[WanderingSoul]

We can own condos, but not land.

[kerouac]

Wow, looking at those pics, and the cost of living, Bangkok sounds like a really good place to live for a little while. I don't think I have enough yellow fever to want to bang Thai girls all the time, but it would be worth it to check it out for a couple of months.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

Average middle-class monthly expenses for Split (pop 200 000), Croatia (pop 4 000 000)



Based on HRK 5,5 = $US 1,0 exchange rate on 04.03.

Rent: $ 350 for a nicely furnished (including air conditioning) one-bedroom apartment within the inner part of the city (10-15 min. walk away from the centre). $ 290 for a studio with same conditions. Avg $ 320.
Electricity: $ 65 on average
Water: $ 16 on average
Cellphone: $ 25 on average for unlimited calls and texts and a a reasonable amount (a few GBs) of Internet, or the opposite.
Internet: $ 18 for flat-rate ADSL, $ 25 for very fast flat-rate ADSL. Avg $ 22
TV: $ 18 mandatory fee for just owning a TV with a few channels, an additional $ 12 for cable TV. Avg $ 25
Transport: $ 52 for unlimited bus rides all around the city with reasonable connectedness and frequency. $ 1,5 for a single ride. $ 8 for a single taxi ride. Everything within the city is easily within walking distance.



Groceries: $ 200 on average for groceries for one person (meat, fish, vegetables, bread, milk, etc. - not including any alcohol) and minor household items (napkins, trash bags...)
Eating out: $ 12 for a filling meal at a low-end restaurant, $ 20 for a filling meal at a mid-range restaurant, $ 40 for a filling meal at a high-end restaurant, including drinks
Drinks: $ 2.5 avg. drink in a club (beer, wine, vodka, vodka-coke), $ 5 avg cocktail in a club, $ 1.5 coffee at a nice caffe. Cover charges are rare and up to $ 5.
Health: $ 50 for a visit to a dentist, dermatologist, neurologist, etc., $ 10 for various supplements & over the counter medicines
Clothing, electronics & shopping in general: $ 30 average piece of clothing at the bazaar or a low-end store, $ 60 average piece of clothing at a mid-range store, $ 110 average piece of clothing at a high-end store. Same for shoes. Electronics slightly more expensive than in Western Europe due to import taxes.



Average projected expenses per month (assuming two non-luxury meals out and two nights out at clubs per week, 2-3 new items of clothing and several taxi rides per month on top of everyday expenses): $ 1200
My real average expenses per month (but I get a small amount of help from family, eat like a bird, almost never go out and often get free drinks when I do): $ 720

Comparison to other Croatian cities: Split is slightly more expensive than all coastal cities in Croatia (Zadar, Šibenik, Rijeka, Pula) other than Dubrovnik, slightly less expensive than Zagreb (the capital of Croatia), and vastly more expensive than smaller continental cities like Osijek, Varaždin or Slavonski Brod.

[samsamsam]

HCE, nice post with pics, thanks! Ahhh let my day dreaming begin.

[Comte De St. Germain]

HCE
Your post brought a tear to my eye. Maybe living in Croatia during my late 30s permanently may be a good idea(god getting me planned for 17 years into my future)

[astronut]

In my area (NJ)…
Rent $1200
Grocery $150
Other food & drinks $300
Gas $150
Clothes $100
Saving $300
So, for me, about $2200/mo is not bad. $3000 is preferable.

[Switch]

(03-06-2014 09:02 PM)astronut Wrote:  

In my area (NJ)…
Rent $1200
Grocery $150
Other food & drinks $300
Gas $150
Clothes $100
Saving $300
So, for me, about $2200/mo is not bad. $3000 is preferable.

I think you need to be saving more. At that rate, after a year of savings, you'd only have enough cashmoney to stay afloat for one month if you lost your job/source of income. I don't know about you but to me that'd be a scary thought.

[speakeasy]

(03-04-2014 06:37 PM)hwuzhere Wrote:  

HCE
Your post brought a tear to my eye. Maybe living in Croatia during my late 30s permanently may be a good idea(god getting me planned for 17 years into my future)

Yeah reading that I really need to hit the accelerator pedal on getting out of here.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

Upon reading some wildly different estimates in the other thread, I need to emphasize again that my breakdown of living expenses above doesn't contain dining at a high-end restaurant every day of the week, living in a large apartment above the town square and "financially supporting" several girls. It's a comfortable middle-class lifestyle with some splurging mixed in to make your life easier, not being a baller who needs absolute luxury. If you can't be bothered to walk 10 minutes to the center of the town or want to dine on lobster, you'll obviously need to double this estimate.

