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As I wrote when I did this last year for 2007, there are some things in life that are often just accepted without question: the notion that a jet set life of permanent travel is expensive and only for movie stars, millionaires and famous people is one of them.

These days a much larger community of people are now doing what we do – wise to the fact that living the nomadic, location independent life costs far less than you might think.

What has been interesting this year, is comparing our actual costs with the forecasts I made in last year’s post based on the lessons we’d learned in 2007. Here’s the forecast I made of what we hoped our cost of living for this unconventional lifestyle would look like in 2008:

South Africa: average monthly cost = £1,000 (for 6 months)

• Accommodation: £4-500
• Food/Drink: £300
• Other/Entertainment: £200

Thailand: average monthly cost = £8-900 (for 3 months)

• Accommodation: £250-300
• Food/Drink: £250
• Other/Entertainment: £300

Somewhere in Europe: average monthly cost = £1,300 (for 3 months)

• Accommodation: £6-700
• Food/Drink: £400
• Other/Entertainment: £200

Therefore our grand projected total for 2008 was = £12,600 and including all the flights = £16,500.

Summary Costs for 2008

So those were our forecasts at the back-end of 2007, now let’s see how the actual figures for 2008 stack up:

First some notes about the figures included:

1. All figures are calculated on a monthly basis in GB
2. Accommodation costs are based upon a *nicer than average* fully furnished 1 bedroom apartment with all bills included
3. Food/drink costs were typically cash withdrawals (which is how we manage our weekly budget) and are based upon food & drink for 2 people who don’t like to go without (and aim to eat organic food where possible) but equally aren’t super extravagant!
4. Other living/entertainment costs include things like car hire, day trips, more expensive meals out and other non-vital purchases

Dubai (mid-Dec to mid-Jan): monthly cost = £1,000

• Accommodation: £0
• Food/Drink: £600
• Other/Entertainment: £400

As my brother lives in Dubai & had asked if we wanted to “do” Christmas with him, we decided to spend a month living there rent-free (although we did do a pretty nice business website for him in exchange for free rent).

This kept our costs down considerably which was a good job given the additional socialising we did and the high cost of living in Dubai. Short-term rental apartments in Dubai are phenomenally expensive (minimum of £1,500 per month).

South Africa (mid-Jan to mid-April): average monthly cost = £950

• Accommodation: £500
• Food/Drink: £300
• Other/Entertainment: £150

This is about a low-average price for a fairly good quality rental apartment, 5 minutes from the beach at False Bay in Cape Town. Food is very good quality and also very affordable – organic food costs about half of what it costs in the UK – and eating out is almost as cheap as eating in.

We chose to hire a car every other weekend for a few days so we could make the most of the stunning Cape scenery – hence the additional costs. The other thing you might need to budget for is internet access – which can be expensive here, depending upon the system you use & whether/how much is included in your rental.

Phuket, Thailand (mid-April to mid-May): monthly cost = £880

• Accommodation: £380
• Living costs: £250
• Other/Entertainment: £250

The ability to rent cheap but pretty good quality accommodation with internet keeps your costs down in Thailand, as does the ridiculously low cost of Thai food.

If you want to eat some western-style food (whether in a restaurant or from the supermarket), be prepared to pay a little more on the food front but equally, if you eat 100% local, Thai food for every meal you could easily spend under £200 for your food budget. Due to our location, we also hired a car for the whole month.

South Africa (June to October): average monthly cost = £1,180

• Accommodation: £680
• Living costs: £300
• Other/Entertainment: £200

A return visit to South Africa wasn’t in our original plans but we’d been persuaded to come back here for a project I’d been asked to work on. Accommodation costs included 1 month in Plettenberg Bay on the Garden Route (£375 per month), 2 months in the swanky V&A Waterfront (£1,000 per month) and 2 months in a 3 bedroom house in Newlands (£850 per month) – the latter 2 being quite a bit higher than we’d normally pay but we needed to be in those locations for work purposes.

We did have a hire car for the whole 6 months, but the company I was working for covered the cost for 4 of those months.

Dubai (December to January): average monthly cost = £1,100

• Accommodation: £400
• Living costs: £600
• Other/Entertainment: £100

We returned to Dubai again for Christmas/New Year as my brother was out of town for 3 weeks so again we could get rent-free accommodation. However, we chose to pay him £400 as a “token” rental amount to help towards his mortgage and pay for the bills/cleaner whilst he was away.

Once again, food is ridiculously expensive in Dubai – especially organic (which we decided we couldn’t afford to eat – not at £30 for a whole, organic chicken!!!) and as I still had vile morning sickness, we didn’t actually go out much. The additional costs were largely spent on taxis and the occasional Starbucks.

Total Costs for 2008

We had a number of additional costs, which included:

Flights: £4,500 – this amount included business class flights on Emirates between HK/Dubai/Johannesburg, as well as other internal flights.

Medical bills (due to unexpected pregnancy!): £420 – this included 4 private OB/GYN visits in South Africa (very cheap) and a 12 week scan in Dubai (very expensive).

UK trips (for total of 4 weeks) : £2,000 – this includes flights and food whilst there. I’m a bit reluctant to include these costs as in an ideal world we wouldn’t have to do these trips but family commitments mean we do, so the costs should probably be included.

Total Cost of the Location Independent Lifestyle in 2008 was…

For the average living costs = £12,910

Add on the flights, total = £17,410

Add on the medical bills, total = £17,830

Add on the UK trips, grand total for 2008 = £19,830

Versus living in the UK for 12 months

The cost of our lifestyles before we left the UK, looked like this:

UK – average monthly cost = £2,400

• Monthly mortgage on a 1,500sq ft, 1 bed apartment + additional fees/insurance/bills: £1,400
• Food/Drink: £600
• Other/entertainment: £400

So the total for the year, would have been = £28,800 (almost £10k more than the nomadic lifestyle)

However, this was for a pretty swanky loft apartment and an extravagant lifestyle. If we lived the more modest kind of lifestyle we’re currently living being back for the birth of the baby, a more accurate picture would look like this:

UK – average monthly cost = £1,800

• Monthly mortgage on a 2 bed-house + additional fees/insurance/bills: £1,200
• Food/Drink: £400
• Other/entertainment: £200

So the total for the year, would have been = £21,600 (still around £2k more than the nomadic lifestyle)

Conclusion

Either way, whether you take the figures for an extravagant or more modest lifestyle in the UK, you can still see that a year of gallivanting around the world and living in places such as Dubai, South Africa and Thailand works out more cost effectively than living for a year in the UK.

If you’d like the “Insider Info” on some of the destinations mentioned in this post (and more that aren’t), why not check out our range of destinations guides – The Little LIP Guides?