Ways and Means: 2018 Recap

Here we go, the 2018 expense report! Unlike last year, where I stayed home most of the year, 2018 was a year of travels as I sojourned to Asia from January until June, and then was in New York on and off for a bit, with a final trip back to Asia for December. Was it costly? You betcha! Did it wreck havoc on my budget? You betcha again! We’ll take a look at how much I spent this year overall, with a special emphasis on my travels.

As usual, we’ll start with my month-to-month variable expenses. I only came under budget in two months, February and October. February I was mostly in Bali where it’s cheap and October I was holed up in my house, write writing away and never leaving the house. Otherwise, I blew past my variable expenses budget each month, sometimes to outrageous sums. My average budget for a month was $1,700 in variable expenses and I ended up spending $2,600 instead. Whoops.

The outrageous months were April, June, August, and December. Respectively those accounted for the time I spent in Tokyo, New York, New York again, and Singapore. You’ll note that also doubles as a nice list of expensive places to be. But I’m young and free and I was going to blow all my money having fun this year! Below is my variable expenses by the month.

• Jan: $2,900
• Feb: $1,550
• Mar: $2,050
• Apr: $3,400
• May: $2,350
• Jun: $3,250
• Jul: $3,300
• Aug: $2,900
• Sep: $2,400
• Oct: $1,350
• Nov: $2,250
• Dec: $3,850

The big four category breakdown goes like this:

• 🥟 Food: $13,650
• 👕 Shopping: $9,800
• 🎨 Play: $4,750
• 🏎 Transportation: $4,600

Inevitably that combined number was way higher than last year -- about $24,000 versus $33,000 -- as I was out and about. Last year I spent an estimated $55k on fixed, variable, and annual expenses. That figure shot up to $70k this year as pparently leaving the house to go outside is an expensive exploit. Fortunately, I also made some (largely unexpected) money too, which I’ll get into later.

And of course this all takes into account paying the faux-mortgage for my lovely newish house that I didn’t even live in for half the year, choosing instead to spend lots of dollars living in AirBnbs in foreign cities. Overall, that $70k figure translates to a $91k lifestyle. Not even six figures! What are people doing with their huge incomes? Oh right, they have adult responsibilities like car payments, insurance, savings, and retirement. None of which I have!

Usually I dive into individual tags but first I’ll look at how much travel cost me this year. See below for the seven major trips I took this year, along with their costs and number of nights spent somewhere. Each trip figure includes airfare, taxis to and from airport, accommodations, food, play, etc. And in some cases it involved paying for travel partners too.

• Tokyo: $8,900 / 35 nights
• Singapore: $5,400 / 16
• NYC 1: $4,350 / 19
• NYC 2: $3,100 / 14
• Vietnam: $2,300 / 13
• Phillipines: $2,050 / 6
• Bali: $2,000 / 14

Overall that’s about $28,000 for seven trips and 117 nights away from “home.” A useless number but that averages out to be $250 per night. How much does it cost to stay home? Sadly, not free but it’s certainly lower than that number. During travel, I broke down my expenses into these five categories:

• Accommodations: $10,200
• Flights: $8,000
• Airport Taxis: $700
• Travel Misc: $450
• Luggage Fees: $400

I’m not exactly sure why “luggage fees” is so high. Keep in mind that I also wrote off some of my travel, as well as my research trip to Singapore, which was handy for final accounting.

For once, “dining out” was not my highest tag, as “accommodations” and “flights” eclipsed that number. However, if I add up “dining” and “dining out / shared” then it would have tied with “accommodations” for highest tag.

As for addictions, my cigarette expenditures stayed about even but my boba expense dropped from almost a grand to just under eight hundred dollars! I still spent more on boba than groceries though, haha. I also watched way fewer movies this year, but still managed to hit $800 for movies/popcorn combined. And my drinking doubled to about four hundred dollars total. My karaoke expenses also jumped up, but mainly due to paying for my fortieth birthday singing party, which was worth every penny.

Last year I bought a PS4 and this year I bought a Nintendo Switch, and with that included in, I spent about a thousand each on games and the nebulous “digital” tag. I also doubled my clothing up to almost two thousand dollars spent, plus books bought also doubled from five hundred to a thousand dollars.

