Moving to Brussels. Am I on the right lines?

I think your gas/electricity/water might be a bit low, we just got here and have a small 1 bedroom apartment - our electricity/gas is $120/month. Electrabel.be can give you an estimate if you know what your usage will be.

Another thing that got us is that its normal to have to make a deposit for our rental agreement of 2-3 months.

and u will proably need house insureance we had to take it out on hour apartment the legal requirements cost us about 260

also water here in ours is 70 euros 3 times a year

Thanks Guys for the quick response.

Does Belgium charge a council tax type charge?

Not for renting well not in flanders areas so brussels should be fine its only if u own a house some renters may charger a charge for the building upkeep for example our rent is 630 and then 50 for building up keep

Thanks Hannah,

Things are adding up to slightly more than I expected, may have to really push on salary.

Brussels can be a very expenive place to live (i live around the outside of gent i much prefer it) also petrol is currently at allmost 1.70euro a litre

You also may have to buy a parking permit.I dont no for your area but i know many places do and things like car insureance road tax etc are a lot more than in uk

Thanks Hannah,

Similar fuel prices to the UK at about €1.85 here (robbery).

I have left aside roughly €400 for other stuff including insurance, but I am fast eating into this buffer

porbeagle wrote:

Hello All,

I am  currently looking to move to Brussels with my family and am trying to put together a rough budget of costs per month. Could someone tell me if I am on the right lines?

Rent (3 bed house in with 30 mins of Vilvoorde) - €1400
Gas/Elec/Water - €200
TV/Broadband/phone - €150
Petrol - €75
Groceries - €800
Insurance - €50

Anything else?

Please could someone let me know if I am on the right lines.

Many Thanks

You can get a house much cheaper than 1400 and also much more expensive than that, depends on where you want to live and the size and quality of house. I have a large 4 bed in WSP for 1500 a month.
gas/elec/water is likely to be greater than 200, try at least 300 for a 3 bed house, even with a new and efficient boiler, good insulation.
TV/broadband/phone costs 60 euro per month basic
can't comment on groceries without knowing for how many
insurance, house or car or some other kind of insurance? I pay 25 per month for contents insurance.

wow phone costs added to ur package are dear we pay around 37 for tv and internet and yeah our insureance for house was 260 a year for contense then some werid fire insureance stuff we had to have. How big a family is it

Allow 1/3 max of net monthly income for rent
Allow 1/3 for bills
Allow 1/3 for savings or spending on luxuries

Vilvoorde has a train station, if work is near it, no need to drive, public transportation is pretty good here.

If you have children, consider which language you wish your children to be educated in. Vilvoorde might be officially Dutch only, but many children in the area are French speaking and go to schools in nearby Bruxelles (Laeken). Brussels region is over 90% French speaking, Vilvoorde is directly adjacent, so you could choose either language, depending on where you choose to live.

Thanks Guys,

We are a small family with 1 daughter, one of the aims of moving to Brussels is to get her into a school where she can be immersed in a second language.

800 euro is a very high monthly spend for 2 adults and a small child, you could manage 500 euro a month, if you shop frugally.

All local schools are Dutch or French, depending on where you live, so all local schools would be an immersion experience, expect very little help for a child so young.

Sorry you didn't say age of child in fact! Under 8 years and she should be ok, over 8 years and it will take a bit of patience to learn the 2nd language of your choice.

Yeah we spend between 3 and 400 a month on food for 2 adults and really a young child wouldnt cost us much more we do buy a lot of salad things

Lydl or Aldi is a good frugal places to do basic food shopping. There are the 4 of us, 2 adults and 2 kiddos and we get by on around 400€ a month. Of the two I prefer Lydl as they have some fresh veggies and meat and such...

Yeah lidel is nice the meat is good aldi i wouldnt advise

Cool, that could save us a bit, We shop in Aldi in the UK, great shop, small ranges but good quality.

Yeah UK Aldi is really good here its not as much. Were in UK I found Lidel to be not so good and aldi better here it seems the other way around

Also colrujt (i think its how they spell it) Is the best for things like cans of fanta and coke etc and the appently Carrfours have an international food section for stuff you miss from uk tea etc but very pricy

You may also need to consider buying bottled water and a lot of the plumbing here isnt the best in Gent I have no problem with the later (But i live in what they call the countryside)However when I go to my inlaws which is near bru the water dosnt have a good taste so just depends some areas are good and some not so good. However you can also pick it up very cheaply to colru and i think aldi also dose  a good water drank called amanda that seems to be very popular here

Also when it comes to large ranges there really isnt anything as big as whats in uk in Belgium biggest your looking at is the smallar tescos size. Makro is big however you have to buy everything is larage amounts ie 6 cans of chicken soup 3 bottles of cocktail sauce and isnt really that much cheaper. You really have to shop around in this country when it comes to food if you want to save. I started making a list of whats useually cheaper and were

If you really miss UK stuff you can go to Stonemanor but it is quite pricy...