20,000 NTD per two months in electricity costs? How is that possible?
24 hour ac action, or bitcoin mining 
Btw, how did you spend 12k a month on transportation? That’s a lot.
it includes taxis and uber. we prefer taxis when public transport is not so convenient or when its 4 of us going together.
it also includes car rental if we want to go out of town, that is ~2000 nt a day to rent + gas.
we don’t have scooters.
I don’t think you’ll get a decent apartment furnished in NTC at that rental price - acs, washing machine, fridge, beds , wardrobes etc. It’s probably possible in places further out such as Tamshui. If you want security and elevator building it’s a bit more but worth it and the newer places such as in Tamshui almost all are like that. I rent in Xindian but there’s not much in Xindian below 25k these days, would be hitting 30k with car parking and AC for two or three beds. Same in Muzha or more. If you are willing to live in a walk up I think you can still find many 20k apartment everywhere except popular school districts in Taipei city. Some walk-up are decent, lots of space, but you need to throw out your own trash and no security or parcel pick up.
Two months deposit needs to be considered some other savings for incidentals and setup costs.
The after school or kindergartens run at 15k-20k per month. Club, sports, music classes can be expensive or cheap, the good news is there are a LOT of activities kids can join here.
No car will save a lot on the setup costs and rent as don’t need pay for parking and 100k for a car and the fuel tax . After that owning a car may work out fine compared to taxis and rentals depending how often you do that. I often think of ditching the car but I like the freedom to sometimes take long trips. You can also travel around by public transport fairly easily to most, though not all places One scooter is usually quite handy but it’s also not necessary in the greater Taipei area…
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I don’t mind walking up the stairs or participate in the weekly ritual of trash throwing.
Kids activities sound expensive in Taipei. How can the local afford them? Both parents working? Sounds like in the states where both parents work to afford daycare.
That walkup is going to suck after three months of carrying heavy groceries 
this may be the cost of full after school (every half day with nap and snack + some english) or private kindergarten, right?
it may be roughly 500 NTD per class.
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kids activities - depends what you want to do and how many times…there is supply and demand for each price range.
a good resource for young kids is this:
in general, children costs depend on how many kids you have and how many activities you want them to do. i have a friend with 3 boys, all of them play soccer, for him to send them to practice twice a week is 11K a month…
for early age child care - that is crazy expensive, a good kindy can be almost 30K a month, about the same as a full time nanny. many kids stay with grandparents or the mother doesnt work (on a side note, that is one of the reasons there are so few kids being born).
sports: again, depends what you do and how many times you want to do it. a swim lesson with a teacher will set you back 500 NT for an hour, but if you go to the pool with your kid its 150 NT for both of you for the whole day.
Zoo is cheap, museums are cheap, libraries are free, parks are free and usually well maintained, to go on bike rides is free, in taipei city there are play centers for toddlers which are free and very nice. so there are ways of doing this without breaking the bank.
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Izzy explained very well, there are options at all price points, from free to 1000 NTD an hour, Taiwan is great like that. Large schools have tonnes of sports and music clubs , local churches, local community education center, local sports centers. Never ending choice compared to when I was a kid growing up in Europe.
My wife doesn’t work but if both working yeah it’s 15k to 20k per kid full time buxiban and sports and music classes , more if require nanny for very young kids.
FIFY
You can definitely get accommodation for 20,000, but I wonder about the 6,000 a month for groceries. For a family that might nearly be closer to the weekly than the monthly grocery bill. Grocery prices in Taipei are comparable to Hong Kong, Paris etc. i.e. not super cheap.
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True.
We are a family of 4 (well, 5 but we don’t need to buy food for the youngest one), we cook at home most of the meals, except weekends, and we spend about NTD24k/month for groceries.
In average, a home meal for us is about NTD250, which is not bad, in fact.
OP is really aiming low on this item.
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Initially, my thought for this thread was more about moving and initial relocation costs. Now that it has morphed into monthly living expenses, here is my projected monthly budget:
(Caveat: we are a family of 3, will be homeschooling [with some night classes/tutors for supplement], and don’t spend much beyond $30K CAN a year / $2500 CAN [58000 NT] a month in our lives here in Canada, with a car, mortgage, winters, etc… And, we are rather frugal; we enjoy low cost, high enjoyment activities [playing music, biking, board games, etc.].)
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Rent - 20000 NT
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Food: 15000 NT
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Phones: 2500 NT
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Internet: 1500 NT
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Electricity: 5000 NT
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Water and gas: 1000 NT
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Sub-total 1: 45000 NT
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Transport:
1. Gas(for scooter): $500 NT$ 2. MRT (passes?) $2000 NT$ -
School/courses: 5000NT
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Total: 52500 NT
Note: I am aware that this is a bare bones, nothing extra budget. I needed to see what we can survive on, without savings and fun money, if needed. And, in that we are seriously considering Danshui, $20K / month is possible.
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we are a family of 4:
rent: the rent usually doesn’t include building management fees. that can be another expense. so be mindful of that when you plan.
food:we spend ~20k a month on groceries and eat mostly at home.
phones : currently plans with unlimited data are ~700 per month.
internet : ours is 699 a month.
electricity : 900 a month (yearly average )
water and gas : 1000 a month (yearly average )
school / courses : let us know what you have in mind, we can share costs. how old is your son?
Your budget looks okay, but I think your electricity bill shouldn’t get that high.
As for education, it really depends on the are of your children and what frequently you’d be getting a tutor for them. NT5000 could be just enough, or too low in some cases.
@izzy For your phones, is the 700 NT per phone? And, what speed is the internet?
Also, my son is 8, just finishing grade 3. We will be homeschooling, and we plan to live in Danshui. Not sure as to what we will need a tutor for just yet. Are you in Danshui or nearby? Feel free to pm me.
We are also looking at the after-school classes at TAS - on top of their scouting program (which is close to free), they have a fantastic selection of tech type classes: coding, robotics, etc… A bit pricey, but it looks great.
Not that it always makes sense to pinch pennies, but over 3 phone lines it may add up:
I’ve been on T-Star for the past ~2 years and have nothing to complain about. It’s $388NTD/phone for unlimited data with 35Mbps down and 4.5Mbps up (I think they also have a 500Mbps plan for $499NTD/phone). I loose reception in some of the more remote places on the train from Kaohsiung to Hsinchu, but in any city I get great reception (where I spend 99% of my time)
mobile: 700 is per phone.
internet: we have a 24 MB download / 5MB upload speed, that’s enough for what we use (streaming TV and internet browsing) there are many packages and promotions are available all the time.
TAS after school classes are expensive, for sports you can also check places like the beitou sports center in shipai . the costs are much less and it will give him a chance to practice some Chinese (most of the Chinese needed is basic, run faster kick harder kind of stuff)
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there are also local community sports teams of baseball, soccer, basketball etc, which can be cheaper.
Museums often have some programs for kids too.
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