Nigerian Expats Talk About Cost of Living in the Netherlands

first of all I was living in a three-bedroom apartment I know I live in a lot because like there was my room your room our room and now it's like just our room taxes taxes taxes so first of all um I would say it's it's quite not quite it's a little more expensive than I was used to first of all like the first time I tried getting an apartment and they're calling rents for me my mind I was like ah omo she is like one year and I'm being back home I'm paying every month I had to get used to the fact that we pay things like deposits when you're trying to move into our apartment and I but one thing it's helped me as I've generally learned to like budget right so like plan budget and I don't always buy stuff in bulk because whenever I go to like the grocery store it's always there so it's like I have to think oh you know what I have to buy like tomatoes over like and keep somewhere like there's always going to be tomatoes and the price per kg doesn't really change as much so you just don't have to think about that uh because of living is a lot more expensive so I've generally just learned to budget um I think the major adjustments I had to make compared to like my life in Lagos is first of all I was living in a three bedroom apartment I know I live in a loft so the the space is is an issue I'm not having like my own room because like there was my room your room our room and now it's like just our roof um that's one adjustment and then the second biggest thing is like I can't call my clean lady every week like I used to do in Lagos enjoy you and I can't order food as much as I saw that in Lagos so um I've I've I was saying the other deal that like I feel I feel like my life has just become recycled of cooking cleaning our laundry compared to my life in Lagos but it's not the worst thing it's actually convenient like cleaning your house is not the worst thing um you don't have to like you spending out to be sleeping with the broom there's like all these very cool mobs that make your life easy and even with cooking getting your groceries is not it's very difficult anything you want to buy you can almost easily access your apartments are not hot so you're not sweating in the kitchen like it's not like would I rather not do it yes but it's not the worst thing to do and then with laundry I know like hand washing clothes there's washing machine and dryer and there's a bit of convenience even in the doing the work that you have to do yeah oh boy that's strong because I mean I'm still it will be new year so I'm constantly adapting I'm constantly trying to figure out what budget works for me but as much as possible I'm just like I can't come and kill myself so why not doing more than myself I am pushing the limit of what I'm doing but I just make sure that I'm as comfortable as possible because I'm not I'm not at home I'm not in Lagos I'm not in a place in where I'm from specifically I'm like in a new space and as much as possible want to make experiences while playing it not to save but like not putting myself in trouble analysis for example I had to like furnish my place here to like make some very critical like you know payments all the things that are required when you see a new country and the wisesting was like just making plans to make sure that I can do this without stretching myself thing and at the same time not like not making myself so far so I've had to like pay very very close attention to my finances and at the same time just try to leave so that each each month is a new experience and not necessarily just surviving good question that it's quite expensive living in the Netherlands compared to Nigeria I was working remotely in Nigeria so you can imagine saving a lot and also living with my parents which is not yet but yeah it is no good but moving to the Netherlands it's quite quite expensive the rent here is really really expensive and also generally just things you could easily afford and also you pay a very a lot a lot of taxes here compared to Nigeria so yeah yeah well we are going through it taxes taxes taxes well I think when I came here one of the things I was advised not to do was to convert from Euros to naira but I remember when I wanted to Barb my hair and they said it was 20 euros and I was trying not to convert but eventually did and yeah that day was was quite an interesting day mentally but here I would say it's expensive maybe not as expensive compared to other countries but it's expensive and also you are taxed upon many things some things you think okay this should come in full amount is also taxed so I think for me the impact has just been accepting it for what it is because when I came here I didn't come here to make more money I knew if I wanted more money I could stay in Nigeria and work remotely for one top company but coming here for me was to have more opportunities to travel around a work-life balance also learn from a new culture a new environment so come in here and seeing this situation of the um of the you know of the cost of living especially compared to Nigeria where things could be somewhat cheaper for me was just accepting it for what it is also looking for more ways or more opportunities to make more money to you know help me stay more comfortable and take care of my expenses so yeah I Won't Say I'm the very best person in budgeting for Stuff planning my money I'm accurately but I think when you just see the way things are around and the way things can be expensive and areas where things could be cheaper than some other places yeah it just helps you make better choices and that's how it has been for me staying here over here I would say it's yeah it's impacted it positively I'm not sure if it's positive or not because it's cost of living is really high mostly rents I think um yeah I think it's about something percent of my salary goes to rent which is yeah it's not something that I'm happy about but I just no other way and yeah it has also made me um program in some aspects I've been I've grown this saving culture that I didn't have in Nigeria because I know that okay I need to save up for tough times in case they arise I think that I'm still settling in and I'm still figuring it out I wouldn't say my lifestyle has changed a lot in the sense that I think if I want something I can still buy the things that I want to have um I mean I don't have a car so maybe that's that's how it has impacted My Lifestyle because I can't buy a car but I think as sites that um my standard of living is I would say even better because I have access to some more things that we're not even available in Nigeria we're very expensive and I get food at work so I think that definitely takes a big chunk of the money I would ideally spend and even transporting to work I have a business card so I don't always have to pay for transportation every single day so I would say that it's not it's for me it's it's okay because it's just me so I think I'm managing just fine oh I'm thinking about it uh I wouldn't say I'm bad with money so for uh I I like to buy things especially gadgets and other things a lot to uh let me get a new phone but uh because of the way uh you know things are expensive especially here we get the v80 is a little high so when you're holding on Amazon you're like thinking twice do I really want this you think if you need it more so yeah that is a lot of like mind I just like you think about it before you get something like uh do I really need this before you go ahead and buy compared to when I was in Nigeria I could just order anything I want to just like yeah even if I don't need it oh yeah for rent uh the rent is actually pretty pretty high to be honest uh but I live in a one-bedroom apartment and uh paying close to uh 1700 monthly including other utilities like electricity and heat and stuff so uh yeah you I guess you have to factor that and uh offices in Amsterdam are really expensive so in fact getting it in the first place is a big success for you so I don't think you might paying that paying that amount once you have a place to stay because the idea of looking for a place in itself it's an entire oh my gosh it's so expensive here like I'm not even going to life it's so expensive okay I'll give an example when I lived in Rwanda I never used to pay like up to 50 of what I pay now for rent so my living expenses have literally gone over 400 I'm not even joking but I understand that like you know different places have like different standards of living like different income level and all that stuff so that's fine but yeah it's actually quite pricey in Netherlands yeah oh

Channel: Gift Egwuenu

Views: 5,057

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Id: QOn5ttqKt2E

Length: 9min 51sec (591 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 07 2023