A question which I’ve been meaning to answer for some time is “what is the cost of living over there for an expat?” It seems like it can be a very confusing question.

To give you the short answer, it's very reasonable and for me, coming from London, it's refreshing!

I’m going to take you through what you need to consider and keep in mind all costs shown are in Saudi Arabian Riyals.

THE BIG STUFF!

Accommodation
This will be the biggest chunk and you should receive 25% of your salary each month to cover accommodation, this is standard and is a requirement when hiring expats
Costs vary significantly from city to city, apartment vs compound vs villa etc, so this is what I’ve found based in Jeddah for the past 4 years.
1 bedroom 4070,000 annual
2 bedroom 70100,000 annual
3 bedroom 100,000+ annual

Travel
You should receive 10% of your salary each month as your travel allowance; again this is a standard
Taxi life 3075 per trip / 140 per day / 950 per week / 3,800 per month
Car rental 2,500 and upwards
Car purchase as you like… (!)

Health Insurance
This will be covered as standard as part of your employment; I really recommend finding out what bracket your company are putting you so you’re aware and can request an upgrade.

I won’t include these in the total budget because the fluctuations are vast; I’ll let you do some of the math ;)

THE MONTHLY EXPENSES!

Pretty sure I’ve covered most things here. Again, huge fluctuations based on what life you want to life.

Bills (water and electric) 400
WiFi 400
Mobile 100
Gas / Petrol 400
Car Wash 60
Gym 700
Groceries 1000
Meat 1000
Veg & Fruit 400
Water 60
Supplements 500
Higher end restaurants 2,000
Midrange restaurants 1,200
Takeaways 1,500
Coffees 300
Haircuts 300
Entertainment 600

Total for monthly expenses are around 10,500 SAR for a couple.

You should comfortably be able to cut this by half if you're prioritising on saving or spending a little more carefully.

I hope this helps!

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