Did you plan your budget before your move to Indonesia? If so, how did you go about it?
No plan as such, just grabbed every penny I could find and off I went.
That kept me for several years.
How do you save money in your day to day life? Do you find there are any areas where you can't cut costs?
This is all down to the lifestyle you want, that meaning an expat (or anyone else can live expensive, cheap or somewhere in between.
There are tricks:
Electricity - Save money by having the lowest capacity supply you can manage on. The higher the wattage available, the more you pay even if you don't use it.
The aircon is the big eater of electricty so don't have big rooms to cool or you'll get a big bill you'll have to cool down from.
Last one - get the local meter reader's whatsapp number and send a photo of your meter about the 20th of each month. The meter readers often take a guess of they can't get to the meter and that can lead to massive bills. I was paying 2.5 to 3 million a month for a while and was too busy to sort it out. I went to the local PLN office with a photo of the meter and a nice attitide to hide my bad temper and ended up paying 130,000 for several months until the overpay ran out.
Shopping - Avoid the big centres. They tend to be a lot more expensive that small shops and you can get most things at the same quality far cheaper. My wife buys most of her clothes from a local lady who makes whatever she wants to order, The quality is easily as good as any of the best shops but you can choose your own styles right down to the material used to make it.
As an example, a ladies top in one of the vary large shops was priced at around Rp600,000 but my wife had one made in a similar style for only Rp80,000 and made to suit her.
Men's shirts can also be made up to any style you like from any material you like, that meaning you can get top quality shirts made to measure but at a fraction of the price.
Loads of small dressmakers and taylors around that can do a fine job, just ask around for recommendations.
HP sause is around Rp45,000 in the supermarkets but only Rp35,000 in the local modern markets. You'll be surprised what you can get in these places and often at a better price.
Avoid any 'expat' housing advertised and anything priced illegally in US$. These places are always crazy prices. Also, ask yourself if you really need a swimming pool or will the local sports centre pool do?
Your choice of car is a lifestyle thing but a Porsche 911 is about as fast as a 1000cc town car in a traffic jam but will cost you a lot more.
I drive a car because I have little real choice but go for economy. The larger the engine, the greater the yearly tax, and it can rise to a lot of money. An economy 1500cc in a large family car like a Luxio won't cost that much in tax and the fuel costs are tiny when compared to some four wheel drive monster that looks the part but will cost you a bomb.
Are there any apps or websites that have helped you to save money?
Always book holidays, hotels and flights through Agoda or the other travel sites.
Google maps will list local hotels to any given location and list the up to date prices for every travel site.
We still use supermarkets to a level but most shopping is from locals who pass by the house selling whatever and the rest is online shopping. Most will accept COD so no worries with card transactions. A lot of the big players such as Lotte and Carrefour have delivery sites now with a wide range of items listed cheaper than shelf prices. The same goes for electronics but I never buy that sort of thing from sites for a varity of reasons.
My wife does the majority of the everyday stuff but also uses sites to buy a lot of other things.
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