What is Considered a Nice Wage In Eretz Yisroel?

creativemommyto3

Fri, Aug 10 2007, 6:30 am

That sounds yum. How much chicken would you put in for your family? Very Happy

amother

Fri, Aug 10 2007, 6:42 am

When we first lived here we made 7450NIS a month. Finally, after two kids DH got a raise and now he makes 9000NIS. We keep a very careful budget, and the bulk of our money goes towards paying off monthly bills. We spend about 800 a month on food, and we try to put away about 1000 into savings. We never have money for extras, but I'm happy that we're staying afloat and not in the red most of the time. DH is basically paid according to what our needs are, and as the family grew we just needed more money. B"H, at the moment I can't complain. I think the best thing you can do on a tight budget is to track every penny you spend, and record how much you expect to spend over the course of the month. It really helps to see how much money we have to make it through the month.

creativemommyto3

Fri, Aug 10 2007, 6:53 am

how do you spend 800 shekel on food? what do you eat?

amother

Fri, Aug 10 2007, 7:24 am

I usually only cook chicken and fish for Shabbos. I cook really simple during the week, either pareve or dairy. I do buy ground meat or shnitzel occasionally, but not every week. The truth is, I forgot about fruits and vegetables - since I buy that at a different place, that's usually about 200nis a month, so we spend more like 1000nis a month on food. We also don't buy nosh or drinks.

creativemommyto3

Fri, Aug 10 2007, 7:28 am

I have three kids , would that mean I should be spending a bit more?

amother

Fri, Aug 10 2007, 8:03 am

My kids are still young and not huge eaters - they'd much rather eat fruits and veggies or cereal than any other food.
I would assume that if you had three kids you'd need to spend more.
(By the way, I'm only counting food products when I say 1000nis a month - not household items or diapers).

mimivan

Fri, Aug 10 2007, 8:29 am

arita430 wrote:

That sounds yum. How much chicken would you put in for your family? Very Happy

3 or 4 schnitzels or no chicken, if you prefer

creativemommyto3

Fri, Aug 10 2007, 8:54 am

wow, that's not a lot and that makes a nice meal. I can't wait to make it.

rachel19977

Sat, Sep 01 2007, 3:09 pm

mimivan wrote:

arita430 wrote:

what kind of meals is normal to make here in israel when you are on a tight budget?

Alot of pasta...I make my sauce out of tomato paste, rice and beans, gnocchi (homemade) for a treat, I make Chinese at home, when there is nothing in the house, we have soup, subsidized bread (I love that subsidized bread) tehina, and baked potatoes or potato and egg salad, sometimes without mayo.

How do you make gnocchi?

What do the kids like?

mali

Sat, Sep 01 2007, 4:35 pm

amother wrote:

DH and I live comfortably BH. Though with a baby on the way I know our finances and lifestyle will change. DH makes about 10,000 NIS a month from kollel and other funding he finds. I make 5,500 NIS a month, though my job is only temporary till the baby arrives…and I have no idea what kind of money I'll make when I start to look for a new job when the baby is older. We pay $700 month for a 3.5 room (2.5 bedroom) apt. We spend about 800 NIS a month on food. We're not big shoppers and only buy things that we need, but when we buy we buy the best. About once every month we go out for dinner or rent a tzimmer for Shabbos. These are bigger costs (maybe $150 for Shabbos including the tzimmer and the food we buy), but we can afford to treat ourselves. BH, we're able to put a lot into savings each month.

DH is in Kollel too, with a considerably smaller salary (your husband's Ma'aser, I guess) Please share with us which Kollel pays so much. I might even consider moving for such a huge salary ;-)

mimivan

Mon, Sep 03 2007, 3:39 am

rachel19977 wrote:

mimivan wrote:

arita430 wrote:

what kind of meals is normal to make here in israel when you are on a tight budget?

How do you make gnocchi?

What do the kids like?

Mishie introduced us to the wonders of gnocchi awhile back. Here is the thread
http://imamother.com/forum/vie.....b029b

I use the recipe with the real potatoes. I don't put it in the fridge and I use the complete eggs. Comes out the same.
You asked about candy. My 4 year old used to eat everyting (healthy!) before he went to gan. Now he's all "noshed up." Crying

And won't eat what he ate before.
You asked me about candy on your PM...why not bribe him to eat something with a little candy? My finick one likes soup... split pea etc..he won't eat gnocchi though Crying

Baby and dh love it.

