Kollel couple monthly budget...

amother

Tue, Aug 01 2006, 6:04 am

How much do you think newly-married kollel couples living in Yerushalaim need to live for one month? (in dollars)
This includes ALL expenses- rent, bills, food, etc.
If you'd like, add a specific breakdown to your response.
Just curious abt what you all will come up with, bec I've had debates abt this with my friends countless times!!

Marion

Tue, Aug 01 2006, 6:33 am

Depends on what neighbourhood and how big an apartment, for beginners. Our rent was $625, arnona was another $110, utilities (electric, water, gas, telephone, cell phones) about another $150. Food was about $300, transportation was $125. So that's $1300. BUT we had a 2 bedroom apartment on the border of Old Katamon, which is a very expensive neighbourhood (not gloating, just stating facts). I haven't heard of ANYTHING (one room; combined bed & living room, nothing) under $350.

willow

Tue, Aug 01 2006, 7:13 am

You asked specifically for yerushlyim ( although outside Of yerushlyim rent is very cheap) so I will tell you. It is expensive. There is no getting around it. You said you are a kollal couple and in any neighborhood with your type of yeshivish crowd the rent is going to be very high. Even for a small apartment ( most ppl would not dream of living in my apartment) your rent most likely will not be below 500$
Food unlike people will tell you is just as expensive as america (most items). And bills of course are bills. The more you use the higher your bill. If you have a dud shemash then you will save a bit. But some apartments(machsanim) do not have that.
Now if you do not take taxis at all and rely on buses or walking then you will spend less then if you had a car in america.
Insurance is a big BIG saver here. You pay very little and get a lot of services.
Most ppl do not have air conditioning or central heating so that saves a bundle.
Here for phone bills there is no unlimited calling plans. Every call you make costs and calls to cell phones even more.
But I think that the standard of living is not as fancy as in America and so you will be saving a lot of that "my friend has that" frills.
Of course the biggest factor will be YOU. If you do not eat so much meat and cheeses, if you do not need the fanciest crystals to adorn your table, if you are very careful not to keep buying little things (sodas ice coffee Wink

) then you will also be able to do with less money.

amother

Tue, Aug 01 2006, 7:16 am

Let's see...
$600+ rent (varies greatly, esp in y-m, can go up to double+)
$180 for utilities (electric, gas, phone, cell phone, arnona)
$140 transportation
$400+ food
+misc..
so $1350 minimum
Though I do think couples can live on less if they want to (though it's definitely not easy) You can find a machsan apt for $400 or so...

amother

Tue, Aug 01 2006, 8:54 am

Quote:

Why what is your experience?

Well, these "debates" are usually a mix of theoretical and practical... we're usually discussing whether or not its possible for a kollel couple to live here without any parental support...
I believe it's totally possible; some ppl think I'm crazy Very Happy

, and that I make very low estimates
I think personally my mothly spending amounts to approx $1300, like others have mentioned.. though my apt is not in an "american" neighborhood in y-m where rent is $1000+ (obviously)
Also, my family helps us, bH, so we arent footing the entire bill (though definitely most of it...)
Basically, I'm not all that experienced, so was wondering what's "normal", in others' experience..
Thanks all for your responses so far, btw!

southernbubby

Tue, Aug 01 2006, 9:27 am

My son and his wife and baby are still in their first apartment in Sanhedria which is $500 US dollars a month for one bedroom on the 5th floor with no elevator. Their washing machine is in the bathroom and the clothes are dried on the mirpesset. They have a tiny kitchen and tiny dining room. Since many young couples are in that complex, no one is complaining.

shalhevet

Tue, Aug 01 2006, 11:06 am

Have all the couples who are struggling so much in Yerushalayim thought about moving somewhere else in Israel?

There are lots of other wonderful communities out there where the rent is a fraction of the cost!

Where I live, for $500 you could get a 4 roomed apartment.

