How much money do we need to cover costs of living?

[fkoelbl]

oh my... really I don't understand why this is such a big thing. If you feel bothered by my question just don't answer it. But since it has been discussed now I want to explain myself:
in the posts you mentioned there was a lot of info about rents, insurances, costs for schools and so on. But these costs are covered in our case (like I wrote), so I wanted to know more about costs for grocery shopping for example or travelling (eg to malaysia). Sorry, I did not find anything about that. I was not too lazy to check the other posts before, but I just did not find anything about this, especially with having a baby I figured some mom would be able to help me as she would know what we need (dipers, baby food,...) and might understand that we will not go out to eat so frequently. Really I did not want to waste anyones time and if you don't want to then just don't answer. Right now I am not sure if I will post a question again, because it seems quite difficult to ask the "right" questiones...

[sundaymorningstaple]

We are a couple who wants to come to singapore for half a year with our baby (he will be 10 month by then). The condo will be paid by my husbandy employer, probably also the costs for water and electricity. Now I am wondering how much money we will need to cover costs for food, transportation (taxi) and having some fun. We don't plan to eat in very fancy restaurants or do long trips (because of our little son), but of course we want to have some fun and want to explore the area a bit - I guess like an average expat couple. Please let me know what you think, as I don't really know what things cost in Singapore. Thanx

First of all, my apologies if you got your feelings hurt.

Now, let's break this down a little bit seeing as how now you have definitely got your dander up knickers twisted for what reason I'm not real sure.

You gave us a lot to go on with regard to your eating habits didn't you? Are you vegans? Are you heavy meat eaters? Or primarily seafood and poultry. Not a lot to go on is it. No specific questions or clues either so how is anyone going to give you an average. Are you and your husband large built? Heavy Eaters? or 110 & 160 lbs sporting types? Again No clues. Cost of taxi's-guess that depends on how much you travel around Singapore (again how to estimate - we do not know your lifestyles and again, no clues). Have fun? What is that? What do YOU consider fun? Bowling? Drinking? Going to the Movies? Going to the theater? Water Skiing? Wife swapping? S & M? Again, absolutely nothing to go by. But you say "I guess like an average expat couple.?" They drink, go out to restaurants often and spend and shop like there's no tomorrow. (somewhat of a joke for our regulars) Again, absolutely nothing to go by.

If you want specifics then you have to give us something to go by. Otherwise you need to go to the relevant Forums like entertainment, Children & Schooling, etc. and so forth. Flouncing off because your feelings got hurt is not solving anything, instead learn from it. As I said before, ask us specific questions and we will try our best to give specific answers but please don't expect us to be mind readers.

[micknlea]

SMS....just for your info, "Narky" is a bit of an British term (common in Oz too) which means easily annoyed, quick to over react or fly off the handle, overly sensitive;

Have to admit that your initial response could have been a little more subtle and helpful with a nice suggestion to look at other threads rather than telling them they haven't bothered to look. As you say, not everyone is wonderful at putting into words just what they want to say/ask!

[huggybear]

americans are blunt.

british are subtle.

[lost_canuck]

americans are blunt.

british are subtle.

sublte? down right impossible to tell what they are thinking, unless they are tsking

perhaps we all need a little knicker stick to untwist our undies here!

[sundaymorningstaple]

americans are blunt.

british are subtle.

not sure about the latter but can confirm the former!

[fkoelbl]

ok, I will try to ask more specific questiones next time, then things will be easier for all of us thanx to all anyway
For now a real nice mother of two young kids offered her help by e-mail, so I will get some answeres there - perfect.

[fkoelbl]

hmmm, now I have a new problem - hope you can help me on that one. Like I wrote a mother with small kids offered her help by private message, but I am not allowed to reply to her by pm because I have not made enough posts yet . In the FAQ it says I shoud contact the administrator, but I can't find out who that is or how to contact him.

[sundaymorningstaple]

fkoelbl,

Your PM function should be working now. It is set not to activate (send) until you have reached 5 posts (which you last post appears to be). This is to try to help stop spammers on the threads. It should be working fine now. Give it a try.

sms

[fkoelbl]

its working now. thank you for the info sms!