Some price estimates.

I thought I'd clue people in a bit on random expenses I've faced in Bangalore. If there are any Bangalore-ans reading this, then let me know if I'm getting ripped off! :)

• Services
  
  
  
  • I get shirts and pants ironed for Rs. 2.50 per item. I drop it off with the dude who sits down the street, and he leaves it with the security guard at the end of the day. I have a feeling that some people pay Rs.2. This morning I gave it to a different dude (there's 3-4 of them that do the ironing) and he tried to charge me Rs. 3.
    
  • I pay a lady Rs. 500 to come to my place every morning and spend 45 minutes sweeping, mopping, dusting, and washing dishes. I'm paying too much; mainly because of the building/area I live in. For the work she does in a neighboring area, I should expect to pay about Rs. 300
    
  • I pay someone Rs. 200 to wash my car every morning. He hasn't washed my car since Saturday so I need to yell at him (actually I think he's been sick). However, assuming that washes it every day, I think that's pretty reasonable.
    
  
  
• Eating out
  
  
  
  • I paid Rs. 12 for a plate of idli-vada this morning at the cafeteria in our building. I'm told that prices outside are about the same; maybe I'd pay Rs. 8-10 instead (at a simple non-fancy place). A small cup of coffee was Rs. 5
    
  • Last night I had dinner at a pretty nice restaurant called Little Italy which is an all-vegetarian italian + mexican place (we only tried the italian dishes). We had garlic bread, bruschetta (sp?), and two eggplant parmesians (they were each called something different but that's basically what they were). We also split a bottle of local Indian wine (I forget the exact name but it was something Indage - I didn't like it but Pooja did. She also said that she expected me not to like it because it wasn't a 'guys wine'; whatever that means!) between three. I paid Rs. 550 for my part of the meal. The wine bottle was sold to us for about Rs. 800 but I checked the MRP (Maximum Retail Price) was Rs. 298.
    
  
  
• Groceries
  
  
  
  • Half a liter of milk costs Rs. 14.
    
  • A liter of Tropicana Apple Juice costs Rs. 74
    
  • At my corner store, I bought tomatoes at Rs. 10 per kg; a head of cauliflower for Rs. 10 ; a small bundle of cilantro (about the same size as you get in the US for $.75 or so) for Rs. 4 ; and I think I got onions for Rs. 12 per kilo. As you can see, my cooking has been somewhat limited so far.
    
  
  
• Other
  
  
  
  • Petrol is about Rs. 42 per liter. There's about 3.78 liters in a gallon. So that's pretty expensive.
    
  • At our office building, you pay Rs. 20 per day to park a car. If you go to some random shopping area and park for a few hours, you can expect to pay Rs. 5 to park.
    
  • It's recommended that you connect most electronics through a voltage stabilizer here (generally they take input voltages in about the 200 ~ 300 range and give you 240V). I paid Rs. 1200 for a .5KVA (500 Watt) stabilizer. I later found out that I should expect to pay about double that, and I probably got what I paid for. I'll need to buy some more for around the house so I'll have a chance to buy some better quality items at that point.
    
  
  

I can't think of anything more that I've bought recently. If you found this useful, leave me a comment and maybe I'll put up another similar post in the future.