[lavidaloca]

(03-06-2014 09:02 PM)astronut Wrote:  

In my area (NJ)…
Rent $1200
Grocery $150
Other food & drinks $300
Gas $150
Clothes $100
Saving $300
So, for me, about $2200/mo is not bad. $3000 is preferable.

How do you eat on only $150 a month?

Edit: Didn't see the Other food and drinks category.

[Grand-Admiral-Thrawn]

I like this thread. Does it count if you been living in the same place for years?

Well this was my Pimp budget before I got Married had kids
My area is Miami.
House/Tax/Insurance $950
Car Insurance $250
Car 2007 BMW Z4 0 miles $550
Gas around 160 a month 40 weekly
Going out money 40 to 100 for the weekend so $220monthly
Food 30 to 50 going out so $180
Groceries about $180

Total Miami pimp budget monthly Budget for me was $2490 of course I lived here had family to help out with stuff food dinner so its not the same as just staying here for 1 month.

[astronut]

[quote='lavidaloca' pid='672441' dateline='1394198266']

Quote:

How do you eat on only $150 a month?

Edit: Didn't see the Other food and drinks category.

When I'm not going out, I stay in and cook as much as possible to save money. So $150 buys quite a lot of groceries.

[G Trooper]

I live in Miami also and I really need to cut down on expenses.

Monthly I spend 5k and sometimes it fluctuates higher.

Rent: $1,400 a month for a nice 1 bedroom condo on the water. I will be moving to a cheaper place because I learned girls really don't mind.

Car: $600 per month for an suv that is killing me on gas. $720 a month in gas. $140 a month for insurance. $50 a month for tolls.

I went from a BMW to a Chevy Suburban and I've noticed it doesn't get the women wet like the German import did.

Food: I only eat out and never at home. $1,000 a month eating out.

Dates: $40 a night for drinks...$300 or so for the month.

Gym, laundry service, phone bill, random ish puts me right up to $5k a month.

Time to scale this down.

[anonymous123]

I don't drive a fancy car. I have a car seat and no avoiding getting cheerios, raisins, gold fish, spilled juice, boogers...hell, sometimes the kid will just piss his pants...

I think all of this is simply relative to your take. I don't do anything for image and live far beneath my means. No reason for me to say a budget as I don't want to come off like a jerk, but I do indeed like spending money going out for sure.

That said, I think we can all scale it down some. After torching cash like I was keeping the campfire going, there is something calming about focusing on the "small" things that add up...and then it helps put the "big" things in perspective.

My lifestyle might sound ridiculous to most on here, but then there are people out there that make my lifestyle look like I'm just a run of the mill dude "just getting by".

[kerouac]

(03-08-2014 09:09 AM)G Trooper Wrote:  

Car: $600 per month for an suv that is killing me on gas. $720 a month in gas. $140 a month for insurance. $50 a month for tolls.

Jaysus Christ. For the amount you spend on your SUV and Gas, you could get a Tesla.

[Dr_Koskesh]

1 mil/day. Not srs. Kinda srs.

In NYC, the spread of incomes is almost infinite. No matter how much you make, you can spend all of it, be in debt and still be looking up at plenty others more "baller."

In a small town (5k to 125k pop), after $150k/yr, what are you going to do with your money? Take vacations. Not much else to spend your money there after you build a mansion with 6 tvs and 3 ginormous cars.

Thing is to live your life without getting 'too' wrapped up in the rat race… but there are some minimums.

NYC fun for 20 something Brooklyn dude with roommates: 1200 rent, so many bars => 50 k minimum.

For 30 something professional: 3.5 k for your own apt, participating in the shiny lifestyle => 130 k.

[DJ-Matt]

Car: Paid for cash used Jeep Wrangler 2005 SE (2.4L engine), gets 24 MPG City 22 MPG Highway and pulls pussy like no other. Specifically the athletic outgoing pussy I want around me.

I call it "Jeep Game", young chicks at drive-thru windows ask and it's an easy opener to get their number and take them for a ride sometime...

[Vacancier Permanent]

Awesome post on Split! Sounds like the type of place I'd want to use as a semi permanent place to semi settle. A nice place in southern Europe with a good quality of life while not too expensive. Your post definitely puts Split on my radar!

