How much Zloty to have an average life in Poland?

Clearly someone doesn't actually live in Warsaw, or indeed does and spends his entire life in expat hellholes paying ridiculous prices just so he can be served at his table.


If you go on 2500zl, your public transport will cost 78zl a month. That's absolutely nothing compared to 2500zl - especially considering people in the UK will be dropping 10% of their salary on public transport.

Rent can be as low as 600zl if you don't try and live in 'expat gated osiedle hell' and accept that you might have to live with others.

You could live there, all expenses paid for 1000zl a month, leaving you with 1500zl to do as you please. If you buy from markets and local shops, you're going to struggle to spend more than 500zl a month on food - leaving you with 1000zl a month to spend as you please.

So many expats seem to have a ridiculously inflated view of how much it costs to live in Poland...

Probably been reading those "World's Most Expensive Cities" articles on Wikipedia... without noticing that those figures clearly refer to the cost of an expat lifestyle

If I believed those kind of figures, I couldn't live anywhere on my salary!

Thank you for all the replies

I would be living in Gdansk with my daughter and boyfriend... I would have abt 3200 zl and he would have around 4000zl... I was just wondering if that would be enough to live without having to worry abt having enough througout the month :)

That's more than a lot of people live on in the UK (even in London), in Poland that's a fortune!

lol - no it isn't ..... but you will have quite easy life in Poland with that money.

Lol, For a moment I thought I was living in a different country, 6000Zl a month for 2 people, including rent and a good lifestyle is about right.

Ps Insult somebody else you bully.

I don't what some of you are talking about paying so much for costs for power, gas and water. But average is 50-80 zloty a month which is not that bad at all.

At this time you can rent out 2 bedroom apartment 15-25 mins away from downtown Warsaw for 1700-2000 zloty a month.

10,000 pln will see a reasonable standard of living, 15,000 pln will see a better standard of living and 20,000 an even better standard of living.

It depends what you see as an average life as if you are from a british middle class background then you will expect more and thus spend more than someone from a country where if you have a glass of water you are lucky,

I peronally would aim to earn around 10,000 pln a month in order to give a reasonable standard of living, able to run a car, live in a nice flat and generally enjoy life.

Clearly you don't live in Warsaw either. And no doubt you're one of those people who religiously avoid going to any places where foreigners go and think that doing it makes him cool. In reality avoiding places where expats go only because expats go to them is as much of a twat's move as going to places where expats go only because expats go to them.


Sounds rather less than likely to me. I refuse to believe that a glass of wine costs less than 5zl so two of them will be at least 10zl. You don't say what 'extras' are but let's assume that they cost 4zl each. That leaves the princely sum of 11zl for each main course. I'm sure those will be fantastic!


That is complete and utter bollocks. 600zl isn't going to get you a room anywhere in Warsaw. And as for "you might have to live with others", do you think the word 'might' means 'most certainly'?


No you can't. I do know what I'm talking about here: I've lived in Warsaw for the last 12 years. How long have you lived here?


Oh please, I spend half that much on cat food every month!


That's certainly going to be more than enough to really live the high life!


If someone can't earn a good deal more than that in Warsaw, they're either bone idle or utterly moronic.


7,000zl a month is a fortune? You do talk some utter rubbish sometimes!

To be honest, I go to the best place I can find. I'm yet to find anyone who actually has had a decent night out in any place where you get English menus/speakers as standard. I couldn't really care less about whether expats go there or not - but it's a pretty undeniable fact that expensive Rynek bars are absolutely devoid of atmosphere.


Extras - garlic bread at 3zl for two pieces. Wine - 4zl a glass. Main courses are about 13zl or so - so yes, it's perfectly possible. The place is always busy too - and the food is more than decent. You're welcome to come and try if you want, it's a gem of a place. Polish ran, so perhaps lacking in authenticity - but who cares when the food is good?


I was using the word 'might' in a sarcastic sense, because obviously a 20-something living with Poles can be seen as a great disaster by some people. I've just had a look on Gumtree Warszawa and there's plenty of rooms going for 600zl - so who's speaking bollocks here? They might be shoeboxes, but a room's a room.


Are you buying some sort of special foreigners cat food available at six times the price?



But this isn't about living the high flying, limousine riding lifestyle - it's about how to live an ordinary, average life. And on all evidence, it's perfectly possible to live in Warsaw or anywhere in Poland for 2500zl a month.

