Eretz Yisrael Poll

bunnyrabbit

Thu, Feb 14 2019, 11:49 am

If you're living in EY with 1-3 kids and could answer this it would be great thanks!

Also, do you consider yourself average, or do you feel you spend less/more than others around you?

If you could give more details, how much you spend on food a month, on rent/mortgage, that would be very helpful. We spend around NIS 2,000 a month on food, and 3,400 on rent for a 2 bedroom. Not in Yerushalayim.

I appreciate your taking the time to help!

amother

cornflower

Thu, Feb 14 2019, 12:41 pm

2 kids.
Both DH and I work.
Jerusalem.

I'm really not sure about exact amounts... I leave the finances to my DH, but I'll try to make an approximate roundup.

5500 rent - 2 bedroom.
1000 utilities (summer wayyy less)
750-1000 a week for shopping. Groceries. Pharmacy etc.
1500 - tuition+transportation (expensive tuition for Israeli standards)
Gas for car - honestly not sure.
Insurance my blessed in-laws pay for. I think about 350 shek a month.
Plus random expenses... some clothing shopping...

I'm not a spender. Definitely live more simple than the ppl around me. I will say tho, that most of my friends are living here off their parents credit cards/support. And we are independent! Best feeling! B'H!

Israeli_C

Thu, Feb 14 2019, 1:29 pm

I'm in the merkaz but have 4 kids so dont fit the bill. TBH I have no idea what my home expenses are because DH manages all the finances. We've a whopper of a mortgage instead of rent and childcare is going to be 500 NIS next year because the 3 youngest (currently 2 newborns and a 1.5 yo) will be at home with me and our oldest (3 yo) will be in a gan which is free + tzaharon which costs 500 NIS for the year. Selling our car soon since DH cycles to work and we're recently 'outgrown' the car.

amother

Olive

Thu, Feb 14 2019, 1:39 pm

We're in RBS with one child. We both work (me very part-time) and our income is generally around 10,000 a month, if we're lucky.

Maaser: 1000+
Rent: 2700
Groceries: around 2000
Gan: 600
Transportation: 400
Utilities: 300ish
Miscellaneous: 1000ish
Paying back debt: around 1000
Savings: whatever's left.

amother

Dodgerblue

Thu, Feb 14 2019, 1:43 pm

Oops, sorry I answered the poll before I saw you wrote 1-3 kids.
I have 5 kids and our monthly expenses are over 40k shekel.
We are probably a bit above average.

We spend over 10K on food. Mortgage is 8K.
One kid in private HS - 2500/month.
One kid in university over 2K/month.

amother

Dodgerblue

Thu, Feb 14 2019, 1:50 pm

amother wrote:

just adding that whatever your expenses are now, expect them to go way up as the kids get older.

Yeah, seriously. See my post above Smile

Teenagers eat an insane amount of food. I literally can't keep up with it.
They also aren't happy with rice & beans.
I have sons who are almost 6 ft tall. They can polish off a whole chicken and be hungry 2 hours later.

bunnyrabbit

Thu, Feb 14 2019, 2:36 pm

amother wrote:

Yeah, seriously. See my post above Smile

I understand that the same Hashem who gives us the children gives us the food to feed them...do you experience that?

amother

Chocolate

Thu, Feb 14 2019, 3:23 pm

amother wrote:

Amother can I ask? Do you cover your monthly expenses? Meaning, do you and / or your husband bring in more than 40k a month? If so, kol hakavod. What kind of jobs bring in that kind of salary?
And does this mean you spend roughly 3k a week on food?