What would you say would be the going rate for a decent furnished 1 bedroom in the town centre? And how is the overall attitude of girls there? Open, friendly, sweet or stuck up, bitchy and cold?
And how are the local guys? Do you feel any negative and or aggressive vibe from them when you're talking to or dancing/walking with local girls?

(03-07-2014 03:14 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

Upon reading some wildly different estimates in the other thread, I need to emphasize again that my breakdown of living expenses above doesn't contain dining at a high-end restaurant every day of the week, living in a large apartment above the town square and "financially supporting" several girls. It's a comfortable middle-class lifestyle with some splurging mixed in to make your life easier, not being a baller who needs absolute luxury.

Quote:

If you can't be bothered to walk 10 minutes to the center of the town or want to dine on lobster, you'll obviously need to double this estimate.

Damn, even at 2200$/month, that lifestyle still sounds very nice and quiet inexpensive compared to what things cost in here. You're having it good man! Good stuff!

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

(03-08-2014 07:01 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  

Awesome post on Split! Sounds like the type of place I'd want to use as a semi permanent place to semi settle. A nice place in southern Europe with a good quality of life while not too expensive. Your post definitely puts Split on my radar!

Thanks, glad to hear that. I agree that the Dalmatian coast is a nice choice for western expats, as long as you stay away from super-powered tourists cities like Dubrovnik. If any of you want to just visit and look around like Roosh did, pm me. Anyways...

Vanacier Permanent Wrote:

What would you say would be the going rate for a decent furnished 1 bedroom in the town centre?

Here is some info. First to help you get a sense of locations, the "centre" consists of the following districts: Grad (inner centre, inside and just around the Diocletian palace), and Dobri, Manuš, Lučac, Bačvice, Gripe and some parts of Spinut (inner districts, the aforementioned 10min-walk away). Nightlife is spread around the city in a half-crescent shape, so there's no "ideal choice" as far as nightlife is concerned. You are better off choosing on other criteria.
Mouseover over the map on this website and current district will light up for you. It's a godsend for getting a sense of location names.
http://www.mojkvart.hr/Split

Other than buying a paper issue of the local ad magazine, this website is generally the best option for browsing for apartments to rent: http://www.njuskalo.hr/iznajmljivanje-st...almatinska . Searching for the district "Grad", I found this: http://www.njuskalo.hr/?ctl=browse_ads&s...ngTypeId=0
As you can see, only a few apartments within the very centre are within the ~ $ 350 budget that I've previously suggested for a nice flat in the inner city outside of centre. These are generally either small studios or bigger flats that are parts of family houses (as in the owner or another tenant lives on one floor, and you live on the other). I'd gladly live in one, but I don't know for others. Anyways, to get a decent-sized/furnished apartment in this part of the city, you need more like $ 500-600.

Note that most flats are rented through real estate agencies, which are damn parasites who will take a large fee (one monthly rent) from you even though you haven't hired them. The only way to circumvent this bizzare system is to issue an ad in the local paper asking for "agencies excluded" and take your time waiting for like-minded people to contact you with their offers.

Vanacier Permanent Wrote:

And how is the overall attitude of girls there? Open, friendly, sweet or stuck up, bitchy and cold?
And how are the local guys? Do you feel any negative and or aggressive vibe from them when you're talking to or dancing/walking with local girls?

Girls are somewhere in the middle. I would in no sense call them open or friendly, they can be really sweet once you've had sex with them, but they aren't bitchy or cold either. I think the average girl here is hard to get with because she requires so much game (the "princess syndrome" and "swept off my feet" bullshit), but she will politely give you an opportunity to work your game on her as long as you're not creepy. It's ok. Think of this area as a former pussy paradise (20+ years ago) that is hurtling fast towards americanization mentioned on this forum. A man is generally able to make some good approaches just by walking around and being alert (just ask Roosh). Being a foreigner is neither an advantage or a handicap.

On the plus side, there are almost no fatties in Split, mostly because the city is dense and with a crushing lack of parking space, which encourages walking. It is also very hilly and traditional cuisine hasn't been totally discarded yet.

Guys do a fair amount of cocblocking, but they're generally not threatening or violent like I've heard for Russia. I've had guys trying to forcefully pull away a girl I was dancing with (and stopping when either I glared at them or the girl rejected them), but that was about it. I think many will privately hate on you because the Alpha/Beta divide is deep here. Most guys either clean up or live in quiet despair, with little ground in between. Still, it's not worse than in other places.

