A bowl of noodles for breakfast, fruit for lunch, sweet potatoes for dinner, and rice for dinner only costs about 100,000 VND per day.
I often read articles about living costs and see many people think that if you want to live comfortably in the city, you have to spend a lot of money. But for my family, if we know how to spend wisely, life will still be full and comfortable without having to chase expenses beyond our needs.
My husband and I have a fairly simple lifestyle. In the morning, we cycled together for about an hour to exercise and then stopped at the restaurant for breakfast. Two bowls of rib noodles cost about 100,000 VND. Back home, we opened a furniture store, each person made a cup of "3 in 1" coffee or a cup of cocoa and then started work.
At noon, my husband and I usually just eat fruit and that's enough because breakfast is packed with nutrients. In the early afternoon, some days we eat more sweet potatoes or some beans. In the evening, when my two children come home from work, my whole family gathers to have the main meal. Some days, my wife cooks rice, other days I change dishes like chicken pho or beef noodle soup. The cost for dinner for four people, according to my wife's calculations, is only about 200,000 VND which is quite comfortable.
My two children go to work and eat breakfast by themselves before going to the company. Each portion of broken rice, pho or noodles costs only about 40,000-50,000 VND. Calculated, the average food cost for the whole family is only about 100,000 VND per person per day.
>> I only spend 200 thousand dong a day even though I earn 50 million a month
Besides food, other living expenses are not too large. Electricity and water bills are about 2.5 million VND per month, Internet is 350,000 VND, gasoline for one car and two motorbikes is about 2 million VND, other expenses are about 1 million VND. In total, the living expenses for a family of four are about 18 million VND per month. For us, this level is completely comfortable. Even that expense was only equivalent to more than a week of interest from my husband and I's bank savings.
What I find most gratifying is that my two children have also been taught the habit of spending in moderation since they were in school. In 2018, when my first child went to college and studied away from home, at the beginning of every week I gave him 500,000 VND to spend on breakfast, lunch and dinner. Friday afternoon, the driver came to pick up the child and take him home. I pay for the dormitory, electricity, water and Internet separately, so that money is only for daily activities. There were many weeks when I gave him money but he didn't take it because he said he still had it and hadn't spent it all. I still tell my children to keep it so they can use it when they need it urgently.
By 2022, my second child will also go to college. I give my children 800,000 VND per week to spend. If my child doesn't come home every week, I give him 1 million VND. At the end of the school year, I still saved a few million dong.
I don't say these things to say that my way of life is the best. Each family has different conditions and needs. What I want to share is that if we know how to distinguish between real needs and expenses that can be reduced, we will find life much easier. Reasonable spending does not mean living miserably, but rather using money in the right place to both ensure quality of life and create financial peace of mind for the future.
Hung
