I am always telling people how cheap it can be to travel, especially in Asia, but often I don’t think people understand just how cheap it really is.  It’s been just over a week since I arrived, and I’d say I’m doing pretty well by my standards.  I’m living pretty modestly by eating in the inexpensive local restaurants and eating street food and we’ve got a fairly good deal on our accommodation.  But I’m also enjoying myself – massages, dessert, and beer are on the menu if the mood strikes me.  This is one of my rules for travelling – I’m not going to bother if I have to count every penny and not do the things that I want to do.  I took the “cheap as we can do it” approach when I was a younger backpacker, but now that I’m a bit older, if I want a $4 pedicure, I’m going to get a $4 pedicure. Here’s a breakdown of my first few days in Saigon (keep in mind, it’s 18,000 dong to the US dollar):

.

Nov 4                                                      Nov 5                                                    Nov 6

4000 ice cream                                      30,000 pho lunch                             75,000 2 new shirts

20,000 ice tea                                         6,000 medicine                                 52,000 Thai lunch

54,000 Indian food for lunch             27,000 resumes printed                 65,000 rabbit dinner and beers

8,500 new handbag                              40,000 tea for two                           190,000 beer (big night out)

12,000 groceries (soap, fruit, etc.)     80,000 Thai dinner                        5,000 fudgsicle

6,500 pho dinner and dessert              7,000 chips                                 108,000 accommodation

108,000 accommodation                     202,000 massage and pedicure

.                                                             108,000 accommodation

TOTAL: 213,000 dong ($11.83)           TOTAL:  500,000 dong ($27.77)      TOTAL: 495,000 ($27.50)

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Nov 7                                                      Nov 8                                                          Nov 9

70,000 moto-taxi                               150,000 Mekong tour                            38,000 pho lunch

53,000 Thai lunch                             35,000 dinner                                          288,000 cell phone

20,000 taxi                                     108,000 accommodation                     22,000 avocado shake/H2O

40,000 Vietnamese dinner                                                                                    150,000 groceries

42,000 dessert (sundae)                                                                                         20,000 taxi

8,000 water                                                                                                        108,000 accommodation

108,000 accommodation

TOTAL: 341,000 dong ($18.94)     TOTAL: 293,000 dong ($16.28)   TOTAL: 626,000 dong ($34.77)

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Nov 10

40,000 Indian lunch

40,000 taxi (to and from job interviews)

50,000 dinner

80,000 taxi (to and from airport)

108,000 accommodation

TOTAL: 318,000 dong ($17.67)

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Started with $500, spent $154.76, which leave me with $345.24.  Luckily I start work on Saturday.

So that gives me an average of $22.11 spent per day.  Of course, there are certain start-up costs when you land somewhere, like a cell phone lots of taxis while you get oriented with a city.  I only anticipate my budget to tighten up, but there is always the possibility that as I meet more people, that will mean more social time (read: beer), so we will see!