How live Muscovites and how to save money in Moscow?

How live Muscovites?

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Simple family with two children spend around 400 dollars per month for food, around 100 dollars cost apartment’s maintenance (gas, electricity, water, internet, parking etc.). Medicines cost 40-50$. Unlimited capital public transport ticket costs 35 dollars (for one person).  Cell phone maintenance costs 10-15 dollars (for one person).   All together it is around 600 dollars approximately. If you drive a car you add 100 dollars for petrol and maintenance.

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This is vital minimum per month you need to survive if you don’t pay for your accommodation. And don’t forget that you need to buy different clothes, electronic gadgets, go out with friends and family during weekend,  visit hairdressing salon, by presents and do many other interesting things to enjoy your life in Moscow. So these 600-700 dollars easily may grow up to a few to a few thousand dollars.

How to save money in Moscow?

First and fore most it is a question of what to eat. You can go to expensive luxury shops with excellent design, imported carefully ranked products, neat rows and polite stuff and pay for a kilo of tomatoes 10 dollars while in big hypermarket you will pay for the same quality tomatoes 3 dollars.

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So if you want to save money we advise you to buy food in big food markets which are located in shopping malls. Today every good Moscow shopping mall has such hypermarket with different food at affordable costs. We also advise to take Russian products and not foreign analogues which today have similar quality and taste but costs much more.  

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Another one question is where to eat during your work day. Most of Muscovites do not go for lunch in cafes. We prepare sandwiches and other food for lunch time at home and take them with us. Many modern offices have kitchens, coffee machines and other comfort to help us save our salaries.

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Of course it is difficult to shorten vital minimum we have mentioned above, but you can reduce other expenses.

We strongly recommend to get your health insurance and if you are driving a car full advanced cars assurance as well (in Russian it is called Kasko).  If you don’t have medical and car insurances it is very expensive to pay for doctors and car repair at your own.  

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If you need some new clothes it is good to catch some serious discounts. At the end of the season and before some holidays like New Year, Women’s day etc. you can get up to 70% discount from original price.

If you want to buy consumer electronics the best places are big electronic hypermarkets which are also located at popular capital shopping malls. Hypermarkets with home goods and furniture are also located in big shopping centers.  Good idea is to look for serious solutions outside of Moscow just a few km for example by Leningradsky Highway or at Moscow Automobile Ring Road (MKAD in Russian) which encircles Moscow. Good trade centers and shopping malls are located at the outside part of the ring.

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If you want to save some money on entertainment you should know that many museums have free days. For example, some museums give free entrances every third Monday in the month.

During weekend prices for different leisure activities – cinemas, shows, children entertainment locations are much more expensive. Evening time offers in some areas are also more expensive than morning and daily sessions

If you want to buy subscription for fitness, Russian language lessons or whatever to pay for a year is cheaper than to pay for a month. Most expensive is one time entrance. For instance, a year access to swimming pool may coast in Moscow 1000 dollars, while monthly subscription will be around 150 dollars and one time entrance will be around 10-20 dollars.

To read more visit our extensive information guide to Moscow and Russia http://www.rus-a.com/moscow-expensive-city-advice