Oh yeah, taxis was a huge expense this year, as I spent a lot of time zipping around in them, to the tune of about $3,500. That is 5.75% of my overall spending! And that doesn’t even include the $700 in airport taxis I took. The good news is that I had property tax and house insurance to factor in, which was about a cool $8,000 off the bottom line that I totally forgot about.

Finally, my subscriptions increased from about $110 per month to $150, as I added two house related subscriptions for my alarm system and camera monitoring. And since I still haven’t joined a gym, that expense remains “pending.” 💪

So how did I spend all this money yet keep on rolling? Well, the simple answer is that I had some of the travel reimbursed, plus tax return, and then I actually managed to follow through and use my writing as supplemental/fun money. My friend totally hooked it up and optioned my first book, which translated to some nice money, and then I sold a book, which I’m partially counting for 2018 so that, um, I can keep my accounting books clean. So sort of through no effort of my own, and some actual effort in writing, I’ll be entering 2019 cramming my butt off to pay off the traveling debt that I accrued in 2018! Bon voyage and don't forget to start a budget club of your very own!

Singapore: 🇸🇬, 🌱, 🛍

And here we go, with the final trip for 2018! I went to Singapore for about three weeks, ostensibly on research for my new book. That means everything’s a write off! Right? Advertised as an uber-expensive city, Singapore proved to be not too bad depending on how you lived. It was easy to eat cheap if needed, for example.

Getting to Singapore was easy, just a mere $300 ticket from Taipei, and since I was traveling with my girlfriend for this trip, that number was doubled. Finding accommodations was a little tougher, as AirBnbs are technically outlawed but there were still plenty of options, just not a ton for so many consecutive days.

Finding something central and near public transportation was a priority but as it turned out, everyone cabs everywhere anyway. We stayed in the CBD (Central Business District), where all the finance high rises are, which was convenient if a bit staid. The best part was that our apartment was right across the street from Lau Pa Sat, a hawker center that proved to be very convenient for picking up fruit or getting quick meals. For sixteen nights, the total charge for accommodations was about $2,500.

To be honest, I didn’t find the food in Singapore to be stellar. There were many average meals and some highly touted foods that weren’t that amazing. However, having said that, I think we were mostly eating in the wrong places, as we often chose convenience — hawker centers and mall food courts — over personal recommends. But compared to a place like Taipei, where nearly everything is pretty good, Singapore disappointed on the food front. We had one particularly distasteful meal at an Indian restaurant that I was very excited for. Oh well, I’ll eat better next time I’m there. Overall food cost about $850, split $550 / $130 / $150 / $30 between dining out shared, dining out, snacks, and boba.

I’ll skip on shopping details but suffice to say that most of the $550 or so I spent shopping was spent on household stuff for the AirBnb, clothes and thermoses for gifts, and one grey side bag that I had to get because my daily carry items were too much for the trusty fanny pack. Also we had to bring a light umbrella everywhere because there’s rain at least once a day. Oh, SIM cards are readily available and about $25 for fifteen days of 100 GB data, which is more than enough.

Taxis were a huge part of our transportation expense, as the subway cards we got were cheap and rarely used. From what I could tell, each subway ride was under a dollar or so, and our initial fill of $20 for the cards was more than enough. Taxis cost $400 for the whole trip, as I took about forty trips for an average of $10 each. Oh, everyone uses Grab in Singapore, since they bought out Uber. When in SG, Grab away!

I saw two movies in Singapore — Aquaman and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — and prices were about $8-10 per ticket. Mostly though, I spent my time exploring museums, which ranged from free for the Peranakan up to $20 for the National Gallery or attractions like Cloud Forest and ArtScience Museum.

More importantly, I spent $80 each for two Friends of Wildlife passes, which gave unlimited annual access to four animal theme parks: Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, River Safari, Jurong Bird Park. I ended up going to all of them and then promptly forgot to use the 20% discount when I bought cute things for the nieces. It’s okay, the animals need my extra twenty-percent. The nieces need the cute things.

