I’m Living off $350/Month in Asia as a Freelancer
Paying my rent, food and everything else.
$350 per month, that’s how much you need to make every month so you don’t die of hunger, at least for where I’m staying as of writing this.
Minus all the Starbucks, McDonald’s and KFC.
Almost everything cooked at home using a Chinese rice cooker.
It’s the bare minimum you need to survive every month if you’re living alone.
And good news, you will have extra money left at the end of the month to buy some burgers! 🥲
Keep in mind that some Indonesians feed whole families with $350.
As of writing this $350 USD is approximately 5.7 Million Indonesian Rupiahs.
I do spend more than 350 bucks for some extra stuff like fast food, my daily morning latte and some other stuff.
But where in Indonesia?
It’s not Bali, I’d be sleeping in the streets with $350/month.
I’d need way more money to pay rent there.
I’m currently living in a city called Batu in the outskirts of Malang city, it’s higher in altitude and we’re not too far from the mountains.
And I’ve found a nice little house right in the middle of the city.
Everything is at a walking distance, pharmacy, convenience store and cafes.
Here are some photos of the house I’m renting:
It’s not in a villa but it’s enough for me, my rent is around $62/month. (Yes! $62)
Water and electricity are included withing the renting price, which is nice.
$62 comes at around 1 million Indonesian Rupiah.
Bed on the floor is Ok, since there are no insects or cockroaches in the house that I know of.
The gas stove is included and to replenish the gas tank, it costs about $1,20.
The electricity is included in the rent which is pretty cool, if I were to bring in a fridge I would have to pay a little bit more in monthly rent around $3-$6 more.
The house is extremely minimal as you can see in the pics, the toilet floor is surprisingly cold since we’re in high altitude. At night, it gets really cold!
And the running water is so cold that you don’t even want to take a shower. No hot water, sorry. 😂
After paying my rent, the rest of the money goes to my phone bill which is around $3/month and food which is where most of my money goes.
There’s also a mosque 3–4 minutes away, have a look at how beautiful it is.
I had to take pic when the sun hit the opening of the mosque’s dome:
A part from that, the neighbourhood is calm, clean, safe and the neighbors are extremely kind.
Here’s a pic of a small road that passes in the neighbourhood:
I’ve been living here for a month now, no idea if I will be staying here long term, will see.
Living off $350 sounds great, but there are drawbacks in terms of quality of life if you’ve lived your whole life in a western country.
This is rural Indonesia, not LA or New-York city so you have to keep that in mind.
I would definitely not recommend someone from a western country to start living in rural Indonesia straight away, because you’ll probably want to go back home. 😅
You’ll have to adapt gradually.
Personally, I’m loving it!
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I enjoyed the read. May I ask you how are your interactions with the locals? Did you make any friends? Thanks. Bye. Robert
Great post!!! , I just finished my lunch and reading your post what’s so entertaining , I hope you are doing well , .