How much money I spent living in İstanbul for a month

Spoiler: not a lot

İstanbul is one of the best cities I have ever visited. And lucky me, I got to live there for a whole five weeks!

How? Well, it was possible for me to live there because of World Packers. An organization that I have been using for the past year or so that connects travelers with hosts and organizations looking for volunteers. In exchange for a few hours of volunteer work each day, you get free accommodation and sometimes meals, which is a game changer for long-term travel. It’s a lot easier to travel for thirteen months when food and housing are mostly covered.

If you want to look into World Packers, here is my link which gives you a discount on an annual subscription

Volunteering in Istanbul

My work exchange in Istanbul consisted of working around twenty-five hours a week at a language center. The work was pretty simple: lead conversations and teach vocabulary in a class of three to seven students. And the return far outweighed the time investment. In exchange, I got to live in an apartment with the other volunteers that had amazing views and I got almost $40 a week for food.

But the best part was the friends I made. And not in a cheesy way. I became so close with all of the students in my class. They were the best wealth of information in this new city, they gave me so many recommendations for places to eat and things to do. And I even hung out with them outside of classes more than a few times.

How much did I spend?

The thing that helped my budget by far the most was not having to pay for rent. Housing in Istanbul can be expensive, especially in central neighborhoods, so the fact that my accommodation was fully covered made the city accessible in a way it wouldn’t have been otherwise.

And on top of that receiving a food stipend meant that all of my basic needs were met from my volunteer hours. The food stipend was $40 a week, which doubled to $80 when you include Jordan’s money. It wasn’t much, but we stretched it far. The groceries in Türkiye certainly weren’t as cheap as they were in Morocco. But when sticking to a diet of mostly beans and vegetables, and eating out a few times a week, groceries weren’t a problem.

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Eating out in Istanbul can be as cheap or as expensive as you want it to be. There’s super high end restaurants and dessert shops, or there’s a kebab guy on the side of the road, and pretty much everything in between. Istanbul is a city of so much food [if you want the full scoop read my blog post on Istanbul food here], it is impossible to be pressed on good options.

On average, I’d usually spend between $6-$10 on a good meal. Of course, there were outliers on both sides, but on average it stuck between here. Again, I think any range would be easily doable, but I wanted to try as much as I can. I’m big into food and so naturally with their massive food culture, I wanted to experience it and that meant letting myself order anything that looked good.

[click here to read my take on the food in Istanbul]

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Now, I don’t have a car, so public transportation is a necessary expense for getting around the city. Luckily, the public transport system in Istanbul is fantastic. Okay, it’s not the best in the world, there isn’t an extensive web of metro, and the buses are reliably always late. But it worked, and you got where you needed to go in the biggest city in Europe eventually. Plus, the ferries across the Bosphorus are part of the transit system.

The best thing is the IstanbulKart. A rechargeable transit card that halves the fare, which made me feel like it was so cheap. It made every ride come out to about fifty cents, as opposed to a dollar if you just used a credit card to pay. With everything I spent about $50 on transit in five weeks, which was well worth it because I got to see so much of the city!

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One of my favorite traditions after class on Thursdays was the night market. It started at 10pm on Thursdays and went all through the night to Friday afternoon. A few of the volunteers would head downtown after class to sift through endless tables piled high with clothing, accessories and more. In total here, I bought pair of pants, a silk flannel, a t-shirt, some socks, and even an ice cube tray, all for around five dollars. I spent even more than that on the sutlaç that I would take home with me every night. All in all a very economical way to go about buying your clothing, I wish we had one at home.

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Not every purchase was as much of a win as the night bazaar was. The souvenirs are a sore spot. I’m usually not one to get upset about paying a few dollars above market price for something, but I did get totally ripped off at the grand bazaar. I guess I was thinking I wouldn’t need to haggle. Obviously I was wrong. I bought two little notebooks for an embarrassing amount - $12 each. Not my proudest moment. It hurt my soul a little bit when I walked further down the street to a fixed price market and saw them going for half that. Anyways, not the end of the world, but the lesson learned is a) dont get confused by the currency conversions (aka dont suck at math) and b) look around and know what things go for.

Then I moved on and got some Ottoman spice mix for my dad and some hammam soap. These went for much more reasonable prices where I didn’t feel the need to haggle.

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Budget Breakdown:

• Rent - $0

• Groceries - $0

• Eating out - $250

• Public transportation - $50

• Bazaar - $11

• Souvenirs - $30

Total: ~340 for five weeks in Istanbul

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When I added everything at the end of the month, I was pretty surprised to see just how affordable living in Istanbul was. My situation was certainly not a normal one — most normal people don’t get free rent and free groceries. Having your rent paid is a huge deal. Accommodation is always the most expensive part of living, and having that covered can go a long way for your budget.

Removing the financial stress of rent and food, gives you so much freedom. You can do the tourist things. You can eat out without meticulously stressing over your budget. You don’t have to stress nearly as much over money. You can buy an ice cream cone from the store every single night. The little things add up, and I don’t know too many other places than world packers that offer opportunities like this.

Money is a big deal, but it doesn’t dictate everything, Istanbul wasn’t amazing because it was cheap. Istanbul was so special because I lived there. Because I had a routine. I woke up in my apartment with amazing views every morning. Then I ate my chia pudding, with fruit salad and granola. Then I read. Then I did a bit of work. Then I made lunch. Then I touristed around Istanbul until I taught class at 6pm. It was such a good little life, even if it was temporary.

And that’s one of my favorite things about traveling, or maybe my favorite way to travel. Slowly. Obviously if you want to see the world, you don’t have enough time to live and stop for a few months in every single place. And there’s probably not the opportunity to either. But any chance I get to take the rush out of traveling I take it. Whether it’s living a month at a castle in the middle of nowhere Scotland, three months in Morocco, a month on the coast of Türkiye or a month in Istanbul. Instead of it just being some city you lived in, it becomes a place that you made a home in. And thats just so special. I have roots in this place, from my old apartment to the people that know me.

xx abby