The monthly costs of living in Melbourne

 Here is a list of what you can expect to pay for a month whilst living in Melbourne and studying at RMIT.
The essentials: 
Phone bills- depending on who you are with the bill may vary. From time to time you may have to make a lot of calls. Most of the caps come with free calls, but I usually go with Optus $30 recharge prepaid plan which includes $270 extra credit and 500MB of data.

Rent- there will be a few posts that covers this as different suburbs have different rates. Generally when you move in you will have to pay one months rent in advance (known as a bond)

Food- inside the house- $100-$150 per month depending on what you buy.
Outside of the house- $150 per month

Internet- this usually is included with your mobile phone plan and RMIT does have free wireless for use on campus. But you want to use it at home depending on how much you use its best to allocate about $50 per month

Bills- this includes water (usually landlord pays, but sometimes you may have to), home phone, electricity and gas. You might be really lucky and you don't have to pay a single cent as it may be covered by your rent. But if you do have tom, allocate about $30-$50 per month

Clothes- now this will depend on whats in season and there are several posts to cover this.

Entertainment- The Student Union has cheap entertainment for their members. But you can buy Hoyts movie tickets at Student Union for a cheap $7-$9 per ticket. Depending on the sort of person that you are you might be only spending about $10 (seldom goes out) to about $150 per month.

Printing- Printing at RMIT is $0.11 per page, but at Officeworks it is $0.05 per page

Toiletries (includes sanitary pads for the ladies). Costs will vary depending on what you need each month. Each month there will be some product reviews which also states the cost.

Medicine- this varies depending on what you need, but generally Medibank pays for most of this.

Public transport- this depends on where you live. You need to buy a MYKI for $6 and then put some money on it. A full fare monthly pass can cost anywhere between $112- $180 depending on which zone you live in. You might not have to pay the cost if you live really close to uni or if you can bike ride. As International students you don't get travel concessions in Victoria as the government doesn't allow this