Dar Es Salaam Tanzania Cost of Living

February 28, 2022

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You’re probably thinking, this is Africa, right? It’s cheap. But you might be surprised if I told you that it can be quite expensive living in Dar Es Salaam Tanzania. Especially if you buy stuff imported.

Dar Es Salaam has changed in the last eight years. Bridges have popped up, buildings have popped up.

In this article blog I’m going to give a total calculation of the cost of living Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. I’m going to do that
and three ways:

Shopping.
Going out
Bills

So I’ll try and keep it simple to those three things.If you want to add other stuff,that’s up to you.

Then at the end there will be a total calculation of how much roughly I spend here in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. I know I live differently to some people, I’m British and all that stuff,
but should still give you an idea how much it cost to live here.

1. Shopping

I know you can go to a local market, buy all those cheap things that the local market, but I don’t particularly want to spend all my Sunday running around
trying to find different foods. So for me, supermarket is king. I can get everything here. Well, most stuff. So this is where I go.

Anything imported like mushrooms and cheese can be really expensive. Usually, I don’t get them.

OK, so the total cost for that is 178,000 shillings ,which is around $78 USD or £57 UK pounds, which is not that bad. But don’t forget,that’s just me buying for myself for the week.

Going Out

OK, so now I’m going to find an example for going out. So I’m going to find a restaurant that have something to eat and drink just to give an example.I know you can go to all these cheap restaurants, the local ones, the cheap food and drink and all that stuff, but I just want to go
somewhere touristy for a change.

To be honest with you, the food is not that great, but it should give you a varied range
of prices.

So to give you some idea of prices here. Green Curry Chicken, which is 28,000 TZS, which is equivalent to $12, which is equivalent to nine UK pounds. So local beer is about 4000 5000 TZS,
but this new fancy one today im drinking is 12,000 TZS – it costs a lot more but I thought I’d treat myself today.

This is kind of expat prices, this is kind of medium to high price. It’s not cheap. So you probably think it’s a bit weird…eating Thai food in Africa,but yes, it is very weird.

OK, so it’s come to around 55,000 shillings for the curry and three beers, which is equivalent to $23 USD or around 17 UK pounds. And you know,
I haven’t been back to the UK for a long time but that’s probably average price for the UK, I think. But touristy expat place, don’t forget.

Bills

There’s three kind of bills
I’m going to go through.

1. Phone bill.

I pay probably 35,000 shillings per month for my phone internet.

2. Internet at home

I pay 125,000 shillings per month for the broadband, which is very fast 4K on your internet TV and everything like that.

3. ‘Rent & Bills

I don’t actually pay rent.My work pays for my apartment, so you will have to add that if you need to. But the utility bills I do pay for.

OK, according to my bills sometimes it ranges from
400,000 TZS,, sometimes it’s 256,000 TZS,

I had a lot of people staying over then, so it’s not going to be more expensive
than that. Plus 100 bucks. So that plus that is equivalent to 420,000
shillings,

So 200 and I say 280 bucks, so it’s
not going to be any more than that.

280 bucks equivalent to about £208 GBP.

Total Monthly Cost

So that’s my bills for the month.

So add alll that up for a total cost of living per month here in Dar Es Salaam and times the weekly costs by four.

712,000 shillings

Then Going Out :
220,000 shillings for the month, shopping

And then bills was

810,000 shillings for the month

Now add all that up.

for a total cost of living per month

Comes to

1.74 million shillings

which is equivalent to $752 USD

or £554 GBP.

And that is the cost of living in Dar Es Salaam Tanzania

Russell M. Henderson is a practicing RIBA Chartered Architect based in Tanzania, East Africa.

Russell (Architect Russell) also makes videos on YouTube , TikTok & Instagram sharing thoughtful, honest and pragmatic knowledge while working and living abroad.