Salam and hi everyone,

Todays blogpost is going to be about money. I will share with you about how much it cost to live in here. Hong Kong is known as one of the most expensive 'cost of living' country in the world. So lets see if your monthly spends is similar to mine.


Just as reminder, this budgeting is just from what I think it may cost for you to live here comfortably and within budget. Of course its vary depends on your monthly salary, lifestyle and living situation. Some people are lucky enough where the company are willing to provide the accommodation. But for me, I only have monthly salary(which is not a lot) and some benefits here and there. And, even that, the number that I gave is not the final number. I dont go out every weekend and I dont eat out for every meal. Most of the time I try to keep the cost under 10000hkd so that I can save the money for travel and future use.

I will cover 4 categories in this budgeting; rent, food, transportation (if any) and fun/social

Rent

Ok, so lets start with rental accommodation. Rent is heavily depends on location. You can get bigger place for good money if you stay on the countryside which mean you have to commute long hours for work. For me, I purposely live nearby office so that I dont have to spend hours on the road and queue up for transport. I live on my own so I dont need big place for myself. As long as it has all the basics and within my budget, I'm good. Speaking from my knowledge I will say the cost living here in Causeway Bay area will be 5000-10000hkd. Lets take 7000hkd per month for accommodation thats include utilities and wifi.

Food

Next is food. This depends on your lifestyle. If you are someone who eat all meals outside then it will cost you more than those who cooked. The meal price depends on where you eat; either in stall or proper restaurants. So the range can be 50-100hkd to 200-400hkd per meal. Just so you know dinner here cost more than lunch meal as they will charge you on service fee on the food as well as the service itself. That usually mark up around 10-15% from lunch dishes. If you are on budget I'll say you can spend 200hkd/day for food which means 1000hkd per week and 4000hkd per month. On the other hand, you might want to have fun on the weekend like window shopping, to eat good food or have drinks with your friends I put 400hkd/week = 1600hkd/month. So monthly, it can be 4000hkd + 1600hkd = 5600hkd. Lets round it to 6000hkd as you may spend more to go out for drinks on weekdays night.

Transportation

For this one, its depends what type of transport do you use for work. 99% people here are using public transport either it be trains, busses, trams or ferries. The fee can be as low as none (thats me, just walk to work) or 100hkd/week up to 1000hkd/week. Its because some people will need to take 2 types of transportation like ferry and busses or different lines of trains to get them to the city from the countryside or the border. its another whole story if you own a car because the parking fee depends on where you park and for how long.So for this I'll say maybe around 800hkd.

Fun & Social

Last but not least is social category. This is for sure not something that I can really put a number on it. Its depends on your lifestyle. If you are someone who going out for beaches, yacht date, drinks or clubs every weekend than it cost more than for those who choose to do free activities like hiking and stay at home. I'll say maybe to budget another 300hkd/week and thats 1200hkd/month for weekend activites.

Lets calculate: Rent (7000hkd) + Food (6000hkd) + Transportation (800hkd) + Fun (1200hkd) = 15000hkd in total

So over all it cost around 15000hkd per month to live in Hong Kong. The only fix numbers  here are for rental and transportations. Others can be different on weekly or even daily basis. 

I will say this again that this is not the final number but just something that you can compare to. I'm sure you will spend more if you make more money and way less if you just make enough for living. 

Ask me in the comments below if there is something that you would like to know about living Hong Kong. I may not know all of it but I can check it for you if its within my reach.

I hope you enjoy this post and find it somewhat helpful. Thanks for stopping by. Have a good day!


Love,
coffeecupcloset