The Cost of Living in Big Cities

@HangzhouFinanceFemaleWorker: The cost of living in big cities.

I saw a local Shanghai female blogger sharing her family's meals for a day.

The blogger's family are local Shanghainese. The family of three lives in Jiuting, Shanghai (a suburb of Shanghai). That day, their dishes were as follows:

1. Sweet and sour spare ribs, over 20 yuan per half kilo, bought at a wholesale market.
2. White cut chicken, 28 yuan each. Bought at Aldi, on sale.
3. Stir-fried bean sprouts with chives, total cost around 5 yuan.
4. Stir-fried asparagus with shredded pork, total cost around 10 yuan.
5. Stir-fried choy sum, total cost 10 yuan.
6. Stir-fried beef with onions, total cost 15 yuan.
7. Winter bamboo shoot, napa cabbage, and meatball soup, total cost 20 yuan.

The total above is around 110 yuan. For a family of three, this is enough for at least two meals. Calculated monthly, the food expenses would not exceed 3,000 yuan.

Their family income is as follows:

The blogger is 53 years old with a pension of 3,200 yuan. Her husband took early retirement due to illness at 35 and currently has a pension of 4,000 yuan. Their son is 28 years old and currently unemployed with no income. They live in their own commercially purchased apartment with no mortgage. Therefore, the total monthly family income is 7,200 yuan.

With such income and expenses, the family's financial situation is certainly not well-off, but relying on the blogger's careful budgeting, their quality of life is still quite good.

Friends often say that the cost of living in big cities is high. Actually, I think that apart from expensive housing, the basic cost of living in big cities is not high. If you compare them, to achieve the same quality of life, big cities are definitely cheaper than small cities.

These are personal observations, and you are welcome to add your thoughts.