u/LazyBumTravels

Third full month in Da Nang, Vietnam. Originally we had plans to move South to Quy Nhon and Nha Trang for May. Loving it here so much we had originally planned for 3 months but we are extending it another 3 months through August and will revisit it if we want to extend or not. 

Housing: $528.78

We have a one bedroom about 55 sqm2 apartment on the third floor, 8 minute walk to the beach. It is a few years old, still modern but you can see some wear and tear in the place. We originally found this place on Airbnb for about $480/mo plus electricity. We booked two months through Airbnb and have since talked to the landlord directly and rented from him undercutting the price by 20%. Moving forward we will be renting $400 for the whole month plus electricity. Electricity is about $80 to run two AC units when we are at home. We turn them off if we are not in the room or out.

Food: $802.37

We eat on average 3 times a day and eat out everyday with 1-2 coffees/smoothies with fresh fruits and snacks throughout the day. Have not cooked one time yet since we've been traveling. Two local meals which would be about $3-$7 each and one Western type meal for about $15-$20, two people. Food here isn’t the best but it isn’t the worst. As a Vietnamese raised in the States, the Vietnamese food here in Central Vietnam is more bland than the Southern style of food that is exported all over the world. Still, when it is less than $1.50 how much can you complain? I personally had food poisoning once, but I think that was through a Western restaurant at a pizza place. We aren’t too sure because my wife ate everything I did and she was not sick. Either way we have been here for 3 months and for the most part hygiene may be lacking but none of us died on the toilet, yet.

Commute: $91.43

Monthly rental for the scooter is about $60 and I get gas about $2 every 5 days. My wife sometimes takes a Grab scooter every now and that amounts to about $1-$1.50 for a 5km ride. Overall it is inexpensive, we moved to Son Tra which is less walkable than where we were in My An but have no issues with it. Moped isn’t without it’s risk, we did have a small incident where a guy pulled in front of me and I locked the brakes and my wife and I fell over. We had light rashes and bruises but overall fine. It be dangerous out here. 

Flex Spending: $630.38

• Pickleball $141.17, most pickleball sessions are about $2-3 per 2 hours per player, this amounts includes pickleball shirts, fake racquets, and my wife wanted a few lessons. I pay 4-5x a week and my wife plays 2-3x a week.
• Experiences and Entertainment $123.84 includes going to Hoi An and watching the world renown show Hoi An Memories, movie tickets, Ba Na Hills, Marble Mountain etc. 
• Massage/Wellness: $81.53, we usually get a massage once or twice a week. An hour session for two people is $8/ea plus $2 tip.
• Vietnamese Lessons $107.88, wife wanted to learn Vietnamese, she’s on her second month it’s about $11/lesson twice a week
• Donation $96.15, we donated to the local orphanage to help fund a new roof. Our Pickleball group is in the midst of trying to raise $5,000 to repair the orphanage roof, we are currently at $1600. We also donate our time to the local pet shelter feeding and medicating cats. 
• Random Crap bought things on Shopee (Amazon of Vietnam) crap like a PS controller to play games on laptop, a Nintendo Switch hub, paying for a TV rental etc.

Miscellaneous: $237.77

• Life Insurance $105, currently still have our term insurance of $1M for my wife and I. Renewal is once a year in August
• G1G Travel insurance $27.16 travel insurance, highly recommended. $326/year for two people, paid out claims within 3 weeks
• Credit Card Annual Fees $40.83 have the Capital One Venture X and Chase Sapphire. Capital One X gave us a free night stay in Hoi An that would normally be $95 that was not counted towards this month spend. Practically a free card as they give you $300 in travel credit and 10k points which offsets the $400/year annual fee. Chase Sapphire is our backup card, may need to rethink this as there are better options for backups. 
• Rest of misc. spend are hopefully one time expenses like buying a handheld vacuum for the apartment, window sealant to help with the street noise, a few coffee filter to make our own coffee, cleaning out the AC in the apartment to get rid of mold etc.

Healthcare: $30.39

Mostly just buying allergy meds. As stated before we did have an accident so we spent a few bucks on bandages, vaseline and first aid crap. A lot of this category probably belongs to Salonpas which is what we use after our pickleball games. 

Thoughts:

Our budget is $2500 and we are hard pressed to spend that much, even with charity donations. We even hosted a few dinners and paid for people as well. Moving forward our rent will drop about $100 and we will buy less misc. Items for our place so I think we will further spend less. I can not stress this enough, this is a great budget without worrying about money. Above and beyond this we are starting to have a social group of friends that we spend a great amount of time hanging out with and enjoy ourselves. I urge people to consider giving this kind of lifestyle a try if you are on the edge, this is probably one of the best decisions we ever made. I eat better, sleep better, healthier, more active, stress less and have never been happier. Idk how much of that is Da Nang vs retirement, but either way if this is something on your mind you should really look into it. The cherry on top is that we left America with a little under 1.4M NW and we are currently almost 1.5M NW. The feeling that your money is working for you while you do nothing is amazing.