Day to Day Cost of Living

The-Wicks


Joined: 27/05/2007
Posts: 2279

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 11:05

Just curious here, but could any of you good people who live in TRNC full time give me an idea of, say, how much a week it costs to live there these days? I appreciate that this will depend on your lifestyle, type of shopping, etc. but would be interested to know a "ball park figure". Acquaintances of ours have good friends who live there full time who told them that they enjoy a very good lifestyle on £100 per week. This includes all utilities, shopping, eating out once or twice a week. They have a villa with a large pool and run quite a large car. I found this a bit difficult to believe, what with the recent price hikes on so many things, but maybe not?

scampy



Joined: 15/01/2008
Posts: 982

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 11:07

Treble that and you might get close

negativenick


Joined: 10/11/2008
Posts: 6023

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 11:08

£100 per week - they must be eating soil !!

scampy



Joined: 15/01/2008
Posts: 982

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 11:11

if you have kids

Make it £350.00 per week

brian24001


Joined: 23/03/2008
Posts: 606

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 11:13

over a year I would say costs for an ex-pat lifestyle about the same as a year in the UK, plus around 1200 pounds for a pool

But the sunshine is free, or it is at the moment.

scampy



Joined: 15/01/2008
Posts: 982

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 11:17

Its a better life out here, more relaxed

deecyprus4


Joined: 27/07/2008
Posts: 3452

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 11:20

and you get 20% on your money in the bank, which you would not get in england,

100k makes 20k a year, so yes if you have money deposited here you can live very cheap.

deecyprus4


Joined: 27/07/2008
Posts: 3452

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 11:22

in fact for nothink

The-Wicks


Joined: 27/05/2007
Posts: 2279

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 11:28

Thanks for your replies. As I thought! We've been coming to TRNC on and off for almost 20 years and obviously have seen everything rise in price (as you would expect - prices do not remain the same anywhere), especially over the last few years. With regard to the high interest rates, I appreciate this, but this couple reckon they LIVE on £100 per week, regardless of where the money comes from. This is what I found impossible to believe.

brian24001


Joined: 23/03/2008
Posts: 606

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 11:35

You could 'get by' on 100 (sorry no pound sign on keyboard here) in say a small appt, with no shared/management costs (like pool/gardens) and no car, and very little ac use in summer, but that's about the only was I would say.

Littlenige



Joined: 24/12/2006
Posts: 3594

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 11:40

22% at continental so i have a bit more lol

bigears


Joined: 14/03/2008
Posts: 62

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 13:31

I think £5000 per years is way out of true!!! More like for 2 of us everything included I mean everything then £11000 max. I did a spread sheet of our expenses last year and found it a very worth while exercise. It helped my friends make the decision of whether to come out here permanently. But one "cuts ones coat according to the cloth". Sue

Groucho



Joined: 26/04/2008
Posts: 7993

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 14:44

Brian, have you tried shift 3? for £ sign...



Mackaozy, Well any currency seems a bit dodgy these days....



Two people with time to prepare all their own meals could live comfortably on £100 per week as long as you were prepared to do little that costs anything... spookily enough it's the free things that are in abundance here.... the sea the air the mountains.



We have two children so that's not quite so easy... They they do like to have a good time as is normal for all healthy young adults but fortunately for us they have a sense of values not based on peer pressure.



If you want to live a life of conspicuous consumption then a much deeper pocket is required....

the butler


Joined: 22/06/2007
Posts: 1958

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 15:05

HI all,



The Turkish Cypriots have to live on a £100 per week or less, when we retire to the TRNC we will have to find out how they manage it and take a leaf out of their book. I think most expats could learn something from the locals and live a healthier lifestyle. As we don't need to drink every evening, or eat out more than once a week and we don't smoke. It could be possible to live on £100 - £130.00 per week.



The Butlers wife

brian24001


Joined: 23/03/2008
Posts: 606

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 15:12

Gav,

My laptop has GBP sign (shift 3), but i'm using the desktop here in the office which doesn't have it. Not much call for a GBP sign in South Africa.

I suppose I could email it to myself, keep it on a word doc and paste it in when required, but easier to just put GBP normally.

harita


Joined: 14/08/2008
Posts: 1343

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 15:18

brian24001 wrote

You could 'get by' on 100 (sorry no pound sign on keyboard here)



Hi Brian

I have no £ sign on my keyboard... If you hold down the "Alt" key & 156 from the numbers on the right hand side of the keyboard ... Hey presto a £ sign ...



£100 a week impossible... £200 a more realistic figure... A lot depends on the rate at the time...

deecyprus4


Joined: 27/07/2008
Posts: 3452

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 15:26

message 12 like stg looks good at the mo lmfao, leave yours in the uk 2.5%

brian24001


Joined: 23/03/2008
Posts: 606

Message Posted:
16/11/2008 15:46

Harita, thanks, works - now you have me curious so:

Just looked at character map, and it actually works in a other keystrokes too.

