Monthly Expenses in Chennai

Hi! We are moving to Chennai in a few months and I had some questions on monthly expenses.

1. What do you pay for utilities ie electricity, water, telephone and cooking gas?
2.How about rent if we wanted to live in an independent house on ECR?
3.How much do groceries cost for a month for a family of five?

We are desperate for some financial perspective on living in Chennai. Any advice will help. Thanks!

I can tell you what our expenses are, but you know how it is, this depends greatly on your lifestyle. We live Indian style so I don't think that will be of too much help to you, will let some "proper" expat answer first.

House rents on ECR should be around 1 lakh, if I am not mistaken.

How long is your piece of string?

I don't know the USA economy, but all the charges you mention in '1' are very cheap compared to UK. A 20Ltr can of drinking water costs about Rs35. A reverse-osmosis machine to make your own costs about Rs30,000 (25Ltrs per hour capacity).

Electricity costs us Rs1 per unit (Kw/hr) but it is charged on a sliding scale, the more you use the more you pay per unit. AC machines can draw 2Kw or more! I think the non-govt gas is about Rs500 a bottle

That house, on the other hand, for five --- a lakh (that's 1,00,000) rupees or maybe much more .

Chennai seems to be growing in popularity! There are lots of threads recently about people moving here. You should find some good information. There are also threads on the cost of stuff in the general forum.

I'm not a "proper" ex-pat either so can't really advise further.

Welcome to IndiaMike

-gas cylinder is 300Rs and will last 1-2 months, depending on your usage (this is govt. gas, btw)
-drinking water: a can costs min. 25 Rs, that should last a couple of days
-if living in a regular flat: maintainance charges of around 700Rs, that includes water
-electricity: depends on appliances, especially ACs. With 1 AC, used mostly at night, we pay around 800Rs, payment every 2 months.
-Internet (regular): 1000 Rs/month
-Landline phone: min. a couple of hundred rupees, depends!
-Mobile - from a couple of hundreds to a couple of thousands, depends on your usage. Roaming is expensive.

Groceries! Well I think this varies the most, depends on whether you'll do more as the locals do or if you'll mostly live on imported stuff. Let me just say that one can manage with a min. of 2000 Rs/month, for a family of 3, "Indian style".

Yes Nick, I was thinking the exact same thing: so many people moving to Chennai lately! That really shows how much the city is growing.

...It's very hard to get a "connection" from a govt-subsidized gas agency now --- glad to see that you were lucky and got one too, Icetea

So best budget Rs500 for the gas.

Marka hasn't told us much about their situation --- but if coming here on an ex-pat salary (envy! envy!* ) they will find living in Chennai cheap and easy .

Well, I don't know about 'easy' at first --- that takes acclimatisation, but to the weather and the culture

*I'm not really envious --- I'm happily retired and never want to see an office desk again. But if anyone would like to give me the salary anyway

didn't know that! (was already solved when I got here). In fact I wasn't aware at all that gas can be bought from anywhere else! We did buy one on the "black market" (from the backdoor of a restaurant kitchen..) when we ran out of gas once and were quite desperate, now that was 500 Rs indeed.

Well yes, I'm sure our budgets will be quite funny to Marka! (25Rs/water can...wow! now that's a sum)

Your gas and mine is being subsidised by the government!

'private' agencies charge a lot more for gas cylinders and refills. I'm not sure what the current situation is with the government agencies.

I was lucky: my now-wife rang them and said, 'my friend needs a connection, does it matter that he is a foreigner?' 'Doesn't matter at all... just send to the office'.

There was a 2-week waiting list. Unless you bought their stove as well, in which case you got the stove and the gas the very next day .

However it may now be, or be going to be, restricted to those with ration cards.

Thanks a lot for all the responses, really gives us perspective. We are moving for a job my husband got in Chennai with a multinational. It is not for any specified period per say but we may give it a couple of years and see how it goes. What is the range of an expat salary at upper management level? I have no idea what bracket we fall under. Not sure if they are giving us equivalent of an expat salary or not.

Can you share what industry your husband works ?

Here is a rough estimate for a family of 4 (2 Adults and 2 kids)

Rent 50,000
Electricity 2500
Driver 3800
Car fuel and maintenance 2700
Groceries 4000
Vegetables and fruits 1200
Milk and cooking gas 1450
Phone, DSL and Cell phone 4000
School fees, Supplies and extra kid activities (2 Kids) 2500
Eating out and entertainment 4000
Miscellanies expense 2000
Total (Rs.) Rs. 78,150
Total (USD @42) $ 1860.714


P.S: The rent varies depending on your needs, for the rent I mentioned you can rent a independent house with 3 bedroom.

Thanks ISN thats very helpful. My husband works in technology and will be a vice president there. We would like to live on ECR since his work will be in TIDEl.

vice president, IT? I wouldn't worry about the salary then!

thats good to know. what range is a salary for a person in that position in that field? sorry for being so ignorant but i am pretty clueless!

Mine is just a guess, but if we are to judge by this data..see for yourself:
http://www.payscale.com/research/IN/...gy_(IT)/Salary

I wonder how accurate that is?! Anyway I was myself thinking of around 1 lakh/month, but as I said that's just a wild guess based on what managers tend to be paid around here, so let's wait for someone more knowledgeable to answer.

And here's another one: http://www.paycheck.in/main/Payvcheckit