Worldwide Demographics

[muppet]

Originally Posted by New Brisavoine

Only 600 USD in rent?? With that little, you can only rent a tiny student room of 160 sq feet in Paris, on the 7th floor without elevator.

Even in London, even in a flat share, I can't see how it's possible (unless it's council estate). When I lived in London, and that was years ago, I think I paid like £125 per week for one room in a flatshare (so 700 USD per month). It should be at the very least 1,000 USD now, or even 1,200 USD.


Again, the Tube costs far more than that. So that means you must use buses only.


Only $70 per week for food? What do you eat???

I Paris I spend 23 USD per DAY in food, and that doesn't include eating out. Only buying food in the supermarkets. Not luxury food, but good food (which you can find in French supermarkets, whereas in the US/UK you'd have to go to gourmet stores to find the same quality as in French supermarkets).

70 USD per week is 10 USD per day. That can only be industrial, low-quality food from the cheapest chains like Lidl, which is both unhealthy and not tasty.

As for eating out, the cheapest I know in Paris is 16 USD (tax and tip included), in Asian restaurants. And then from there it escalates quickly (French meal in an average place is more like 35-40 USD tax and tip included). Boulangeries in the central areas have become extortionate (like 8 USD for a sandwich... exCUSE me??). Thanks God I'm fortunate to live in a wealthy neighborhood that surprisingly has a very cheap (and yet excellent) boulangerie, where you can, for example, still buy a delicious homemade pizza for 1 person with merguez and peppers for the grand total of... 4.80 USD tax included (the same in a boulangerie in, say, Le Marais, or St Germain des Prés, would cost 7 or 8 USD). My boulangerie also has delicious little one-person homemade apricot tart with delicious puff pastry and fresh apricots (and a stuffing of grounded almond cream) for the grand total of... 3.70 USD tax included, but it's impossible to find such a good deal at such a cheap price anywhere else in the central areas of Paris.

Gym costs only 24 USD per month now that we have that low-cost Dutch chain everywhere (before, I used to pay 70 USD per month in a more upscale chain), but the downside of it is you're surrounded by 16-22 y/o kids all the time who speak in their obnoxious lingo at super fast speed and never talk to you.

Yep, I live with my partner and share a bedroom, so our rent is effectively halved. It's normally $1200 a room inc. service fees, (we still pay the bills and council tax on top of that) -for 700 sq ft and sharing with one other person.

It's an ugly AF ex-council estate, but was converted in the 90s for the middle classes, with concierges, gym, pool, jacuzzi, gym, conservatory and landscaped grounds (they're very 'retro' shall we say in styling, but all free).

Right by Clapham Junction Station, 10 mins train into the centre leaving every 5 mins, 25-30 mins to get to work.
By train/tube it would normally cost $11.50 a day on my annual pass, which I did for years before I realised 5-10 mins longer on the bus saved almost 2/3 of that cost, and I got a seat with a view every time.





In terms of food, the supermarkets are super cheap here - I live near the second cheapest chain, Lidl, and I only cook about 8 meals a week. I have to admit I eat out alot, so consider my $70 with a pinch of salt, I double that from going out, and lunch at work is subsidized to about $6 a day. Although restaurants aren't an essential 'cost' persay and I put it under leisure, you can say I spend about $170 a week on food. It can of course be a lot cheaper if I refrained.

Restaurants are expensive nowadays, about $20 for a main (before service, even for a Nandos) but the cheap eats are what I go for - the same sit down, fantastic fare but outside Zone 1, and invariably ethnic from across the spectrum. It's often better than in the centre too -yesterday I bought a dinner from an Albanian place and lunch from a Muslim Thai place, essentially so I could try their little-known cuisines, and they were both great. My local gastropubs which are quite pricey, also do half price deals each day, and the food so far has been amazing. I find the other places in my area are hit n miss price-wise, the cheaper ones -Somali, Vietnamese, Lebanese, Thai, Neapolitan, fish n chips, Turkish and Bangladeshi are much better than the expensive chains, bakeries and posh nosh.

Another thing worth mentioning though is my bills skyrocket in winter. Over the years we've worked out incorrect wiring is costing us a huge amount to barely heat the place.