After a low key day with a lot of hot drink, hot compress, and massage at home, I feel much better. When I was heating up soup for lunch, my colleague commented that it seems like I like a lot of soupy, mushy, bland food. Hahahah… yes I said I’m like babies, porridge/soup are my friends. My favorite food in the world are all simple: kabocha, corn, sweet potato, oatmeal, broccoli, cauliflower.
I was making math of how much we spend on kids activities, beyond the international school fee, and it is a lot.
To give you some reference points. Rent in Jakarta where we live is 4600USD per month. Our helper salary is 400, average local helper earns 200. Average taxi cost is 2-3 USD. One dozen of egg is 2 USD. Broccoli is about 3 USD per kg.
Cost per kid per month:
Kumon: 86 (math and reading)
Piano: 360 (theory and practice, group class for theory) for Sofia, 160 Lizzy (at home once a week 45 min)
Swimming team: 150 (4 times 7 hrs per week) Sofia, 80 (twice a week, 150 min total)
Mandarin: 150 (once a week 60 min private lesson at home)
Chess: 85 (once a week 90 min, small group, at home)
Golf: 180 (once a week, 60 min, small group junior program)
Art lesson: 20 per class, private, 75 min. We don’t take it regularly but we might start for Sofia twice a month as she really enjoys it.
That sum up to 1800 per month for both kids. There are activities they only do during school year (swimming, golf, chess, art). Others we try to keep even on holidays.
I know kids activities are much more expensive in the US so I am not complaining, but they do sum up to 4-6 local people’s salary. It’s insane to think about it sometimes. Better stop calculating.
Our New Journey 
Glad you’re feeling better. I like a lot of those bland foods but I also really love spicy, flavorful foods probably even better. And wow that’s a lot of activities when all listed out like that. I don’t know how they have time to do so many things plus all the piano practice and school! What’s the secret- do you guys have more hours in the day in Indonesia?! 🤣
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Same question! And yes- kids are SO expensive!!!
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hahaha… to have more hours, I chose to live close to school/office, and have most of the activities at our place (teachers come to us) instead of commuting. it is more expensive because of that, but I really hate commuting so don’t want the girls spending too much time in the car.
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So I had (wrongly) assumed that your cost of living would be really low in Indonesia. So the $4,600 for rent kind of shocked me!! Our kids are so young so we do not have many expenses yet. The boys’ gymnastic classes are $50/kid so $100/month. We just enrolled Paul in swimming for the fall quarter and the total for the fall is about $400 – which made me kind of gulp when I saw the cost to be honest. We can afford it but that feels like a big outlay. I think the price of classes has really increased since we were last enrolled 2 years ago.
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the rent is high because it’s really in the best location of the city. we could easily find something half the price but we chose to live near my office and girls school and the amenities of the condo. I’d say, inequality is more common in developing countries than the US, so price difference could be huge for the same thing.
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I actually figured that your employer would/should pay your rent, if you have to move all over the world for your job…? No?
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yes that’s right.
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$4600 for rent?? WOW. You must have well-paying jobs (with all the other expenses on top!) The other prices sound pretty reasonable though.
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