Hvað kosta? (How much?)

Hállo,

Iceland is an island nation. This means that everything not grown or produced here has to be flown and/or shipped in. Because Iceland is in the North Atlantic where the growing season is short and lucrative natural resources are scarce, most things are imported. This of course is not to say that Iceland does not have natural resources, on the contrary, thermal energy is efficient and sustainable, it just cannot be easily sold and one does not purchase it on a daily basis.

Because most everything is imported, it is more expensive. Coupled with a steep value added tax (VAT) on certain goods, this means that even common items cost more here than they do in the states. The króna has also seems to have recovered somewhat since the kreppa (economic crisis) which means the dollar is weaker here. For a foreign student, Iceland is an expensive place to live.

I thought it might be fun for everyone to get a sense of the cost of living here in Reykjavík, so I put together a list of common things one would buy on a daily basis. Currently the exchange rate for the ISK to USD is around 120. I often compare this to the  60:120 rate back in Iceland's heyday and thank Óðinn.

Here is the list (all prices are in ISK followed by USD):

A pint of lager: 800- 6.66
A bottle of (cheap) wine: 1500- 12.5
Rent for a single room: 40,000- 333
A months bus fare: 5600- 46.66
Lunch at a (decent) restaurant: 2,000- 17
Access to a pool: 500- 4.0
A semester of books 7,800- 650
A litre of petrol: 220- 1.83 (that is about 4 USD a gallon)
Groceries for a 22 year old male: 14400- 120 USD

Now these are common items, many of which are products of Iceland. Anything like clothing or electronics will cost a small fortune. A pair of wranglers will set you back 9000 ISK, or 75 USD. A children's bike like a Huffy will be 35,000 ISK, or about 300 USD.

Frankly I don't know how foreigners managed here before the kreppa, when a pint of beer was 12 dollars.

-Nick