There are few better ways to estimate living expenses in a country than to look at what other people are spending.
And today I am going to share with you our average monthly living expenses here in Romania, living Constanta, Romania. And comparing our costs here with those in our previous city by the Danube, Drobeta Turnu Severin.
Things have changed a lot in the past several years due to the natural evolution of prices, but especially the rampant recent inflation. We’ll see that everything is a LOT more expensive today than it was in 2020 or before that.
I also have a more generic cost of living article for those interested – but this one tells you exactly how much we’ve spent since moving to Constanta.
Actually, I’m going to share my family’s average monthly expenses over the past 12 months. Note: We only moved in Constanta in June 2022, so we’re getting a bit of both worlds, I would say.
Our spending habits
I think it’s very important to know how people choose to spend their money to try to estimate where you stand compared to that. Some people prefer to eat out more, go out often, but fancy clothes regularly and so on.
The truth is that Romania is an extremely cheap country and you can live on a lot less than in other Western ones, but not all things are automatically cheaper than in Western Europe, with prices growing steadily over the years and sometimes on par with the ones in the richer countries.
My personal case proves that and even though I am sure that our average monthly living expenses are way lower than those of most families in Western Europe, it’s not always dirt cheap to live here and it all depends on how you want to live your life.
So, how do we spend our money?
First of all, “we” means my wife, my son (who’s 9 right now) and myself. We have rented a place in Constanta, after owning our apartment back in Drobeta Turnu Severin.
We eat mostly at home – but we try to go for natural, healthy food as often as possible, including organic options.
We rarely go out especially because we have nobody to leave our son with (babysitting is still far from a thing here) and we can’t take him with us either as he goes to bed at around 8PM.
We are moderate spenders, usually, even though we go crazy every now and then and throw away money on things we don’t necessarily need… (this hasn’t changed over the years).
I would say that we basically live a moderate life, spending like a middle class family: nothing too fancy, but not trying to budget very hard either.
On the other side, we don’t really care about buying expensive shoes and clothes, we don’t have an expensive car and try to live as cheaply as possible.
So without further ado, here are the average monthly expenses for a family of three living in Romania, in the year 2023, based on the previous 12 months and compared to the previous values shared here on the blog.
Our monthly living expenses in Romania
Food: €480 (vs €455 in 2019 and €315 in 2015)
Utilities: €124 (vs 140 Euros in 2019 and €109 in 2015) – This might seem strange with rising costs, but we moved here from electrical heating and no natural gas to everything done on gas, which is MUCH cheaper.
House-related: €130 (vs 122 Euros in 2019 and €171 in 2015)
Gifts: €120 (vs 55 Euros in 2019 and €58.50 in 2015)
Entertainment: €155 (vs €88 Euros in 2019 and €31.50 in 2015)
Car: €60 (vs €47 in 2019 and €109 in 2015)
Health: €126 (vs 46 Euros in 2019 and €75 in 2015)
Beauty & Toiletries: €34 (vs €25 in 2019 and €25.50 in 2015)
Miscellaneous: €197 (vs €150 Euros in 2019 and €167 in 2015)
Rent: €400 (vs 0) Note: Our rent is €800, but only paid it for 6 months.
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TOTAL: 1,826 Euros per month (vs €1,283 in 2019 and €1,146.5 in 2015)
All in all, we did manage to keep our costs pretty much the same despite the increase in general prices (if we are to exclude the extra expense – Rent).
We did eat out a bit more than usually since moving to Constanta (as everything was new and shiny), but overall managed to keep things relatively under control.
We did spend a lot more in the six months after moving here to Constanta, even without judging the rent, but got into a rhythm and this year we’re set to spend as little as possible – especially with such a high rent.
BUT for a family of three, I don’t think the expenses are crazy.
I won’t say if these numbers are high or low, this all depends on the lifestyle choices that you make.
Remember, though, that a LOT of people in Romania live on a lot less (check the salaries in Romania article to see how much people are earning), while many others would consider our monthly averages less than what they would need to make a decent living.
So, in the end, your way of living matters the most.
We also noticed an increase in costs related to our kid – when he was a baby, these were mostly related to his regular doctor appointments and not much else.
Now, he has a few extracurricular activities that we’re paying for, he needs new clothes regularly and our expenses are going up significantly each year. Yes, kids are expensive (but totlly worth it!)
Also, if you move here for long or short term, some of the expenses we have might disappear, while other new ones could pop up.
Have in mind that rental prices, as well as the costs for purchasing an apartment or house in Romania have skyrocketed lately and they are at an all time high right now.
Finding a place to live – even in the smaller cities – that is under 300 Euros for a family of three is almost impossible nowadays. I wrote and in-depth article sharing some rental properties in Romania – make sure to check it out.
Expect to pay at least 500 Euros for a 2 bedroom apartment – generally more in the larger cities, where you can end up paying up to 1,000 Euros per month for a 2-bedroom apartment in a good area.
However, I believe that our monthly averages prove that one person can still live on 1,000 Euros per month in Romania, as I have already said and I also believe that, with rent included, a family of three could live here on a budget of 2,000 Euros without a problem. Maybe even less.
What about you? Have you been living in Romania for a longer amount of time? Are your costs similar to ours or you’re spending way more (or less) than we do, on average?
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That is super low for family to live on, however I am surprised the food part is pretty high. I would have expected it to be lower, but like you say, depends on the choices you make. In Guatemala I spend about $150 per person on groceries because we eat imported products which are expensive, but if you eat rice and beans and fruits you can eat for $1 or $2 a day I guess.
After kemkem’s comment, I did a quick comparison between Romania’s food prices and those in Spain and I was shocked to find out that ours are slightly higher (which makes no sense to me since the average wage in Romania is waaaay below the one in Spain). Still, we plan to be a bit more careful with our spending on food and I am sure that we can lower it by a lot – our goal for 2015 is $300 per month.
Our budget is similar. We don’t have debt / rent and also have a baby. Many families live on 600 dollars/month, some have bigger budgets, some smaller, depending on the income, where they live etc.
I do agree that even a smaller pension for someone in the US or other countries in the EU could be enough to live here, though.
The thing is that most of these families who live on really low budgets also have some family members living in nearby villages, sending them some food and helping them as much as they can, while we’re 100% on our own – as would be the case of most foreigners coming to Romania. Glad to hear that we’re not the only ones with such a monthly budget, some people would call us crazy for spending so much 🙂
I visited Romania while on deployment in 2012, and I always thought that it could be a great place to retire. It’s beautiful and cheap.