Living in Israel and budgeting

israelgirl

Sun, Jan 11 2015, 7:29 pm

I live in Jeru and wanted to know what you Israeli's feel are the best/cheapest places to shop and how to go about cutting expenses here. We are a family of 5 ka"h and I wanted to know what your break down is as I'm trying to come up with a budget. How much is a normal electric bill in this weather now? Water? Phones? Groceries is a biggie on my budget. Where to shop in order to save? We go through a TON of fruits and vegi's. Now that it is shmitta is there a good/cheap place to get produce if I'm looking specifically for chutz laaretz? Meat and chicken-do you buy whole chickens to save, or do you find it doesn't really save all that much and just buy kirayim and chazeh of seperatly? My rent is 4000 shek, electricity in this weather IM HOPING will be about 1500 (last year we got a 2500 shek bill for these cold two months....my apt is very cold though and with the kids I feel I cant save on heating....) phones and internet about 140 a month, water about 170, groceries are about 800-900 dollars whatever that is in shek, and babysitting/gan for the kids comes out to about 1000 shek if not a bit more monthly.
Do you eat chik/meat during the week? What brand diapers come out cheapest? I have 3 in diapers and buy materna for the baby....How can I find out about sales/bargains? Any short cuts?

Thanks!

iluvjerusalem

Mon, Jan 12 2015, 10:29 am

Shaarei ravacha, which is in ganei geulah on yermiyahu, is excellent with prices on all dry goods, but they don't have fruits and veg. We definitely save a lot by buying whole chickens instead of specific parts, in the grocery near home Reuben chicken is usually around 20 nis a kilo fresh, I think getting just breast, frozen, can be double that, but not sure since we never actually buy it.