RE: The Price To Live For Free - Part 1 of 2
I'm living a "house life" - would definitively have lived on the boat if it wasn't for the family :-)
I don't believe much in those numbers - like, the difference between a 45 m^2 studio in an expensive area of town and in a normal area of town can't be that insignificant. Home ownership is sort of subsidized here in Norway - like, one gets tax deduction on interests paid on the mortage, and if one can rent out parts of the house one can do that without paying capital gains tax. We've basically been living for free since we came to Oslo, with the rent income from our tenants being above the capital costs on our loan.
"milage may vary" - but I believe the average electricity costs (most people use electricity both for cooking and heating) during the winter is less than 1000 in a small apartment. In an old house without proper insulation, of course one will be lucky to keep comfort temperature without exceeding 1000/month.
I think I've very rarely paid more than 400 NOK for trousers. Well, I must admit the last trouser I bought costed a staggering 1400 NOK. Since crypto was at it's all time high, I felt I could afford it, and it's well optimized both for skiing trips, sailing and even for local bitcoin trading .
Shoes, I've come to find that my favorite shoes are Merrell Jungle Moc, size 48, I wear them winter and summer. I think they're rather pricey, but not as bad as the prices listed. I can't just enter merrell.com and order them ... for some reason it's very difficult finding shops shipping those shoes to Norway, as well as very difficult to find shops that has my size domestically in Norway, so I end up ordering them to Sweden and picking them up there ... but since I hate Merrell for making it so difficult to order those shoes, I usually end up wearing the shoes completely out before I bother to order new ones.
Transportation ... I do yearly transport passes, and I have quite some maintenance burdens on the boat, dhingy, bikes, etc. Theoretically I can move around by wind power ... but I do use quite some diesel on the boat. Diesel is cheaper than the petrol, and there are special road fees - they don't apply to me since I don't use it on the road. Quite many end up taking loans to be able to afford buying a car - a brand new non-electric car is notoriously expensive in Norway, but an old second-hand car is also notoriously cheap. Of course, buy an old car and the maintenance costs will increase. New electric cars are heavily subsidized. If buying a car today for travelling in the Oslo area and having some money available, then the only thing that makes sense is to buy a relatively new electric vehicle.
I can't say the things in the "personal care"-section is particularly expensive ... though, I was really bleeding money for a while when my back pains was most acute, and dentist visits are also very expensive. I rarely cut my hair, even more rarely at a hairdresser, even more rarely in a Norwegian hair dresser ... and I would never pay 320 NOK for such a service. Single-time syringes at the pharmacy is really cheap, I'm using them frequently for gluing projects on the boat. :-)
Entertainment ... I do spend quite much on food, I feel I can afford to buy some sushi due to my crypto trading :-)
I don't believe those prices are "very reliable", further, as they are listed here they are more meant as price examples than as a guide for what the monthly living costs would be. It's for sure possible to live cheaply in Oslo without occupying buildings or doing dumpster diving ... and it's possible to waste ludicrous amounts of money as well :-)