Thread: Living with a toddler in Bali and costs????

Originally Posted by Holly93

Hi, My partner and I are thinking and considering moving to Bali. We have a toddler, I was just wondering what type of costs per month I will be looking at for rent, electricity, food, water, gas, car, and any other expenses i need to take into account??

Thankyou :)

A local couple can maintain a family on a few US$ per day - for this they find a simple house, buy local food cheaply etc. Westerners often opt for large houses with expensive electricity and water costs, significant staff costs etc. You need to let us know where on this scale you see yourself slotting in before you will get useful answers. But having said that, if you search the archives of this forum with keywords like rent or electricity - you will find a large amount of information.

Thankyou very much, We were just considering a 2-3 Bedroom house or villa, or whatever is cheaper preferabley Furnished. I will be teaching English, and my pay will be about 7oooooo RP/ month... Will that be enough to support my family? Or do you think my partner will have to get a job aswell??

Thankyou very much :)

You can survive on 7 millz a month but thats all you'll be doing.

Originally Posted by Holly93

Thankyou very much, We were just considering a 2-3 Bedroom house or villa, or whatever is cheaper preferabley Furnished. I will be teaching English, and my pay will be about 7oooooo RP/ month... Will that be enough to support my family? Or do you think my partner will have to get a job aswell??

Holly,from your posting i assume you have never been to Bali.correct me if i am wrong.
You can live on that if you rethink your way of living.Car?forget it.Used cars are ridiculously overpriced.A 15 years old toyota Kijang with 500.000 kms still will fetch like 70 million.Small economic cars like a Karimun are even more overpriced.
If you search well and do not go for a fashionable neighbourhood,you can find an indonesian style house for 20-30 million a year.To be paid in advance.If you are lucky the owner willl do the maintenance but do not count on it.Count for electricity around 300.000 per month.That house would not have more than 2200 watt ,so hard to go over that.With that amount of electricity,you do not have to bother with electrical appliances that need a lot of juice anyway.Cold washing machines take 350 watt.Best rent an unfurnished house and get everyting at garagesales from the Baliadvertiser:
<www.baliadvertiser.biz>
Everybody uses handphones here,cheap and handy.Landlines are a luxury,but when there is one in your house,it will not cost much more than 300.000rp for phone and speedy adsl internet connection +the calls.Everybody here uses sms for economy.
It also depends very much on where you are going to work.If in Sanur,there are more affordable places in villages nearby,then say Kuta or Seminyak.
Food is cheap,imported goods not,wine is exorbitantly expensive.Most balinese families live on budgets between one million to two million,but they are living in familycompounds that they own and share with other members of their family,also sharing costs of electricity and water.Your employer should be paying for your visa costs,Kitas and workingpermit.Unless you are married,there will be the extra cost of vsa for your partner,more difficult also,because without work you can not get a year-round visa.See the visa-thread on this forum for that.I am not even sure that if you are married your visum will automatically include your family.There are minimum income rules for foreigners.When you have a well filled bankaccount at home it may be easier.
If you would like to have a (part time) babysit or nanny for your kid,that would not be expensive.Plenty of young girls,very apt with younger siblings,would like to do that.Add the cost of feeding her.
Work for your partner can be very difficult.teaching seems about the only job acceptable to the immigration authorities.
Besides all that,Bali is a delightful place to stay,so let all this not deter you from trying.
Good luck!

@kaliskreations Welcome to the forum! I added some spacing in your post to make it a little more readable. I hope you don't mind.

Originally Posted by kaliskreations

Hello,we are a couple with four kids that go back and forth often to bali. It can be very hard to find a good house with all your needs met at a price that is fair, especially if you dont have a trusted balinese friend. And paying your contract for your house will cost you at least $2500 min upfront and thats if your lucky enough to get a one year lease most want min 3-5years..and all upfront.

Make sure ALL paper work is checked BEFORE you hand over money also,it may just be too good to be true. Many legal guys are available for small fee to check over lease papers. Going through agents will always cost WAY more. We currently rent a small three bedroom house in a small gang in Denpasar, in a quite good location for 20million per yr.

The furniture is all ours and we painted and scrubbed the entire place, -20million is probably close to the best deal you'd get for a place like ours-three bedrooms, small mandi traditional wash room,ensuite western style bathroom with shower and flush toilet/bidet and bathtub, (cold water only) very big lounge room, small kitchen and dining area,and extra tv/sitting room.

It is in a fenced yard with carport and verandah and separate covered sitting area,with rice paddies on two sides.(ten minute drive to double six legian)The electricty is about 1million min a month as we have an airconditioner,fridge washing machine and two fans tv dvd. We use mobiles as its so cheap texting and many bali phone companies have deals where you can call phones with same company for free at certain times of the day/night.

If you buy a modem with a sim its pretty standard,around 300,000 a month for unlimited internet-no need for a home phone, plus unless your lucky enough to be able to even get a landline-as most poles in bali's popular areas are all taken ,no room for more lines!

Our house has a pump for water, and we only have cold, but it is hot enough to be comfortable. Always be very vigilant with the mossies especially with young ones,I always get a really powerful mixture made up by my local homeopath in oz,and apply in the morning, but especially the evenings.

