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GeorgeVarghese

All,

I have been offered 800k Fl/month as gross pay and 35k / month as Cafeteria benefits.  My Family is 4 , wife and 2 kids. One is 5yrs old [ started schooling] and one is 1.5 yrs. Is this amount good for a family in budapest. 

Below are our expenses

1. Flat rent [ 2 bedrooms]. My office is at west end city center. So something within 5- 10 kms is fine .
2. Need high speed internet.
3. We will eat out at least twice a week.
4. New clothes and toys for kids once in a month.
5. Movie twice a month .
4. Wife will not be working as she has decided to take care of our younger one still she starts schooling.
5. We plan to buy a car [ used] 6-7 months down the line.
6. We plan to visit a EU country once in a year.

Any input if this salary will suffice.

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GuestPoster279

Budapest is organized as districts. Different districts of Budapest have different rent costs and other expenses. Hard to help you without knowing where you are located exactly. "West end of city center" is not really exact enough.

But, otherwise, for a monthly budget, generically, see :

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Budapest

GuestPoster279

GeorgeVarghese wrote:

5. We plan to buy a car [ used] 6-7 months down the line..


For what it is worth, used cars in Hungary are often junk that are way, way over priced. You will be better off getting a long term lease, or a new car with a long term payment plan as that will at least come with some years of warranty.

GeorgeVarghese

1062 Budapest, Váci út 1-3.. This is the address.

GeorgeVarghese

klsallee wrote:

Budapest is organized as districts. Different districts of Budapest have different rent costs and other expenses. Hard to help you without knowing where you are located exactly. "West end of city center" is not really exact enough.

But, otherwise, for a monthly budget, generically, see :

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Budapest


Thank you for the response..  From what I put in this website, I get close to 460k, when my current spending in Bangalore in normalised to Budapest. but i don't believe these websites completely .  I think an opinion from somebody who lives there would be much more valuable than this website.

SimCityAT

GeorgeVarghese wrote:
klsallee wrote:

Budapest is organized as districts. Different districts of Budapest have different rent costs and other expenses. Hard to help you without knowing where you are located exactly. "West end of city center" is not really exact enough.

But, otherwise, for a monthly budget, generically, see :

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Budapest


Thank you for the response..  From what I put in this website, I get close to 460k, when my current spending in Bangalore in normalised to Budapest. but i don't believe these websites completely .  I think an opinion from somebody who lives there would be much more valuable than this website.


Despite that, you may disagree with these kind of sites. They are a good comparison with giving low and high end with the average price.

cdw057

I have to say for Hungarian standards this salary is not bad at all. I would even say you are probably a good specialist. I have worked in many countries myself before and now only working on a consulting basis (give my view via phone) so I can do this from almost everywhere (apart from the odd business trips which pay extra well).
I do not know what kind of job you are in, but if IT, financial, consulting, I really would consider 2 or 3 days very long days of work (12 hours and in practice more and the rest from home), stay in a hotel (only 2 days) and put your family somewhere very comfortable and make them happy at a very good price.

Again I do not know your situation so you might not have leeway.

We live in a house, more like  a mansion and life is good (very good) on a budget of around your salary (admittedly no rent to pay, but than again having a mansion also comes with cost (we set aside EUR 300 pm), your family would live quite well.

By the way eating out is good and you also save some on normal shopping . On restaurants  (me and my wife minimum 2 times per week (shame in our area no International restaurants (Indian, Chinese, Thai, ..)).
For movies, in Hungary a definite no, but Netflix a big TV will do better. Theather when children are older is better.
You still sound quite young, enjoy life and earn sound like perfect and privileged. If you are the perfect specialist Luxembourg is better.

SimCityAT

The average salary in Budapest, Hungary is currently around 250,000 HUF (or €750 euros) after taxes in 2019.

GuestPoster279

GeorgeVarghese wrote:

I think an opinion from somebody who lives there would be much more valuable than this website.


Web sites are of course to be suspected. They are a biased sample by those that reply. They are not a random sample. Same for a forum. So not sure that you will expect to get better answers here.

But otherwise, why are you assuming that those that respond to the site I suggested don't live in Budapest? Why do you assume that everyone that may reply here lives in Budapest?

GuestPoster279

SimCityAT wrote:
GeorgeVarghese wrote:
klsallee wrote:

Budapest is organized as districts. Different districts of Budapest have different rent costs and other expenses. Hard to help you without knowing where you are located exactly. "West end of city center" is not really exact enough.

But, otherwise, for a monthly budget, generically, see :

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Budapest


Thank you for the response..  From what I put in this website, I get close to 460k, when my current spending in Bangalore in normalised to Budapest. but i don't believe these websites completely .  I think an opinion from somebody who lives there would be much more valuable than this website.


Despite that, you may disagree with these kind of sites. They are a good comparison with giving low and high end with the average price.