Vanacier Permanent Wrote:

(03-07-2014 03:14 AM)Handsome Creepy Eel Wrote:  

Upon reading some wildly different estimates in the other thread, I need to emphasize again that my breakdown of living expenses above doesn't contain dining at a high-end restaurant every day of the week, living in a large apartment above the town square and "financially supporting" several girls. It's a comfortable middle-class lifestyle with some splurging mixed in to make your life easier, not being a baller who needs absolute luxury.

Quote:

If you can't be bothered to walk 10 minutes to the center of the town or want to dine on lobster, you'll obviously need to double this estimate.

Damn, even at 2200$/month, that lifestyle still sounds very nice and quiet inexpensive compared to what things cost in here. You're having it good man! Good stuff!

Glad to hear that! Just to note, I have no affiliation with the city's tourist authorities or any sort of tourist services

[Deluge]

Melbourne, Australia.

Rent in the City Center: Studio's from $1,200 a month. You can split a 2 bedroom for $900 each a month though.
Utilities: $90 a month
Internet: $60 a month will get you more than enough data, but Australian internet is notoriously slow by international standards.
Food, Groceries etc: $450 a month.
Transport: Live in the city centre like you should be anyway and you won't need a car unless you work in an out of the way suburb. $135 a month would cover your public transport needs, but you can walk or cycle most of inner Melbourne very easily.
Gym: $75 a month unless you're a student at a university gym.

Cost of living for the following varies a lot from person to person so I'll list individual prices instead.

Clothing is very expensive here, Aussies love shopping in America... A pair of Levi Jeans is $100-$120. Nice shirts are around $80-$90. T-shirts can vary from $30-$50. Nice dress casual shoes $120. Personally I buy most of my clothes online from American stores which have free shipping if you spend enough.

Entertainment: Not cheap either. The standard nightclub cover is $20. A beer in a regular venue is usually $5. A 6 pack of beer $16, 700ml bottle of vodka $35. A movie ticket $16-$17. A small coffee is $3.50. Weed is usually $20 a gram or $50 for three grams, but it ain't hard to get for a cheaper or even free. MDMA is $30 a pill inside a club, starts at $20 outside.

I made a detailed cost of living calculation a while back, but lost the document. $2,500 a month after taxes is easily enough to live a comfortable lifestyle with perfect logistics, if you don't plan on saving a lot. This is if you share a 2 bedroom in the city centre and don't have a car. If you're young and budget well you can pull it off for less. If you don't care about where you live and use public transport you could get by here on $1,000 a month, one of my best friends lived on less here without any assistance from parents or the government, while still partying more than anyone else I know.

[Que enspastic]

^ I used to live in Melbourne within 1km of CBD. Went out 2-3 times per week.

Rent $530 p/m.
Expenditure $150-200 p/w
Total incl bills : less than $1500 p/m

[Que enspastic]

London, UK

£1 = $1.70, I've done all the conversions

Double bedroom in Zone 1 / 2 border area flat, share with 3-4 flatmates (Shoreditch / Camden)
$1200p/m

Public transport $200-450 p/m

Bills $150p/m

Mainstream night club : $34 entry, $14 bottle of beer

Hipster nightclub : $17 entry, $8.50 bottle of beer

Food: $80-100 p/w

Gym : $80-90 p/m

Total: $3500-4000 p/m (note, still have housemates)

[hun73r]

Quote:

In NYC, the spread of incomes is almost infinite. No matter how much you make, you can spend all of it, be in debt and still be looking up at plenty others more "baller."

Agreed. When I first moved to Manhattan and my friends asked me how much is costs to live here I'd say "all of it" because you end up spending all of your money on one thing or the other.

But if you're not trapped in the rat race of commuting or can avoid the weather, NYC is an amazing place. And paradise for dating girls from different nationalities.

Here's a good cheap date idea I've been doing lately. Subscribe to a service like http://www.plated.com/ or Blue Apron and get meals delivered. It comes in a box kit with all of the ingredients separated, measured and labeled. Invite a girl over, drink wine and listen to music while you both cook it. The recipes are fool-proof and restaurant-quality. It comes out to about $20 for 2 people.

[Que enspastic]

Delete dupe

[Que enspastic]

Cost of a decent night out compared:

Entry to upper middle tier nightclub + 2 cocktails + 5 bottles of beer + 5km taxi home

Bangkok : $60
Melbourne : $130
London : $180