I live alone in a flat I own: I pay the best part of 600zl in bills every month (administration fee, gas, electrity, water, internet, telephone, TV).


Nope. Whiskas.


It's perfectly possible to live in Warsaw on that. Provided you don't mind living like a student. Hell, you can live here on much less than that: just sleep out at the central station and eat out of rubbish bins.

The very simple fact is that Warsaw is not a cheap place to live anymore. The people who say it is tend to have a ulterior motive, most commonly they are people paying rip-off salaries to English teachers who don't know any better!

Perfectly possible yes, but not easy. It does mean making a lot of sacrifices. But if you are willing to share a flat, cook (or eat in bar mleczny) and not go out too much then it's easy enough. However it depends the life you want to lead.

You forgot a few things. It should say: "if you are willing to share a hovel, cook (or eat in bar mleczny), not go out too much, not eat meat, never go on holiday, never buy a flat, never own a car, never buy clothes, save nothing and never have children, then it's easy enough."

But we still haven't worked out why any expat would want to live in Warsaw on 2,500zl a month given that it is so easy to get a job here which pays double that.

We can say what we like to "guests". Register like the rest of us, and we'll start valuing your opinion. Until then, you could be anyone, troll.


Depends on what your definition of "fortune" is though, isn't it? Some people claim you need at least £40000 p.a. to live well in London. I've rarely earned more than £32-35K p.a. in my life, and yet I've always had a good standard of living (I take 6-8 foreign holidays a year, and run a car, too) yet some people would say that £37K is a "fortune" as well!

7,000zl per month in Warsaw will not let you take 6 to 8 foreign holidays per year!

Well, no... that's why everyone moves to the UK innit.. where they can ;)

Hello 2 all

Friends i would like to know how much zloty we need to live a normal student life in poland...

do you have place to stay - dorm?

It's perfectly possible to live in Warsaw or anywhere in Poland on bread and water but thats not really what I would call living.

Still, we all have our standards and each to their own.

I wonder if those who live on such low amounts do so because they are unable to earn more

For 250 PLN that's about 30 kilograms of whiskas!!! How may cats do you have?

I have two and I feed them whiskas dry stuff, whiskas meat cuts and human consumption tuna flakes. I spend than $30 a month for cat food. That'll be around 80 PLN a month.

Or perhaps.... Harry, do you eat cat food?

depends on the city
I here pay like 2000zl plus bills for my flat.
If I only had 3000zl a month i would be in trouble

This is funny...."registering" somehow proves who you are and makes your comments more factual? You could be anyone too...it's not like you are putting up your photo and confirming data with each post...it's all still anonymous. I value truth not some nickname...

Perhaps you should try having lived in Poland at some point in the last 23 years before attempting to tell us how much life here costs?

I have three cats, each of them gets 1.5 sachets of Whiskas per day. Each sachet costs 1.60zl (if bought in packs of four at 6.39zl each). So that makes 4.5 sachets a day, which is 7.20zl per day. Thirty days in a month means 216zl for wet food. On top of that they also have about two and a half 300g packets of dry food per week, call it ten per month. Those things are 4.39zl each, so that’s another 43.90zl per month.


Are you really so pathetic that you can’t go a single post without trying to insult me? That's sad.

Dazza always was a bit of a numpty though Harry

and the winner is .... Harry. Congratulations!

silly cat boys ...

You may very well have a point there.

I normally do Harry, as do you

Where did you get 23 years from?

I didn't realize that cat food is considered a cost of living that would be used to advise a foreigner about the amount of money he or she needs to live in Poland. You may as well say that an X amount of money is insufficient to live in Poland because concert tickets are expensive.


OK, with 3 cats that will add up to about what you wrote. Still, cat food for 3 cats can be hardly considered a cost of living. Heckm 1.60zl for a little baggie. I pay in packs of 12.

And Harry, you may need to rethink what you feed your cats. Too much soft food ain't good for their teeth (or general health)


Let's see your performance in regards to my posts.

You left Poland in 1986, correct? And you haven't lived here since then, correct? And this is 2009, correct?


They're more than 1.60zl when purchased individually (hence my post stating " 1.60zl (if bought in packs of four at 6.39zl each)"). I'd buy them in packs of 12 too if any supermarkets near me sold them that way.


Do feel free to point out any insults I have made here.

Incorrect.


just here?