Cost of living for 2 expats

1000 euros a month or in total? My wife and I (she is Romanian, I am american) stayed in Pantelimon, which is a good ways from Unirii (the center) and our rent was 250 euros just for a 1 bedroom apartment way out there. Factor in groceries, travel, food, and anything miscellaneous and I'd say no if that's all you have for 3 months. Some families have to live together with three people working full time just to bring in enough for what you're looking for.

Just being honest. Rethink your living options to be honest, you might want to consider a bit away from the city center because I do not think it is likely to be doable with that income.

Hello, thank you for taking some time to answer my question. We will have 1000€ per months, so 3000€ for the 3 months we will be staying there. Do you think it's enough to live a nice life in Bucharest? What sectors do you recommend?

My wife knows real estate for apartments in Bucharest, she just said you can look in Tineretului for something around 200-250 euros if you look enough into it. She recommended somewhere around the subway station there to be closer to Unirii, the center. Also, it's only a 10-15 minute walk to the center so that could save on transportation. She did say to be careful if you do choose to look into Unirii, which can be 350 euros+ easuly for a ln apartment, as there are some rough areas.

A nice life depends on your habits. If you mean to have an apartment, not worry about groceries, and some small inexpensive things, then yes. That is a nice life in most Romanians eyes as the salary there is around 400 euros a month. They have plenty of parks and sightseeing that will keep you entertained, and a lot of free concerts around the city in a lot of outdoor venues. If you mean to have a more materialistic life, such as shopping a lot, constant outings and such, no it is not.

An example of a monthly cost for us living in our apartment in Pantelimon was:

Rent : 250 euros
Groceries: 300 euros
Utilities: 30-50 euros
Internet, cable - 15-20 euros
Transportation (taxi, subway) - 30ish euros
Eating out - 100+ euros (usually once/twice a week)
Shopping - 150-400+ euros. (Realistically you will at least want to buy a couple of things a month, not to mention furnishing your apartment with basic necessities)

Just a rough estimate of our lifestyle on a $3000 monthly income. We saved what we didn't spend. You can count on most of these prices for the most part, except the shopping and dining which are up to you.

Check this website out and see a kind if rough estimate of apartment costs in different areas..

https://m.olx.ro/imobiliare/apartamente … bucuresti/

Thank you very much for the information! I'm very concerned about safety, mainly because I'm going with my girlfriend and she's never been out of her comfort zone like I did with trips to Kosovo and Albania, for example, so a nice small apartment in a calm and safe area is what we're looking for as long as it's close to a metro station. We will be working at a hotel so depending on our shifts (women usually never do a night shift) I might have to take a taxi from time to time to avoid walking the streets during the night. From your estimate and considering the fact that we won't eat out that much and we'll have at least 1 meal at the hotel I think 1000€ might be enough to live comfortably as long as we don't go on a shopping spree, and have something spare for a gym membership or some train trips to visit some other parts of Romania. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Once again, thank you very much, you've been very helpful!

I wouldn't be too concerned about safety, Bucharest is far safer than most European cities. Of course, you should take the usual precautions but no particular need to be worried. Most of the crime here is just petty theft and bad driving.

Two people renting and living off 1000 Euro is doable, although you won't be living the high life. If you shop at the local fruit and veg markets rather than the supermarket, buy what's in season (prices vary a lot here according to season, but supermarkets have off-season prices all year round, more or less), use public transport and are happy with the simple life, then I think you'll be ok.

Sounds like you could make it work fine, just stay disciplined. Try doing ALL of your bills at the beginning of each month. Pay your rent, buy groceries for the WHOLE month (buy bulk meats, separate each meal in plastic bags and freeze them for each meal), we still do this in the US and it saves us a ton of money. Buy a metro pass with a lot of rides, maybe 30 or something to start. Set aside 100 euros for utilities and internet, etc.

If you set the money aside for ALL the necessary bills, then you can see where you stand each month with extra spending money. If you have 400 euros left, wait till the second week of the month to go out just so you'll have a chance to see what nonessential things you buy in a week, based on the first week.

My wife and I have a silly system that when we get our monthly income, we write down our budget and EVERY possible expense from bills to random spending money. We put the money for each of these in an envelope and only open that envelope when it's time to use it. For our (leftover we call it) money, we write down how much is in there and just subtract on the envelope how much we took and how much is left. You'd be amazed how well it works when you control your money like this on any budget.

Thank you very much guys! You have given me some peace of mind. We'll have to stay disciplined that's for sure, but I don't think it will be that hard. We will be doing an internship so we expect not to be paid, but if they do end up paying us we might have a little more money to work with, but I'll have to wait and see. I will follow your tips and try to save some money now to use in Romania in case of an emergency or just for traveling inside the country.