Talking about the budget is something very important and needs you to focus on it more and to pay attention to almost every detail. Sweden is very expensive, of course it is a sentence that I heard many times before I come to Sweden, and since I came to times before this year, I would say yes, “IT IS VERY EXPENSIVE!” when I compare it to my home country Egypt. But let’s first try to put an assumption that it depends on your lifestyle! And what are your expenses, where do you buy your needs, are you a party person, are you a minimalist person or that one who just like to buy things.

 

I planned to come and study in Sweden almost 5 years back, and I tried to save as much money as I can to just fulfil this dream. Knowing that Sweden is a very expensive country made me train myself to be minimalist and just buy the things that I really need, or it would just add value for me. So, I started more to save money, decreased the times that I used to go out and partying with my friends. Also, started to cook more at home, go out normally but for a walk or to the public parks and so on. I did all that just to train myself on a very law budget. When I came to Sweden, I did the same methodology as only buying the things that I need and just one or two times a month to go out with my friends and also on a friendly budget. But not only that what helped me to stay within my budget but cooking for myself is one of the most effective methods to survive with whatever budget you put for yourself.

 

The migration agency put a budget limit that you need to show up that you have in order to get your residence visa which it was 8500 SEK approx. as far as I remember, and it was for 2021 so they basically change it every year. But from my own experience I would say you can really survive considerably less budget but you still must prove to the migration agency that you have 8500 SEK in your bank account for each month you will be in Sweden. But in order to do that you really need to be so strict with yourself, which I can is also very useful to train yourself to be minimalist. The trick here is to buy a bike and don’t use the public transportation means, biking in Sweden is very common and you can really move around easily as there are lanes for bikes and walking and other lanes for cars. That means you will feel safe but don’t forget to wear a helmet as some accidents may happen to you. Buy your groceries from local markets and buy the discounted items from the big supermarket. Create memberships with the supermarket that you usually shop from as you will get a lot of discounts only for members. And always compare prices, in Sweden all the supermarkets have websites or mobile applications where you can check the prices and compare, then choose the best for you. I know you want to say it is hassle to just do that but believe me everything has its price and always you need to sacrifice things for other things. I mean that if you need to survive in a very law budget then you just need to let go other things, or you just change the way you do it to be more friendly to you!

Ultimately, a lot of things you can do to just make the budget you have works well for you and it is only you, what you want, and what you choose.

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