Yes. Exactly. These sites are good for general comparison and expected price ranges. Which like horse shoes and hand grenades -- should be close enough to help one get a general picture to help make imperfect decisions in an imperfect world.

Especially since issues like how much meals out will cost are impossible to answer.

I have spent as little as 3,000 HUF and well over 30,000 HUF on a meal out for two. So such things entirely depend on the dietary habits (and fiscal means) of the person eating. And any answer is useless in singularity unless the reply perfectly corresponds to the OP's dietary proclivities. This has been mentioned, repeatedly, here at this forum, but these "how much does it cost to eat out" questions still appear....

GuestPoster279

cdw057 wrote:

By the way eating out is good and you also save some on normal shopping


Do you mean saving time?

Because eating out is (except in the most limited circumstances) always more directly expensive (quality and quantity being equal) than buying food you then prepare at home.

cdw057

Indeed eating out is more expensive, but it is not completely wasted, saving some shopping at least. When I have dinner for 2 at HUF 10.000 I count savings in shopping of HUF 2000

GuestPoster279

cdw057 wrote:

When I have dinner for 2 at HUF 10.000 I count savings in shopping of HUF 2000


How do you calculate that savings?

That is, if one is self employed, then one could, in theory, offset time shopping as an expense. So that is certainly to consider.

But if one is on salary, as the OP, there is not time based savings to going shopping.

cdw057

I am actually both, self employed and salary, but what I mean is if I go out eating in a restaurant, it means for me I do not have to eat meat, vegetables and drink cola or wine at home. If I were to eat out every day (which I do not) I would not have to do grocerie shopping and therefore would "save" these expenses.

GeorgeVarghese

Thank you very much for the response

GeorgeVarghese

Good question. The prices quoted in numbeo for banaglore are way too high. For example domestic beer is quoted at 150 INR, but it is 80 INR for 0.5 litre. Cable + Internet starts at 300 INR/month, but what is quoted in 1000 INR. I do agree some items are near reality , but some are not.

GeorgeVarghese

cdw057 wrote:

I have to say for Hungarian standards this salary is not bad at all. I would even say you are probably a good specialist. I have worked in many countries myself before and now only working on a consulting basis (give my view via phone) so I can do this from almost everywhere (apart from the odd business trips which pay extra well).
I do not know what kind of job you are in, but if IT, financial, consulting, I really would consider 2 or 3 days very long days of work (12 hours and in practice more and the rest from home), stay in a hotel (only 2 days) and put your family somewhere very comfortable and make them happy at a very good price.

Again I do not know your situation so you might not have leeway.

We live in a house, more like  a mansion and life is good (very good) on a budget of around your salary (admittedly no rent to pay, but than again having a mansion also comes with cost (we set aside EUR 300 pm), your family would live quite well.

By the way eating out is good and you also save some on normal shopping . On restaurants  (me and my wife minimum 2 times per week (shame in our area no International restaurants (Indian, Chinese, Thai, ..)).
For movies, in Hungary a definite no, but Netflix a big TV will do better. Theather when children are older is better.
You still sound quite young, enjoy life and earn sound like perfect and privileged. If you are the perfect specialist Luxembourg is better.


Thank you very much for the details. Yes I do work in IT, as a solution architect.   As of now I do need to go to office , but wfh home is an option down the line :).  Happy to know you have a very good life with this budget , though i am not looking for a mansion, am feeling lot confident that this salary can cater for my family. Yes , Benelux is in my list for future . :)

Rawlee

Gross 800 (net 532) is a good wage, I earn half that much. But for a single salary, that will be tight. Especially for 2 children.

Just eating out for 2 will take away 20% of that amount (12000*8=96000), rent will take an other 20% (~150000), car will consume about 2 tanks in a month (50000). Clothes will be an other 100000. Food for us (2 adults) is about 40000, So maybe 60000 for 2+2. Bills will be difficult to tell, it can be really low, and really high, around 50000 is ok I guess.

We are already at 546000.

Ditch the car, useless in the city. Eat out 1-2 times a month, or stick to fast food. At the spending rate you want, coming to Hungary will not get you further in life, you will be consuming everything you earn.

Also, wife should work. Housewife career is a luxury here.

