‘Rent $1250 – very cheap!! Where do u get it???’ — French woman in Singapore shares how she got cheap rental and manages her monthly budget

A TikTok video where a French woman who lives in Singapore broke down her monthly budget got a lot of attention after it was posted on Sunday (Oct 16).

What netizens were most shocked about was how little she pays for rent for what appears to be decent digs, given today’s high property prices.

@new_to_singapore

My monthly budget living in Singapore~ #singapore #sgtiktok #livinginsingapore #singaporetiktok

♬ Lovefool – 90s allstars

Ms Amandine, a software engineer who goes by @new_to_singapore on TikTok, shared her monthly budget:

• Rent: 1,250
• Bills: 150
• Food: 800
• Transport: 200
• Phone: 20
• Gym: 30
• Healthcare: 150
• Chinese lesson: 200
• Taxes: 200
• Others/Savings/Investment: 2,000

“Total: 5,000 SGD,” she wrote.

A commenter may have spoken the quiet part loud when they asked, “Rent $1250 – very cheap!! Where do u get it??? Sharing or whole unit?? 😳😳😳”

Ms Amandine explained that the low price she pays is because she splits the cost of the master bedroom with her boyfriend, who’s Singaporean, and that if she needed to pay for the whole place it would cost more than twice as much.

“Luckily I’m renting a master bedroom and I get to share with my bf (renting the whole unit would be 2,900).”

And to cut down even more on costs, they rent out another room in the flat to someone else.

Commenters chimed in about how lucky they were to have that unit at that price “with the current crazy rental market.”

One netizen even asked Ms Amandine outright where their unit is, and she replied that it’s located in Book Keng.

But the TikToker said that she actually used to pay even less for rent.

Another item in her budget that netizens commented on was what she pays for the gym. She commented that her low gym fee is part of a corporate package.

Some commenters asked questions about her food budget as well.

In one comment, the TikToker said that Paris is “less worth it” than Singapore.

She also said she “really” enjoys Singapore.

/TISG

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