I've been based in Cairo since November 2007 and this blog records some of my experiences either about practicalities of living here, trips I have made or other matters, plus positive aspects of women's lives here. This blog does NOT discuss politics or religion.
Pages
▼
Saturday, 19 July 2008
Funky new map widget
Absolutely nothing to do with Egypt, but I found this new map tool (to your right) which adds a dot according to where in the world visitors to the page appear to be from - it gets updated overnight, so your dot doesn't appear straight away.
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
Oldbag of Cairo Amalgamated Megacorp PLC
NOW UPDATED FOR THE WHOLE YEAR OF 2008
For those of you interested in how much it costs to live here in Cairo, I have now done my FULL YEAR REVIEW for 2008. I hope you find it useful!
This is for me and my two cats. No rent or housing costs (other than utilities, maintenance etc are included).
HEADLINE RESULTS
TOP LEVEL SUMMARY:
TOTAL ANNUAL BUDGET: 36000.00 LE
TOTAL SPEND: 37995.95 LE
======================
TOTAL OVERSPEND: 1995.95LE
Whole Year to date (1st Jan to 31st Dec 2008)
CAPITAL(everything with a potential life span of 2 years or more)
budget (@1500LE pm) = 18000.00 LE
expends = 17207.60 LE
-------
792.4 Underspend hurrah
This includes a heavy spending on a club membership - one more payment due next year. It also includes 2 short breaks - to the desert and to Luxor and 1200LE for spending money on trip to the UK.
OPERATING COSTS (utilities, food, cleaning materials, transport, etc etc - general day to day stuff)
budget (@1500LE pm) = 18000.00 LE
expends = 20788.35 LE
-----------
2788.35 Overspend
Taking out costs of broadband, phones, electricity, visas, medical checks, transport and annual club subs - the net spends on day to day stuff:
First quarter (Jan - Mar): daily spend: 37.893LE
Second quarter (Apr - Jun):daily spend: 39.329LE
Third quarter (Jul - Sept): daily spend: 41.94LE
Fourth quarter (Oct - Dec): daily spend: 52.68LE (SEE NOTES)
OVERALL DAILY SPEND ON FOOD, CATS, TRANSPORT, PHONE TOP UPS ETC: 42.98LE
NOTES - increase in spending during the fourth quarter I restocked up on a year's worth of printer inks (which added 3.93LE per day to the daily spend) and took on a gardener in December which adds 130LE per month). I also started buying proper cat food for my cats as I was concerned for their health. I am therefore spending approx 300LE per month on meat now including their food.
FURTHER ANALYSIS OF OPERATING COSTS (utilities, food, cleaning materials, transport, etc etc - general day to day stuff)
DSL - full year 2507LE (this will reduce as I have dropped TEData and just use Etisalat)
Landline - 240LE
Electricity - 700LE
Visas (including reentry visas, photocopies etc) - 221LE
Medical checks including vet - 264LE
General travel (bus/microbus/taxi-rare) - 794LE
Meat stuff (for me + for cats) - 3600LE
Mobile phone top ups - 615LE
Entrances to concerts, museums etc plus a few 'big days out' - 700LE
Everything else - 11147.35LE
==================================
For those of you interested in how much it costs to live here in Cairo, I have now done my FULL YEAR REVIEW for 2008. I hope you find it useful!
This is for me and my two cats. No rent or housing costs (other than utilities, maintenance etc are included).
HEADLINE RESULTS
TOP LEVEL SUMMARY:
TOTAL ANNUAL BUDGET: 36000.00 LE
TOTAL SPEND: 37995.95 LE
======================
TOTAL OVERSPEND: 1995.95LE
Whole Year to date (1st Jan to 31st Dec 2008)
CAPITAL(everything with a potential life span of 2 years or more)
budget (@1500LE pm) = 18000.00 LE
expends = 17207.60 LE
-------
792.4 Underspend hurrah
This includes a heavy spending on a club membership - one more payment due next year. It also includes 2 short breaks - to the desert and to Luxor and 1200LE for spending money on trip to the UK.
OPERATING COSTS (utilities, food, cleaning materials, transport, etc etc - general day to day stuff)
budget (@1500LE pm) = 18000.00 LE
expends = 20788.35 LE
-----------
2788.35 Overspend
Taking out costs of broadband, phones, electricity, visas, medical checks, transport and annual club subs - the net spends on day to day stuff:
First quarter (Jan - Mar): daily spend: 37.893LE
Second quarter (Apr - Jun):daily spend: 39.329LE
Third quarter (Jul - Sept): daily spend: 41.94LE
Fourth quarter (Oct - Dec): daily spend: 52.68LE (SEE NOTES)
OVERALL DAILY SPEND ON FOOD, CATS, TRANSPORT, PHONE TOP UPS ETC: 42.98LE
NOTES - increase in spending during the fourth quarter I restocked up on a year's worth of printer inks (which added 3.93LE per day to the daily spend) and took on a gardener in December which adds 130LE per month). I also started buying proper cat food for my cats as I was concerned for their health. I am therefore spending approx 300LE per month on meat now including their food.
FURTHER ANALYSIS OF OPERATING COSTS (utilities, food, cleaning materials, transport, etc etc - general day to day stuff)
DSL - full year 2507LE (this will reduce as I have dropped TEData and just use Etisalat)
Landline - 240LE
Electricity - 700LE
Visas (including reentry visas, photocopies etc) - 221LE
Medical checks including vet - 264LE
General travel (bus/microbus/taxi-rare) - 794LE
Meat stuff (for me + for cats) - 3600LE
Mobile phone top ups - 615LE
Entrances to concerts, museums etc plus a few 'big days out' - 700LE
Everything else - 11147.35LE
==================================