Hi there,

I currently live in South Africa and my fiancée has been offered a job in Gouda, the Netherlands. We have to decide if we want to accept the offer before next week, and if we do we will both be moving to Gouda by January next year.
My fiancee is a mechanical engineer, with 10 moths working experience (he completed his degree last year). The salary they are offering him is 3000 euros per month. This is for the time that he will be on probation, and after a year he has the possibility of getting a raise. I have looked around on various websites to see what the living costs is in the Netherlands (especially accomodation - renting). I will not be working (only possibly at a later stage). And I also should mention that we are both 26 years old and dont have any children - its just the two of us.
My question is: Is 3000 euros enough for both of us to start out with?

I will greatly appreciate anyone's (especially if you're living in the netherlands) advice!

Annelise,

The average annual income per household in 2007 is expected to be EUR30164 per year. (Also known as Modaal inkomen - do a google search for this term)

3k per month is not very high, BUT considering your fiance has almost no working experience (or a year by the time you get here) it is not a bad starting salary.

Will you be able to survive on this? I think it is possible - depending on what you expect. Once again consider that this salary is the average for a household. Especially if the fiance qualifies for the 30% ruling.

TS

it will not be easy and you wont have much money for international travel etc.

Coffee 3-5 eur
mid range meal: 15-20 eur
groceries for 1 per week: 40-50 eur
movie : 9 eur
dvd rental: 4 eur
international travel and life experience: priceless ;-)

you can see prices for clothes on www.wehkamp.nl , sportgear of perrysport.nl etc to get idea of how much things cost.

Food: www.albertheijn.nl (supermarket)
furniture: www.ikea.nl

rent /houses: www.funda.nl or google: huur gouda wonen

good luck