Can I live in Nepal in 66,000/- NRs P.M

Hi A.Samant,

Welcome to Expat.com

I invite you to check out these two topics :

- Cost of living 2018 in Nepal
- Cost of living in Nepal - 2017

Hopefully, you will find some information that will help you to know more about the cost of living there.

All the best,

Priscilla
Expat.com team 

Thank you , much appreciated

There are a lot of Nepali with extra rooms or even an entire flat. The problem is they are not alway furnished and it can be a real challenge to get furniture. You can join the KTMKTM group on google. There are a lot of Nepali looking for tenants.

how do I go about joining this group....Thank you !!

A.Samant wrote:

how do I go about joining this group....Thank you !!

Read post#4 carefully. 

ok

A. Samant,

You can obviously live in Nepal with 66000 NRs. Live quite comfortably actually.
It all depends what are your standards of living.

Just for an example, living in a share house you can find a full-furnished room (or little flat) under 15000 or 20000 rupees a month. That let you with 46000 NRs for food and activities. Considering you can eat for 150 rupees per meal in local restaurants, let's make it 3 times a day, it is around 500 rupees, which lead to 15000 rupees per month for food. If you cook yourself of course, you can make it cheaper.

Then again, if you go out a lot having a few drinks, then the bill will rise for sure ... So every-time this kind of question is asked, it is hard to reply because needs and goals are different from person to person.

Hope this helps anyway.
Cheers

Perfect, Thank you so much for your input

Also, would you be able to recommend any furnished apartments...??

You can join this discussion group : https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ktmktm
Also if you are on facebook, you can search for "Kathmandu Expats" or "Nepal Expats" groups, then join them and see if something suits your needs.

These groups mainly target expats, so it means prices will be generally higher than what Nepalis would usually pay ... Still it is interesting to have a look.

For a group which is not targeting expats or tourists, on facebook you can search for "room finder kathmandu".

If you live cheaply, don't travel much by plane or stay in hotels then you can do it for that amount. Not sure where you are from buthttps://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/ and http://www.nationmaster.com/ will give you something to compare to.

I think for NPR 66k you can lead a very comfortable life in Nepal.

Regarding accommodation, book a place for 10 days - [ https://www.airbnb.co.in/ ], [ https://www.agoda.com/ ]. Meet locals and then commit to long-term accommodation.

It all depends on expectations. If you trying to live like an American in the states then absolutely not.. If you are more humble in your expectations then you can get by. It's not luxury but you can do ok if you don't travel much, don't drink alcohol, and don't eat out a lot at nice restaurants.

If I were to come with only $600 a month, I'd first bring about $1000 extra to buy my own furniture. Then I'd rent a room furnished while I spend a few months learning where I'd like to live, Kirtipur, Bhaktapur, Patan, etc. While living in a nice room you can find where to find an inexpensive bed, towels, etc. Shopping in Kathmandu is like a treasure hunt and can be fun if you aren't rushed.

Next, in 2 months you will have a place to deliver that nice new bed and stuff. The thing I miss the most about the US is the thrift shops/garage sales. They won't help you here. Tourists want to sell used stuff, but the problem is they pay too much for it originally. Half price is still more than retail. When you find the room/flat you want to rent you can inform the landlord that you will be bringing the furniture, but do not want the rent to start until you take possession. Things like that aren't usually not a problem.

My problem was always the fact that Nepali do not close doors behind them-no matter how cold it is outside. I got an entire building to fix this problem, but you don't have to. You can get hydrolic door closers and have them installed on the front and rooftop doors. You may also want to buy your landlord a cordless phone so they won't feel a need to leave the door open in case the phone rings. There are a lot of cultural issues that will crop up. Just remember it isn't because they want to be ***; it's culture. They are really almost always lovely people.

As always you are always very well stated and a wealth of information. Very good advice!

We just sold 10 beds from one of our houses that were just Gathering dust. Seems like they could do with a good thrift store but I'm not sure that they don't use everything up they buy in Nepal?

It's true what the lady said, I've noticed that too, nepalis never close doors behind them. But her wisest words that I can recall were... "never to invest more money in Nepal than you can afford to lose". That's a gem and something for all of us to bear in mind.
As for plain ordinary living here on 66,000 Nrs budget and rental basis of course, it's all a question of one's standard of living....and one's expectations also, as this other contributor correctly pointed out. I have no doubt it can be done, many people live on less - that's for sure.