There was two hours in a casino, in which we played a roulette-type game called sic bo (or dai siu 大小), and three of us all walked out up money, which was amazing. I won a cool $200 to cover that day's shopping and food expenses so it was perfect. I haven’t won money in a casino in years, so I guess I must have better luck gambling in Asia?

Last of all, we had a karaoke night that was three hours of singing and a drinks minimum, which only cost $60 for three people. Karaoke places in Singapore apparently have a little grocery store-like setup in front where you pick up your snacks and drinks, which was quite a novelty and fun. The song selection was also excellent. Singapore wins for karaoke!

I wish I had seen more of the night life in Singapore, but mostly we were too tired at night to be out much. From what I could gather, drinks cost a lot and cover charge at clubs also ran high. There were a plethora of bars and lounges in certain neighborhoods but I only went out once, to a tiny techno bar that was very quiet and I ended up chatting with a bunch of expats. I guess next time I'll find out if Singaporeans dance.

So that was Singapore in a nutshell: $5,400 for two-and-a-half weeks of book research. Averaging all the costs into the days spent there, Singapore tied with the Philippines for my most expensive daily trip this year, at around $340 per day. So I guess it’s either a day on a private island or a day in the city of the crazy rich: your pick!

Don't Dream It's Over

This is it, the home reno post we’ve all been waiting for. The house is 1,800 square foot and it’s maybe twenty-five years old, located in a quiet, very quiet, neighborhood in Rancho Bernardo. One of 2017's goals was to get this house done and with 90/10 effort by my mom and I, we did it! Okay, maybe 95/5.

It took from April 2017 until about September to go from empty house to new house. My mom was kind enough to take care of everything structurally and outside the house, leaving me to purchase all the items that went inside. Naturally I logged all of it—down to the toilet paper—so I could do a full accounting. I wanted to know how much it would cost to go from zero to full home. Prior to this, the only home related item I owned was a $20 white plastic toaster I used to carry around me with city by city.

Five months is a pretty fast renovation I guess, considering we ran into a bunch of problems, which is totally de rigeur. The original general contractor my mom used was sub-par, and he was soon replaced by a friend of her friend who literally worked six or seven days a week on the house. We completely re-did two bathrooms, put in engineered wood flooring, chopped the whole kitchen and put in a new island, painted everything of course, got custom window treatments and blinds, and then installed a new closet door in the guest bedroom. The only original pieces are probably the master closet door and the front door.

In-between we had to contend with foundation issues, a roof leak, and getting a new heating/cooling unit. There was also a thought to redo the plumbing but we passed on that. The original reno budget ballooned to easily 150% I’d say. And that’s without tearing down any walls—which I wanted to do originally—and touching of any interior structures.

Overall I kept to the philosophy that if something was coming in, it wasn’t going back out. I relied on Wirecutter for 90% of my findings, trusting their recommendations. Could I have spent less for more, probably. But I went with semi-quality and definitely splurged on some stupid stuff, as you’ll see. But since this is my forever home, I just went for it--minus some nicer furniture in the future maybe. Also I originally aimed for mid-century modern but that got blown off course and somehow I ended up with a house that looks like a giant child's playroom. Predictable, I guess...

Also, I must thank my friend J for her help in selecting so many things for the house, being a patient sounding board, and especially her expertise with kitchen things. Her quality taste and internet searching skills were also indispensable.

Karaoke Room (Master Bedroom): $3,100
Ah the master bedroom, which has been converted into a TV, karaoke, video game room. Also where I spend a lot of my nights because I like to sleep in front of the TV. An orange couch from Living Spaces was $1,450, a 55-inch 4K television was $700, a Vizio soundbar $270, new Apple TV $200, and a colorful area rug that was purchased from Overstock for $200. Oh right, and a $100 TV stand that I had to build myself with lots of nails. Who said I'm not handy!? This entertainment area will be the hub of the house, and please don't call it a "man cave," ugh! Also I just acquired a passable karaoke machine in Taiwan, so the sing is on!

