I spent a penny.
I think I heard the penny drop.
20-25000 on rent and bills
5-10000 on shoes-clothes-bags, lady stuffs
5-10000 on taxis
6000 on Chinese tuition
10000-15000 restaurants, wine, coffee
whatever-it-takes on cleaners, when I can get them to work for me
The rest on toys and gadgets, holidays, books and my own general amusement.
I give bits to charidee also.
Now I’m back in the UK, I don’t really have any expenses, so spend most of my cash on Frappucinos, Thai food and visiting/doing stuff with my family. I bought my gran some Nikes with velcro fastenings cos she has bad knees and hand joints but loves to walk up the mountain behind her house and her Eccos can’t take the strain any more. I’m planning to become a Kendo master, so I will have to buy sticks and stuff soon.
[quote=“TheGingerMan”]I keep an account of the red & the black, yet to access it, I have to sublimate enough to revolve around to another plane, to meet my alter-ego, who keeps the books.
He’s usually far too cranky to fess up, and the asshat never answers his phone!
Pogue Mahone!
So basically I have no idea. Breathe it in, breathe it out. Being married, with children does not help much either. There’s always some expenditure to be dished out on past, present or future endeavors.[/quote]
Dispite disparaging it earlier, this is one of my favourite posts ever.
TNT: you are obviously the man for the job when it comes to answering this question with rigorous documentation! Is it an obsessive-compulsive thing? Not meaning to be rude if it is!! Fair dues!
[quote=“trubadour”][quote=“TheGingerMan”]I keep an account of the red & the black, yet to access it, I have to sublimate enough to revolve around to another plane, to meet my alter-ego, who keeps the books.
He’s usually far too cranky to fess up, and the asshat never answers his phone!
Pogue Mahone!
So basically I have no idea. Breathe it in, breathe it out. Being married, with children does not help much either. There’s always some expenditure to be dished out on past, present or future endeavors.[/quote]
Dispite disparaging it earlier, this is one of my favourite posts ever.[/quote]
Thanks.
Too bad for me, it’s all true!
This sure ain’t The Village Green Preservation Socierty!
rent: NT$10,000
class: NT$8000 or so per two months
electricity: about NT$400 per two months
the rest (incl food, bars, etc): most of the rest.
I do manage to save a bit, but considering how little it is I might as well not save it and buy more clothes instead, so that I’d have something new & interesting to wear once in a while. But I’m not much of a shopper.
I’ve only been here a couple of weeks but my basic expenditure seems to run at an easy 100USD a week - that’s 3,000NT. I eat out every meal - 60NT seems like a cheap but do-able option: twice a day is 120NT. I seem to spend a bit on petrol say 200 a week. Then there’s beer - easily 100NT+ a day (mb 200NT 4 days a week). cigs have been running at 65 a day (455NT a week). The a got a pair of shoes for 500NT the other day. That’s about it. Great if I was earning more than the $44,400NT i earn a mnth. this is before the $6,000NT a month I wil spend on Chinese lessons. Then, I plan to save! I hope I don’t get a girl!
food - $120 a day = $3360NT mnth
gas - $200 a week = $800NT "
Beer - $700 a week = $2,800NT "
cigs - …=$1040NT "
clothes - $500 weekly = $2000NT "
TOTAL= $10,000NT
That’s life folks!
note to self - spend more on fruit…
Is it sustainable? I wonder…
woops - forgot rent and bills
rent is $4,500 a month
bills =?
pls excuse multiple posts, fargmented as I am: for those who (like me) didn’t get the ref above, i googled it for you and post it below:
We are the Village Green Preservation Society
God save Donald Duck, Vaudeville and Variety
We are the Desperate Dan Appreciation Society
God save strawberry jam and all the different varieties
Preserving the old ways from being abused
Protecting the new ways for me and for you
What more can we do
We are the Draught Beer Preservation Society
God save Mrs. Mopp and good Old Mother Riley
We are the Custard Pie Appreciation Consortium
God save the George Cross and all those who were awarded them
We are the Sherlock Holmes English Speaking Vernacular
Help save Fu Manchu, Moriarty and Dracula
We are the Office Block Persecution Affinity
God save little shops, china cups and virginity
We are the Skyscraper condemnation Affiliate
God save tudor houses, antique tables and billiards
Preserving the old ways from being abused
Protecting the new ways for me and for you
What more can we do
God save the Village Green.
performed by the Kinks (I guess), written by Ray Davis.
Trubadour, I hope you live well paying a 4500 nts rent. When I paid that, I lived on a sixth floor, no elevator/AC, illegal structure divided in rooms so tiny my bed was a flatboard, and I slept sideways since if I slept on my back my feet would not fit -and I coudn’t go through walls. Now I pay 3 times that and have a two-bedroom house all for me and my furry critters -including Penelope, the giant spider currently residing in my balconies.
So glad no more spending on tuition. I paid my way through the MBA, which was about half a mill NTs in all. To this day, I don’t know ehere the money came from or how I managed, but I am glad it is over and I have my free time back. Which may explain the mystery of why I am not saving all that money now, if I do not have to spend tuition anymore.
