Monthly food budget?

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1
Hello,

I will be coming to Zurich for a student internship from May to September at ETH Zurich. I was wondering what kind of budget should I keep in mind for this time period. I do not plan to eat out everyday as I love to cook. I am also wondering where I could find fresh produce and fish. I was told that buying packaged stuffs will cost more and the markets offer the same things for much less. I would appreciate your help.

Thanks

2
I don't eat out a lot either, but from what I have seen and heard, a meal at a nice restaurant can end up at CHF50 - CHF100 per person. Quite steep! But you'll need to wait for replies from people more experienced in the art of "eating out".

Eating at home, I usually spend CHF5 - CHF10 on the ingredients for my dinner. I eat a lot and always include meat too, so I don't think that's too expensive.

Breakfast stuff like muesli and milk are the same price as everywhere else...

3
When I was on my own, I always calculated 300.- per month for food and eating out.

In a normal restaurant you spend about 25.- to 35.- for a main course and then it depends on what and how much you drink with that.

If you are willing to go and search for good and cheap places, you will find them for sure.

4
you will generally find produce much more expensive. this isn't universally true, but for sure items like bananas, corn and most green vegetables are at least double and sometimes three or four times what they are in the States. the upside is that organic produce is much easier to find, at least than it was for us in the Midwest.

we find the rest of our food items (aside from red meat and chicken) to be within spitting distance of US prices, leaving aside of course the currency exchange rate which has varied wildly since we moved here.

5
Yeah I think 300 francs is a pretty good budget for a single person cooking most of their meals. I cook for myself everyday, and normally take lunches to work with me, and I rarely spend more than 75 francs a week.

Of course, you could make it much cheaper if you are keen on bread and jam/jelly !

6
I'd be looking at around CHF 300/Month even if you want to be cooking for yourself. You'll soon see that you'll be spending more than this as you'll get hungry around lunch and the only foodstuff you'll find around you will be 4 franc bagels/sandwichs/whatever. It also depends on where you shop. For instance, today at Migros I found kiwi's from 1 franc/Stück whereas in Aldi I bought last week 6 for CHF 1.5. So deals do exist, but you may have to search high a low for them.

7
My budget per month is around 300 sfr, because I work in a hotel,they provide

breakfast and lunch or dinner, but sometimes the food is not my cup of coffee.

The cheapest way to get some needed calories is to buy choclate (100 gramms

for around 1 sfr, depending on the brand) or head over the border to konstanz

, go shopping at the nearest edeka (not far from the station), have some

sausages or spam (with these articles you can avoid the taxes for fresh meat).

With these products you are allowed to bring 3.5 Kilos per Trip/Person.

The bread and the salami in Germany are definitely better in Germany , whole shopping takes only around 20 mins, then take the Train next back to Switzerland .

IN Switzerland i buy only Chicken/Turkey or reduced Items , add some rice, doesn't need more.Entrecote or Stuff like that has prices up to 100 sfr/Kilo, thats really crazy

8
Would it be wise for me to do shopping trips like that considering I may be working upto 5pm in the evening (I'm not sure how many hours they expect me to put in) or should just hunt in and around Zurich for shopping deals?

9
Thanks for all your replies.

I just wanted to let you know that by and large I am a vegetarian but will try the occasional meat dish (I'm not too gung-ho about strict adherence), would the budget go lower or stay about the same?

10
Not really sure why you would think to ask about fresh fish and produce, there are grocery stores that stock those just like you find in the US. The size and variety are less than we have in the usual US chain grocery stores, but you can buy what you need, and you'll get a chance to explore some news things as well.

The cost of food is higher here than in the US so just get ready for that. After you arrive you also should quickly as possible stop calculating in your head how much less it would cost back home. There's nothing you can do about it and it will only drive you nuts.

Good luck

11
Indeed, 3-400/pp, and we normally cook from scratch.

And I don't eat breakfast, nor usually lunch (maybe some leftovers in the fridge).

Tom

12
And when money runs out before the month does, have a look at this thread on 'Eating Cheaply' .

13
Edeka in Konstanz is open monday to saturday from 08am till 8 pm, thursdays till

9 pm, so no problem for you to jump on the train after your work and go for a shopping trip to konstanz (trains to konstanz in the evening will be full from zurich to winterthur, sometimes there are no seats between these two cities, but it takes only 25 mins , standing capacity is limited.

Buy yourself a halbtax or a bahncard 25, so the price for a return trip comes down to around 30 sfr (using the halbtax)

14
And you could start thinking/hunting like a student.

Today while hunting:

- Found free strawberry slice samples at a Migros in Zurich.

- Found a bowl of pretzels (the big ones, not the stick kind) at a chanel booth in that big store with Zara in Zurich. I asked Darf ich, and the lady said bitte.

- Found that my Uni building has bags of all varieties of Twinnings tea.

Back in Canada:

- University always had free food/BBQ for events.

- Many public events always had food available. (especially businesses opening for the first time... those are great)

- Certain secretaries had certain types of chocolates in bowls.

- The costco always had plenty of free samples.

- Superstore (Canadian retailer) also had free samples of cookies/etc.

- I'd bake a loaf of excellent bread and bring it over to someones house in exchange for a meal/beer. (Always works and everyone wins )

Yeah just get into that hunter/gatherer mentality and there's food everywhere!

15
Going veggie should bring down costs, especially if you eat your protein in the form of cheese, mushrooms and eggs, all of which are fairly reasonably priced. Generally I find the cheapest decent veg is in the Turkish supermarkets, and Aldi can be quite good too.

Fish will be harder - I have a (Tamil) Indian supermarket nearby which has a really good range of fish at good prices, so it's well worth seeing if there is something similar near you. They are also good for lentils and more interesting veg. The Chinese supermarkets can be good for shellfish and other seafood, but not as cheap.

I find a single cross-border run can stock me up for tinned/frozen veg for a couple of months, so a big larder and a good-sized freezer are a decent investment

16
I'd say it's a valid question - Switzerland is a long way from the ocean, and if you haven't been here before you might assume that in a landlocked country people don't eat a lot of fish, or that it isn't widely available.

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FYI: Kiwis don't call them "kiwis". Because it's illegal to eat kiwis (and Kiwis) in New Zealand.

18
What's landlocked got to do with it?

Most of the US is far further from the sea than CH!

Even in Italy, most seafood first goes to Milano.

Tom

19
Nice response whats landlocked got to do with eating fish. It is known for fish to swim in rivers and lakes even in Europe which is where a lot of the fish here comes from!!

20

I only discovered the other day that they were properly called kiwifruit and not kiwi.

So for the record, I do not have 2 kiwi's chopped up in the fridge.....