Marilyn Tassy

That is a good salary here in HU but it also seems you are wanting a sort of extravagant lifestyle.
I didn't break down the math to the dollar but I think 800,000 forints is roughly around $3,400 a month.
Is this after taxes?
Is your job going to cover health coverage for everyone in your family or just you?
I do think you can make it on this income but not sure you will be saving much if you do all you plan on doing.
My husband and I live on about $800. a month and save the rest of our income. We do not pay rent, we paid cash years ago for our flat in the city.
We also are "old folks" and don't do lavish activities.
We both dislike going to the movies, haven't seen a good film in years at a theater.
We have a older car that runs like new , it's now going on 30 years old.
We only use it in the warm months to take trips with or just a weekly trip to Tesco.
Went to lake Balaton this past Tuesday and seriosuly took longer to get to the highway through the city then to drive the highway to Balaton, over 45 mins just to get to the highway on ramp, way too much city traffic to bother using a car in the city.
I know years ago my husband brought home a min of $5,000. US per month in the mid 1980's and with a lifestyle like you are expecting we were only able to save a round $5,000. a year. One child and a big house , we paid our own health coverage and this was before our quarterly taxes went out.
Our house payment in S. Ca. was only $998.00 a month too.
Not a bad income at all but things aren't as cheap in Hungary as they used to be either.
I redid the month, 800,000 is more around $2,800 a month.
2 bd flat would probably be at least 80 sq. meters or so.
Rent and household bills  will be somewhere around $1,000 a month or so. Depending on the district and how much your months bills add up to. Internet is cheap overall in HU.
Eating out twice a week for 2 adults in a normal place would be $40. to $50. a meal min.
Movies are expensive these days here, at least $10. a head for an adult.
Kids cost a lot for diapers and small items.
You can make it here in HU but you may have to lower your expectations a tiny bit.
I also believe  gross income is before the HU taxes which would eat away 1/3rd your monthly income

GeorgeVarghese

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

That is a good salary here in HU but it also seems you are wanting a sort of extravagant lifestyle.
I didn't break down the math to the dollar but I think 800,000 forints is roughly around $3,400 a month.
Is this after taxes?
Is your job going to cover health coverage for everyone in your family or just you?
I do think you can make it on this income but not sure you will be saving much if you do all you plan on doing.
My husband and I live on about $800. a month and save the rest of our income. We do not pay rent, we paid cash years ago for our flat in the city.
We also are "old folks" and don't do lavish activities.
We both dislike going to the movies, haven't seen a good film in years at a theater.
We have a older car that runs like new , it's now going on 30 years old.
We only use it in the warm months to take trips with or just a weekly trip to Tesco.
Went to lake Balaton this past Tuesday and seriosuly took longer to get to the highway through the city then to drive the highway to Balaton, over 45 mins just to get to the highway on ramp, way too much city traffic to bother using a car in the city.
I know years ago my husband brought home a min of $5,000. US per month in the mid 1980's and with a lifestyle like you are expecting we were only able to save a round $5,000. a year. One child and a big house , we paid our own health coverage and this was before our quarterly taxes went out.
Our house payment in S. Ca. was only $998.00 a month too.
Not a bad income at all but things aren't as cheap in Hungary as they used to be either.
I redid the month, 800,000 is more around $2,800 a month.
2 bd flat would probably be at least 80 sq. meters or so.
Rent and household bills  will be somewhere around $1,000 a month or so. Depending on the district and how much your months bills add up to. Internet is cheap overall in HU.
Eating out twice a week for 2 adults in a normal place would be $40. to $50. a meal min.
Movies are expensive these days here, at least $10. a head for an adult.
Kids cost a lot for diapers and small items.
You can make it here in HU but you may have to lower your expectations a tiny bit.
I also believe  gross income is before the HU taxes which would eat away 1/3rd your monthly income


Thank you very much Marilyn. Yeah.. I imagined what I asked was bit extravagant.. Did  that I will get the worst case scenario analysis :). Yes 800k before taxes. The HR told a take home of 660k.. i dont know how they worked it out.  Yes they will cover insurance for family and me.. I had my fear of coming, but the HR sounds very positive.  I did a lot of dicing and slicing, i come a figure 420k ..But as you said in another of your post, we should be positive on things and moving there is the first thing and face things . :)

Rawlee

It is probably due to the children.

Marilyn Tassy

Best of luck with your new job and move.
Worst case, you can always move back home.
Our son just moved to Japan so I understand how stressful it is to figure out how your new lifestyle will work.
It is a brave move to bring a young family with you to a new place.

GuestPoster279

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Eating out twice a week for 2 adults in a normal place would be $40. to $50. a meal min.


My wife and I normally pay about 7,000 HUF for dinner. About $25. I think we eat in pretty normal places. So, like I said, suggestions of meal costs is difficult, as it can vary by one's diet and what they order.

GuestPoster279

GeorgeVarghese wrote:

I had my fear of coming, but the HR sounds very positive.


HR is of course biased. Of course they will sound positive. There is a need for IT people in Hungary and they are of course going to make things sound better than they may actually be.

Not a critique. Rather just a suggestion to put things in perspective. In short, the move will be a leap of faith in many ways. And you may simply need to keep highly agile and adjust on the fly when here. Don't try to come with fixed ideas and what you may, or may not, be able to do here. Just confirm you can cover the essentials of living, which your salary should do, and work from there about how much you have left over each month and what extras you can afford.

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