Finicky one will eat potatoes, hot dogs, soups, egg salad, pasta (with ketchup instead of tomato sauce...or that white Israeli cheese) mashed sweet potato with brown sugar, sometimes rice, bread and tehina, sometimes cooked carrots, chicken soup, sometimes Chinese (the chicken. He's off vegetables except the ones I mentioned Crying

) and tuna. I'm thinking of trying to give him acorn squash with brown sugar as a "fun food". This might sound like a lot but this, unfortunately, is the absolute complete list of regular food he is willing to eat (not including pancakes, French toast, cereal, and Yogurt)

He used to love fruit but decided he doesn't like the pits. I'll try taking them out. He loves cut up mango and grapes and watermelon. Oh, and banana.

I guess he isn't that finicky after all.

To answer your question, I live in Jerusalem.

baby will eat anything ba'h. Even gefilte fish during the week!

creativemommyto3

Mon, Sep 03 2007, 4:09 am

do all of you on tight budgets make gefilte fish from ground fish , ground the fish yourself or buy loaves or jars?

Seraph

Mon, Sep 03 2007, 4:44 am

Gefilte fish?
Ha.
When I serve fish for shabbos, its tuna fish. At least a 5th of the price of gefilte...

amother

Mon, Sep 03 2007, 4:51 am

My husband and I are on a very tight budget.
At his current job he was making between 3,500 and 4000 a month. Now iy'h iy'h iy'h he'll be starting a new job that will be making him between 5000 and 6000 a month. Also, in about a month and a half, I will be starting a job a couple of hours a week, bringing in an extra 1000 shekel a month, iy'h.

Fortunately, our rent isn't a lot. 350 dollars a month. And we don't buy meat or fish during the week, mainly. I try my best to cook cheaply.
And we're still MAJORLY in the red. We had a big expense a while back, and we STILL have not caught up from that.
We have a minus limit of 6000 shekel, and we're about 200 shekel away from that. Fortunately, its only a week till my husband gets his paycheck (and he worked extra this month, so he should be getting a little over 4000 iy'h) so it'll get us a little farther away from our minus limit... So until then, we should be able to skimp. B'h the cupboard and fridge is stocked.

(On the other hand, the makolet has a cheshbon of 400 shekel that was really due the first of the month... and I cant possibly pay it for the next week, so I'm going to be avoiding the makolet because I'm too embarassed to tell the makolet guy. I know hes understanding, because last time that happened, he said its not a problem. I mean its not like we have thousands spent at the makolet on the bill that he's waiting for...)

And when we get REALLY REALLY stuck, my parents help out.
Oh, and my siblings in law give us their maiser.

creativemommyto3

Mon, Sep 03 2007, 5:26 am

breslov wrote:

Gefilte fish?
Ha.
When I serve fish for shabbos, its tuna fish. At least a 5th of the price of gefilte...

If you go to the fish store and buy half a kilo of ground bakala for 15 shekel. 4 cans of tuna which is 640 grams is about the same price. I am sure that you add something to the tuna to make it tasty. I add 3 eggs , some matzo meal (bread crumbs - which I just learnt that you could put stale bread into the food processor) 3 tablespoons of sugar, a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of pepper. I just started grating carrot into it too. I don't know if you calculate the energy (electric bill/gas bill)that it costs, but it's nice for shabbos though. I hope I am not insulting you. Oh , I also cook it with an onion and a carrot or two.

Seraph

Mon, Sep 03 2007, 6:33 am

arita430 wrote:

breslov wrote:

Gefilte fish?
Ha.
When I serve fish for shabbos, its tuna fish. At least a 5th of the price of gefilte...

Maybe. But for now, its just me and my husband, so one can of tuna lasts for 2 meals. And since we got tuna on sale at aleph- insanely cheap, it ends up being much more worth it.
And all I put in the tuna is a drop of mayo and maybe some garlic and onion powder.
B'h my husband isn't a picky eater.
Yea, it would be nice to have traditional jewish food for shabbos... but when money is tight...

(And no, you're not insulting me at all...)

miriamnechama

Mon, Sep 03 2007, 7:24 am

Hmm, when was the israeli section closed??

Dh works and makes a good salary, but we are still on a tight budjet even with 2 kids. ok here are no diapers involved now but eg hassaot cost, cheder plus ds1 has misada another 200 nis and all the rest. unexpected expenses crop up all the time but we manage.

