Archive for August 9th, 2009

In this post, I’ll try to give an overview of the cost of living here in Pittsburgh.

Before getting into the numbers, let me tell you that generally, restaurants, bars, alcohol, and public transportation are a lot more expensive here. This is a fact. However, students don’t pay to ride the bus, you generally don’t pay to refill your soda and you never pay for bread and butter in a restaurant. It’s pretty standard to give a 15% tip in a restaurant and the service is usually good (or no tip). Most of the groceries are significantly  more expensive here, specially olive oil, fruit and vegetables, pasta and rice. Some are cheaper, like shower gel, shampoo, creams, toothpaste and detergent. Most of the times you also have good deals for meat. Electronics and gadgets are a lot cheaper here. Gas is a lot cheaper here. Cars are a lot cheaper here, even the german brands.

Housing and utilities: We are living in a nice and big 3 bedroom apartment on the fifth avenue. A 10-minute walk is enough to get to the campus. The rent is close to $1900 a month. Last month, we payed $112 for electricity, but keep in mind that sometimes we have the A/C turned on all day. The gas bill was $33 (for heating water and cooking). For cable TV and Internet the bill was $61. The speedtest reports 12Mbps but I don’t know what is the bandwidth hired. For TV, we have a special HBO package included.

One last and very important thing. You need health insurance if you are living here. We’re paying around $350 per month for health insurance (one of the top offers) which does not include dental care and eyes care. I heard this price is pretty good, but it might be because we got it through the university.

If you have any questions please leave them here and I’ll try to answer.