Hello Everybody, I have been offered a job in Zurich working for a non-profit. I just had a question about cost of living. I will have housing, all bills (everything from heat, water, cable, phone, cell phone, etc) and all transportation ( a pass for transport throughout the whole of Switzerland) In addition all taxes, etc and Swiss insurance will be covered. On top of that, I will have about 2200 swiss franc a month of take home cash. is this enough to live comfortably in Zurich? As far as I can see my only expenses would be food, misc. items and travel. What do you think? Thanks in advance.

So welcome to Switzerland..!

(that translates to, sure, you'll fine on 2200.-chf a month if EVERYthing else is paid for..!!)

Greetings and welcome!

2200 should be sufficient provided you don't go out for drinks/dinner too often since restaurants, bars and even takeaway places here are expensive. I know people who have very good salaries and relatively low expenses, but they're always strapped for cash because they eat out all the time. Once you're here, you'll figure it out.

Good luck to you!

I'm not sure if I have to agree on this....

Just fyi --the amount I spent on grocery every month (for a family of 2) is already around 2000-2500 SFr but I don't think we spend on luxury meal. We (me and my husband) are just living like normal people -- one meal of meat per day...etc)

I can hardly reach 600 CHF a month in groceries. And that's including the household staples.

If you're spending that much on groceries there is no way you are living like normal people. My wife and I buy mostly fresh ingredients, also eat meat at least once a day, support my crippling sausage and cheese habit, and probably spend between 500 and 700 on groceries a month. This almost exclusively from Coop and Migros, no less, the "expensive" grocery stores.

2500 a month = 83.-chf. a day for 2..!! What are you eating, filet mignon..?

Wow! We are a family of three including a 16 year old eating machine and we don't manage to spend anywhere near that amount! We spend nearer to 1000-1200 chfs per month, including cleaning,washing products, and that is making sure that we have enough food for after school snacks. We also eat meat, generally five times a week.

I think as long as you are careful, the amount you will have will be fine.

I swear to God, I don't spend on luxury items...I shop in Coop and Migros too. I could show the receipts.... I don't know how you guys still manage to have fresh ingredient and meat at least once a day with 500-700. You certainly are smarter spender than me

I just had with me a 320Sfr receipt from coop with me in last weekend (the items will let us live for a few days) . I've picked up the few high value items in related to food....
- fish for 2 = 22 (our dinner)
- salad =3 (for same dinner)
- orange juice =4.95...

if a dinner (meat/fish) costs 25/2 persons i.e. 750sfr/month, how could one have 'meat at least a day' and spent only 700 !! let alone the washing powder, cleansing agent, toilet paper etc etc !?


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I don't really know what to suggest.

We try to plan out our meals for the week, and probably spend about 150 or so per week on those groceries. We don't eat much fresh fish, but we usually eat pork chops, turkey and chicken, ground beef, etc. with a side of fresh vegetables or rice/pasta, along with a salad every evening, and never really end up spending much more than 150. This includes stuff like detergent, beer, garbage stamps (only in Winterthur) and other household stuff too.

I wish I could offer more help, but there has to be something you're doing wrong to spend that much, and it should be incredibly easy to halve your grocery spending. If you weren't so far away, I'd be tempted to offer to accompany you and your husband to the grocery store, out of sheer curiosity if nothing else.

I don't really see it how someone can manage to spend 600-700 CHF/month on food and buy fresh meet everyday in Mogros or Coop.
Just do the maths. For the family (2-3 persons) there is no way to stay below 1000 CHF/month on food. Unless people eat very small portion and nothing else with the meet (maybe some fries).

My wife and me spend a Max 1500 on groceries (including cleaning supplies and toiletries). I have to say 126 to 170 every 4 days and we do buy something really good for fridays (like good meat and nice bottles of wine).
If you go "native" here, instead of getting mangoes, orange juice, papayas, or whatever you can save a ton, as does products really come with a premium.

Not to derail the thread even more, but we do it all the time.

Pork is usually pretty inexpensive, sometimes we buy stuff that's on sale in larger amounts and freeze it if need be, turkey breast seems to be around on sale all the time at Coop for around 6 Sfr., bags of ground beef are commonly on sale for about the same price, and a 2.5 kg bag of frozen chicken legs or chicken breast is pretty easy to find for a little over 20 Sfr.. We don't go to the butcher counter all that often naturally.

The dinners we've made in the last week or two that all fit into this budget, off the top of my head:

Couscous salad with chicken
North Carolina BBQ Pulled Pork sandwiches with potato salad
baked pasta with spinach and cream (meatless)
Mexican Tortilla Soup with chicken
Meatloaf and mashed potatoes
Vegetable + Turkey Stir fry
Pork chops with Rösti
Curried chicken breast salad
Hoisin Chicken with brown rice
baked pasta with sausage, cheese and tomatoes

All of this with salad, usually a Nüsslisalat or Cucumber salad, and fresh bread.

I didn't know that big packs of frozen meat is treated as fresh. My comment was about bying fresh meet every day. If you buy packs of frozen meat then it is a another story.
But someone said here that they spend 600-700 CHF/month on groceries and eat fresh meat from Coop and Migros every day . I don't see really how it is possible with the fresh meat prices (pork or beef or fish

Do you eat pork or chicken? Because, if you can buy a whole chicken for less than 10 francs which is more than enough for 2.

finally i got a vote thanks alkas,

I rarely buy frozen meat. Might be that's why I fail to get to the range of 600-700. I agree that price of fresh meat/fish is really expensive in sw, I guess that's why it keeps on burning our pocket.

I don't want to bore the readers but as a cost-cautious person (yes, I'm even though I spend 2000/month on groceries which is regarded as big spender to most of you..), I could recall the price of most meat/fish that we have per meal...

fish (bought in coop) ~ 20-30 for 2 persons (the staff suggest the quantity !)
steak (in butcher) - ~25-30 for 2 persons (500-600g)
chicken leg ~12-13 for 2 persons
shrimp ~ 20 for 2 persons (300g)
pork/turkey -we are not a big fans so no idea

above is main course only, we normally go with salad, soup and other vegetables.

we do have some luxury meal like scallop, raw beef, but it's something like 1-2 times/month.

I really couldn't work out the formula of spending less than I currently am.

ps we rarely eat out except saturaday pm --Mcdonald; and say one sunday dinner every fortnight.

Well there's your answer - quantity. I couldn't eat a 300g steak, plus starters plus sidings plus salad every day.

YUM! May I please come to your house for dinner? I'll bring the wine and dessert

I would agree. That's about what we spend per month, too, which also includes wine.