Spend as little or as much money as you wish. Just know that you have options – a wide range of options.
Your options are limited by your budget and what you are willing/able to adapt to.
Price Range – Local vs Western
There is a wide spectrum, you can live as cheap or a expensive as you want. You can choose to live a “Developed country” life (more “expensive”) or a “Developing country” life (cheaper). The choice is yours.
Choosing local or western things depends on what you budget is and your personal desire. Keep all options open. Local products are always cheaper than Western ones, and they can be better options in terms of their price versus quality.
Tip
Observe, acknowledge, take pictures, and keep your insights in the back of you mind for future reference – be outside your comfort zone.
You will gain a familiarity over time and may come back to trying out something that you said “no” to previously. The thing is, with experience the differences start become normal. As you adapt, you will become more open to living as a local. Atleast, to some level of degree.
Purchases – Daily Needs
These are the negotiable, yet required, everyday costs that you can easily adjust your spending on.
Food
You can adjust your spending at any time ($1 meal to $9 or higher). The $1 meals are good quality and tasty, do not be fooled by the low cost.
Housing & Housing Location
You can always move to a much cheaper room or much more expensive condo (or house), especially if you are paying month-to-month.
Clothes
If you find a compromise in the clothing you wear, then you can save costs and blend in better with the people you are living amoungst, all while remaining comfortable and fashionable to your desire. The compromise is between your fashion from home and adusting to the local weather, style, and options. Due to the lifestyle you will live in SEA, it is naturally common to adjust your clothing choices according to the lifestyle circumstances.
Local food, despite the cost, is high quality and typically very fresh. So, there are some things that you do not sacrafice quality with low cost!
Purchases – Extra
This might surprise you – not everything in SE Asia is cheaper! Gear from your home country may be impossible to buy.
Buy within or importing into SE Asia may be impossible, expensive, or with added headaches (the import customs department and paying import taxes are not fun to deal with).
You heard that correctly, some gear costs more in SE Asia than in the west (USA, Europe, and UK).
It is advisable to understand what you need (and might need) and buy them before
going to SEA.
Info on buying gear before coming to SEA, or importing gear into SEA:
Saving Money
Negotiate! Why spend more for the exact same thing if you do not have to, right?
The price that you are charged is commonly influenced on … biases – they will charge you as much as they perceive can get from you. They may treat your honestly and fairly, but this is a common occurrence that is dominant in SE Asia – it’s just the culture and way of handling things.
Sometimes, it is simply how you carry yourself and interact with them – they try to guage what you consider “expensive”.
Tip
Always default to having the reaction that “that’s expensive!”.
This will set how they, the locals, guage your willingness to pay. You would be very surprised at what true, honest, local prices are – much lower that what you imagine!