'alt 0163' also does it just never bothered to look before, and probaby won't remember next time either.

Anyhow, back on track.

Yes thinking futher on this, maybe £100 would only just be subsistence living if that, no car, no kids, no eating out, no anything much really, and still prob not possible.

breezyboy


Joined: 14/05/2007
Posts: 1179

Message Posted:
17/11/2008 13:14

mackaozy.

When did the YTL vary by 40% for any length of time. I have only been following it for 3 years when apart from a couple of days here and there it has not varied by more than 10% either side of an average which I note every week.

I have studided everything I can find on Turkish banking and find that especially in the current climate it is better than many other currencies who didnt get the chance to overhaul their systems 8 years ago.

If you have £100k to invest then you can easily live off the interest with a high standard.

I cannot see how the example set here with a large car and a pool can manage on £100 a week. The electricity bill could easily account for a big chunk of that assuming they use the pool filters and have a bit of aircon in the summer. Maybe they hardly use the car and live within walking distance of a variety of reasonably priced food and are teetotal and dont go back to the UK at all.

Aussie


Joined: 17/06/2007
Posts: 657

Message Posted:
17/11/2008 13:52

Without the car and pool I think its achievable to carefully live on 100 GBP for a couple depending on the type of place you live in etc.



But car expenses are very high, I had to replace a side mirror and brake drums on a mitsubishi cold and this ran to approx 1,200 YTL which is approx 500 GBP. When you add in registration and insurance servicing and fuel I guess you would spend at least GBP2,000-3,000 p.a. to keep a car in good safe condition with comprehensive insurance doing minimal driving (for large cars more).



Avoid a pool and high maintenance charge villa/ unit complexes if you want to live cheaply.



Aussie

cyprusishome


Joined: 31/03/2007
Posts: 2381

Message Posted:
17/11/2008 18:45

Msg 12,



I would like to ask you, when the pound in UK becomes devalued by 40% what currency would you decide to use?



We live here permanently with no desire to ever return to UK so why should we use any other currency than TL and gain 22% interest on our savings.



This argument has been presented many times but I still have not seen a logical reason for not using the currency of our home country.

Littlenige



Joined: 24/12/2006
Posts: 3594

Message Posted:
17/11/2008 18:52

david had i listened to advise like his I would have lost alot of money and spent a lot of savings over the last 4 years we are her we spend ytl our bills are in ytl .



When we fisst came we were with hsbc 27 £ this dropped year by year till we pulled out when they introduced a lesser rate for trnc when we swopped to our current bank their rate dropped a couple of % so I told em we were offski they upped it to 22 % and has been so for 9 months now.



If you are investing in ytl for the short term could be a problem but it does go doen in value against the pound 2.75 the other week my opinion is 2.50 is about the right mark.

rsalih


Joined: 01/11/2008
Posts: 306

Message Posted:
17/11/2008 20:23

hi littlenige, do you get 22% at hsbc.

cooper


Joined: 23/10/2007
Posts: 3386

Message Posted:
17/11/2008 20:34

rsalih see post 11



Cooper

Treesy


Joined: 14/08/2008
Posts: 406

Message Posted:
17/11/2008 20:40

We pay £250 month rent - never eat out, dont drink , run an older renault, eat very cheap basic turkish style food - buy clothes etc once in a blue moon - never go south side - dont have a pool or air con(elec used to be about 40ytl month now with increase is up to 100ytl - and landlord has been covering water cost up til this month so will have to add that next month)



and we spend about 1400 ytl a month on everything - (about £600).



I would love to know how your friends do it......

Littlenige



Joined: 24/12/2006
Posts: 3594

Message Posted:
17/11/2008 20:46

no continental pay 22 % hsbc pay /';[= % and it takes ages to get yer dosh

The-Wicks


Joined: 27/05/2007
Posts: 2279

Message Posted:
17/11/2008 20:53

Treesy - I think you misunderstood my original posting slightly. The reason I asked abut the cost of living was because I DIDN'T believe it - no way could I see that even if you were very, very frugal, anyone could manage it. In fact, when the acquaintances of ours told me of their friends weekly expenditure, that's exactly what I said - "I would love to know how they do it". I would say, roughly, that perhaps 6-8 years ago it may have been possible. The lady (acquaintance) did not take too kindly to my comment and told me that her friends "enjoy a very good lifestyle". Beats me how!!!

Regards.

J

Treesy


Joined: 14/08/2008
Posts: 406

Message Posted:
17/11/2008 22:06

TW



no i understood you were querying their statement - just saying that we live very basically and after rent spend about £350 a month - but our lifestyle is very basic compared to theirs - I was agreeing that it seemed very unrealistic!!!!



My outgoings every month nearly match those in the UK - and thats on a third of the salary...............