April was a heck of a month! I tracked every penny I spent this month to see the cost of living in China – and wow was it surprisingly low, even with some unplanned events. Life decided to really live up to the April Showers theme by a) dumping a Master’s degree application in it, b) throwing a job change in, c) having my 2017 income reassessed for taxes, and d) (welcomed) surprise visits from friends.
I will separate my expenses into actual living expenses i.e. what I actually spend to live here, and then outliers that are unrelated to living in China. This is a semi-follow-up to my annual review for London living costs and how I manage to save $4k/month as a teacher.
But first, some pertinent information about my living situation.
Life as an international school teacher
Most schools will offer you either campus housing or a living stipend. I’ve picked campus housing for convenience and the awesome 3min commute. I use the school internet as well. I can’t tell you how much I paid for utilities monthly because I paid $40 in September last year and haven’t run out of either gas, water, or electricity yet. Yes. My flight to China and back to Canada are also covered.
The pay scale is higher if you hold a foreign teaching certificate, preferably from either the UK or a commonwealth country. If you teach a specialist subject like math you’ll also get paid more than an ESL teacher.
I take none of it for granted and am absolutely grateful I have such great living perks. However, you should be aware it’s probably not the same quality that you’d be used to in Canada/US/Europe. Other colleagues and I experience the following problems on a semi-regular basis:
- Sporadic lack of hot water. For days at a time.
- Heating that sometimes drops down to “heavy breathing” levels of intensity
- Watching youtube videos at
144p. (To be fair, I’m sure if I really wanted I can get better internet but I just didn’t care.) - Sewage smells from the sink, so I’ve bought little caps for all my drains.
The cost of living in China as an international teacher is super low. The biggest expense of accommodations is crossed off and the rest is easily within your control.
And now, to the real reason why you’re reading this post: the breakdown of expenses.
Total cost of living: $350
- Lunches: $74
- Groceries: $106 (mostly for dinner but also includes snacks)
- Eating out: $80
- Leisure: $46
- Health & Hygiene: $14
- Subscriptions: $30
Lunches
Believe it or not, this is higher than usual. Typically lunches would cost me less than $40 because I would eat at the cafeteria. However, halfway through this month, I decided to switch to ordering salads for health/time reasons. Midterm season also fell smack in the middle so I ended up ordering takeout way more than I would like to admit.
Groceries & Eating out
I eat as vegetarian as I can so the cost is very low. I might actually increase it a bit to work in healthier options. Eating out in the outer edges of a big city is WILDLY CHEAP. I had multiple staff dinners and treated friends. The most I’ve spent in one sitting was $26. For two people. We ordered 4 dishes and drinks.
Leisure
I will admit I’m a bit of a homebody so leisure was mostly movies and books or walking around. Trips to Beijing cost about $10 round trip so if I do want to go more often I can. Too bad my current favourite hobby is sleeping. I included my cellular plan in here at an incredibly expensive $6. 2GB of data. Suck it, Bell!
Everything else
I bought pads because I don’t trust the water here enough to use my Diva Cup. Might change my mind later.
I have a few subscriptions: Spotify, Photoshop+Lightroom, and a UK phone number. Won’t be getting rid of them anytime soon.
Outliers: $1172
- Master’s application: $100
- Job change (paperwork, visiting new schools, etc.): $152
- 2017 Tax reassessment: $920.xx
I’ll have to write a separate post on my job change but suffice to say it was needed. This time last year, having to pay $920 in taxes would have hurt. This time, I gave it 2 minutes of thought and moved on with my life. That said, I submitted my 2018 taxes and expect to be hit with a pretty hefty fee soon.
Takeaways
I had guestimated my expenses would be around $300 every month so it’s gratifying to see the reality being not too far off. In London, my savings rate was 15%* – here, my spending rate is 15%*. It’s mind-blowing to me that I’ve made such a huge jump in the span of a year.
Prior to coming here, I’ve researched the average cost of living in China and felt frustrated at the vague “oh more than $1 but less than $1,000,000” type of answers online. So here’s a more specific set of numbers for people who want to compare. You can live comfortably for less than $300, or triple it and live very comfortably**.
I’m quite a ways away from my FI goal but I’m super proud of how far I’ve come.
The three principles of reaching Financial Independence are 1) reduce expenses, 2) increase income, and 3) invest the difference. I don’t think I can be any frugal-er and I’m already doing #3 so from here on out I’m going to focus on increasing income. Maybe after a rest year though haha.
Here is onwards and upwards! April didn’t do subtle but it sure did good.
*I’m calculating based on rough after-tax income and an adjusted monthly expense of $600 to account for living, surprises, and a once yearly big trip.
**Well, as a certified international teacher anyways.