Job Discussion Forums

[Alfie]

Hi everyone,
On average, what would you say your living expenses run you month to month? Lets say you go out maybe once or twice a week for meals, own a car and wish to save (housing provided by employer).

Thanks.

[adorabilly]

Hi Alfie.

I hate to give you this answer, but it depends.

1. On where you are living in the UAE. RAK is much cheaper than Dubai. So the prices will depend on where you live
2. It will depend on the size of your family. Of course a single teacher will have lower expenses than a family of 3, which will be lower than a family of 5.
3. It will depend on the size of your accomodations, as electricty and AC will be higher in the bigger places.
4. it will depend on the time of year you are talking about (obviously winter is cheaper on electricity).
5. It depends on whether you want a car, a used car vs new, or just hire taxi's.
6. Oh if you have kids and live in larger emirate what activities do you want them to do? And lets not forget the "better" schools in dubai and abu dhabi might need you to pay extra tuition out of your own pocket.

[teacherbel]

If you live on the apartment provided for by your employer ?

[Alfie]

Hi Adorabilly,
Oh crud, I half expected the "depends" answer. I think in the singular because I am without dependents, no spouse and so forgot about all the possible ways to burn money.

Let's say:
Used car
Other Emirates besides Dubai and Abu Dhabi
Accommodation for one (if they give smaller places to singles)
Fall or Spring time
Like to prepare meals at home
No maid

Thanks.
PS: How's life in RAK? Are you glad to be there and not Dubai or another Emirate (assuming you've visited elsewhere in the UAE)?

[veiledsentiments]

[teacherbel]

How about everything you mentioned, except that it is in Dubai?

[mishmumkin]

Food prices are quite comparable to the cost in Seattle, Washington (if not cheaper). If you're frugal and don't mind making a few stops during the week, food and veg souks, a fish souk, and the like. Stay away from western stores like Spinneys and Choithrams and opt for the Co-op (not really a co-op) for pantry items. As for fuel prices, I thought I heard recently that the UAE is running approximately $1.20/gallon. Can someone confirm this? Prices are never posted in front of the stations.

Utilities are comparable to the cost in the US-I believe the UAE still cheaper in electricity while internet and mobile phone charges are comparable (text messaging is cheaper per message) to the costs in the US, too.

[tmac-100]

In June I noted petrol was 5.75 AED per (4 liter) gallon when purchasing 91 Octane at ADNOC stations.

[adorabilly]

Hi Alfie.

In that case you could easily save about 3/4 of your salary or more. If you plan on taking several trips during the year that would, of course, go down.

Heck with a family of 5 we are still saving about 1/2 of my wife's salary. So it is possible to sock it away.

With airfare paid, your housing paid, and your housing allowance given to you up front, there really aren't many thing to purchase (unless you splurge). Your biggest expense will probably be a car (you can get new ones here pretty cheap, and if you know your way around used cars you can get them very cheap (I got mine for 8,000 AED, and we know people who sold theirs when leaving for under 10,000 AED).

I have noticed the food prices could be as high as buying groceries in the states, but if you shop around and find where the locals buy food you can cut thost prices in half.

Gas here in RAK is currently 6.25 AED per gallon and it has not gone up since we got here last august. So that translates to about $1.70 a gallon.

To answer your question about if I like it, the short answer is Yes. it isn't for everyone, but it doesn't have any of the madness of dubai traffic, or the inability to get around like dubai. It isn't all one type of geography (ie sand, or flat like abu dhabi). I haven't been to every emirate yet, but by comparision I like it here. But you do have to be creative in finding things to do, and there are lots of outdoor things to do.

[globalnomad2]

One piece of spurious Dubai propaganda is that home-electronics prices and varieties are the envy of the world. They are in fact generally 25 to 100% higher than the U.S. (based on personal observations), and furthermore, the range and variety of such products is not impressive. Just last year in RAK I noticed that the Motorola Razr phone was about 300 dirhams or thereabouts. That phone comes free with a year's AT&T cell phone service in the U.S.

Fancy TVs are particularly expensive compared to the US, remembering too that the dirham is pegged to the dollar. No doubt Dubai prices are cheaper than in Europe, I'll admit--even when the Euro was weaker.

A bright spot is that the Orbit satellite TV service has lowered its prices drastically and now you can get a fairly good variety (for the Middle East) of English-language movie/TV show/news/docu/gossip-and-fluff channels for about $30/mo.

[mishmumkin]

[adorabilly]

Hey Gn.

I would agree. Electronics are not that much cheaper here. In fact I would say they, like food prices, are very similar to prices from american stores.

Gas is cheaper, you can get tailored clothes really cheap, and eating out (at local resturants) is MUCH cheaper than eating out in the states.

If you avoid trolling the malls for items and find where the locals buy their stuff you can get some great deals on lots of things...

[globalnomad2]

Yes, but dining out in the States doesn't have to be extremely expensive. I go to an excellent Chinewse buffet for dinner, all you can eat, of course, and they have a LOT of choices...for $10. And there's so much more choice of foods even in Houston nowadays, than in Dubai. More choice in everything. The propaganda has it that Dubai is this new world city,but tall buildings, monstrously large malls and supersized Disney Worlds don't make a world city. Choices and prices in Dubai are unimpressive--especially housing prices. In Houston, a very pretty 2,000 sq.ft., four-bedroom house in the suburbs, with two-car garage, central everything, front and back yards, leafy neighborhood, can easily be bought for $150-160,000. Or a luxury apartment rented for $1000 or less. I realize one of the perks of Dubai jobs is free housing, but I wonder what teachers are getting there nowadays with the rent inflation.

[mishmumkin]

Well, housing, hands down, is out of control in the UAE. I still think there are lots of little cheap and cheerful Indian places, though.

[adorabilly]

Hey Gn.

Lets see... that $10 for chinese buffet comes to about 40 aed... I can have lambchops from a local indian place to feed the whole family, huge lamb chops, huge salad, and bread. Again I compare everything to what the family of 5 would pay for eating out.

so that would be $50 bucks at that chinese buffet. (and we have one that I really liked in Flagstaff, and we can eat cheaper $25 to 30 to eat out for us in the states). so that would be about 100 AED (on the cheap in the states...) 100 AEd here for the 5 of us is a REALLY nice dinner at the local indian/pakistani places. We usually spend less than 40 AED to feed the whole family.

so I would say that on the whole if you are doing local resturants they are cheaper than the states (as long as you avoid the chain resturants or US resturants).

ON the flip side of that we have gone into Chili's and dropped 350 AED for a nice dinner there... so it is possible to spend US prices too...

In general, food is cheaper. Getting tailor made clothes, getting custom made furniture, or anything else that is Labor intensive is much cheaper here than the states.

Of course I am not talking about dubai (it is way more expensive in dubai than in the smaller emirates)