• Living Spaces Benton 4 Piece Sectional
• Bowery Hill 71" TV Stand, White and Yellow
• nuLOOM Sot and Plush Moroccan Color Burst Lattice Shag Multi Rug
• Wirecutter: Home Theater

Bathroom, Master: $700
The master bathroom, which was gutted and then completely renovated because the arrangement was awful. The biggest items of cost were the double wall mirrors, which were $150 each. Other monies were spent on things such as a Squatty Potty, drawer organizers, shower caddies, that kind of thing. And I've been waiting for a home to outfit my toilets with bidets. Luckily my camp friend's company, Tushy, makes them. If you ain't bidet-ing, you're gross. Also, I’m excited for the newly discovered diatomaceous earth bathmat which I’ve yet to use but saw in a store in Japan and was wowed by its absorbency.

• Tushy Bidet attachment, $70
• Kenroy Home Shinto Wall Mirror, 29 by 41-Inch
• Bath Shower Mat, Diatomaceous Earth

Cafe (Family Room): $600
The kitchen is attached to the family room, but it’ll serve mostly as my eating room, co-working area, and board games spot. Basically my vision is it’ll be the perfect internet cafe. Toward that end I got six metal chairs at $50 each and three metal tables ($100, $100, $150), all from Flash furniture. You’ll see this exact type of chair in cafes everywhere. They are pretty uncomfortable for long sits but that’s okay because after dinner we’ll retire to the social room. Also, the configuration is designed to be modular and I went with mint and white. Oh yeah, as my friend W taught me with her apartment: everything must be modular! Coffee and boba service to come once I know how to make them properly. For now it's BYOEverthing.

A note on chair felt pads. I bought some cheapo ones that I regretted immediately because they came off so fast. I spent quite a bit of time cleaning the individual chair legs and wood floor with Goo Gone trying to get rid of the residue. The pads lasted literally about a week. Useless.

• Flash Furniture ET-CT005-MINT-GG 31.5'' x 63'' Mint Green
• Flash Furniture Mint Green Metal Indoor-Outdoor Stackable Chair

Gallery (Dining Room): $600
Currently I have a dining room that is awkwardly shaped, and I have no need for a proper dining room anyway so I just made it into a gallery. Meaning it will hang my clothes, some art, and my faux neon lightning bolt. This Chinese company also does custom neon work so I hope to get one of those soon. What will it say? hyperwest.net, duh!

The little area rug is $140 from IKEA and so far I have one painting up on the wall: Umberto Boccioni’s "Dynamism of a Soccer Player.” I saw this piece years ago at the Guggenheim when I first moved to New York after college and bought a poster of it immediately. This time around I got an 24x24 acrylic print of it from art.com for $150. In the future I hope to house my friend’s works. We'll likely start with a Jmz Wng "Chinese Takeout Containers."

• Vasten Neon Lightning Bolt
• MUJI Steel Hanger Rack, $45
• Umberto Boccioni, "Dynamism of a Soccer Player (1913)"

Bedroom (Guest Bedroom): $1,500
I’m using the guest bedroom as my only bedroom, because really what do I need a giant master bedroom for? In this room there’s only a bed right now, a Lysa queen mattress I ordered online for $900. I almost almost got a PONS bed frame because I was sucked in by Millenial marketing, which would have been $1,000+. I was talked out of it by rational people and so instead I got a Zinus Quick Snap frame that was a mere $140, and assembled just as easily. So basically I saved $900 for not getting built-in USB ports.

Of course there was the requisite sheets, pillowcases, comforter, etc. that I had to buy. A note on pillows: while I've traditionally been able to sleep anywhere / on anything, these Xtreme Comforts Memory Foam ones recommended from Wirecutter are pretty incredible. I've gotten many compliments on them and George even loved it so much she got one! The Yangs know how to get quality sleep so a double Yang endorsement is nigh priceless. Or $50 each. I also got some backup pillows because every Yang bed has at least four pillows. True story.

My bedroom's piece de resistance: a hedgehog duvet cover with my friend Julia’s illustrations on it.

