“20 thousand is a lot of money, and for some even 10 is enough”: Ukrainians share how they survive on a small salary

Eight thousand hryvnias a month — that sounds like a sum on which you could run a perfectly decent household. But is that really the case in practice? A user named nika_movchann asked this question on social media, turning to people whose income is around 20,000 hryvnias. The responses that followed showed that the very same figure, depending on the region, family size and habits, can mean anything from a comfortable existence to constant survival. The discussion that unfolded in the comments went far beyond simple advice like “just don’t spend” and turned into a genuine sociological picture of financial life in Ukraine as of autumn 2026.

Different views on the same amount

The very first comments split the audience into two camps. One user joked: “20 thousand is a huge amount of money, I’d love to have that, I’d feel like a millionaire. As it is, 15 is fine, it’s enough for everything.” Another commenter immediately pointed out that for a significant share of Ukrainians even 20 thousand remains an unattainable benchmark: “There are many people who earn even less. Some get 10, and 11–13 thousand. Not everyone works in Kyiv as an IT specialist or a logistics professional.” A third participant in the debate suggested not arguing in theory but testing it in practice: “Give yourself a quest: take 20 thousand a month and try to live on it,” she wrote, with a characteristic sarcasm that nonetheless accurately reflects the mood of part of the audience.

Housing rent: the main “eater” of income

For many of those who took part in the discussion, the key problem turned out to be the cost of rented housing. “I’m also renting a place to live,” one user explained tersely, implying that after paying for the apartment there is critically little left of the salary. Real estate market data cited by the publication Styler confirm the scale of the problem: as of August 2026, a one-room apartment in Kyiv and the Kyiv region cost around 18,000 hryvnias, while in the Lviv and Zakarpattia regions it was more than 24,000. This means that in a number of regions rent fully or almost fully absorbs a salary of 20,000. More affordable options are found in the regions: in Khmelnytskyi a one-room apartment can be rented for roughly 9–10 thousand hryvnias, and in Zhytomyr and the region — around 14 thousand. A 2.5-fold spread between regions makes the question “is 20 thousand enough” largely a geographical one.

Practical strategies: from the garden to an expense diary

The most systematic approach to saving was described by a user who advises breaking the budget into categories and planning expenses by the week. “What has helped me is splitting the budget into 4 parts. That is, you set aside money for the main expenses: mobile phone, internet, utilities, health, holidays, and you divide everything else over 4–5 weeks,” she explained. She also recommends drawing up a menu for the week, buying groceries strictly by a list, and keeping an expense diary to see where the money actually goes. She separately highlighted the trap of “mindless sales”: “And a lot of money goes to mindless sales… because sometimes a sale doesn’t equal a bargain.” In her words, a discount in itself is not a saving if a person could have easily done without that purchase. Another participant, living on 10,000 hryvnias and raising two children, talked about more “folk” methods: buying groceries on sale, giving up meat, her own vegetable garden, home-canned preserves and, in some cases, food packages from charitable foundations. At the same time she frankly admitted that when the family had only one child, life was significantly easier.

Contradictory data

During the discussion a noticeable inconsistency emerged in estimates of what exactly the sum of 20,000 hryvnias means. On the one hand, a number of commenters flatly claim that it is “a lot of money” and “enough for everything,” and someone even boasted: “I used to earn 23, and there was still enough left to fill up the car.” On the other hand, other participants stress that after rent in Kyiv or Lviv only 2–4 thousand is left of this sum for food, transport and other needs, which makes a normal life practically impossible. The difference in versions is explained not so much by subjectivism as by objective factors: region of residence, owning a home or renting, family size, having a car. Thus, the statement “20 thousand is a lot” and the statement “you can’t live on 20 thousand” are simultaneously true for different segments of the population, and it is precisely this that makes the argument in the comments unproductive without reference to specific conditions.

When planning is not enough

Not all participants in the debate limited themselves to budgeting tricks. For some people the main way to cope with a small salary is to find an additional source of income. One user wrote about her experience of living on 10,000 hryvnias, and someone directly noted that 20 thousand in her situation is not a question of proper planning but a question of survival. The outcome of the discussion turned out to be significantly broader than typical advice on saving: for some, 20 thousand is a sum on which you can run a normal household, for others it is a salary that barely covers basic needs, and for some, even with a higher income, they have to constantly count every hryvnia. In conditions where rent in big cities eats up to 90% of income and the regional differentiation in housing prices reaches 2.5 times, the question “is 20 thousand enough” remains open and, in essence, rhetorical — the answer depends on where exactly a person lives and with whom.