All bils go throughhhorat keva including cheder minus hasaa but there are other expenses that go out. although we manage to stay afloat. one thing tha ti do is check if I really need an item tha tweek or not and if now then we leave it out and it wiats..

we don't pay rent.Bh we bought when we were first married so our maskanta is 700nis amonth. I got then mashkanta of olah chadasha. I spend about 400 nis on food a week, I'm not sure if it's too much or too little but my boys are big and eat. one tip I used to pay with checks but stopped. I now only use cash. The advantage I find is that I can but items on sale icluding fruit and veg at different stores and the rest of my stuff I buy at the collel store (by collel chabad) any one can buy there and they are really cheap. cheaper than shefa shuk. (very soon we'll have rami levi shivuk and bar col) I think they are meant to be cheaper than shefa shuk!!.

Usually I bu the aurbach chickens as they are the cheapesyt and you can buy packaged parts eg wings. etc. and we don't eat gefilta, dh prefers nilus and it's a bit more expensive but that's what we buy.

I buy a can of apple juice that lasts liek a week or so, and a bit of cheap nush for te kids, the basics, my boys are at the age taht they need it so I do buy a bit of bamba, chaps igloos etc. notthe expensive brands. ( the collel store has bisli fam pack 400 grams for 5nis which is cheaper than the cifli brand. also when I buy things like noodles, or croutons etc I buy the cheapest brand out.it saves me money and my boys don't know the difference between osem to another brand. I don't buy icecream but artic, one on shabbos is enough and cheaper and lasts longer.

I also bake alot cake and challos, so I save on that too besides for the mitzva of baking and taking challo.

ds2 needs his chickens so that's why I buy aurbach, I buy one chicken plus one pack of wings it's 10 nis and 2 wings a day is enough for him. I make dh simple cus buy the time he comes home from work he doesn't want to eat heavy just light...

one thing for sure I wonder alot of time when I see people at the super will full agalot of everything you can want how they can afford it.... well it's not my business and I buy what my familly needs. I also buy more fruits and vegetables. I'm more on the healthy side so I don't usually buy things like cola, unless we have guests etc. and dh needs his mineral water.... oh and I eat all the leftover usually, if not I manage on simple food. I also found the tavlinim store to be cheaper than the supermarket and you buy by weight. they have also legumes etc. so I bought there kilo of oats for 7 nis and in te super 500 grams are 7 nis.

I only use checks for clothes, I get some pin money from my foster father so is use that for clothing and other stuff. it's about 100 usd a month.

what I can never understand is how do people manage even when on a tight budget by eg the chagim pesach and succos and when you have suddenly have a ton of guests ei a familly of 5 kids over for shabbos how do people do it? I find it very hard.

pesach we get from breslov and the breslov shul they take care of everything, so a few other bits and bobs I get myself, what ever meat is left from pesach raw I save for succos, we ususally get stuff succos time but that's teh time when we have tons of guest and things go really fast then, and I still need to buy more things. funng on succos eggs eg go like water but pesach not as much. also I don';t have guests pesach...

dh can never understand why food in london is so expensive that when you open a 20 pound note it's gone... I also don't but when were wre there in june I said well we need to eat, we're hear so we have to buy stuff. also 2 years ago.... chicken was 10 pounds 80 nis, etc, well I suppose that's life there...!!

mimivan

Mon, Sep 03 2007, 7:46 am

breslov wrote:

Gefilte fish?
Ha.
When I serve fish for shabbos, its tuna fish. At least a 5th of the price of gefilte...

I meant homemade (my MIL makes it and dh and baby love it!)

rachel19977

Tue, Sep 04 2007, 5:20 pm

arita430 wrote:

breslov wrote:

Gefilte fish?
Ha.
When I serve fish for shabbos, its tuna fish. At least a 5th of the price of gefilte...

aRita430,
let me get this straight, you buy half a kilo ground bakala, add 3 eggs, some matzo meals/stale bread, 3 tablespoon of sugar, salt, pepper, grated carrot? And then what? Bake? Or in pot with a sauce? Or it's like a kugel? Or fry with a onion and carrot?

rachel19977

Tue, Sep 04 2007, 5:22 pm

Nice post miriamnechama. B"H everything will be okay,

also 'amother' - what do you do for work?