amother

Yellow

Thu, Feb 14 2019, 3:30 pm

Just me and husband (baby on the way) about 11,000. 1 bedroom about 4000, remaining 7000 utilities, insurance, groceries, transportation etc. Usually able put few hundred in savings

amother

Blush

Thu, Feb 14 2019, 3:40 pm

5 kids.
I make 6,500 a month
DH makes a low American salary which translates to approximately 18,000 a month.
Two kids in yeshiva- 2,500 a month
One kid living off our cc in chul- 2000 a month
Food- 3,000 a month
No mortgage
Utilities- 2,000
Chugim-300
Luxuries- take out or dinner out 1000
Gas and insurance- no clue
And there are always unexpected extras. Dishwasher breaks, gifts for several weddings, clothes, shoes, dentist, haircuts. I would guess around 1,000 a month

amother

Dodgerblue

Thu, Feb 14 2019, 3:48 pm

amother wrote:

Yes, together we cover our monthly expenses. My husband is in upper management, working for a US company. I work part time here.
I don’t track weekly spending, only monthly. But yes, if you divide 10-12k by 4 weeks a month....

amother

Linen

Thu, Feb 14 2019, 3:53 pm

4 kids, jerusalem area.

We make and spend somewhere around 15,000 shekel a month. BH we just about break even. some money goes into savings automatically.

3500 mortgage
4000 groceries and medications
1500 utilities.
1000 tuition and gan

no idea where the rest goes lol

amother

Dodgerblue

Thu, Feb 14 2019, 9:20 pm

bunnyrabbit wrote:

I understand that the same Hashem who gives us the children gives us the food to feed them...do you experience that?

I understand that my husband and I work very very hard to feed our children and Bh no one has ever gone hungry.

amother

Forestgreen

Fri, Feb 15 2019, 12:56 am

Haifa, 5 kids ages 5-12. We spend a bit over 12,000 a month, but that's without a mortgage.

If we still had a mortgage, it would be 3,000 a month, and we'd sell our car and get rid of about 500 shekels of kids activities. So budget would be more like 13,800.

Right now it's about:

3,500 on groceries (that's average; some months its lower, around chagim it's higher)(this includes non-food items like shampoo, dish soap, etc)
1,400 on school expenses (including buses)(dh and I have bus costs paid by work)
500 city tax
200 gas
500 electric
300 water
300 phones and internet
600 for home repair (the downside of buying where housing was relatively cheap - lots to fix)
1,000 maaser
1,000 kids activities and therapies (art chug, youth groups, etc)
1,000 car (insurance, parking, gas, repairs)
500 insurance (life, home, medical)
500 savings
500 clothes, glasses, shoes, etc
300 entertainment (newspaper, magazine, netflix)

Israeli_C

Fri, Feb 15 2019, 2:44 am

Interested to know, how many Imas felt that materially they did a bit of 'tzimtzum' when they came to Israel and now have a simpler lifestyle? I don't know if it's really comparable because I went from living off my parents to setting up my own home in Israel. But it was a bit of a shock to go from a two storey house with gardens, 3 cars and basically anything and everything I wanted to living in a caravan on a yishuv with no hot water and one slightly-working radiator during a snowy winter. Things have improved a lot (BH!!) but the lifestyle I had is simply not possible here.

Rappel

Fri, Feb 15 2019, 3:09 am

I think we're pretty average.

2 adults, 2 kids (wearing diapers.)

We own a car.

3000 groceries
1050 rent
Another 600 for arnona/ electric/water etc.
1000 gasoline
1500 day care
350 retirement
200 phones/internet
1500 for oddments

Israeli_C

Fri, Feb 15 2019, 3:16 am

Rappel wrote:

1500 day care

For 2 kids or 1? That's a really great price either way. My 1.5 year old goes to a maon from 7.30am to 1.30pm 6 days a week (til 12.30 Fridays) and it's 1,700 - one of the cheapest in the area (I've heard of 3,700 for 1 kid til 4pm which is mind boggling).

I was in the middle of a Teudat Horaa before I got pregnant with my twins, and now it would literally not pay to work as a teacher given childcare costs

blessedjmom

Fri, Feb 15 2019, 3:25 am

Rappel wrote:

1050 rent. Wow.
I live in Jerusalem and pay 5500
Can I ask where you live? And what size...