Bengaluru: A 24-year-old Google professional has gone viral on social media after sharing a detailed breakdown of her ₹1.43 lakh monthly expenses in February 2026, shedding light on the high cost of maintaining a social and urban lifestyle in India’s technology capital.
The woman, identified as Pooja Narula, posted a video explaining how her monthly spending accumulated, highlighting both her fixed expenses and lifestyle-related costs. The video has attracted widespread attention online, with many users discussing the rising cost of living in Bengaluru and the financial realities faced by young professionals working in the city’s thriving tech sector.
Breakdown of fixed monthly expenses
In the video, Narula began by explaining her regular monthly expenses, which form the base of her spending. These included housing, domestic help and utilities.
Her room rent accounted for ₹22,400, while the cost of maid and cook services came to around ₹2,800 per month. Electricity and other household bills added another ₹2,000 to her regular expenses.
Such costs are considered relatively common in Bengaluru, where housing and service expenses have increased significantly in recent years due to the city’s rapid urbanisation and growing demand from the IT workforce.
Narula explained that these fixed expenses form the foundation of her monthly budget before additional lifestyle spending is considered.
Social lifestyle adds to spending
Apart from essential expenses, Narula also detailed her lifestyle spending, particularly on weekend social activities.
She revealed that she typically spends around ₹2,000 each weekend while going out with friends for social gatherings, dining or entertainment. Over the four weekends in February, this amounted to approximately ₹8,000.
According to her, such social spending is common among young professionals living independently in metropolitan cities, where dining out, cafés and social events form a significant part of urban life.
However, she acknowledged that keeping track of these costs helped her realise how quickly lifestyle expenses can accumulate.
One-time costs increased February expenses
Narula clarified that February was an unusual month for her financially because it included several one-time expenses that significantly increased her total spending.
One of the major costs was travel. She visited her hometown during the month, spending ₹16,000 on flight tickets and another ₹2,000 on airport cab services.
She also shifted houses during the same period, which resulted in additional costs including ₹3,000 paid to movers and packers. A much larger expense came in the form of a security deposit of ₹66,600 for her new accommodation.
These one-time payments made February’s expenditure considerably higher than her usual monthly spending.
Dining plans and gifts add ₹20,000
Narula also revealed that she spent approximately ₹20,000 on dining plans and gifts for friends during the month.
She explained that several social events and personal occasions contributed to this spending, which she described as miscellaneous but unavoidable during that period.
Adding all these expenses together brought her total spending for February to ₹1.43 lakh.
In the video, she remarked that calculating the full breakdown of her expenses was surprising even for her.
“On top of that, I had some miscellaneous dining plans and bought a few gifts for some people, which cost around ₹20,000 this month. So the total comes out to be ₹1.43 lakh this month,” she said.
Aiming to reduce spending next month
While acknowledging that the figure may appear high, Narula emphasised that several of the expenses were not part of her regular monthly budget.
She expressed hope that her spending would be significantly lower in the coming months.
“Not to be fair, this month included some one-time expenses and I’m hoping I would spend way lesser next month, but let’s see. Everything is indeed expensive,” she said.
The video was captioned humorously: “Calculated the total expense of February, and I’m probably never doing this activity again.”
Similar posts highlighting Bengaluru’s cost of living
Narula’s video is not the first time a Bengaluru-based professional has sparked discussion about personal finances and living costs in the city.
Earlier, a data engineer working in Bengaluru went viral after revealing her monthly salary and expenditure on social media. She disclosed that she earns around ₹3 lakh per month but spends more than ₹2 lakh on living costs, financial commitments and systematic investments.
In that case, the engineer said she pays ₹20,000 in rent and ₹5,000 for a domestic helper. Her rent also covers utilities such as electricity, water and internet, keeping her housing and utility costs stable at around ₹25,000 each month.
Growing conversation about urban living costs
Posts like these have triggered wider conversations about the cost of living in Bengaluru, particularly for young professionals working in the IT industry.
Many social media users pointed out that while high salaries in the technology sector offer financial flexibility, expenses such as rent, transportation, social activities and travel can quickly add up.
Others noted that sharing personal financial breakdowns helps create awareness about budgeting, financial planning and the economic realities of living in major metropolitan cities.
Conclusion
Narula’s viral video has once again highlighted how urban lifestyles, travel and social commitments can significantly influence personal finances in a city like Bengaluru. While her ₹1.43 lakh expenditure included several one-time costs, the discussion it generated reflects the growing public interest in understanding the real cost of living in India’s tech capital.