Good info. Thanks.
Besides housing, is there a difference in COL outside Taipei?
Not that I’ve particularly noticed. Public transport is cheap everywhere. Restaurants are probably a bit pricier in Taipei. I assume that car parking spaces will cost more if you can’t get one included in your apartment rent. Supermarket prices seem to be similar everywhere.
1 Like
Anyone here on Forumosa live on budgets over NT$100,000? I do and I’m single.
I’m just kind of curious as to the makeup of the people that participate in Forumosa.
I probably burnt through about that when I was single. Different priorities now.
2 Likes
Yes, but the majority of that is on travel.
Yes, most months more than NT100,000. I am in Kaoshiung about 6 months of the year rest split between Melbounre/ San Diego and various other places related to work travel. We eat out a lot everywhere so that ads up for us. In Taiwan there are real cheap local cafes, then some that cost more that what I feel is better food in Melbourne. In Taiwan can be as low as NT$150 for two of us, but today a Sunday we had something better $2,000 lunch (for 3)+$2,000 at the supermarket.
You can live relatively cheap most places in Taiwan but Taipei is a little bit of an odd place.
You can spend 200 for two people at lunch or two thousand or more for two people at lunch.
You can rent a single apartment for maybe 12000 or less or 120000 or more.
And then some areas of Taipei have become gentrified so it’s impossible to live on a basic budget.
3 Likes
My budget will probably be over 100K for a family of 4.
But hey, when I was single in an expensive Asian city I spent $10K a month. That is USD.
Apartment 4K
Car 2.5K
Booze & bar 1.5K
And a bit on food.
1 Like
I suppose Taipei has cheap places and nose bleed places for people with too much dough and no where to spend it.
A good thread. Has anything changed? Has there been an increase in cost of living at all in the last ten years? It looks the same.
Rents have gone up a bit in Taipei city area but not hugely. 10, 20%?
Fuel? Goes up and down. Phone and utilities seem about the same . Less cheap restaurants but still plenty of options usually.
Transport costs…I think MRT and bus same and there is a monthly public transport pass.
Can’t really see any significant change over the last five years. Property prices came down in some areas.
Foodstuffs still relatively expensive in supermarkets. That would seems hard to change with lack of foreign supermarkets and economic integration.
More folks buying stuff online, the wife buys a lot of stuff on Taobao can save a lot on many items.
Income tax burden dropped a bit as the tax bands have expanded and will expand again this year with average reduction of 12k ntd. Health insurance premiums have increased though.
Business people will complain due to the labour cost increase of stricter regulations. I think the corporate tax rare will go back to 20% also.
I don’t find this to be the case, except for the stuff you can only get at Jasons/Citysuper. The local stuff is quite cheap, e.g. hotpot ingredients in px mart are dirt cheap compared to where I lived previously.
Then again, the imported stuff at jasons/citysuper is insanely priced. Far more expensive than in Hong Kong, and the selection sucks.
You think stuff have become cheaper ? Absolutely not. There is no ALDI or LIDL to shake things up.
You can always buy ‘cheap stuff’ but I am talking just in general quality foods have certainly not reduced in price.
I don’t shop at PXmart but I imagine it carries the same brands and roughly same prices as all the other Taiwan supermarkets.
Only big improvement I noticed was imported beers!
Sorry, I wasn’t saying it has become cheaper(I wouldn’t know). I was just saying as it is now, it doesn’t seem to be too expensive unless you buy the foreign stuff you can only find in jasons/citysuper.
We’ve had this discussion a lot previously, general consensus seemed to be meat and milk are quite expensive. Milk being amongst the most expensive worldwide. Starches and fruit and veg vary in relative value , more about a lack of imported veg options usually.
I have no idea how much either of those cost in the super market, but my wife seems to think both are way cheaper in Costco so we always load up on milk and meat when we go there.
overall groceries are not cheap. some things are. i usually just buy bok choi now because its the cheapest veg.
Family of 4. We spend $50,000/month. Total budget, including rent.
But this is a “best case scenario” month. Oftentimes, we splurge a bit because there’s so many fun places to spend money here.
I’d be happy to share our budget if anyone’s interested.
I would be most happy to share your budget . Maybe you could give me 20,000…just below half , if that is better?
4 Likes
@Caspian Please do share the budget. I’ve messaged you privately.
I’m planning to move to Taipei next summer. We are a family of 3. I’m working independently and in a frugal stage so interested to learn about budgets and what not.
Thanks