How much does it cost to live in Vietnam?
Posted: September 26, 2012 Filed under: expats, Reflections | Tags: cost, expats, living, money 7 Comments »So here’s a bash at answering the age old expat forum question.
How much does it cost to live in Vietnam? The answer may surprise you.
It costs as much to live in Vietnam as it does at home – if you want all the same things that home provides.
Vietnam allows you to cut corners. You can eat food with no guarantee of hygienic preparation nor quality of ingredients for a fraction of what you pay at home. If you want to play it safe it’ll cost you more.
You can buy DVDs where there’s a chance they’ll skip or episodes are missing or translation is courtesy of Google for a dollar. Or you can buy the real thing for the normal price or more.
You can get your computer fixed only to find that the upgraded Windows the technician chucked in for free is actually pirated which can’t be updated leaving you susceptible to viruses and crashing.
You can share a house with a dozen others very cheaply or you can get a place of your own with all comforts and conveniences for rather more. You can pay less tax, VAT, rates and National Insurance and then get hit by doctors fees or stump up thousands for insurance. Don’t even think about school fees.
You can spend $1 a week on petrol for the commute – then have to pay $1,000 to visit parents back home.
You can buy beer at a quarter of a price or pay four times more for wine.
You can hire staff for $100 a month to run around after you – then spend a similar amount at a gym to combat the sedentary lifestyle which means you’re putting on weight.
Yes you can live on $5 a day. But you can’t live a year on 365 x $5. And you certainly can’t live five years on 5 x 365 x $5.
All too often, when people tell you how much you can live on, what they are actually saying is what they’re willing to live without.
Living in HCMC or Ha Noi cost you indeed the same as back home. Living an a countryside city and requiring quality food costs you a weekly 10 hour trip for shopping and hoping there will be no power-cut the coming week. It’s much cheaper in Thailand in comparable conditions.
easy to get by on $500 – $600 a month….rent $200 – $300..incl laundry and wifi and electricity..eating local food..why eat western food?? you’re not in the west..drinking out once or twice a week is pretty cheap at 30,000 – 40,000 vnd a beer or 10,000 on the street..dvd’s vcd’s..what are these?? internet is free with the rent and downloading costs zero…clothes – a fraction of the price…as a Teacher its one of the best countries for saving money as the difference between salary and costs is such that its easy to save $1000 a month..I know people who make $1000 a week..so you can guess what they save….(ps the last bit is a secret..dont tell people overseas these figures )
Is there power cuts in Vietnam?
Hans, reminds me of a new supermarket than opened near us back home. A colleague remarked that at first he thought it was cheaper – then he realised it just didn’t have the same product range. He was still buying bread and milk but was no longer six different types of olives from around the world.
Dave “why eat western food”? Same reason as I eat Italian, Chinese, Indian or Mexican food in the UK? It tastes good. I feel like you proved my point – you can save because you can live frugally. You could buy a cheap bottle of cider and sit on a plastic stool in the street in the UK/US or wherever. It’s a little more acceptable in Vietnam. Clothes for me are a fine example of the market forces I was outlining. I’ve bought a stack of shirts here and the tailoring or the material is never quite right. I can get better tailoring and then it costs as much as overseas to buy off the wrack. Easier to buy overseas. I don’t doubt you can live cheaply in Vietnam but you can’t live cheaply forever without a huge sacrifice. As one becomes two and then maybe three or four, that becomes harder.
To go back to food, I’ve spoken to a lot of newcomers who swear they’ll only eat streetfood. There are very few who say that after a year or two.
Ishar. Yes.
We’re all different, and I have grown quite comfortable living on the local economy here in HCMC. A big difference between here and back home in San Francisco are the options that I have to choose from. I could have opted to live a more typical expat lifestyle here, but I have made my choices to live like the Vietnamese in my neighborhood. I didn’t have anywhere near the range of choices in San Francisco that I can choose from here.
I am not a rich man, even by Vietnamese standards, so I have to track my expenses carefully against a budget. In the analysis, I am finding that I am living here for about a third of what I needed in the USA, albeit at a reduced lifestyle that reflects my choices. I don’t need a car here, for example. As for the food, I know that I am feeling much better with all the vegetables available here in the market, compared to the industrialized food I bought in the Safeway back home.
– Mel
Steve..been here 14 years..eat street food every day..(today had slightly curried chicken – breast, rice and veg, soup and tra da…14,000vnd…buy 5 shirts every year, bin the old ones..shirts are $10 bucks ,. trousers are $15…ps the reason for not eating western is that when I first arrived the locals couldnt make bacon and eggs or make decent pasta….so just stuck with what is supposed to be a world-renowned cuisine – Vietnamese food!!…but some great Indian and Thai restaurants around
Dave
Mel, Again, I think that’s mostly down to choices. I don’t want/need a car because where am I going to drive? Where would I park it, etc. But in large parts, as much as it’s nice to see car driving limited – these are failings in the system. Frankly I’d love to be able to comfortably drive up to the mountains or two the coast when the weather is unbearable in Hanoi. Agreed re fresh food – but it’s down to that value added thing again. Veggies freshly dug up has their own value but so do imported cheeses, meats etc. We can choose to eat only one of those but limited choices are not the same as comparing like for like. Living cheaply is more about lifestyle choices than anything else. We alternatively live cheaply then splurge.
Dave, you’re a minority and good on you. But like you said you got into the habit of eastern food because western food was limited. Your choices were curtailed. I started in Vietnam as a $500 stipend a month volunteer. I kidded myself I was living on that money. But, of course you’re not because everything beyond rice and noodles was coming out of my bank account. You can make a lot and you can save a lot but only if you’re content to live with relatively little.