# European 4 member Family lifestyle cost of living?



## KumRuzvelt (Jun 20, 2015)

I have read numerous threads here about what are the cost of living and to be honest, I am not sure that I have clear picture about how much money do my 4 member family (wife, me, 5 yr old kid, 1 year old kid) would need for basic costs (bills, groceries, transportation, children amenties, etc.).

Lifestyle - We are not planning to go out much (maybe one dinner a week, in affordable place). However, we would like to keep our children very busy even after kindergarten. Therefore we would take them on various sport trainings, music classes, playgrounds, etc.
My wife will at beginning rely during the day on taxi and buses to take her and kids around…
Regarding food, we are not insisting on organic only, and are ready to take local brands (not EU only). However, we are consuming lot of meat and fish. 


I would comprise what I have understand in t this table:
Bills (Internet, TV, cell phone, electricity, AC, water..) 2000
Groceries (including lunch at work) 3500
Kids amenities (playgrounds, sports fees, music classes, etc.) 1200
Dining out & Takeaways 2500
Wife Transportation costs (taxis & buses) 1000
Clothes (no special brends, plain and modest) 500
Contingency (non planned spending) 1000
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Total cca 12000 AED/month

Is this realistic budget? Anyone with same life style that can give comments?

Please note that I am aware about but excluding from this analysis, housing costs, schooling costs, furniture&equip. costs, car costs, holidays and home traveling etc. focusing just on how much do we need a month to afford normal European lifestyle while being in Abu Dhabi


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## aleleeson (Jun 10, 2015)

We are a european family of 4 .. well my husband is european, I am not but we have lived for the past 7 years in the netherlands and germany. We are coming from Germany to here. 

We eat out constantly.. I have been trying to stop but with a newborn and a toddler it is hard to cook. My biggest bill is food.. we actually tried tracking everything we spend money on and our food bill is about 6500 a month. 

I also want my toddler to join some groups but I havent had the time to find any yet. We are new here. I also dont drive and we are in the process of buying a car for my husband. 

In terms of organic at the moment i'm in a health food mode ... so i dont buy bread and things like that here.. this makes my food bill much higher than it would be otherwise.. but in someways also cheaper as we buy a lot of fruit and vegetables which are not too expensive here. 

I also eat things like rice cakes in place of bread and that is super expensive here. One pack of rice cakes cost about 2 euros.. in Germany I could get it for 10 cents. 


So your table for us looks like this
Bills (Internet, TV, cell phone, electricity, AC, water..) 2000 (but this is paid by my husband's company)
Groceries (including lunch at work) 4500
Fridge, stove, washing machine 2000
Kids amenities (playgrounds, pool, meeting with other moms) 500 MAX
Dining out & Takeaways 2000
Wife Transportation costs (taxis & buses) 300
Clothes (no special brends, plain and modest) 500
Contingency (non planned spending) 1000
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Total cca 12800 AED/month

the 2000 for the fridge and stuff was only during the first month.. and lucky for us the bills are paid back to us by our employer. 

We are also in abu dhabi.
Housing and school is paid by employer so our biggest real bill right now is food/supermarket/toiletries..diapers..toilet paper lol stuff like that at over 6000 per month. 

the kids are not in classes but that is due to my own laziness...



KumRuzvelt said:


> I have read numerous threads here about what are the cost of living and to be honest, I am not sure that I have clear picture about how much money do my 4 member family (wife, me, 5 yr old kid, 1 year old kid) would need for basic costs (bills, groceries, transportation, children amenties, etc.).
> 
> Lifestyle - We are not planning to go out much (maybe one dinner a week, in affordable place). However, we would like to keep our children very busy even after kindergarten. Therefore we would take them on various sport trainings, music classes, playgrounds, etc.
> My wife will at beginning rely during the day on taxi and buses to take her and kids around…
> ...


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## KumRuzvelt (Jun 20, 2015)

aleleeson, 
thanks for clarification. Your situation is quite comparable to us, therefore your expirience with groceries/food would be similar to us...
on other hand I am expecting my wife transporation (taxi) to be bit higher then your spending, considering that you are nearby school and in center, while we are considering in this moment al reem that is not far away, but would require more taxi spending..


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## aleleeson (Jun 10, 2015)

yes, once it is not hot, i walk or take the bus everywhere .. it is easier than a taxi because i hate making our kinderwagen smaller.. that is just difficult.. Also there are a lot of buses near us. The monthly bus card cost 20 euros at the moment so with that i can take any bus that i want. 

When it is hot though, if a taxi comes faster than the bus that I need I will take it, or I take a taxi to a better bus stop and take a bus from there. Other than that I would take a taxi if I have too much to hold. .. so the travel budget is 80 aed on buses.. and about 400 on taxis... every time i take a taxi it cost me about 10 aed...so that is 40 taxi rides in month.. i dont take a taxi every day.. more like once or twice a week..

But then again I dont go out as much as we should. Also walking is easy here for me... (depending on the heat) because there is a lot to see along the way when i walk. I can walk to the beach, to the mall and to the school... the school is the furthest walk though (i think about 30 mins) so I always take the bus to there.


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## KumRuzvelt (Jun 20, 2015)

Thanks this was useful!. stay in touch.


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