Job Discussion Forums

[bestteacher2012]

Recently got a job offer in Macau and was wondering if anyone can give me a rough idea of the cost of living in Macau such as monthly costs for utilities, internet, mobile phone, food etc?

Considering accommodation is already paid for, how much money could one realistically save on 15,000 MOP a month? Would it be possible to save 10,000 MOP?

[sistercream]

Yet again, how long is a piece of string??

It's definitely possible to save 10K a month out of 15K when accommodation is provided, but it wouldn't be comfortable!

Apart from anything else, electricity and internet (both monopolies) are bloody expensive by Asian standards - you'd want to avoid using your aircon, and figure a work-around for internet that avoids CTM (not sure how the data packages from the mobile network companies stack up - they hadn't arrived when I lived there).

If you want to drink and eat in the fancy casino resorts, then you'll be paying ridiculous western prices, and supermarket prices at New Yaohan and ParkNShop are also well above what most locals pay (Seng Cheong, Royal and San Miu supermarkets are much cheaper; Seng Cheong has the best selection of imported stuff). If you do your own cooking, and stick to eating out at local places (most of them are in negative territory on ambience, but have brilliant food, even the ones in public housing estates), then food is cheap. My best friend's family (parents & a teenager) budget MOP2.5K per month, and eat well (not usually fillet steak and lobster, mind you).

Depending on where you're living/ working, you might find you hardly even need to use buses - the place is so small - but public transport is cheap and comprehensive. Get a MacauPass, and it's even cheaper.

Clothes are as cheap or expensive as you want them to be, although if you're larger than typical Asian size you might have to spend some time burrowing through the factory outlets around Three Lamps to get the cheap stuff.

But the best advice I could give someone moving to Macau has nothing to do with money. It is that this city does not do efficiency by any western or even Chinese standards. The bureaucracy would make Sir Humphrey Appleby weep for joy, and the whole tiny SAR is its own universe. I seriously would not be surprised to see the Red Queen using a flamingo as a croquet mallet somewhere. So just take the city on its own terms ... it will either grow on you, or you'll escape either to HK or the mainland every weekend to keep your sanity!

[bestteacher2012]

Thanks for the reply, I have a few follow up questions and comments.

[sistercream]

In a 400' sq flat (i.e. bog standard middle class accommodation), my electricity bills ranged around the MOP800 - 1200 for summer months - note that this is a bimonthly figure, which is how you receive both electricity and water bills. Water was never over MOP50 or so. There is no "town gas" supply in Macau; you either pay as you go for for LPG bottles, or are billed by your apartment complex for using their stored supply. Last year, a small LPG cylinder cost about MOP120 - this amount would last me for 4 or 5 months.

Re internet, you can find all the sordid details here: https://www.ctm.net/cportal/ Look in the Personal Services tab. Oh, and if you don't yet have your Macau ID card or "blue card", CTM also charges a massive extra deposit for opening an account.

For teaching primary or secondary school, 15K + accomm. is pretty standard, and for a language centre it would be brilliant. For university teaching it's on the low side.

And you have my sympathy in trying to get working papers done - from my first application to finally receiving my ID card and teacher registration card took something over a year but that was around the beginning of the century when it was still acceptable to start work while everything was still "in process". What I found totally surreal was that one of the functionaries in one of the numerous offices I spent hours in actually informed me proudly that the sea of red tape was the result of combining the glorious Chinese and Portuguese cultures, which between them (he counted Portuguese culture as starting from the Roman Empire) meant a symbiosis of 7000 years of "official processes." (Where's a "spew" icon when I want one??)

The darndest thing is, despite all that I continue to have a very soft spot both for the Macau Chinese people and for the city as a whole (well, at least for the older areas. If Cotai fell back into the sea I wouldn't be at all upset).

[bestteacher2012]