Unfortunately, I don’t think I will be staying there for a full year. Maybe 9 months, but definitely not 12 months (due to financial reasons). Anyways, thank you for mentioning NHI, I will look into it. I was originally planning on getting a travel insurance from TrueTraveller.com, therefore I don’t think I’d need NHI? Not sure though.
I already did some calculations but not sure how accurate they are as I’ve never lived in Taipei before. I’ve read through numerous threads on Reddit, Forumosa, watched some videos about the prices in Taipei. This is what I came up with:
Accommodation 12,500 - 14,000 NTD
Food 7,600 NTD ???
Phone bill 500 NTD
Transportation 500 NTD ???
School insurance 300 NTD
Random expenses (movie and entrance tickets, whatever…) 600 NTD ???
Everything in total is 23,500 NTD (if my rent would actually be 14,000 NTD).
I will have around 6100-6500 USD (or 5500 EUR) saved from home just in case.
Btw, I’m from Europe. Everyday I spend around 50-60 minutes to get to school. Honestly, I hate it and it’s getting on my nerves. That’s why I don’t wanna commute this much anymore.
The place is TOOOOOOOOOO expensive for 14K a month.
You’ll find better, larger places elsewhere.
Typical students from Western/Central Europe would be something like this
Accommodation: varied usually 10K TWD is the margin between miserable shoe box and decent suite in Taipei City.
Food 10,000 TWD
Phone 700 TWD
Transport 1,280 TWD
School insurance ?
Others 2,000 TWD (movie theater ticket costs about 400 TWD, most museum 100-200 TWD for adult, football game 200-300 TWD, baseball game 1,000 or more TWD)
A pitcher of beer in a pub cost about 180 TWD.
Well, I’m going to tell you if your expense is 14,000 you need about 30,000NT to make ends meet.
600nt for “unexpected stuff” is not enough. You’ll spend more than 600nt going out with friends if you are not careful. I roll that into my food expense for that reason.
And plan to spend close to 1000 for phone, especially if you have internet.
Also you will be surprised how little 500nt goes for transportation. There’s a reason I get the 30 day ticket because it’s very easy to spend over 1000 a month on MRT even going a few stops down 3 times a week. At least with the 30 day pass you can take all forms of transportation except for taxis, airport MRT, or those 4 digit buses with impunity. Like going down to the zoo every once in a while for example (the Taipei zoo is actually quite nice).
That’s why I said you can live further from the MRT and save probably 5000nt a month at least.
Daan district is gentrified to hell and there’s almost no cheap options for anything, from food to living. It’s made for people making 100,000 a month working expat jobs where 30,000 a month rent is nothing to them (their company pays a good portion of that).
I thought you got an independent small room for 14k. I wouldn’t pay 14k for a shared flat. Though, the landlord or roommate would give you some help on living in Taiwan.
If you really want to stick to your budget, I think you need to rent a room for closer to 10k. Looking at your expenses, I think you’ve underestimated some costs. The 600 NTD for random expenses is low, unless you only want to do something once a month. Transportation is also a little low. You might need to budget closer to 1000 unless you are never leaving the area where you live. You might need to increase food a little as well. 250NT a day is doable for food, but you will really need to budget carefully to actually achieve it.
If you are on a scholarship, do not tell anybody you are planning to stay less time.
Hearing this for the first time. Why not? If it’s because the landlords usually wanna rent the rooms for at least 1 year, it’s not possible because we have to sign a contract together for a certain period of time (in this case, 6 months).
McD meal> over 100 NTD
Bento> over 100 NTD in Shida area
He can save with a kitchen for breakfast and diner but lunch is social activity/networking/practice. Add occasional coffee dates for “language exchange”…
In my opinion cooking at home in Taiwan is not worth it, especially if you are cooking Taiwanese. If you are going to be eating spaghetti, hamburgers, or some American stuff, then by all means cook at home because you’ll save but if you’re eating the same thing Taiwanese eats then eating out works out to be about the same, minus the need to keep your kitchen clean and stop critters from coming in. Once you start cooking you will have a LOT of critters.
I tend to agree, but I would add that cooking at home makes it much easier to eat healthier. Very true about the critters as well. Depending on the building, you need to take your trash out daily and never leave any unwashed dishes/pots/pans.
1 degree means 1kwh. It means you pay 5nt per kwh, and the reason for that is, often the rooms will include internet, cable, water, etc. and charge you 5nt per kwh on electricity. Not bad IMHO but can get a little expensive if you’re not careful. Also Taipower has a tiered rate for electricity meaning if you use a lot, they charge higher (cap is about 6.4nt per kwh in the summer). Taipower has higher rate for summer to account for increased load due to AC usage. The problem is, the tier is charged per ACCOUNT and Taipower has limits on how a new account can be applied for, meaning a shared flat will have 5 or 6 people all sharing one account, meaning everyone pays a lot for electricity even if they use very little. Taipower is a very old fashioned organization and has no provision for things like shared house or hotels.
For cooking, no matter how careful you are there will always be SOME scrap of food (too small for you to see or smell) that are very strong for the critters, and they flock to it. Even if your place is sparkling clean, you can’t always wipe behind the counter, between the wall, or under kitchen appliances. Even a single misplaced piece of bread will attract all sorts of critters. Now if you can clean all the hidden spaces, move appliance around and basically sterilize the entire kitchen and the area around it daily, then you’ll have no critters.
That’s why I don’t wanna commute this much anymore.