Hey, it would be great if you could give me a brief rundown of the cost of living in Toronto.

So anyone who lives in Toronto and wants to share their outgoings please let me know!

Things like rent, bills, cell phones, travel (public), and even simple things like the cost of a beer, a pack of cigarettes, a pair of jeans etc.

Thanks very much.
Lauren

Hiya, Sorry but I know nothing of the cost of living in Toronto, but I do know that this is a comman question and that it has been covered many times before. If you put a search on Living in Toronto you may find it.

Karla x x x x

My dear child, who lives in Toronto, pays:

$600/month for a half share in a house (bargain, they searched for a year before finding it).
$150/month for utilities.
$200/month for the cell phone, $50 for half the house phone.
$100/month for a travel pass (forgot to ask this so am guessing)

$7 for a pint
$10 for a pack of smokes
note that both of the above will shortly be subject to Toronto sales tax, perhaps at 5%

she would pay a couple of hundred dollars for a pair of jeans and three or four hundred for a pair of shoes. I pay $20 at Costco for their brand of jeans or about $75 for Levis 501 (both numbers + 15% sales tax) and am still wearing the Docs in which I emigrated.

Thank you very much!

I'm going to need a good job I think :S

Or a studenty lifestyle. I have a mate who's been here a couple of years, he's something called a post-doctoral researcher, a job which seems to pay about the same as janitoral work, and yet he gets by. He has a room in house which is shared by very many students and similar and uses zip car (a sharing scheme) and a bicycle rather than the transit system.

Well studenty suits me, I have been one for the past 3 years of my life.

But I also want to be comfortable. I don't want to be living over there and be just as poor as I am here. If I stay here in Britain I could save 12,000 (pounds) in my year out of uni but I want to do something fun. But at the same time it has to be worth it economically. I don't want to sit in a room night after night in Toronto!

Initially you might want to stay somewhere like this:

http://www.neill-wycik.com/

by all accounts it's not fabulous but, in the summer, it's full of students from other countries as well as people starting out with nothing; the board has all sorts of adverts for dubiously legal jobs, "booze cans", recently stolen bicycles and all the rest of the stuff one might find in an alternative weekly.

I trust, btw, that you're reading this :

http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/current/

I did not know that existed, I am however reading it now!

I only found this forum a few days ago and I think its going to be my life line throughout this!

Also thank you very much for the link to that housing co-op!

Not at all, it's just down the block (from work, not home). I know the staff slightly, it's minimal but cheap. You could also look at the student residences for the UofT and perhaps Ryerson. They do/did rent them out in the summer.

Is it pretty central?

Very much so. That's why I didn't also mention York University, I suspect it also has a residence but it's a long way out.

Thanks very much!

I'm just such a worrier over money. I'm terrified I'll comer over and find myself just surviving, instead of living which is they very reason I'm going!

These go very fast so you must act quickly if you want to get a room. Check also http://www.tartucollege.ca/.

Good luck.