12000 AED enough to be happy on

[Eng.Khaled]

I ate in restaurants twice a day. Go to cinema twice a week. have fine dinner once a week, along with other expenses... and I barely reach 3000 AED a month. considering I don't club or drink. Of course this is aside from Housing and DEW.

[Engineer]

So that person lives on 10k a month... Yowzers.

They give it to me to spend, so thats just what I do!

[Kawasutra]

Originally Posted by Engineer

They give it to me to spend, so thats just what I do!

If it is an instruction from your employer than you have to do it, no other choice I guess...

[beaniebops]

I wish my company gave me a party allowance! :P

[Hunnybunny]

Originally Posted by Jynxgirl

So that person lives on 10k a month... Yowzers.

I spend about 2500 dirhams a month at this point. Food though is covered at work overall, transportation and gas covered, and go out to eat at chilis/texas roadhouse/lowly non alcohol serving places once or twice a week and a few times at the cheap arabic type places.
I dont drink overall and dont club/party/bar/etc. The first 12 months were 6/7k a month or so though and that was without drinking. Always seemed to 'need' something or other and the stuff to do was new and more.

++ Actually I can imagine spending a good few thousand dirham the first few months between booking flights in advance, new things needed for the appartment and that. After a while things settle. I do intend on making the odd trip to the Irish village though

[Engineer]

I wish my company gave me a party allowance! :P

It is normal in my line of work.

[ccr]

Originally Posted by Engineer

It is normal in my line of work.

which is... ?

Just curious... Are you permanently in UAE, or on rotation ?

[gemsy62]

I hope it is enough to live off as its more than I was planning to spend!

I've looked at a few budget calculators for cost of living in Dubai and I can't see any reason why a single person would need more than 12,000 to live off. Providing accomodation was provided on top of this.

[TexasRanger]

Originally Posted by Hunnybunny

Hello all,

I would love to hear some opinions. I will be living on 12 AED pm and working as a teacher. I was told 12k is a decent teaching salary for Dubai (some places offer A LOT less). This will include accomodation, yearly flights home, transport to and from school, most of the utilites (except internet and there is a small deduction for water and electricity(something like 40-60 AED to 100 max) All in all this will leave me with 11 900 to play about with.

Peoples perceptions of money and how far it will go really interest me.

Last time I was in the Emirates I was on less than half of what I am going on this time 5,600 (admitidly I was outside of Dubai) Yet I managed to save at least 2000 AED a month on average, went on 4 holidays, had weekly manicures and membership at the Hilton for some of that time. I never drove and that is a big money saver. I took taxis everywhere which were dirt cheap. Eating out was fairly cheap and I went to Dubai about 1-2 times a month.

This time my main expenses will be food, internet, taxis to the mall or Jumeirah at the weekends, 2-4 nights out a month, not to mention a few trips to Spinneys for booze and a small number of trips abroad. I will have a pool at my complex so probably won t need hotel membership. I won t bother with a car unless I am doing a road trip. That does seem to be an expense that adds up.

Dubai is a good bit more expensive than where I was, I have no doubt about that. Taxis are a little dearer and there is more temptation to spend in the malls. However, this time round I have been there, done that for many things. I also heard that food in Carrefour would be the same price as where I was. I found the food dirt cheap (then again I am Irish so just about every country is far cheaper than where I am from ) Jumeirah used to have a very small charge in and I practically lived on that beach in Dubai.

I also drink a lot less over there. Mainly because its not so readily available so that won t be a huge expense. I also wouldn t be a regular at Spinneys as it is so expensive.

In total my salary is around £2000 sterling which is far far more than is put into my hand in the UK (I live round London way ) In fact I toddle by on 250 a month spending money and save double that.

My goal is to save at least half and use the rest to spend/ go abroad with.
Even still 5.900 does seem like a lot of money to play around with (more than my old salary),

What makes Dubai so expensive and people so broke? Is it more down to lifestyle choices than cost? I d be really interested to know.

What type of school do you teach at?

[Hunnybunny]

Originally Posted by TexasRanger

What type of school do you teach at?

It will be a private British curriculum school. It gets quite good reviews and the salary seems to be decent or the best I have seen yet. In fact I was so shocked at the salaries offered by some of the well known Dubai schools I was led by others to believe that 11- 12000 AED is the absolute minimum. Yet some schools were offering 9 or 10000.