Hey!
We're Dane and Stacey, full time travellers, YouTubers and Digital Nomads from New Zealand... more importantly, we're super new to Steemit!
This is only our second post, after our 'introduce yourself post' obviously, in which we promised to share our costs from living in Vietnam.
How It Works
We move a lot slower than a lot of travel vloggers so we share different experiences, but a lot of that was covered in our first post so we won't double up here. In short - we travel to a country for a month or two, get an apartment/villa/house and settle in more.
That means:
- The per night rate of accommodation comes down significantly with 4week+ commitment
- Overall costs are incredibly low, so our monthly income doesn't need to be high. OR, we can spend more time enjoying life and not working as much.
- We get to see more than just the quick touristy stuff. We meet expats and hang with locals
- The destination starts to feel like home, we unpack a bag
- Food - possibly the highlight! Often the tourist food is different to the local stuff, we like to hunt out the traditional style.
- Pace is slower, there's no rushing to move to your next destination.
- Most relevant to this post: We share the process of finding apartments, what they look like and how much they cost. We then track all of those expenses and share in a summary video.
Hoi An, Vietnam
Hoi An in Central Vietnam is a UNESCO heritage site and is incredibly beautiful. It's not a big city, though it neighbours Danang which is, so it's got a very local and traditional feel to it. It's a popular destination for Vietnamese to travel to as well, it's know as their 'go to Instagram spot'. The reason for that is the lanterns!
Costs
Below is a quick breakdown of our monthly expenses - note this is for 2 people! If you'd like to see more details, explanations behind each category, or a comparison to Thailand you can check out the full video here.
Accommodation - $458 USD
Utilities - $76 USD
Eating Out - $245 USD
Groceries - $203 USD
Water Drinking - $6 USD
Phone - $18 USD
Entertainment - $16 USD
Transport - $66 USD
Coffee & Beans - $29 USD
Gym - $62 USD
Protein - $49 USD
Miscellaneous - $24 USD
TOTAL - $1,251
Summary
You can live an incredible life in Vietnam (or a lot of South East Asia actually) as a couple for only $1,200 per month. If you were more budget conscious than us you could easily lower that below $1000. We have expensive gym memberships, buy cakes and treats, drink coffee out and buy beans, drink alcohol, pay for a scooter and gas every month, buy protein powder... and more.
Most people think traveling full time is out of reach, expensive and not possible but it's just not true and we want to help more people realise that! If you're interested in finding out a lot more, eg 180+ pages more, about the secrets behind living this life we'll be sharing everything you need to know in an upcoming resource so you can hopefully make change in your own life.
Happy to answer any questions!
Catch you next time.
Dane and Stacey.
I really like that you move slower and get to know a place more as locals, rather than tourists. Thanks for including your expenses also! As someone who wants to travel, this shows me that it can be very affordable and not as hard to do as people will tell you.