Abu Dhabi Living Expenses

Since all the answers here are very indirect I’d like to be helpful and give you some
reasonable numbers.

Accommodation - AED 5–6k for a 1 bedroom apartment (assuming that’s what you need)

Car rental including petrol - 2500 / month until you find a car (again a 5 year EMI for a
decent Japanese car would set you back by this same amount every month) assuming
you’ll do about 2000kms a month

Multiply this by 2 if your wife drives as well

Bills - 1500/ month: internet + landline + mobile bills for two + electricity and water +
utilities like cooling maybe depending on your building

Grocery shopping - 2–3k a month depending on your eating habits (very conservative
number; assuming you’ll cook at home)

Weekend treat/brunch/ movie - 4000 / month (1000 a week is again a very conservative
number for my lifestyle; would depend on you)

Insurance/ Car servicing / miscellaneous/emergency 1000/ month

Vacation savings - 2000/month

Shopping budget - 2000/ month

This adds up to AED22000/- a month.

With these numbers you’re saving 42% of your salary; which is a very decent figure in my
opinion. A healthy target for me would be saving 40–50% of the income.

Hope this was helpful.