• Sharpshirter Julia Kuo Hedgehog Duvet Cover
• Zinus Quick Snap 14-inch Platform Bed Frame
• Wirecutter: Best Bed Pillows
• National Sleep Products Down-like Density Pillows, $40 for two
• PONS Bed Frame

Bathroom, Guest: $500
Nothing fancy here, just a $110 dollar oval mirror and basics like a shower curtain, bath map, towels, etc. The bathroom has an all-white floor -- which means I'm constantly cleaning it -- and features a teal tile wall in the shower. It's so pretty! This room is likely the only 100% finished one in the house. What a relief! Also my mom made me keep the tub because future buyers might have kids or a dog. Haha, future buyers...! I'm never leaving this house.

• Gatco 4649 Glam Frameless Oval Mirror, Satin Nickel, 26.5" H

Social Room (Living Room): $1,000
Aka Greta’s room, because I left it mostly empty for my nieces. It’s technically the living room but it’s totally empty save for a big blue fish rug. The plan is to eventually get a wall projector and stuff like that for when I have more people over but right now it’s empty. The fireplace is missing too. The living room originally had a step-down, but we put in wood planks under the flooring to raise it up and make the house entirely one level.

The most expensive stuff in this room is the two Muji Body Pillows that I got, each of which cost $200. Sure that’s a lot of money for bean bags but these are not mere bean bags. It’s pretty much the best things I’ve bought for the house, as I am in a prone position most of that time and these are perfect for sitting on or lying on or anything on. They are amazing. Oh right, the projector I want is this one, an ultra-short throw, but it is $1,200 so obviously just a luxury item. Sorry, no more than four people can come over to watch stuff.

In related news: Greta does not like this room because there’s nothing in there and she got bored real fast. This was even after I prepared some stylish (relatively) foam baby mats to lay down on the ground for her safety. She didn't care. I guess it's time to convert this from the baby room to the dance studio then!

• Muji Body Fit Pillows
• Novelty Indoor/Outdoor Hand Hooked Area Rug Fish, Navy, 8'x10'
• Skip Hop Playspot Geo Foam Floor Tiles, Chevron
• LG PF1000UW Ultra Short Throw Smart Home Theater Projector

Kitchen: $2,500
Ah the real doozy. Keep in mind I don’t cook… I had to outfit an entire kitchen with everything. We’re talking pots and pans ($125), cooking knives (chef $75, paring $15), bowls, glasses, etc. I now have a serviceable assortment of cooking implements, dishwware, and tupperware. It's sick how much stuff a startup kitchen needs.

My thought was I was gonna buy stuff that would last so invested in some lovely Villeroy and Boch New Wave flatware ($215), six Fitz and Floyd Nevaeh bone china sets ($35 each), and very durable water cups. If it wasn’t recommended on Wirecutter, I didn’t get it.

"The Fitz and Floyd Nevaeh Dinnerware Collection made of high-quality bone china with fifty-percent bone ash content, so it’s thinner, lighter, and appears more delicate than porcelain, yet it’s surprisingly durable and resistant to chipping. The material also gives it a bright whiteness and an elegant translucence not found in the thicker, duller porcelain typically found at this price.”
-Wirecutter: Best Dinnerware Set-

For regular meal times, I bought some Target cheapo dinner sets and IKEA flatware because not everyone deserves to use the good stuff. Right?! Also I ran into a 50% off closing sale at the Japanese kitchenware store in Mitsuwa and spent spent liberally on chopstick holders, soup spoons, ramen bowls, tea cups, sake holder, that kind of thing. Oh and I got some little trinkets in Tokyo too, which I’ve yet to unpack. Cute Japanese things are pretty cheap to be honest, maybe $200 total.

Let’s talk Muji. My most prized item, and the first thing I got for my kitchen was a $225 minimalist rice cooker designed by Naoto Fukasawa. If you didn’t know, Fukasawa is one of the world’s most influential designers and he’s got a set of kitchen stuff made by Muji. Did I get the matching toaster and water kettle too? Of course I did. (Shout out to R who brought me this prized Muji toaster all the way from the Bay, before I realized it was semi-readily available in LA.) If you don’t know why this is great, well, I don’t know what to tell you. Oh also, these are just for show. I have a real rice cooker and toaster oven for actual use. Minimal white kitchen plus white appliances? A dream come true! My mom was against a white kitchen but I plan to clean a lot, and cook very little, so it should be okay.