I really think it's a shame that people don't consider other options. Of course Yerushalayim is special and can't be compared, but I don't think there are many frum Israeli young couples who even dream of living there unless their parents are VERY wealthy.

shabbatiscoming

Tue, Aug 01 2006, 12:59 pm

mummyof6 wrote:

I agree with you mummyof6. my husband is in yeshiva in yerushaliyim and we do not live in yerushaliyim. the rent is just sky rocketing. we are not chareid, but in a lot of chareid areas where baalei bayit know that there will be a lot of american couples learning in yeshivot and paying dollars, they do tend to up the rent. I have heard this from a friend of my husband's (who is in a charedi area and a chareid yeshiva).
if you are charedi, there are many places to live besides for yerushaliyim, if you are not chareid there are many places, including yesha, that are not as expensive as yerushaliyim. but I also do understand the draw to live in yerushaliyim. its a special holy place.

suomynona

Tue, Aug 01 2006, 4:33 pm

Before I moved to Israel, I asked people how much it costs to live per month. I found that it ended up costing us a lot more. One of the reasons is because people didn't include certain extras that their parents pay for. Ex. plane tickets, health insurance. If you divide that by 12, the cost per month is much more.

As far as living outside yerushalyim, many of the reasons we are living in Israel in the first place (mainly, husband's yeshiva) do not really apply outside yerushalayim.

Marion

Wed, Aug 02 2006, 6:17 am

We just moved to Ma'ale Adumim...precisely because we could get a much larger place for the same amount. Our rent in Jerusalem for a 2 bedroom, 3rd floor walk-up was $625...our mortgage for a 4 bedroom townhouse with a 50m backyard and 2 parking spaces (not that we own a car) and a machsan is under $600. $25/month is $25/month. And the arnona in Jerusalem was NIS 70/square m, so it was 570 (about $125) /month...we just got the bill for July AND August...585! And it's commutable to Jerusalem (one bus through the centre of town (incl. the shuk and central bus station), and from there, one more bus to anywhere else). We did have to put in air conditioning, so that will be an extra expense, but we don't use it much. And now we have room for the clothes rack again, so we're not using the electric dryer. It's a trade off.

Marion

Wed, Aug 02 2006, 2:36 pm

shabbatiscoming wrote:

chedva wrote:

Do you pay for health insurance in Israel?

yes, but it is a very minimul amount.
can I ask why you ask?

It depends. If you have a salary, there is a "health tax" that comes off it to pay for the national health services. You can upgrade these services for a small monthly fee (usually around 40-60NIS/month, depending on the upgrade level). You can also buy supplemental health insurance, just like in North America, the cost of which depends on your age and health.

supermom

Wed, Aug 02 2006, 3:09 pm

[quote="shabbatiscoming if you are not chareid there are many places, including yesha, that are not as expensive as yerushaliyim. but I also do understand the draw to live in yerushaliyim. its a special holy place.[/quote]

We live in Yesha and are charadi there are a lot of yishuvim that I have to agree with that are for the more modern ones but there are a lot of yishuvim that are just charadi.

As for living expenses living out here is a little bit okay much cheaper but we live on $1000 dollars a month that is just to get by month to month.

shabbatiscoming

Thu, Aug 03 2006, 11:52 am

supermom wrote:

We live in Yesha and are charadi there are a lot of yishuvim that I have to agree with that are for the more modern ones but there are a lot of yishuvim that are just charadi.

As for living expenses living out here is a little bit okay much cheaper but we live on $1000 dollars a month that is just to get by month to month.[/quote]I did not know that there were many charedi yishuvim. I only have heard of beitar. can you tell me of others? I love hearing these things.

amother

Thu, Aug 03 2006, 3:53 pm

I live in Yerushalayim and work very full time- therefore I do have extra "work expenses" including cleaning lady and cleaners bills which I would be doing on my own if I had the time. Also, I have higher transportation costs because of it.

However, even with that introduction, I don't know how all of you got such a low estimate. This was my basic breakdown this past month.

transportation ₪ 640.00
groceries ₪ 1,789.00
fruits/veggies ₪ 438.00
cleaning lady ₪ 565.00
chicken/fish ₪ 333.00
recreation/misc ₪ 700.00
cleaners ₪ 459.00
bills ₪ 881.00
total in NIS ₪ 5,805.00
total in US$ $1,319.32

Notice- this doesn't include Rent (which my parents pay for), nor does it include health insurance. I am not a high spender, though I don't think 3 times before buying something...