Shanti’s Dispatches

i was really curious about this before i took the leap, so i’ll try and score some karma points here by relaying these costs for you…

rent: $1400 => 500 EUR or ~ $700 usd (the pad here is 2x the size of the SF pad)
car insurance: $86 => $0
food: prob $450 or so at least => ~ $200
books: way too much (thx Amazon Prime ) => $0
gym: $52 => $145 (my gym here is pimp — a lil slice of home)
utilities (PG&E): $60 => $15
cell phone: $80 => 30 EUR or $45usd
cable internet: $50 => included in rent or $15
cable TV: $85 => included in rent or $15

i actually haven’t paid my cable bill yet so i don’t know if it’s included or what. my friend’s is very cheap tho.

going out: i go out a lot more now, so it’s hard to compare. you can easily spend $100 - $125 / night going out in the states, if you like to party =) here it would be hard to spend 150RON (about $60usd) in even a night of hardest partying. a big ass 24oz heinekin for example might run ya 9RON or ~ $3.80usd. in the states at a similar club this would probably run ya $9-10usd or so.

new expenses –

just remembered you might be curious about that as well =)

1. cabs — you can get anywhere in the city for $2usd… if you’re going waaay far out of the center, it might cost ya $4usd

2. if you have the time, you can usually just walk wherever you need to go. the subway / metro is also ridiculously cheap — like 30 cents per ride. (just buy a few 10-packs of tickets and consider it free)