Also, as a student, we paid 10 thousand nts in power bills. Now, by myself, I pay 800 nts, and that’s leaving the A/C on for the cats during the summer. Another mystery.
Cleaners and taxis may seem as extras, but if you work in an office, the best clothes should be sent to the cleaners. Boy, do they earn their money! 400 nts for a conforter, 300 for a winter jacket, 100 for a silk blouse… Taxis are necessary for shopping for big stuff or work related activities -let’s say 500 nts per week. No mystery here.
[quote=“trubadour”]pls excuse multiple posts, fargmented as I am: for those who (like me) didn’t get the ref above, i googled it for you and post it below:
We are the Village Green Preservation Society
God save Donald Duck, Vaudeville and Variety
We are the Desperate Dan Appreciation Society
God save strawberry jam and all the different varieties
Preserving the old ways from being abused
Protecting the new ways for me and for you
What more can we do
We are the Draught Beer Preservation Society
God save Mrs. Mopp and good Old Mother Riley
We are the Custard Pie Appreciation Consortium
God save the George Cross and all those who were awarded them
We are the Sherlock Holmes English Speaking Vernacular
Help save Fu Manchu, Moriarty and Dracula
We are the Office Block Persecution Affinity
God save little shops, China cups and virginity
We are the Skyscraper condemnation Affiliate
God save tudor houses, antique tables and billiards
Preserving the old ways from being abused
Protecting the new ways for me and for you
What more can we do
God save the Village Green.
performed by the Kinks (I guess), written by Ray Davis.[/quote]
My word, you are the intrepid sort! Most people don’t my get off the wall ‘refs’. It’s a normal response, I am a freak.
Nice to read those great lyrics again!
Old school Kinks is simply outstanding!
I also like the word ‘fargmented’.
Of much current utitlity, in my own instance!
Just like to keep track of things and know exactly what is spent where
[quote=“Icon”]
Cleaners and taxis may seem as extras, but if you work in an office, the best clothes should be sent to the cleaners. Boy, do they earn their money! 400 nts for a conforter, 300 for a winter jacket, 100 for a silk blouse… Taxis are necessary for shopping for big stuff or work related activities -let’s say 500 nts per week. No mystery here.[/quote]
Used to send my clothes to dry cleaner all the time until I noticed dry cleaning is really abrasive on the clothes. As you may know there is nothing dry about dry cleaning, they use a chemical rinse instead of water
I really try my best to buy clothes that can be washed at home, but suits and silk seem to come ingrained in the “Dry Clean Only” category. I have found a couple of makers that have nice pantsuits, but then without lining, which helps you look really slim…Girlie thingie.
Funny thing, when I worked for a US airline, they shipped us the uniforms directly from Chicago. Guess what: machine washable, MADE IN TAIWAN.
It might be interesting to see, instead of solid money amounts, the actual percentage of your income that you pay out in terms of rent, food, travel, etc. For example, I’ve tried to never pay more than a quarter of my income on housing, though sometimes I went a little over.
My rent/utilities works out at about 10% of what I earn. My income varies month to month, 10% would be the maximum %age. But then, I do live in a small city so rent is cheap.
The biggest expense for me is travel for my photography. Trains and hotel rooms sure do cost a lot when used regularly.
Those sort of rooms for photography have hourly rates do they not? 
Hi,
I have read through this thread. But I am unfammiliar with each’s background, so I can not make any approximation about my need.
I would like to know, what is the monthly minimum living costs to live in Taipeh (economically but comfortable), for a single living in approx 40m² normal apartment/studio (not a luxury) plus water, electricity, public transportation and food ?
Would 25.000 NT$ be enough ?
Thanks 
[quote=“wudjamahuh”]12K on rent
26K on the car payments/gas/parking/maintenance
I try to budget my daily expenditures(bills, shopping, food, etc.) to 1K a day and it mostly works, but then something often pops up (Christmas/holidays/anniversary/gf’s birthday/etc.) and all of a sudden 95K is just barely getting me by. It’s depressing, really. On the bright side, at least I’m having fun with my life… it would be nice to have the piece of mind of some savings though.[/quote]
Looking at your bills the car stuff jumped out at me, the car is killing your budget. I bought a second hand car off a friend here for 30k (park it on a hill nearby. I use the bus to go to work and the car on weekends if I want to go for a spin and down south). Cars, especially brand new ones and big engines suck up money, the maintenance, parking,gas,tax, insurance, fines,toll fees. Then you should look at where you are renting. I think there are two main theories to cutting expenses, one is cutting the frivolous stuff and one is cutting the fixed stuff like car/housing. After cutting your fixed costs there you can still afford to have fun and save some money. The gf might like the nice car too but remember that she’s not the one paying for it.
If you want to save money have a look at the car thingy… I know it depends on where you are living etc. but it seems very high expense compared to your income. Your income is good in Taiwan and you should be able to take advantage of cheaper living here and save some cash and still have fun. I had issues before with saving and the fact was I was living in a nice place with elevator, security, cable etc, beyond my means. I moved out to a crappier place but bigger place, I don’t pay maintenance security or cable fee (the landlord rigged it up for free) and now I can save money automatically every month.