Additional shine for KMN Home DrawerDecor, which is made for the OCD in me. I love these sticky modular organizers and need to get more. My OCD is getting out of control at this house. It's bad... Also how cute is this VOVOV Elephant Kitchen Cutlery Drainer?!

• Muji Minimalist Rice Cooker by Naoto Fukasawa
• Naoto Fukasawa designs minimal kitchen appliances for Muji (2015)
• Villeroy and Boch New Wave Flatware
• KMN Home DrawerDecor Customizable Organizer, $30
• VOVOV Elephant Kitchen Cutlery Drainer
• Wirecutter: Kitchen and Dining

Office: $135
There’s a semi-third bedroom in the house but we cut another door into a wall and it’s now just a pass-through room, aka my office. As I had a table and desk from home, I just brought those along. And then I went to IKEA to get another bed headboard and stuck four metal legs on it -- which is how I always make my office desks because I like them cheap and very big -- at the sterling cost of $25 total. In theory the office will need a better chair but why invest there when I barely even work?! Lots of League of Legend-ing in that chair though. The dream office would include an adjustable standing desk, but the setup I want is quite pricey. I'll have to settle for just some functional gear until I like, actually work. In the meantime, take a look at my friend's two girls doing homeschool in my cafe -- they're so cute!

Garage: $1,250
Things that go in a garage include washer ($470), dryer ($570), an utility washer tub ($100) and I guess that’s about it. Shelving will have to come later, as will a new garage door ($1,000) and floor epoxy because it’s so nice when your floor is shiny and not just concrete ($1,500). The garage is the last thing I’ll finish out, so for now it’s just money spent on the laundry stuff.

General: $5,000
And then there’s general costs, which ran a hefty sum because I had to get a Nest Smart Thermostat ($300) because they are a must-have, three Nest Protects for smoke/carbon monoxide protection ($330), a Schlage smart lock ($200) for my front door, two Logitech Circle interior security cameras ($150 each), plus I’m using Simplisafe security system ($300 for the package, then $15 a month). My goal with the house is to be able to operate everything remotely by phone -- aka from bed. Toward that end I'll need a few more items so the research continues.

Add in stuff like a vacuum cleaner ($160), three Seville UltraSlimline room fans ($60 each), an air mattress for guests ($120), plus fire extinguisher, an iron, a crap ton of charger cables, plus all the cleaning stuff one needs, and doormats, tool set, etc. and “general” is a huge category.

The most expensive general item? Fucking door locks. We kept all the original doors but replaced the door handles and stuff. It’s shocking how many door levers one needs, and we probably got like 20+ of them for a total of $700. Just on door knobs!

Lastly, allow me to introduce you to the BugZooka WB100, a pneumatic powered bug catching device that allows you to suck up bugs. Yes, all the bugs! Of course I had to hire bug sprayers to come to the house every three months ($100 a session) but there are still bugs that get in right? So this item is a gem at $25.

• Schlage Lock Company BE468CEN619 Touchscreen Deadbolt
• Seville Classics UltraSlimline 40 in. Oscillating Tower Fan
• BugZooka WB100 Bug Catcher Vacuum, $25

Overall: $20,000+
What’s still left to do? The garage shelving and floor, a comprehensive shelving system in the master closet, a fireplace, wall decorations for everything, and of course, nothing outdoors has been touched, aka landscaping. In sum the whole filling up a house thing cost me about twenty grand, give or take, and all the stuff I left for later so that I could travel is estimated at about $4k. I guess overall that sounds like a lot -- I've never spent this much ever ever ever! -- but then I think about how it's not even enough to get a small (new) car. If this is adulthood, I better get cranking... For our next house feature: bills, and how much it costs to support a home of your own month-by-month!

