mutt, where are you right now? I'm asking because if you are in Europe or anywhere else, or if you work a NORMAL job, you will not get housing nor communication nor wife allowance nor anything else, your salary will be what ever they give you and you have to pay everything for yourself. Life in Bahrain is much cheaper than anywhere else in the Gulf. As well, yes the housing is yours so if you find a cheaper place you can save the extra!!!!! That's what i'm doing now and I have a pretty good size place with 2 bedrooms for less. That's just me, some people will pay the full 650 (550 if you're single) and pay extra to be in the "white" neighborhood, me i like being in the middle of all the ****. Also, depending on your culinary taste, you can spend a **** lot or nothing at all. If you have a wife or girlfriend who loves to shop and spend your money, she'll find EVERYTHING she needs here!
Therefore, if you just want to make it as per European standards, or North American Standards and not include any of the benefits you have here: schooling, housing, transport allowance, free laundry, wife allowance, kids allowance, blablabla, then your salary here would only be 2100+another 600 or so for flying and that would be a total of 2700BD x 2.65 = 7155US or 5400Euros. TAX FREEE!!!! try finding that in Europe!!!!! Hope this answers the question, and once again, i apologize if I have offended anyone!