By: Te Kiriwai Murphy-Fell

Before arriving in America, I was a bit curious and slightly worried about how expensive everything would be given the current political and economical climate, however, it’s actually not as bad as I expected. For context, I live off campus about an hour and a half away by bus and train. I was lucky enough to be offered to board with a family my parents knew through a mutual friend in an area called Alameda. Although it’s quite far from campus, it’s definitely worth the travel. When I was looking at apartments and accommodation both on and near campus, rent was usually somewhere between $900 – $1200USD monthly for a shared room, while pretty pricy, this is fairly normal around Berkeley.

As for the general cost of living however, I would say it’s pretty comparable to back home, just in US dollars. For example, I usually do my food shopping at a place called Trader Joes which is a pretty popular supermarket here in the US, and as someone who likes to cook from scratch, I pay about $75USD a week for groceries. Frozen meals are a really big thing here (and they’re actually really good) and some of my friends pretty much solely live on them and pay about $60USD a week for food. So depending on what food you like and if you like cooking or not, there are some pretty budget friendly options that are still really good. As for dining out, there are some pretty good student options like Campus Burger where you can get a burger combo for $8USD, or different pizza places that sell massive slices for a couple of bucks. Something that was a bit of a culture adjustment though was the fact that tax isn’t usually included in the price of anything, so you have to consider that when buying things, as well as tipping if you are doing anything that has a service.

For transportation, I take the bus and train every morning to campus and back, which before arriving I factored into my cost, however, once I got my school ID, I found out that UC Berkeley students get free public transport around the Bay Area. This has definitely been a huge help and has saved me hundreds of dollars already.

When it comes to things like phone plans, entertainment, and different things like that, it can get a bit pricey. I joined Mint’s phone plan, which is the one the university recommended as it’s an eSIM and pretty cheap. I paid $90USD for a three month plan that includes unlimited data, calls and text, but I’ll have to renew it soon for another three months. As for entertainment, when I first arrived I purchased a Cal football and basketball season pass so I can go to all of the home football and basketball games which was $125USD for about 12-15 games all up. The basketball hasn’t started yet, but I have been to a couple of football games and they are definitely worth the hype. I don’t know any of the rules, but the atmosphere is unreal. Would definitely recommend going to a college football game.

All in all, I would say, yes, living in the US is probably slightly more expensive than back home when you consider the currency exchange rate, however, it’s definitely worth it for the experience.