internet (including here) is "user-beware".

Hope this helps.

Thank you very much for your valuable assistance. It is a massive help for me and it gives me great amount of idea about my journey to Netherlands.

Hi,

This is the link to school fees for International School in Eindhoven if it can be of some help.
isecampus.nl/Flex/Site/Page.aspx?PageID=7314

We have just arrived in Holland in August 2016 and have 3 older children in International School Breda and 2 younger ones in a local Dutch school. The school that we chose for our 2 younger kids does give extra Dutch language tutoring session during school hours for our younger kids. I also know of a French speaking family who has 2 children and has been in the school for 2 years. The children do not speak any Dutch at all but are doing fine in school.

All the best in Holland and hope this little information helps.

Thank you very much for your valuable help Tulp. This helps me in a great deal.

Hi Ahmed,

The salary your employer is a decent one. Not a good one though. I am living in Eindhoven with a family of 3. My son is going to international school of Eindhoven and my salary is less than what you are offered.

When you say 5000EUR gross, I would assume you also get hoiday allowance, 13th month, bonus extra on top of it. If this is the case, then that's a really good salary that many local people dream to have.

Irrespective of that here is a view of cost of living, you need min of 2500EUR if you are planning to send your kid to international school. You also need to have car to drop and pick your son. Because public transport is not so easy to reach school.

If you want to hire a taxi or shared one you need to spend another 200EUR min for this.

On the whole your expenses would be like this: House : 1200EUR (i am telling this for bare apartment, 3BHK, close to Eindhoven central station and incl of all taxes and bills). I am afraid that you can't get anything less than this in Eindhoven. School fee of 500EUR. Medical :250EUR, phone bills : 50EUR, food & misc: 400EUR,