Monthly income:
- Income from freelancing: £1,132 net, est.
Total: £1,132 net (£15,000 gross a year).
Regular monthly outgoings:
- Rent: £200 (room in a homestay in Ho Chi Minh City, inc. cleaner)
- Food shopping: £45
- Eating out, and socialising: £240
- Motorcycle hire: £38
- Fuel: £10
- Storage fee in London: £29.15
- Yoga membership: £26
- Contact lens subscription: £13
- Skype subscription: £13
- Phone credit: £8
- Cosmetics and supplements: £10
- Visa: £9 (avg.)
- Laundry: £7 (wash and press once a week)
- Netflix subscription: £6
- NUJ freelance membership: £5
- WWF donation: £5
- Haircut: £2
- Travel/holidays: £100 (avg.)
- SIPP (pension) savings: £65
- Other savings: £300
Total: £1,131.15 (excluding savings: £766.15)
Amount left: +£0.85.
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I moved to Ho Chi Minh City in March, having lived here briefly in 2017. The first stay was somewhat of a trial run, and once I got back to the UK the benefits of life here became clear. So I tied up some lose ends – including giving most of my stuff away – and headed back.
As you can see, the main attraction is the extremely low cost of living. Excluding what I save into my pension and savings account each month, my entire monthly expenditure is less than the rent for my old flatshare in Tooting, which was £750 per month.
This means I can work less than I had to London, where I needed to hustle for at least £1,500 a month (net) just to pay the bills, get to work and eat. As such I’ve been able to spend time on a creative project here, which is coming along nicely – if not slower than I’d hoped.
Wifi in Vietnam is usually excellent – even in the mountains – and so I can work remotely easily, conducting interviews over Skype. I pay £13 a month for 400 minutes of calls to the UK and for my own UK phone number.
Sunshine on tap
Of course the other major benefit to living here is the weather: daily sunshine doesn’t get old. This means I spend almost nothing on clothes, make-up, hair etc – less being more in all three categories in 32-degree heat. The local barber cuts my hair for me, which costs around £2.
I rent a room in a family home, which has a huge balcony and ample room to roll out my yoga mat. The bathroom is shared with two other guests and the £198-a-month rent includes use of the kitchen and cleaning. I take my laundry to a place nearby, where they wash and press it for me for around £1.60 per load.
There are lots of cultural and art events going on in the city, which I go to regularly – from exhibitions and workshops to markets and live music festivals. I also do yoga at a Sivananda studio three times a week, which costs £26 per month.
Food is a highlight of life in Vietnam and I spend the majority of my money on eating out and socialising. Street food is everywhere and incredibly cheap: from 50p for a fully loaded sandwich, or ‘Banh Mi,’ to £6 for all you can eat BBQ washed down with 75p bottles of ice-cold Bia Saigon.
I still tend to eat a Western breakfast of oats, fruit and soy milk at home, though, and I also make my own salads for dinner during the week. My average weekly spend in the supermarket is around £10, although occasionally I’ll spend a little more at a fancy foreign grocer for some wholegrain bread or imported cheese.
Some basic things are tricky to get here; shoes, for example. I’m a UK size 6, which relegates me to men’s trainers. Most face and body creams also have skin-whitening agents in too, so I stick to Johnsons baby lotion. All of this equals a great way to save money, however.
Sticking to a weekly budget
I tend to escape the city – whose frenetic energy is comparable to a teenager on amphetamines raving to trance – every few weeks. I’ll either take a bus for two hours to the beach at Vung Tau, or for six hours to the pine forests in Dalat. Tickets cost between £3 and £8 each way. I am also going on a long holiday to Bali in Indonesia soon.
I keep track of all my spending in notes on my phone, and stick to a weekly budget. I got into this habit last year and it’s helped me to finally take control of my spending. In London I did a lot of ‘magical thinking’ to justify living beyond my means: now if I spend it, it gets written down and counted.
I use a Creation credit card to withdraw cash and make card payments fee free, which I clear at the end of every month. I get paid in pounds into a UK bank account, which makes this easier. For foreigners earning in Vietnamese Dong, moving money abroad can be expensive and difficult.
Of course it’s not all sunshine and lollipops living in a developing country. Driving and crossing the road is a daily trial where the only rule is: there are no rules, while God forbid you need a doctor as that costs around £50 a visit for foreigners.
However, for the first time in my adult life I’m living debt free; I don’t lose sleep over how I’m going to make the rent or buy food; I’ve got time to pursue other interests and I have actual cash money in a savings account.
And that is pretty nice.
According to a report on inews