The Best Ways to Reduce Cost of Living as a Digital Nomad

The Best Ways to Reduce Cost of Living as a Digital Nomad

While the digital nomad lifestyle can be exhilarating and free, it can also be financially stressful. Though living in constant travel can be tricky to manage cost-wise, and expenses can quickly snowball out of control.

That said, being a digital nomad does not have to be expensive. In the right way, you could live your life in a comfortable comfy lifestyle, and lower your cost of loving down by quite a bit. From selecting budget-friendly locations, to staying cut-rate, to saving on the day-to-day — there are many areas where you can pinch pennies and extend the sustainability of your nomadic journey.

In this guide, we will explore some of the most effective methods to save money as a digital nomad to get more bang for your buck on the road.

Pick Economical Places to Visit

Choosing your living and working space has one of the most significant impacts on your expenses. There are cities that will make the expense of the tax read like a steal while you are just living life prima, however you will be paying very little for it.

Top Cheap Places to Live as a Digital Nomad

To help save money while traveling, choose to go to countries with low cost of living where the infrastructure of remote work is strong.

  • Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia (Bali) and the Philippines: Excellent weather, good internet and cheap living.
  • Eastern Europe: The likes of Georgia, Romania, and Bulgaria have cheap rent and food, and are easily reached from the rest of the continent.
  • Long-haul flights from Argentina to Europe offer low-cost options for travelling Europeans, while Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina give a interesting mix of affordability alongside decent digital nomad infrastructure.
  • South asia: India,Nepal, and Sri Lanka are dirt cheap, you can get a bed for as low as $1, and meals for less than $2.

Simply by living in a cheap place, you can reduce your cost of living between 50% and 100% less than most of the Western countries.

Save Money on Accommodation

  • Accommodation: This is the largest expense for digital nomads. Ditch the hotels and Airbnb and house sit or home exchange your way to beautiful places for free.
  • If you house-sit, get connectedHouse-sitting gigs. TrustedHousesitters, Nomador and MindMyHouse.
  • With HomeExchange, it's completely free to stay in various parts of the world by swapping homes with others.
Coliving and Long-Term Rentals
  • Co-living spaces are also a popular option among digital nomads — cheap lodging alongside workspaces and networking opportunities. Examples include:
  • Selina — Colliving spaces in many countries, with fast internet and work-friendly environment.
  • Outsite: A leading provider of stylish and community-driven co-living and co-working spaces for digital nomads.

If you stay for a while, you can often pay a lot less by renting an apartment on Facebook Marketplace or local property rental sites or Airbnb (for monthly discounts, ) rather than booking short stays.

Reduce Food Expenses

Cook Your Own Meals

  • Dining out can deplete your budget quickly! If you are living in one of the high-cost cities, cooking meal for yourself can reduce your food expenses by up to 70%.
  • Buy fresh and inexpensive produce at the market instead of buying them from the supermarket.
  • Continue to stay in Airbnb rentals (with kitchens) to prepare at home.

This not only helps you save some bucks from spending but also helps you avoid impulse spending on food at a restaurant.

Eat Like a Local

Don't eat in touristy restaurants — go for the local ones, street food and small family-owned restaurants when eating out. You can fill your belly for less than $3, and the price of a full meal in Thailand or Mexico or Vietnam would be less than that.

Use Food Apps for Discounts
  • There are other food apps in many cities that provide discounted meal, free deliveries, or reward of loyalty. Some popular ones include:
  • Too Good To Go: A food waste app that sells surplus food at low prices
  • GrabFood, Rappi, and Gojek: Offer discounts on local meals in Southeast Asia and Latin America

With some planning on what to eat, you can still have decent meals without breaking the bank, therefore reducing your day to day costs by quite a bit.

Save Money on Transportation

Use Public Transportation

Find a mode of public transportation rather than taking taxis/rideshare. Buses, metro systems, or trains should work. As shown above, many cities have much cheaper monthly public transport passes, a single monthly public transport pass can save you hundreds in a single month versus a per ride price.

The BTS Skytrain is quick, dependable, and cost-effective throughout Bangkok.

A single tariff on Mexico City’s metro is under $0.30.

In Europe, in many cities there are bike sharing programs which help you to get the place you want cheap.

Utilize Relocation Savings

Car rental companies frequently require cars to be taken from one city to another, and will rent a car for relatively little money, or for absolutely nothing, to anyone prepared to put the miles down on it. Transfercar and Imoova àre another two sйtes to fжnd free pickups от one cйnter tо another риid. It is tо be noted thаt nearly $2,000 CАN fоr sImilar matter wоuld bе given bу thе very same lеasing car аnd thеy lеаe(primary аcar) cоmpany.

Hitchhiking and Ride-Sharing

In some countries it is the norm, and safe. BlaBlaCar is one of those apps that connects travelers with locals who are driving to similar destinations, allowing the cost of the ride to be shared by the people in the car with the driver.

Use Coworking Spaces Wisely

Coworking spaces are fantastic for networking opportunity, but they can be costly in big cities. To save money:

  • Search for free working areas – Lots of cafés, libraries, as well as little neighborhood centers which utilize rapid Wi, Ifi at, as well as complimentary seats, have actually come to be a take on for remote workers.
  • Avoid full monthly memberships; use daily /weekly passes
  • Look for coworking spaces with free trial days — Tons of spaces offer free first-day access to trying out the environment.

Optimize Travel Costs

During the off-season, flights and accommodations are far less expensive. For example:

  • It is cheapest for Europe from October to April (except Christmas).
  • Cheap travel in Southeast Asia outside of the peak season: the rainy season (June–September)

Travel costs can be 30–50% lower by avoiding peak visitor months.

Travel Rewards and Flights come in handy

Use credit card travel points, and/or airline miles, and/or deals on airline tickets to get free or discounted airline tickets!

  • Find the cheapest dates using Skyscanner or Google Flights.
  • For shorter flights, look into budget airlines such as AirAsia, Ryanair, and Spirit Airlines.

Minimize Subscription Costs

Find out which monthly subscriptions are bleading your bank account silently. To save money:

  • Utilize free platforms like YouTube or free trials of streaming services while cancelling unnecessary streaming services.
  • If you want to be savvy, use regional pricing via a VPN for software and subscriptions.
  • Divide up the cost of family or friend group plans (Netflix, Spotify, etc).

Work Smarter and Earn More

Cutting costs is almost everything but making additional cash while working from home can provides you much larger cash flow! Consider:

  • Applying for high-paying remote jobs such as software development, copywriting, or consulting.
  • Having passive income, one or more side hustles, freelancing, investments, or multiple streams of income.
  • Get paid in stronger currencies (USD, EUR) where you live in an "affordable" country

The better you optimize your income, the easier it is to work on your low-cost, high-quality digital nomadic lifestyle.

Conclusion

Multiple digital nomad lifestyles are affordable Freedom to travel the world whilst slashing your cost of living drastically by going to cheaper countries, staying in cheaper accommodation, eating local food, using local transport and countless travel hacks.

By bringing in some cash, keeping your spending in check, and using some great tips to navigate the streets like a local, you can travel longer, save more, and enjoy the fruits of the digital nomad life without going broke.