ERASMUS IN DUBLIN - MY EXPENSE BREAK DOWN

Hi and welcome back everybody !

This post is not strictly related  to any of the computer science fields treated on this blog.

I've been asked by several people of much it cost to live where I've been living in the latest four years and if it is affordable for a student.

I think the best way for giving an answer to everybody is to share my expense breakdown and personal experience on this post.

Yes, I live in Dublin, Ireland!

ACCOMODATION

This is definitely going to be your biggest expense (alcohol addicted are excluded here!).

Accomodation in Dublin is very very expensive comparing with other countries.

As you may know, a personal room in a shared apartment in Barcelona or Athens costs between 200 - and 350. Dublin is much more expensive than that and aligned with British price (It would be more or less the same price in London.)

If you want to live on Campus, the accomodation will cost you between 3000 and 3500 euro for the semester. Notice that the semester is only 3 months long here (from half September to half December);

Yes, if you are good in Math you understand that you are paying around 1000 euro a month or more. If you think this is crazy, fair enough; However there a two big advantages about living on Campus. The first one is that you are going to have a memorable experience. Living in UCD it has been the best experience of my life. 

To give you an idea I was living in Roebuck hall, this residence:

Your room will look something like this:

And your living room:

The second big advantage is that all the bills are included, which means heating, electricity, Internet and security. 

A full fee breakdown can be found here.

Otherwise, if on campus accomodation is to expensive for you, you might want to share the apartment with other students. In that case the cost for a single room in a shared apartment would be between 350 and 500 Euro(depends from the area). You will have to add all the other bills to this number. 

Electricity, heating and Internet can cost you around 150 per month but it really depends from the number of tenants sharing the apartment. Let's say that in average, accomodation will cost you around 500 if you are lucky.

Regarding the transport topic things are a little bit subjective here. It really depends if you need to be in college every day or not! In the first case you will not need to pay for the bus every day but you are probably going to need a good budget for your weekends out, and viceversa !

TRANSPORT

Another bad news here. Transport is very expensive in Dublin. Your needs will be slightly different if you live on campus or if you do not as I said above:

1. Living on campus: In this case you will need the bus only for going and coming back from town. Two 5 non consecutive days ticket could be enough for one month. Each of those will cost you 20 euro, so it is 40 euro total per month. But wait a second ! How do you go back during the night. Taxi is the only answer. Consider 40 euro of taxy a month, at least, thus 80 euro in total.
2. Living in town: In that case you will not need the taxi when you go out at night but you need at least three 5 non consecutive days ticket so 60 euro.

A complete breakdown for bus fees can be found here.

A good taxy fare estimator can be found here. 

FOOD AND BEVERAGE

Good news now. Food at big chain like Tesco and Lidl is not very expensive. You can also shop on-line and get a 20 euro discount if it is your first time. Check this link if you are interested.

If you do not eat the same amount that I eat (which is really a lot) you should be able to take your grocery home with 50 euro a week so let's say 250 a month !

On the other side, beverage is very expensive. If you drink in temple bar area, a pint can cost you 7 euro. I know, it is crazy. Avoid these very touristic places and drink in less commercial pub if you go out mainly for drinking. Fifty euro a week should really be enough so let's say 250 per month again. 

SAVER VERSUS SPENDTHRIFT

Ok, we are all different in spending money. Let's take two different profiles, a saver and a spendthrift, and let's do some math; For a SAVER first:

• ACCOMODATION AND BILLS : 500 EURO
• TRANSPORT: 60 EURO
• FOOD AND BEVERAGE : 400 EURO

For a total of 860 EURO.

For a SPENDTHRIFT:

• ACCOMODATION AND BILLS : 1000 EURO
• TRANSPORT: 100 EURO
• FOOD AND BEVERAGE: 500 EURO

For a total of 1600 EURO

Please, take in consideration that these expense are only for your primary needs.

Dublin is expensive by nature but it can be even more if you do not pay attention.

Hope this helps.

Luca