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Budget method · reviewed September 4, 2026

Compare the same month.

One adult, a private one-bedroom, and the same everyday choices in every city. The housing target is a furnished home with a private kitchen on a 12-month lease. These are starting estimates for relocation, not short-stay quotes or all-in guarantees.

What changes with your lifestyle

Simple

One bedroom outside the centre; 30 casual restaurant meals, 0 sit-down dinners, 8 coffees and a rented small automatic motorbike with fuel for 400 km per 30 days. 100% of the home-shopping list below. No paid gym or cinema assumed.

Comfortable

One bedroom in the city centre; 40 casual restaurant meals, 4 sit-down dinners, 16 coffees and a rented small automatic motorbike with fuel for 400 km per 30 days. 80% of the home-shopping list below. One gym membership and 2 cinema visits.

Living well

One bedroom in the city centre; 48 casual restaurant meals, 12 sit-down dinners, 24 coffees and a rented small automatic motorbike with fuel for 400 km per 30 days. 50% of the home-shopping list below. One gym membership and 4 cinema visits.

The calculation you can inspect

The full grocery list is 6 litres of milk, 4 kg bread, 4 kg rice, 5 dozen eggs, 4 kg chicken, 2 kg apples, 4 kg bananas, 2 kg tomatoes, 3 kg potatoes and 1 kg onions. Higher restaurant use reduces that list. Every lifestyle adds about 59 litres of drinking water. This is an editable shopping basket, not a complete nutritional plan.

The directory defaults to renting a small automatic motorbike. Published monthly rates are used, with an annual rate only where its contract is explicit. Source ranges and starting prices remain labeled planning references. Da Lat uses a national monthly-scooter range as a provisional allowance, not a local quote. Fuel is 400 km ÷ 40 km/litre × the reported city petrol price. Distance and efficiency are assumptions. Each city adds editable USD 10 parking, USD 15 upkeep and USD 20 occasional-taxi allowances. These are not verified prices or insurance. Rental deposits, gear and delivery belong in arrival cash.

Transport choices recalculate the directory, city budget and worksheet. Public transport uses 40 single-ticket boardings (60 for Living well), and mixed transport splits these between tickets and car journeys. Tickets do not establish route coverage, transfer costs or pass eligibility. Owning a bike removes rent but shows purchase and possible resale separately; its monthly figure covers running costs, not depreciation. Personal insurance requires its own quote.

Car trips use the reported taxi starting fare plus 5 km at the reported distance rate. Waiting, surge and tolls are not included. Bangkok instead uses the government meter tariff: THB 40 for the first kilometre plus four kilometres at THB 6.50, or THB 66 before traffic and extras. The fare source is linked in its worksheet. These taxi references can have inconsistent vehicle classes and remain approximate; it does not describe everyone’s commute. Replace it with your own routes, transit fares or quotes.

Read the linked country guidance for licensing and riding suitability before choosing a motorbike. Rental availability is not permission to ride. Each month includes mobile and home internet. The utility reference covers an 85 m² apartment and is retained in full as a conservative proxy, not presented as a measured one-bedroom bill. A smaller home or bills included in rent can change your spending.

We add the same USD 40 allowance for pantry extras, toiletries and laundry, and a 10% reserve on the priced basket. These are explicit planning choices, not verified city prices or a statistical confidence interval. Rounded expense categories add up to the displayed total.

Insurance, routine healthcare, unquoted home fees and other personal spending need separate entries. Flights, visa costs, setup, refundable deposits and advance rent stay in arrival cash. Advance rent is prepaid spending, not an extra monthly expense.

What the sources establish

City price tables are Numbeo crowdsourced observations captured September 4, 2026. They give a consistent set of categories; they do not verify a particular apartment, a 12-month furnished lease, an available offer or a price you will personally receive. City-centre boundaries also differ. Direct rental ads, provider prices and menus remain separate references to investigate.

For price matching, we exclude tables with fewer than 20 contributors or an explicit estimated-data warning. This is an editorial screening rule, not proof that the other tables are representative. Contributor counts cover the whole table, not every item. Hoi An, Da Lat and Ubud currently show indicative calculations and are excluded from budget-based recommendations.

The editable worksheet uses approximate local-currency conversions implied by the source snapshot, with its reference linked. Your bank or card rate may differ. An ad in a different currency is never silently imported as your rent.

Before committing, compare multiple matching properties and obtain written confirmation of lease dates, kitchen and furnishings, all bills, fees, deposits and availability. We have not contacted these landlords. A dated review is a snapshot, not continuous monitoring.

All 13 cities appear together in the directory with a priced reference basket. The limited-sample cities retain their evidence labels and are not counted as matches to a budget cap. Every lifestyle has an expandable breakdown of quantities, prices and sources, plus separate menu, mobile and retail examples. Those examples do not validate an entire category or establish local stock.

The housing comparison prioritizes separate-bedroom descriptions with published annual terms, then price proximity. Only an exact price can be used for an automatic comparison. The cards show annual-contract labels where supported, the original bill terms, and differences from the rent allowance. Comfortable and Living well use the same central one-bedroom reference; their other spending differs, so the same homes can appear for both. The named neighborhood and home features may differ from the reference category.

Exact yearly asking prices are divided by 12 for monthly comparisons and worksheet imports, while the original annual amount stays visible. This is not evidence of monthly payment terms. Qualified prices, such as offers over an amount, are not automatically imported. Shorter contracts are shown separately when a provider publishes them.

City price references

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