LIVING IN TURKEY
“Luxury cars are expensive, utility bills can be high in winter but mobile phone costs are falling, plus council tax and home insurance are much lower here”
“Of course Bodrum can be expensive
if you eat out in the wrong parts – in places like Turkbuku [an enclave for wealthy Turks] you pay celebrity prices, but we live on about £1,000- £1,200 a month as a family.” Dabbling in a little holiday rentals business, renovating the odd house, and “a bit of investment” keeps Darren busy enough when he’s not playing around in his boat or spending time with the family. The Edwards family share the cost of some typical staples (it is their Bodrum shopping basket on page 55) but spend about 150-200 TL (£50-70) on their weekly grocery shop. They also give an insight into
the cost of education. After attending a home-schooling
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cooperative that his parents set up in conjunction with some fellow expats for two years, Tan now attends a local school each morning and received private tuition in the afternoons. Lessons include science, Spanish and karate. “Tan has private English lessons for 30 TL (£10.50) an hour from a former London-based tutor in readiness for him attending the new branch of TED College [a Foundation High School in Ankara] which is opening in Bodrum later this year. “Fees are 15,000 TL a year (£5,300).” With the average private school fee
in the UK now £13,200 a year and private tutoring at this age around £17-22 an hour, further savings can be had, although clearly there isn’t
THE MONTHLY BODRUM BUDGET Grocery shopping
Utility bills
Family private healthcare Council tax
Broadband package Home insurance
£200-240 £105-140 £67
£5.83
£15.84 £12.58
Misc (eating out, car costs etc) £500 Total:
£1,000-1,200
the choice available in Turkey there is here in the UK. Again, the Edwards family fi nd
certain services a bit more expensive. “Utility bills can be high during
winter and mobile phone costs used to be outrageously high but the arrival of Vodafone has made things more competitive,” he says. “ But council tax - at 0.50 per cent of a property’s value works out at 200 TL (£70) a year - is vastly lower than in the UK.”
Buildings and contents insurance
for their home, at 430 TL (£151) a year is also much lower than UK comparables; the Edwardses’ comprehensive private healthcare costs 2,300 TL (£519) a year.
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