on
Cost
I just finished my second year in Bangalore, so it was a nice time to do a cost of living analysis.
I've been living in shared apartment with 4 residents and our current expenditure stands at ~14,000 a month. Here's the breakup of major monthly costs
- 8,400: Rent - 3BHK spacious apartment
- 600: Electricity and Water - Fixed
- 1,400: Cook - 350 per head, Breakfast+Dinner
- 600: Maid - 150 per head, all-cleaning
- 290: Private Gas Cylinder (580 for two months)
- 200: Cable
- 105: News Paper
- 1,500: Groceries
- 1,000: Misc Utilities
~8,400+600+1,400+600+290+105+1,200=13,995~14,000 = 3,500 per person per month.
My Other fixed monthly expenses -
- 1,100: Food Coupons
- 560: Internet Connection- Sify Broadband
- 1,200: Transport Personal and company services
- 1,200: Personal Utilities @ ~300 per weekend!
- 200: Phone
My total monthly fixed cost of living comes out as - as.~ Rs. 7,500 ($186). Annual ~ 90,000 ($2,230).
Well that covers my fixed costs. I had been erratic in my variable ones. My big ticket purchases
- 16,000: Sony Cybershot DSC W5 - 5 MP, 3x, 2.5"LCD
- 59,000: Dell Inspiron 6000, P 750 M, 512MB, 60GB, 15.4"
- 1400: 512MB Memory Stick
- 1,100: Dockers Half Sleeves Format Blue Stripes Shirt
- 900: Bata Power Badminton shoes
- 2050: LG 3330 Handset (after I lost Rs. 0 Samsung Slim)
- 2,900: Segate 80GB external HDD
- 1,500: Sify Internet Installation
- 1,250: Reebok Sneakers
- 750: Levis Blue Basic Denim Jeans
Those are all the >Rs. 500 ($12) transactions I have done with money I have earned. I can vouch for this as I cross-checked this with my bank records (it excludes investments and travel expenses).
My major travels expenditure (includes misc. expenses)
- Bangalore-Delhi-Bangalore X 5 @ 7,000 per trip
- Bangalore-Mumbai-Bangalore X 1 @ 6,000
Summary
- Fixed ~ 7500 per month
- Variable ~ 5500 per month
- Total ~ 13,000 per month.
Key learning point: Always buy laptop from USA @ ~ $950.
When I compare this to my peers living with me and those whom I have observed, their slate would look more like this
- 2,000: Apparel
- 4,000 to 10,000: Local travel and leisure
- 700 to 1,000: Phone
That's it. Eventually both life-styles round up to nearly same cost of living, there's actually no limit on how much you can spend on these last three categories.
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US