You would be wise to go to kumba sari in Denpasar to do all your base shopping needs (meat,fruit,veg sweets household needs-cleaning things etc) but BUT ONLY ONCE you make a list of the prices things actually are so that once you are there you dont get ripped badly. ASK LOCAL WOMEN what the prices of things are (NOT the ones at the market!) or go to the supermarket and check out the fixed prices of the same things then estimate at least 10-20% less in your offer at the markets.

Standard to buy per kilo generally speaking as you can pay any of the young girls that approach you up to but no more than 5000 rupiah for following you around carrying all your shopping..and i mean all!these girls are unbelievably strong (if you feel to pay more you can but remember you push the fee up for others when you do this regularly).I would be interested to hear more about your situation-we are staying in our place until febuary 17th..but then it will be vacant for at least 6months..when are you going and for how long?

dear kaliskreations,
your report is really interesting!
I'll be in Bali with my family starting february next year and i was wondering if it could be possible to have a look to the place you're living in...the price is reasonable and we're looking for something to rent for 6 months...
What do you think?
Rain

I am currently living in Penjar. It is not so bad and in a good location. It is about a 5 minute drive by motorbike to Sanur Beach and 10 minutes on a motorbike to Kuta. It’s no beachfront property but that doesn’t matter to me. I live in a 4 bedroom 4 bath + maid quarters home for 38 million annually. It includes a carport, fenced area, washing room, and is close to mini markets. My father is Indonesian and he would call a lot of properties I was interested in and because he was a local they didn’t really feel too enthusiastic to talk to him. When my husband would make an inquiry they would blow up his phone throughout the day! Same properties but I feel that their deals with my husband were questionable. My father ended up having me and him sign a lease through T.J. Hooker. They are reliable and at the very least professional. There are SCAMS out there that happen frequently and even other expats get involved in the scamming of new expats so you have to be really careful.
I support a 15 year old, 8 year old, and an 8 month old baby here in Bali. I would say once you have your housing taken care of you could live and survive off of 7 mill a month without a problem. The electricity we have is pre-paid (pulsa) and it doesn’t seem to be too costly at all. 150,000 lasted us about two weeks. We also have cold water only but with as hot as it is here it is not a problem. If we need hot water we just boil it. I would say the most costly things in Bali are MOVING HERE in the first place.
We bought a motorbike as well and strangely enough the new motorbike dealers are about the same price as used so it may be a better idea to purchase a new motorbike. I can see why you wouldn’t want a car with a toddler but if I ever need to do a family outing I usually just rent a car and a driver. It is cheap and if you are a family of 4 you can probably find a car for about 200,000 per day. You could also call Blue Bird Group Taxi service. I have used them and found them to be extremely reliable.
With the schooling my kids are currently homeschooled as I haven’t really sorted out which school they will be attending next term. I guess I will cross that bridge when I come to it.
I lived in Batam Island for two years and I must say that the prices here in Bali seem LESS than they are in Batam. This may have something to do with the island being so close to Singapore but nevertheless Bali can be affordable unless you want to enjoy a lot of leisure activities and live as a tourist while being an expat. I have a BIG FAMILY with BIG APETITES and I would say that we can still live off of 7 million per month. On a high, maybe 10-15 million… but if we had to we could make due with 7 I am sure.

Originally Posted by Crystal

I am currently living in Penjar. It is not so bad and in a good location. It is about a 5 minute drive by motorbike to Sanur Beach and 10 minutes on a motorbike to Kuta. It’s no beachfront property but that doesn’t matter to me. I live in a 4 bedroom 4 bath + maid quarters home for 38 million annually. It includes a carport, fenced area, washing room, and is close to mini markets. My father is Indonesian and he would call a lot of properties I was interested in and because he was a local they didn’t really feel too enthusiastic to talk to him. When my husband would make an inquiry they would blow up his phone throughout the day! Same properties but I feel that their deals with my husband were questionable. My father ended up having me and him sign a lease through T.J. Hooker. They are reliable and at the very least professional. There are SCAMS out there that happen frequently and even other expats get involved in the scamming of new expats so you have to be really careful.
I support a 15 year old, 8 year old, and an 8 month old baby here in Bali. I would say once you have your housing taken care of you could live and survive off of 7 mill a month without a problem. The electricity we have is pre-paid (pulsa) and it doesn’t seem to be too costly at all. 150,000 lasted us about two weeks. We also have cold water only but with as hot as it is here it is not a problem. If we need hot water we just boil it. I would say the most costly things in Bali are MOVING HERE in the first place.
We bought a motorbike as well and strangely enough the new motorbike dealers are about the same price as used so it may be a better idea to purchase a new motorbike. I can see why you wouldn’t want a car with a toddler but if I ever need to do a family outing I usually just rent a car and a driver. It is cheap and if you are a family of 4 you can probably find a car for about 200,000 per day. You could also call Blue Bird Group Taxi service. I have used them and found them to be extremely reliable.
With the schooling my kids are currently homeschooled as I haven’t really sorted out which school they will be attending next term. I guess I will cross that bridge when I come to it.
I lived in Batam Island for two years and I must say that the prices here in Bali seem LESS than they are in Batam. This may have something to do with the island being so close to Singapore but nevertheless Bali can be affordable unless you want to enjoy a lot of leisure activities and live as a tourist while being an expat. I have a BIG FAMILY with BIG APETITES and I would say that we can still live off of 7 million per month. On a high, maybe 10-15 million… but if we had to we could make due with 7 I am sure.

IS THIS STILL DOABLE?,I assume you have no western style health Insurance or visa run costs?