Hello everybody and welcome to this blog post! Just like Sai and Sam did in the past weeks, I also want to discuss how much I spend in a month as a KTH student living in Stockholm. I had already written a post about my monthly expenses last year, but many things have changed since then! An updated post is therefore a must 🤩
Accommodation
I live with my girlfriend in a studio just outside Stockholm. It takes me approximately 25 minutes to get to KTH from my accommodation, and I quite like living here (although I will try to move closer to the city centre after I finish my studies!). For this reason, my housing cost has increased with respect to last year: I now spend approximately 6000 SEK/month in rent. Electricity is not included in the rent, but it’s very cheap: we have a washing machine, dryer and dishwasher at home and we often use them, but we never get to spend more than 250 SEK/month in electricity. That’s 125 SEK/month for each of us.
These accommodation costs are higher than what the majority of students spend: a typical student accommodation (private room and bathroom, but shared kitchen) costs around 3000/4000 SEK/month, and sometimes electricity is included. However, especially now that I live with my own girlfriend and have salaries, I prefer living with her in a more personal space. I guess that’s the price of love!
Groceries
When it comes to groceries, I think I spend more than most students in Stockholm. I tend to train and eat a lot, and I end up spending around 2500/3000 SEK/month in groceries. I am getting better though: I exploit my student discounts as much as possible, as well as food bags from restaurant and grocery stores! The majority of friends that I know spend around 1500/2000 SEK/month in groceries.
Transportation
I have to take the train to get to the university, therefore I pay 650 SEK/month for the SL student public transport card. With that card, I can take trains, buses, boats and subway without any limits, in and around Stockholm. I have talked extensively about Stockholm’s public transport in this previous blog post! If you were to find an apartment in the city centre and want to save money on public transport, I would suggest you to use a bike to get around: it’s safe, cheap and fun! And you can always buy 75-minute tickets (26 SEK) when you need public transport.
Entertainment and More
In my free time, I like to take photos, watch movies, go to the gym and read. Therefore, I do not spend a lot of money on entertainment: I only go to the cinema seldomly (120 SEK), and I don’t like clubs and discos. I spend 230 SEK/month for my gym card and something like 1000/1500 SEK/month on additional expenses (things like eating out, buying clothes, etc).
Conclusions
In total, I spend around 11000 SEK/month. Again, most people that I know spend much less than me because they live in shared student accommodations and rent will always be your bigger expense here in Stockholm, so don’t panic! Also, don’t forget that the city is full of part-time jobs for students (even non Swedish speakers) and student discounts do help a lot.
That is all for today! Thank you for reading this blog post, I hope you found it interesting. Don’t forget to check out the cost of living posts of Sai and Sam!
Also, keep an eye on the blog and Instagram in these days: juicy news are coming 😉
I’ll see you next week!
// Lorenzo