You find a room in Prague for 12,000 CZK per month.
The number works. You update your budget and start imagining where the desk will go.
Then you learn that the deposit and agency fee each equal one month’s rent:
12,000 CZK rent
12,000 CZK deposit
12,000 CZK agency fee
The room costs 12,000 CZK a month.
Getting inside costs 36,000 CZK.
That is a hypothetical example, not a Prague average. But it shows how a realistic monthly budget can fail before the month has properly started.
Your budget may not be wrong.
It may simply start too late.
Arrival has its own price
Most student budgets begin with normal life: rent, groceries, transport, phone and one suspiciously small category called “other.”
But first you have to become functional.
The room may have a bed but no duvet. The kitchen may have no pan. Your first grocery shop includes detergent, salt, oil and everything else that disappears into the budget one receipt at a time.
One student interviewed by EDVICO described moving abroad as having to “build a home from zero.”
Not luxury spending.
Just ordinary costs with terrible timing.
Ignore the perfect spreadsheet
You only need three numbers:
Getting the keys: rent, deposit and any booking or agency fee.
Making the room livable: food, bedding, transport and basic household items.
Keeping a backup: money still available after everything else is paid.
Do not count a refundable deposit as backup money. You cannot use it while it is sitting with the landlord.
The useful question is not only:
“Can I afford Prague every month?”
It is:
“How much must last until my next reliable transfer?”
What is your move-in number?
Hit reply with two numbers:
Your monthly rent + the total due before move-in
I will compare the answers anonymously in the next issue.
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