Philippines: 🏝, 🇵🇭, 🚣

Would you believe me if I said one day in the Philippines cost me more than one day in Tokyo? Well it’s true! How do you figure? Well, let’s find out! First off, this was not the typical trip as about a dozen of us split an island, yes a whole island! That actually wasn’t the expensive part, as the entire thing only cost $360 each for three nights on this exclusive resort. For a closer look at Floral Island, Google away. "How soft is the sand?"

Due to my distrust of the timeliness of intra-Philippines air travel, I decided to fly to El Nido first and spend the night there, thus ensuring that I would be able to meet up with everyone else the next day — with no risk of getting left behind if I had a delay. As it turned out, I was spot on as my flight from Taipei to Manila was on-time but the flight from Manila to El Nido was not.

Anyway, I spent a night in El Nido by myself, staying at the very comfortable One El Nido Suites — booked for two nights, so I could hang out there past checkout till 4PM when everyone came in. That luxurious AC and wait time was $175 for two nights. Throw in the lovely condo-hotel we stayed in Manila for two nights ($90), split among many of us, and total housing costs for the trip was $640 for six nights.

And here with the killer: flights! Pricing for short term hauls don’t get cheaper, and for once I actually bought tickets semi-early, but the bill was still $730 for three ticketes, four jaunts: TPE-MPH-TPE ($440), MPH-ENI ($135), and ENI-MPH ($155). If you want to get to an island destination, there’s no choice but to fly!

So overall the cost to get to a lovely Philippine island getaway was $1,360 for housing and flying.

• Flights: $730
• Floral Island: $360
• Hotels: $275
• Shopping: $280
• Transportation: $160
• Food: $150

So where did the other money go? Well, food was pretty much covered on the island -- my personal bill came to $60 for various drinks and extras ordered -- and then our friend’s family was kind enough to take us out to two fabulous dinners in Manila. So overall food costs was $150 for the whole time, with the biggest meal I personally paid for a shot of Ippudo ramen ($12) I had at SM Megamall in Mandaluyong. When in the Philippines, 🍜!

I also watched a movie at $5 admission with $3 popcorn, because of course I wanted to check out a local theater. And I’m sure glad I did as I discovered that there are bathrooms in each individual theater! It’s a genius move and halfway to the dream of having one-way glass window in individual theater bathrooms so you never miss anything. Way to go Philippines, being so advanced! There was also one night of karaoke ($22) which was glorious, and also a night at a speakeasy bar but I didn’t get anything so that was zero expenditure.

Oh, transportation was cheap, especially local taxis. Like maybe $5 per ride to downtown El Nido from their airport, and even from the Megamall to the Manila airport. My only expensive rides were to/from TPE airport, which averaged about $40 each. As for other transportation, we had a van rented in Manila, which cost $45 each for the driver and car for a few days. And there was maybe $20 in shuttle/boat transport from El Nido an hour-and-a-half south to Floral island. So overall $180 spent on transportation, with the bulk of that getting to and from the Taipei airport.

And then finally I spent some money shopping. Yes, in the waning hours of hanging out in Manila, I went to Massimo Dutti and dropped $160 on a white linen jacket that I just had to have. Once again, shopping in other countries is a dream and the amount of linen in the Filipino stores was fantastic. Give. Me. All. Your. Linen.

Before that I had also spent about $110 on various totes, a shirt each from Forever 21 and Zara, and also a scarf from Kultura -- a store selling Filipino-made stuff. Basically if you’re gonna put me in a mall, I’m gonna buy stuff.

Oh and SIMs are super cheap, like you step off and grab one in five minutes -- I used Globe as the provider -- and I spent $20 on seven gigabytes plus extra for Spotify. Because you know, island dance party.

Overall the week trip to the Philippines cost $2,050 total, with the bulk going to flying and housing. So really, short trips cost a lot because flights are the big killer when spread over a short amount of time. It cost $340 per day for this trip -- versus $255 per day in Tokyo, or $175 in Vietnam and $145 in Bali -- and even taking out the shopping and some of the transportation costs, the daily bill would have been somewhere around $260 I think.

So the lesson is to vacation for a long time, or go hit a beautiful private island with all of your friends! Either or.

