Cost of living in Berlin, Germany for 7 months?

I am going to Berlin next year to study and I wanted to know how much food generally costs say for a lunch meal and if it would just be cheaper to go to a grocery store and make my own food every day.
I am also at a loss as to how much money to take. Basically all I have to pay for once i get there is lunch, necessities (shampoo, toothpaste, etc.), the bahn, and anything else I want to do.
I would also like to know how much it costs to get a netcard for 1 month for the bahn?
What kind of outlet converter do I need to get for my laptop?

Hey ..
Its way cheaper to buy your own food here than to go out to eat. Aldi, or Lidl mean that you can eat really cheap. I'm not 100% Lunch is the hot meal of the day here, and you can buy a bag of pasta for about 60 cents, thatr would last you abotu 4 meals (plus the meat and veges). 4 piece of chicken breast ( frozen) costs about euro 2.50. A head of lettuce is about .80 cents. Shampoo and toothpaste can be bought at the same shop for necxt to nothing, if you want brand name though .. you pay up to about 3-4 euros as opposed to less than 1 ,50.

For your outlet for your lap top, you only need the plug that fits on to the lug you currently use. They're not expencive and you don't need a converter or anything like that ( we have a US and an Aussie lap top and that's all we do).

From what I read online at http://www.s-bahn-berlin.de/aboundticket...
a monthly card would cost you about 71 Euros
Its called a "Monatskarten". I've included the website for the plan of the train, it's quite helpful to have it in advance.

If you want to travel around Germany, the best way to do is on the weekend. It's called a Wochenende ticket (Happy weekend ticket) for around 30euros up to a max . 5 people can go any where in Germany within a 24 hour period. You can go early Sat. Morning and buy another ticket on Sunday and come home late at night. Quite fun.

Hope that helps

it麓s cheaper when you make your own food every day in Germany.A simple toast costs 40 cents,the magarine round about 1 Euro,simple salami mind 90 cents.a bread costs between 99 cents and 2,50 Euros.go to the aldi,Lidl or Netto shop.That麓s the smallest and cheapest .in the middle regions are the Real,-,Marktkauf or Edeka.They are bigger and you can get more.In Berlin the KADEWE is to expensive.At Burger King a meal cost麓s around 5 Euros,and Mc Donalds around 4 Euros (i prefer Burger King you get bigger Whopper and so on as the Big Mac at Mc Donalds).When you specialy want to know a price you could ask me.

Let me tell you one thing ...... I do admire your plans and you'll be surprised how cheap food is here. You do not want a Bahn Net-card (what for) ....you have to do some searching with your laptop once here...... But most of all NO GUTS ::::NO GLORY.