Personal experience: how much is life in Washington

My daughter and I moved from Minsk to Washington, D.C. several years ago. In the first American month, I received my last Belarusian salary - for the previous month. It amounted to about $500 and, after a fairly short time, I could conduct master classes on the topic “How to live for a week on $125 in one of the most expensive cities in the USA.”

The average salary of a Washingtonian is about $80 thousand per year. There are higher and lower depending on the level of activity. Washington DC has similar food prices to neighboring Maryland and Virginia, but the cost of going to a restaurant in the capital is very different. I won’t say anything about cigarettes - my colleague Seryozha never buys cigarettes in the District of Columbia - they are twice as expensive. Once a month I list my expenses and reconcile debits and credits - I founded my own company and work as a freelance journalist. In turn, this requires tax reporting, and the receipts that I put in a special folder throughout the month require order. In addition, it is important for me to understand whether we are able to save money. Most banking websites give a very realistic picture, offering spending schedules at the beginning of the month: transport, entertainment, paying rent, electricity, communications, internet.

As a rule, we don't go out to dinner during the week - I often work in the evenings. The average budget for our family of 3 people, 2 adults and 1 child, is about $90 thousand a year, and I am by no means the main breadwinner here. Our monthly expenses look like this:

Rent

Our apartment in northwest Washington costs $2600 - including utilities - that is, water, electricity and gas (about $105 per month).

Internet and mobile communications

Home Internet costs us $ 65 per month, another $ 10 we pay for Netflix, $ 100 per adult for a mobile connection with unlimited Internet access.

Food

This is a special part of the expenses: when I am alone, my food expenses come down to $40 dollars a week, provided I eat at home: I don’t eat meat, and this amount is quite enough for my pears, apples, and tomatoes. When we are left alone with our daughter, expenses increase exactly 2 times: she is a meat eater and is ready to eat sausages and chicken for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Weekly food expenses for a family of 3 people are about $100 a week, we spend about $20 on a bottle of wine - if we don’t have guests, this is enough for a week, and sometimes another.

Restaurants

We have a tradition of Sunday brunches with friends and “oyster Mondays” - on this not-at-all-restaurant day, a couple of good seafood places have a happy hour and sell West Coast oysters for a dollar apiece. Plus, we sincerely believe that Oyster Monday is the best way to start the week. The cost of two dozen is $24, with about $20 more for wine accompaniment. Total $50 (including tips) per week, or $100 per month - we rarely manage to find free Mondays more often.

Brunch will cost $35 per person - $70 per week, or $140 per month if repeated every 2 weeks.

A special expense item is Shabbat dinners with friends: my husband gradually began to practice Judaism. We invite friends over or go to visit them. Price issue - $50-60.

Transport

Washingtonians are indiscriminate in their transportation—they use old Cadillacs, small City Cars, and government-issued Suburbans. Photo: Hannah Teller

I do not have a car. For work trips outside of Washington, we rent vehicles only for the duration of the business trip. For urban travel, the metro and Uber are quite sufficient - this company often organizes promotions for residents of the District of Columbia, and a trip can sometimes cost $5-6 within the city, and $1-3 on the Uber pool. In addition, Uber eliminates the need to find parking, which has historically been quite difficult in DC, and the need to refuel the car.

We travel a lot for work, and my colleague and I cost about $1000 for trips within the city for two of us. And yes, we do travel a lot for work. Let's say the cost of travel for an average Washingtonian is about $250-300 per month. Metro - about $200. Many of my friends who live in the suburbs drive to the nearest metro station, leave their car in a local parking lot, and go to work by metro: the cost of an hour in a city center parking lot is from $10, finding a street one can take from 15 minutes to an hour.

Ребенок

My 11-year-old daughter is growing fast - so much so that her jackets have been fitting me perfectly for 2 years now, I squeeze into her jeans, and she continues to move up. This means that on average she needs to update her wardrobe once every 3 months. H&M solves this problem for about $100. Total: about $33 per month. Ten swimming lessons - $500, chess - about $100 per month. The school photography club is free.

Care

In the past, I have made several unsuccessful attempts to: a) dye my hair myself; b) save money and go to an unfamiliar, but “very good master who works in a cheap place.” It cost me tears, burnt hair, an immediate search for a new master - in a word, a full set of emotions and sensations that fit the well-known saying “the miser pays twice.” Two years ago I found a Portuguese hairdresser named Aldina and at the same time discovered a very sad fact for myself: the service and care sector in the DS costs a lot of money. I pay about $200 for a haircut and color. This is the average city price. For my daughter's haircut - $21 with tea. A manicure with a long-lasting coating will cost $35, $45 for a pedicure. Hair removal - about $35-40.

Price issue: $5500 per month for a family of 3 people.

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.