# Alternative COL index for Pretoria



## expataidwrkr (Aug 2, 2011)

These are the things I never see mentioned in COL indexes, but are very important to me! Can anyone help me?

1 hour sports/deep tissue massage

1L bottle of Cetaphil cleanser

Monthly salary for 3x week cleaner (maid)

Unlimited (or 50 GB) broadband internet subscription, monthly

Women's haircut in an upper range salon

Cost of a meal in an upper range restaurant (think 3.5-4*, rather than duper luxe 5*!)

Set of nice copper bottom cooking pots and pans

I know the wine is nice and cheap


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## Johanna (Apr 13, 2009)

expataidwrkr said:


> These are the things I never see mentioned in COL indexes, but are very important to me! Can anyone help me?
> 
> 1 hour sports/deep tissue massage
> 
> ...


 Oh well, I suppose most people do not think of a deep massage when it comes to COL! 
Cetaphil cleanser: Google it, all pharmacies sell it. I usually buy a 400ml bottle, not 1l, pay about R180.00 for 400ml

3. Monthly cleaner three times a week : look at the SA sites for minimum wages, do not forget you will have to draw up a contract between you and the cleaner....Domestic Worker's Rights in South Africa. Worker's rights are very important in SA.


Restaurants and hairdressers differ, depending on where you go and eat or have your hair done , more expensive in some places than others. I do not think a 3.5* restaurant will be seen as "upper range"
I use Telkom ADSL, not 20gig, google and see what you can get at a price
Cookware ( I recommend this, as I have a set at home and a set in my holiday home) is the following:
AMC Cookware - for life
Expensive, but it will outlive you and your grandchildren.


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## bokbabe (Nov 28, 2010)

expataidwrkr said:


> These are the things I never see mentioned in COL indexes, but are very important to me! Can anyone help me?
> 
> 1 hour sports/deep tissue massage
> 
> ...



I can only say what I pay and in my area:

Maid, ours gets R150 per day, but it varies between R80 (ouch!) - whatever you feel they are worth). Ours, however is just once a week, doesn't cook and no kids to look after.

Broadband: best I've seen is R599 per month unlimited but, 9 weeks on and I am still waiting for a telkom engineer to come and sort out our phone line 

Haircut: I pay R165 for a trim, but it is with a lady in our estate!

1 hour deep tissue massage: R300 (everyday I mean to book and still haven't got round to it!)

Restaurant: for 4 with 2 bottles of wine and in a very decent restaurant with most having 3 courses, you can expect prices to start from around R1000.

Hope that helps a bit!


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## Johanna (Apr 13, 2009)

I made a mistake, I have a 20 Gig ADSL plus landline from Telkom, free after hours and week end calls, my landline plus landline costs about R500.00 pm.

We receive excellent service from Talkom where I live, know there are many complaints in other parts of the country.

All the mobile phone companies like Vodacom, MTN, Cell C also offer ADSL products.


The following is a link to the Vodacom site.

Vodacom - Business ADSL Packages from Vodacom


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