How true are these prices?

Very conservative. Add a generous 10-20% to all

Nope. But at least if they do create a budget for the "wife expenses" in Qatar annually, at least I'm prepared. LOL

...or not. LOL

"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

20% increase on each

Thanks for the insight Sadi and YSAMCP ... much appreciated ... so now i know what i would expect, honestly call it a bad habit or whatever, i always do my homework before i take a step towards anything ... this is great .. yeah am looking to save a bit of something at least if i can but otherwise if i can get a bit of an experience out of it which would benefit me in long run then i guess this offer is all good ... i'm not looking to live a hand-to-mouth life so this all depends ... on one hand i have a chance to follow my dream and on the other i have a career advancement opportunity ... this is shyt! :-D

Hi Souls, I am living in UK from last 6 years and i worked in Doha for 8 month in 2007/2008.

I think 20K looks OK BUT you will have lot of overheads as well. All the best mate. Qatar is a good place for experience but Be careful of BLIND drivers! specially when you have a family.Driving is ridiculous. cheers. Yasir

The prices that you have mentioned are pretty much ok except landline and mobile which ofcourse depends on usage. QR 33 is just the line rent and QAR 50 is ok for mobile only if you are receiving calls most of the time. I dont know about your life style but this budget is average budget what an average man (including myself) would be spending. For your information, majority in Qatar is evening living in much lower than this. 20K is not a bad salary to live in. If you are not here only to save then you can live comfortable life in 20K.

If you can live in average life style then you can save almost 6~8K per month depending upon your life style. It is all the game of life style. There are people who can even save 60~70% of this salary.

souls33k3r.., you said comfy lifestyle for two. if you have a partner, i agree with timtam. QR5,000 for the mobile per month. QR1,000 for your bill and QR4,000 for her. lol

silent "G"

wow YASMCP, you certainly have a gift my friend :o) but sorry to burst your bubble but i have no idea what QNB is :o) i've been offered a position in Doha at the same company that i work for in London :oP

Looks like you have been offered a job at QNB as a Systems Analyst. but i will say all the best. cheers

Many thanks for all the replies ... Ok let me tell you all that the job what they are offering is of a Senior IT Analyst and what they have said is that this is the max they can go for so can not really negotiate any more. Any way these above prices that i got were surely a rough idea but i was told that these prices are for a "Comfortable Lifestyle for two" ... some say that one can easily live within this and some say that i need to double it but don't you think you're simply telling us all what the standard of living you would want for yourself? Life in UK is (sorry to say but) shyt, everyone's so busy with what they do, people are selfish, small houses with small rooms, it's cold and cloudy most of the time ... right now i'm on £30,000/year salary which i personally think is a hefty salary for a 2nd Line Engineer. Any way this is now going off the topic ...

So some of you say that i can easily live in this amount (keeping in mind that i am still willing to add another 2 - 3k on the top of the total) and some say that i will suffer. Hmmm now i'm really confused :-D

Hi,

A house here furnished is at least 15000QR, you will get a crappy flat for what you stated. Food is going up all the time. 20000/mth is cheap, what kind of work do you do? Negotiate your rate, they expect you to. Don't ever jump at what they offer first. I spend a fortune at least 300QR each month on my mobile. Cant say about utilites, everything is included in my rent. Good luck and welcome to Qatar.

heero.., so you have a wife? how much should be the budget then? ;-)

souls33.., your budget is pretty close except for the telecommunication. you must increase the budget for mobile. 50 is not enough for a week if you do calls often. while for the tv, landline and internet, there's a plan with Qtel where you can get this bundle in a price deal.

good luck pal!

silent "G"

The prices you mentioned can only be get as a target.

Landline, Mobile, Grocery, Car will definitely cost much more than what you have stated.

But a good post man ..!!

You forgot the "wife expenses".

"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

Hi,

Dont expect that you will be able to live better than Uk here. Accommodations here are very very expensive, so if you have 11K budget for accommodation, then its fine, otherwise you will be very disappointed by accommodations here !!!

Accommodations are mostly pathetic and very very hard to find here.

Just updated the original thread slightly - it's a good idea to get some updated prices on cost of living in Qatar.

Some compounds have television hookup and internet included. I hope you find one of those!

Mandi

realistically you would probably want to add about 2000 pm onto that for misc. especially with a small family in tow. you will also need to hunt about for a furnished place at that price but they are about. the exchange rate at the minute is great for turning your qr into sterling so you would still be able to save several hundred pounds pm, now i don't know about you but that was just a mere dream for us in the UK !!! i'd go for it, the uk is really down in the dumps at the minute, very depressing and a bit of sun makes everything seem better.

Souls - Budget looks fine, another 2k to top up incase in certain heads.

Again , it depends on how much you wana save out of the package.

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it treats it's least fortunates.

hahahaha mate, i wish it was such an easy decision to make but on the other hand i really want to get out of UK even if it's for a little while ... So then the conclusion would be that even though i'll be earning around 20k/month (like i said this includes the allowances) i would still be able to live good ... won't be able to save much in the time period but would be able to live good (better than UK of course) ... some pointers before i make a decision ... ugh! i wish i could add another 5k on the top of this :-P

20K - you'll be fine - git yer arse over here and enjoy the sun for a couple of years!

Did you Google it first?

Thanks a lot for the answers guys ... but i thought that 2 people would easily be able to live comfortably under the above budget mentioned ... remember i'm not a big spender and i'm due to be a dad ... am certainly not looking for a lavish lifestyle, something that will get the life going in a good way and that's it ... so after all this, do you still think there's a lot to add.

Ok lets assume if i have to add a bit more on the top of what i mentioned, should i be looking to add another QR2000 per month?

Got the job offer so getting really confused whether i should take it or not. It's QR20,000 per month which includes everything. My plan is to come to Doha for a year or two, get the experience and come back to UK.

As far a making phone calls is concerned, i'll be having my work mobile so that will do the job ;-)

This budget is ok for a single person. However, if you have family, then a lot of additional expenses will be there.

souls33k3r...nice budgeting...you got it perfect.

Civic full option with leather seats, sunroof etc is (QR 81,000)QR 1350 permonth for 5yrs & QR 2,250 permonth for 3yrs.

Now ofcourse the banks are stricter in lending and request for higher salary level than before.

Water & Electricity could be more if you have a family.

Groceries & misc could be around QR 2500 if you have a family here.

School Fees around QR 400 per month.

The rest is perfect...

She is Expert in Budgeting,

You're only including the minimum subscription charges for landline, don't you intend to do any calls? you're just receiving calls?

Same thing for the mobile ... a hala 50 would only give you 90 minutes of local calls... I think you'd need more than that for the whole month.

i would say, it's pretty much close to the real life, for not too high life quality.

Mobile: you will definitely spend much more..i would say about 150-200/month if you don't talk too much..

Flat:8500. Depends on what do you want. You can get a good 1 BR flat for this price or very average 2 BR.. If you want 2 br in a better place and better quality, put about 10-11K for it.

Car: you will be able to get max Civic for that price, even not fully loaded,if you BUY it... if you rent it will cost about 2000 at least...

Grocery is pretty close. I personally spend much less on grocery, but i eat out a lot...

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“You become responsible forever for what you have tamed”. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

u need to increase the prices by atleast 25% on each item.

fun = 10k/month

You need to increase your budget on mobile.. You'll be doing a lot of calls here. WELCOME TO QATAR!

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