The cost of living in Berlin

The cost of living in Berlin is far more than simply a monetary one. We all have to pay the piper eventually, but it seems that my liver is handing over Euros like it’s being mugged by a stripper. The primary cost is your health, and Berlin is not enormously healthy for people like me. The main reason is not the beer (of which I drink lots) or the drugs (of which I do none), but rather the attitude. It’s not the kind of whey-hey-let’s-get-fucked-off-out-faces take that you might have if you’re coming here for a stag do, it’s more of a glib hey-look-there’s-booze-let’s-drink-it kind of angle. Still, there’s plenty of things worth knowing about the price of in Berlin.


The price of booze in Berlin

Berliner is one of... erm... sorry, what?

With Booze here, it’s more about how much one should drink, than how much one can drink. Beer, the local drink du choix is cheap. You can buy it in a supermarket for about 40 cents a bottle (500ml). There’s not a helluva a lot of difference between the various brands, but pils like Becks and Berliner are the biggies, with helles (light in colour, not in strength) beer being less popular, but arguably tastier and a little less ruinous in general.

Now, when you go out, the price of booze varies hugely. The cheapest pub beer we’ve seen thus far is €1.80, and the most is €3, which sucks balls. Because so much of the drinking culture is about being outside, one thing you can do is head to the nearest Spatkauf (literally ‘late purchase’) and pick up a beer there, as you wander between bars. No-one seems to care, or even notice, so it’s a good way to save a bit of cash.

Draught beer (bier vom fass) is, generally, a far more expensive way to drink, but in my opinion a far more civilised one. Certainly in Berlin, it’s all about bottled beer (flashenbier). Shots range from 50 cents to €3, and you’ll usually have to pay a little over the odds for (generally pretty shitty) wine if you’re drinking in a pub (€3-4).

Hmmmm. Vulnerable.

What you have to remember is that nothing really gets going until midnight, and you’re going to be out and about until probably 4 or 5 in the morning, even if you’re not that much of a party animal. What this means is that you’re likely to be drinking a significant amount more than you might otherwise be in your country of origin. Watch out for that, it’s an absolute killer. On a regular night out, once I get over the initial fear of looking in my wallet, I find I’ve spent upwards of €40. This is mostly because I’m a complete dick when I get drunk, and in addition never like to be without a drink in my hand (it’s an insecurity issue). Given that pretty few of the bars have any kind of entrance fee, I reckon you could do it for half that and still have a great night.


The price of food in Berlin

Pretty much sums up German food, right there. "Oh, sorry sir
you didn't want it swimming in vomit?"

This whole dirt-cheap supermarket thing in Berlin is a godsend. There are places like Lidl and Netto pretty much everywhere, which generally means your weekly shopping is going to be pretty cheap. If you’re interested in going a little more upmarket, Kaisers (at least the one near us) is a bit nicer, has some ridiculous hipster employees and costs a little more on most things. It’s still pretty reasonable, but the actual produce is not really much different. Here’s what we pay for some stuff (as of August 2011).

Bread: €0.80

Milk: €0.54

Muesli: €1.80-2.50

Three-pack frozen pizza: €2.90

Fresh orange juice: €1.50

Cheese (250g): €1.90

Chicken breast (600g): €2.80

Eggs (6 pc): €1.90

Tomatoes (400g): €1

Bananas (6 pc): €1.90

Tinned tuna: €0.75

So nothing is hugely expensive in a supermarket, but in little corner shops and convenience stores, you’re going to be raped through the eyeballs for near enough anything. In fact, it does seem that the smaller stores just tack completely arbitrary figures on their produce. You’re going to be paying around 100 per cent more for something in a convenience store, but hey, when you’ve got a hangover straight from Beelzebub’s anus, you’ll pay almost anything for a Pot Noodle.


Eating out can be as cheap or expensive as you like, and you can easily find a nice enough eatery for under €10. Head into tourist town though, and you'll see that figure multiply before your eyes, as you're force-fed low grade wine and 'traditional' German fare. The golden rule applies here: if it's got pictures on the menu, it's not a great restaurant.


The price of electrical goods in Berlin

I wonder what she's doing now.

The only thing that is noticeably different in price from where I come from, other than beer, is the electrical goods. For some reason, they’re hideously expensive. Places like Saturn or Media Markt offer the best prices on new TV’s, hi-fi’s, computers etc… but it’s still daylight robbery. Having said that, I am off out today to choose from the vast selection of very reasonably priced hand blenders in Saturn.

Rental prices in Berlin

We've gotta have a tidy up at some point.

Renting a property is really pretty cheap. Myself and Chris pay €800 per month, all in. To be honest, you could probably get a really nice place for nearer €500 without bills. In general, ex pat rental sites would rather fuck themselves with a broomstick than offer you a genuinely hassle-free service, but we managed to luck out with a company that make life very easy: berlin99.com. They come very highly recommended. And are unique amongst rental companies in my experience, in that they’re not complete and utter cunts. One final point on renting a place if you decide to try going through craigslist or something, when they say unfurnished (or rented ‘cold’), they really mean it. Often you’ll be looking at some pretty meaty startup costs, even down to things like light fittings. I didn’t have the balls to rent through craigslist, but the prices there look pretty darn cheap.

The price of travel in Berlin

Add caption, you say? I think it's already
been captioned in your mind

Yeah, this mostly sucks ass. A single ticket into town is €2.30, and a day ticket is €6.30. Having said that, there are a huge variety of ticket types if you know what you’re doing. We don’t, however, so trying to negotiate the reams and reams of ticket listings is about as easy as trying to read an upside down map in Arabic while it’s on fire.

Travel outside the city is equally expensive unless you know what you’re doing. A ticket to Prague (about 4/5 hours away) is €124 if bought on the day, and the cheapest I saw it for in advance was around €80. I can't organise my way out of a wet paper bag, so I went for the pricier one. Here’s a tip if you’re looking to travel by train outside Germany: if you get on a Hungarian/Bulgarian/Romanian train, turn around, and get the fuck off it immediately. The last train I got on – in Prague no less – was a Hungarian one and it not only smelled like some Hungarian bum had shat in your nostrils, but I’m pretty sure he was sat next to me for half the journey. I say half the journey because I got hoity-toitied out of my seat by an elderly French couple, and had to spend the rest of the journey outside the toilet. Still, at least it smelled better than that Hungarian.

In general, though, things life here is pretty cheap. Certainly cheaper than London, for my particular lifestyle. Admittedly my lifestyle consists of playing WoW, eating salad and baked potatoes, smoking like I actually want  to die, and drinking enough beer to bring about 2-3 day long hangovers.