I live in Gurgaon. I'm living in a bit of an atypical situation in that I'm a SAHM of an Indian husband, but certainly anyone wanting to live more "authentically" could live like us, though most expats live well beyond my means
> accommodation prices: I'm in "builder flats" and we're paying 13,500 rupees a month for an 1100 sq ft 2 bd, 2 bath, 2 balcony place in a family oriented neighborhood with guards and little parks, but not really a "gated" community. That was the 2014 rate; we're about to renew our lease and it'll go up to 14,850.; Last year before our baby we
> public transportation fares: we don't have a car. An autorickshaw ride costs you 40-150 depending on the distance (150 the other side of Gurgaon), if you want to go to Delhi we'll either take take the metro (200 rupees probably) or take a taxi (300 to 800 rupees) depending on our needs. I also take a cycle rickshaw for local distances (like a kilometre) for like 30-50 rupees. Depending on how often you get out obviously you could add up these to a different amount each month, but probably we roughly budget 500 a typical month for these (we only get a taxi for trips to the airport or embassy.)
> food prices: I'd say generally 10,000 rupees. That's with ordering in probably about once a week to twice a month.
> health prices: can't really help you as I'm covered under my husband's. I will say though that for regular doctor's visits here Indian insurance doesn't pay, so we pay that out of pocket and it's about 50 rupees for a GP out of the hospital (like when I had allergy issues), 500 for out of the hospital specialist (like a gynecologist), about 500-700 for seeing a regular doctor in the hospital and about 1000 plus to see a specialist in the hospital. (Hint: if your insurance doesn't cover just regular visits, you might use a trusted hospital to find your doctor, but then ask them if they have an office elsewhere. Many do, and charge less at their private offices due to less overhead.)
> education prices: N/A, my daughter is an infant.
> energy prices: on the cheapest months of the year (spring/autumny temperatures) we pay about 2500 a month in electricity, maybe 1500 in a really good month. In summer we went up to 6500 last year with a newborn, from running the AC constantly, and 4000 in the winter with running the heat a lot. So an average budget of 3000 is about right for my apartment: in the towers though they bill differently and obviously this will vary based on how many cooling or heating devices you have hooked up to a system. In complexes you usually have to pay for power back up; we have our own invertor living in the builder flats (private power back up) which I think costs us about 7000 to buy?
You also have to pay for your gas for your stove. You get tanks. I think it's like 900 a full tank? It lasts several months, but you have to prepared for when it goes out.
> common bills: I pay about 300 a month for my phone bill, I think my husband pays 500 or so for some additional features. We have unlimited texting and talk, but limited data as we have wifi at home. We pay 3650 for our internet as we like to have a very fast connection; you certainly can pay less, we prioritize this. All this is from airtel.
> price for a good menu in a traditional restaurant: A "reasonable" menu for a nicer place to me has some entrees at the low end (below 300) and probably a few at the high end (800 plus) but not much more than that. More than that and I wouldn't go there because there's plenty, plenty of places that have good food in that range. One of the awesome things about living in India is also the ability to order in from almost any restaurant (and most grocery stores). Some websites to remember are foodpanda, tastykhana, and peppertap. Dominos India also has by far the best website for ordering I've seen; I'm not saying it's great food but it is very personalizable (like you can sub out of toppings and such) they deliver within a half hour (most other places are 45 min to an 1 hr) and they've pretty much never messed it up for us (where as I'd say it's probably 60% likely if we order from another restaurant there'll be something unexpected. lol.)
For all these places, you can pretty much always find a discount coupon code if you look, so we pretty much never pay full price (for take out.)
> price for a coffee or a drink: 100-200 rupees probably.
> price for cinema tickets: 200- 1200 rupees depending on date, theater location, timing, class of seat.
The Indian lifestyle
Things to see and to do in India
Working in Pondicherry
Developing your social circle in New Delhi
Work permits for India
Moving with your pet to India
Childcare and the education system in India
How to drive in India
