Is it possible to travel and live in Berlin for three months with 1500 EUR?

Upvote:5

Well, of course it's possible, but it would be very far from desirable, if the 1500 euros has to cover airfare, health insurance and living expenses.

Depending on where you leave from and when you fly, your flight won't be much less than 800 USD, let's say 600 Euro. That leaves you 900 euros for three months.

The cost of health insurance varies, with 100 euros per month not being unreasonable, though let's say you can get it on the cheap and you can do it for 150 euros for three months. That leaves 750 euros for three months, or 250 euros per month, or under 10 euros per day.

If you only buy basic foodstuffs from supermarkets like Lidl or Aldi, 10 euros per day is enough, but it will leave pretty much nothing for anything else.

Upvote:5

This depends on a lot of factors:

  • The price of the flight is a big one - are you sure MPI won't pay it for you, not even in part?
  • Health insurance seems to be available for as little as 30 EUR per month, see here, here or here. But note that if you get sick, you still have to pay 10 EUR to visit a doctor (but only once per quarter) and between 5 and 10 EUR co-payments for prescription medicine.
  • How free exactly is the accomodation? Is power, heating, telephone/internet, etc. free as well? Is it fully furnished, including cooking utensils and tableware?
  • Is the accomodation within walking distance to your workplace? If your budget is tight, a daily commute could break it.
  • You should definitely cook for yourself, eating out is not cheap in Germany.
  • However, German discount supermarkets are quite cheap - you can get 1kg of rice for less than 1 EUR, so bringing rice is not a good use of your luggage. You can definitely get decent meals for 8 EUR/day, even a little less. The only foodstuff you should bring along is spices as you probably won't find them in Germany.
  • Use your luggage to bring anything else you'll need for daily life: most importantly clothes, bedsheets, perhaps some technical appliances (rice cooker?), and any medicine you take regularly or occasionally (cold, pain, stomach, etc.) - all of these will be much more expensive in Germany

All in all, I think it should be possible if you make a budget, stick to it and leave some room for unforeseen expenses. Though it will be a bit of a shame to come all the way to Germany and then not be able to afford seeing much of it other than your workplace.

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