How to Budget as an International Student in France
Studying in France is an amazing opportunity that requires a lot of careful planning, including preparing and sticking to a budget. As first-year master’s degree students in France and alumni of the Teaching Assistant program in France (TAPIF), Jalen and I have had to become professional budgeters. Being student at the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, we want to share our budget in hopes of helping current and future international students manage their finances while living in France. If you’re looking for a real-life student budget and tips on saving money as an international student, keep reading!
Monthly Rent
450 €
- We live in a 30m2 (323ft2) apartment in Reims. Check out our article about finding housing and our apartment tour video to learn about what our apartment is like in more detail.
Monthly Renter’s Insurance
16,55 €
- Renters insurance is compulsory in France. Usually, you can get a policy with your French bank.
Monthly Electricity
34 €
- We have a basic subscription with EDF and are able to track our electricity use with a free application.
Monthly Wifi
9,99 €
- We had wifi installed at our apartment when we moved in, anticipating that we would move to online classes at some point. Since the majority of our first-year classes did indeed happen via live online lecture, we’re glad we got our Bbox fit subscription.
Monthly Transport Cost
Maria’s CITURA Subscription (22,05 €)
+ Jalen’s CITURA Subscription (22,05 €)
= 44,10 €
- We have unlimited access to the buses and trams that take us everywhere that we need to go in the city with our student transportation subscriptions.
Monthly Phone Bill
Maria’s Phone Plan (19,99 €)
+ Jalen’s Phone Plan (19,99 €)
= 39,98 €
- We each have a Free Mobile phone plan that includes a SIM card, unlimited phone calls within France and to the United States, unlimited texting with other French phone numbers, 100 gigabytes of data per month, and more!
Groceries & “Fun” Expenses
Maria’s Monthly Allowance (240 €)
+ Jalen’s Monthly Allowance (240 €)
= 480 €
- Each week, we allow ourselves 60 € each to pay for groceries, meals from restaurants, shopping, and miscellaneous items including toiletries and cleaning supplies.
Monthly CAF Allowance
289 €
- After following the necessary administrative steps with Caisse d’Allocations Familiales (CAF), we began receiving 289 € of government housing aid per month.
Net Monthly Expenditure
Maria’s Net Expenses (392,81 €)
+ Jalen’s Net Expenses (392,81 €)
=785,62 €
Money-Saving Tips
Eat at Crous Resto’
Students all over France have access to university restaurants that offer three-course meals for 3,30 €. If you don’t feel like cooking at home every night, Crous Resto’ are a cheap alternative to full-priced restaurant meals.
Use your student discounts
Showing your student card can get you discounts on transportation, on technology purchases, at restaurants, at museums, at movie theaters, and more! Keep your eye out for student pricing everywhere you go, and always carry your student card with you.
Apply for CAF
Though it can be a long and often tedious process, you should absolutely take advantage of France’s generous aid programs. Based on your income, you can qualify for a monthly payment to help you pay rent.
We hope this article gives you some insight into how we budget as American students in France. If you have any questions or want to know more, leave us a comment!
Note: The cost of living varies across France and in the overseas departments. A student in Paris and a student in Marseille, for example, will have to contend with different costs of living. The amont of money required for Americans to obtain a student visa in France is 615 € per month, and this amount has indeed been sufficient for each of us.
Check out our video about why you should study in France!
For an updated version of our student budget, watch our TikTok!
@the_francofile Student life in Reims is pretty cheap! 🤑 #americaninfrance #cheap #budget #france #student #studentlife #lifeinfrance #expat #expatlife #studyabroad ♬ Forever – Labrinth
5 Comments
ANNE
I love following your journey since I found this blog. Boy 3 is moving to France for 9 months to study at the U of Strasbourg. He won’t qualify for a free phone. I can’t figure out how to order a SIM from Orange for him. This seems ridiculous, but true! I’m sure it’s easy, but keep going in circles. We don’t want the Travel/Holiday ones, and…Ugh…just feel stupid!
And slightly more important–he still doesn’t have housing past the 7 day hotel stay he had to get for the French visa! Aaaaaaaaa!! Supposedly this isn’t the huge deal we think it is? He leaves in one week. CROUS was full immediately, and is full each time we re-check. It’s looking like he’ll be just blindly choosing a MGEL or Studapart; they are available, but we hate to think of him being alone in an apartment–not interacting with locals who give a rat’s patootie about his success there or as a student. Considered the COLOC Intergenerational housing, but none work for his needs in his town.
So sorry to have pured all this out! The program here is just no help with the entirety of this process. We’re very thankful he was accepted and is going, but feel like we’re re-inventing the wheel every step.
If you have a minute and feel pity for an American student who is a HUGE Francophile, thanks in advance.
~Nervous Mom (Anne)
Jalen & Maria
Hi, Anne. Thank you for following along with us here on the blog! Congratulations to your son on his upcoming studies in Strasbourg. We know so many people who love living and studying there. We can see you are feeling nervous, and hope that our response will help to put your mind at ease.
In our experience, getting a SIM card upon arrival in France was a quick and easy process. We have personally never attempted to get a French SIM card outside of France. Instead, we walked straight into a physical Free Mobile store and walked out with our SIM cards in five minutes. If you can’t get one for him before he leaves, rest assured that he can get one himself when he gets to France.
Likewise, we did not have our student housing situation set up before we arrived in France, which is completely normal for many foreign students. We simply had one week booked in an Airbnb and used that week to look for housing. We found our current apartment that we rent from a private lessor within this week. We have never lived in student or youth housing of any kind in France and have heard mixed reviews from students who have. Your son should therefore choose housing based on his budget, the room/apartment size he requires, the location in the city, and other personal needs. It is not an imperative, however, that he have every detail worked out before arriving.
Public universities in France take a very hands-off approach and notoriously don’t go above and beyond to accompany students. While some personnel may be able to offer help on certain subjects from time to time, students in France are treated as autonomous adults capable of solving their own problems. It’s quite normal that the school hasn’t been much help on topics such as these in our experience.
It sounds like you are mostly anxious about making sure that everything is completely set up for your son before he leaves for France. However, in practice, it’s common to arrive first and then set things up, especially when it comes to phone plans and housing. We, of course, aren’t acquainted with your son, but if he’s mature enough to take on a school year in France, trust that he will be able to work out these details himself if you can’t fully solve them before he leaves. If it’s any comfort, none of our parents have never been involved in any step of our journey in France, and we were able to get ourselves set up and live here with only minor bumps in the road. We completely understand the urge to iron out these details, but know that your son will be okay even if he has to do it on his own in France.
We hope this helps, and check out these links if you haven’t already.
– Université de Strasbourg’s foreign student manual
– How we found our student apartment (blog)
– How we found our student apartment (YouTube)
Anne
Thanks so much for the response. You two sound like a wonderful couple! And, yes, he’ll be just fine.
~Anne
Jannell McBride
Bonjour,
I’m living in Lyon, France studying French at Alliance Francaise. I applied for CAF in which they sent me a package stating that I need to provide tax documents.
How do I go about doing that as I’ve never worked in France? Do they accept / understand US tax forms?
Thank you.
Jalen & Maria
Bonjour, Jannell. The best thing to do with CAF is always to call or set up an appointment with an agent to talk you through what you need to do. You may prolong your process unnecessarily if you don’t send them the exact documents they are requesting. We’ve always had better luck calling for clarification than anything else. Good luck to you!