Cost of living in Bangalore

I have lived in Bangalore for more than five years now as a bachelor, so I think I have a fair idea of the expenses one has to take care of during thier first time stay in Bangalore.

I will just lay out the approximate expenses I had to bear in these years in Bangalore. Of course, this is based on my lifestyle, and the spending on certain heads can change for different people, but the expense heads remain the same.

One Time Spends

Deposit – One of the first expenses for people moving to Bangalore is finding a decent place to stay. I had to shell out 20000 rs for deposit as I chose to stay in a shared apartment by SimplyGuest.

Home Setup – The approx cost of the setup comes to about 1 lac, if you optimize the value and manage some second-hand things to have your house fully furnished. I didn’t have this kind of money, so I chose a fully furnished place with SimplyGuest. They took care of everything, and I just had to pay the monthly rent. So, my cost was zero.

Total one-time cost for me = 20000

Monthly Spends

Rent + Maintainance – For me, it was 10000 for a sharing room as I was staying in BTM stage 2 very near to silk board, and it is a lovely serene and calm locality. I was still staying there till pandemic came around 🙂

Cook – We started paying 1100 for lunch and dinner, but we are paying 1700 for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and our cook is great. I don’t miss home.

Cleaning Maid – This is another 1000 rupees for cleaning of dishes, kitchen, and general housekeeping. This cost is after sharing it with flatmates.

Groceries – I didn’t put any restrictions on the kind of groceries to order. However, it generally adds up to 4000 per month.

Petrol – I have a field job, and my petrol bills are not reimbursed, so I end up spending about 2500 on petrol or travel in cabs.

Bills (Mobile, Misc, etc.) – It adds to about 1500 rupees a month. It can be optimized if someone chooses not to have certain things.

Weekend Spend – I generally watch a movie every weekend and have food outside on Sunday as our cook is on leave. This adds to about 2500 on food and 2500 on movies.

Total Monthly recurring Spend = 25700

Periodic Spends (twice or thrice a year)

Small Holiday Trips – I save a bit every month to make sure that I have a trip every three months. This amounts to about 10000. This purely depends on your preference. So the yearly Spend amounts to about 50000.

Tip to Home – I am from Rajasthan, and a return ticket is about 11000, and I travel to the Home twice a year. When you go home, there are certain other unavoidable expenses which amount to about 10000 per trip. So, the total yearly cost comes to about 45000.

Total Leasure/ Travel cost per month = 9000

Now, let’s calculate the effective per month expense = 25700+9000 = 34700

Over and above this, there are other expenses like shopping and nightlife, but I have left those things to people as the expenses are very subjective.

I hope this gives you a fair idea of how much money is needed to survive in a city like Bangalore. I completely agree that many of these heads can be optimized, and the cost of living can go down significantly, but that’s a function of one’s lifestyle that cannot be generalized.

So, you can use the heads and change value according to what you think is the fair value and find out your cost of living in Bangalore.

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