Autonomy

thanks - all good.

Will make AD version (or notes) once all comments are in.... will leave this thread for a couple of days then will see if the mods want to make it sticky once done.

If anyone wants to supply Doha and Bahrain figures it'll be easy enough to make separate worksheet tabs for each location...

Did notice my DEWA minimum is too high as housing fee is seperate etc... few tweaks to do...

Thanks to all for responses....

kittycat1

mine came in at -946 a month so think its a bit off for singletons. And thats based on what I earn now not what my original offer was! Based on that I wouldn't have moved here!

The only thing that seems right for a single person is rent everything else is high- apart from the savings which I save 3 times the ammount.

but anyway its very clever and I have no idea how it works- excel is my holy grail!

london_lad

Very nice idea. Would be great if you can add Doha too.

Autonomy

Some figures you will have to change to match your situation - you did that right? I did a single person example - some highlighted figures changed.

for example - more things maybe budget per month, vacation much cheaper etc

This comes out as single person, 1 bed 50K on 22K per month not saving anything etc but has positive balance of almost 5K per month...

Or is something wrong?

kittycat1

to be honest auto I am a bit special with IT stuff so I may well have doen it wrong- I did change the figures maybe i missed off a zero or something.

Autonomy

haha - no worries - it should work out for someone that is here putting real figures in.

Though you have raised a point - it might be an idea if I supply some more examples of expected figures for different situations (i.e. single, couple, couple with kids - dewa for various house sizes etc).

All good.

al dente

The only other thing to add is that children under two don't run on fresh air! Nappies etc add up so i'd factor them in too. Also, they cost to fly home, clothe so maybe run them at 300 a week?

norsk

Man, that's a good spreadsheet! Excellent work! I can't believe how productive you are when work is slow. Most people would just surf the net and practice sleeping while sitting at their desk with open eyes.

Providing a couple of scenarios is a really good idea, but people should still need to have a brain and adjust for some of their own things. I bet you newbies will still ask us questions as the spreadsheet doesn't cover their exact circumstance..

Example scenarios;

> single person
> couple without kids
> small family (1 child)
> medium to large family (2+ children)

You're missing costs for maid/nanny and district cooling (for those of us who've got that) by the way...

Millhouse

Great effort, it's missing costs for hookers and vet bills.

scrubbedexpat141

Are they the same thing?

Actually, I'm in the Seaview tonight, I'll tell you tomorrow.

Sandboy

great work that, better than anything any HR knackers here will have ever produced

I was finding myself a few K out at the end until I saw the bling ( or in my case high maintenance blonde ) scale

might be worth mentioning Salik specifically?

seven seas

wow. thanks for doing this.

cameltoe

Thanks for this - found it very user friendly and easy to tweak to fit my own circumstances. Turns out it's definitely worth my while making the move - phew!

Great work

Autonomy

Ok - updated the spreadsheet with various comments and suggestions.

If anyone wants to have another look and give any final feedback that would be cool. If it looks fine I'll make a new thread in the main Middle East section and see if the mods will make it sticky...

changes made:

Gym membership section added
Grocery - changed budget / mid / bling to 400/700/1000
Abu Dhabi & Doha - added note in welcome worksheet
Reduced DEWA budget to 300 (as housing fee is separate)
Added approx DEWA costs to housing examples
Added examples of various situations
Added infant costs (nappies etc)
Added Maid costs (live in)
Added Misc. Cash for day to day living

Cheers,

Auto

kittycat1

I think you should add a disclaimer as not for use by blonde essex girls who apparantly can't use excel! I still come up as a minus figure- no idea what I'm doing :-s