Istanbul is a megapolis with over 15 million people residing in thousands of different economically diverse neighborhoods packed full of apartments and businesses. One would think that living in such a big city would be expensive and hard to survive especially when one hears about cities like Tokyo, Seoul, or New York where the cheapest rent is $1000 and inflated living costs make many live paycheck to paycheck. Luckily, living on a modest bare bones budget in Istanbul for $345 a month is not so bad. Also, you still can enjoy many aspects of the city life.
As a foreigner from Los Angeles, I decided to live on a fixed low cost budget for 9 months. I lived in an area of Istanbul called Esenyurt where many people prefer not to live and even say it is not safe. Actually, it was not as bad as they claimed, and it was much safer than some sketchy and unsafe places in LA. In fact, I never felt threatened in Esenyurt even among thousands of Syrians, Arabs, and Kurds who lived all around me.
I lived in an area that was literally an urban sprawl with buildings side by side, almost no greenery around, narrow streets with limited parking, poorly constructed sidewalks, but clean from litter since they cleaned it daily. The area was very convenient for shopping and common services, which was a huge plus. Also, it was a 15 minute walk to the metro bus, which linked up to many other public transportation links. As for my building, it had 5 levels with a huge steel entrance door with a security camera. My flat was a 1+1 (one bedroom), which I furnished with my own things.
My typical monthly Istanbul bare bone’s budget looked like this:
- Rent: 750TRY + 60TRY (building fee for garbage and cleaning)
- Food: 500TRY (Bazaar and discount markets like BIM, SOK, A101)
- Public Transport: 240TRY (Bus and Metro)
- Utilities: Electric (≈100TRY), water (≈25TRY), Cellphone plan (20TRY Bimcell), Internet (60TRY), and Netflix (16TRY)
- Public health insurance (SGK) covered by employer
- Other: entertainment, personal, unexpected costs (200TRY)
Total monthly living expenses: 1971TRY
Official minimum wage in Turkey: 2020.90TRY (net)*
Even though I was living on a super low budget, I was still able to do many things. I went to the beach, park(s), explore different parts of Istanbul and historical sites, and go window shopping. Also, fishing, photography, and bicycling using ISBIKE were also popular activities that I enjoyed.
Clearly, Istanbul is a place where someone with limited means can live fairly modestly in certain areas. Of course, living on a fixed budget like this has many drawbacks especially for a family with children. I believe in order to own a house, your income should be around 5000TRY in select areas utilizing non-revolving credit.
To sum up, living on a modest bare bones budget in Istanbul for $345 a month is very doable.
*https://tradingeconomics.com/turkey/minimum-wages