Tokyo: 🇯🇵, 💸, 🍣

The post I’ve been waiting all year to write: a trip to Japan! Originally I was hoping to spend two to three months in Japan but after looking at these expenses, maybe it’s good I was only there for thirty-five days. From the beginning of April till mid-May, I was frolicking in the urban beauty of Tokyo. How much did the most expensive month of my adult life cost?!? Let’s find out!

First there were the flights, of which there was only one. From Taipei to Tokyo it was $500 on China Air. That was easy. The housing was not. We literally moved every couple of days, and overall I stayed at ten AirBnbs, which was obviously not the most efficient way to do things but it turned out to be amazing because we got to explore many neighborhoods. For the first week we had three people splitting a place, two weeks with two of us, and then the final two weeks was just me.

My overall budget for housing was $100 a day and that just about worked out, to the tune of $108 per night. If I had stayed in a capsule hotel or opted for less fashionable digs -- we scoured for cool places to stay -- that price would have likely gone down a tad. As it was, I spent a total of $3,800 for housing. Pricey, I know. That number pushes up to over $4,000 if you include the $300 or so we spent transferring between AirBnbs via taxi. But I knew going in that housing costs was going to be expensive, and so it was.

After flights and housing, it was $4,600 total for expenses, of which the breakdown is (and I’ll tackle them in reverse order):

• Shopping: $1,800
• Food: $1,650
• Transportation: $720
• Play: $390
• Misc: $60

Miscellaneous ($60): You know that old adage “It costs money to spend money,” right? All of miscellaneous was ATM fees, which was a necessary evil. I went to the ATM five times and withdrew about $200 USD each, which cost about $11 per transaction.

Play ($390): A seemingly low amount, I know! But I didn’t really do that much, as far as traditional "play" is categorized. I mean, I went to four movies ($75), had one karaoke session ($40), barely drank as per usual ($35), and really the only other big things were $35 for Sanrioland admission, cover for an incredible dancing night at Sound Museum Vision ($45, of which I paid for others), and a few $5-13 museums, plus about $20 for Epson Aqua Park -- so like $1.50 per dolphin. Heck, I spent more at the arcades than I did doing most things. FYI: Most arcade games cost about 100 JP¥, or 1 USD.

Transportation ($720): It was $45 for two trips via Keisei Skyliner to/from the airport. $95 total for subway rides, of which I barely took any to be honest -- each ride was probably around $3. And then $15 for the bike share, which I used liberally for the first couple of weeks until it started raining a lot. Oh and I used about $30 for storage lockers in-between AirBnbs, which was very necessary.

Of course, taxis were a huge expense, totaling $525, but after taking off -$300 of that for Ubers between AirBnbs, plus maybe another -$100 for airport rides, it was only $125 or so for "regular" taxi rides. Don’t get me wrong, taxis in Tokyo are super expensive, like $12-20 dollars for even short distances. But I mostly avoided taxis and took maybe a dozen rides total, when it was late or I was in a rush. For the most part, when we were in a neighborhood, we never left it, moving out only to meet people or talking a bike/walk to get somewhere. Tokyo is an imminently walkable city, as advertised.

Keep in mind for transportation that we also didn't go to any other cities, which most people tend to do, using the Japan Rail Pass to get around the country. It sounded like a sweet deal but neither of us wanted to travel travel that much on this trip.

Food ($1,650): Shockingly, not my highest category! Food prices in Japan were wildly exaggerated I thought, as in it was much cheaper than I’d imagined. You could easily get a good meal for $10-15, which isn’t far from New York or San Francisco prices. Of course, you could scale up quickly but cheap meals were also easily had.

Overall I spent $950 for “dining out / shared” and $400 for “dining out,” the latter of which was just meals for me. The “shared” dining usually indicates that I paid for whoever I was eating with, and as usual it scaled about 2/3rd of my "dining out" bill. There was too much food to go into any detail but my highest individual eating session was $25 for a standing sushi spot and I basically thrived/lived on $9 bowls of ramen. So much ramen...

There was also $275 spent on snacks and $40 on groceries, which basically means drinks, cookies, coffee, sugar items, and bites in-between meals. At a mere $45 for food per day (on vacation), Japan wasn’t too bad right?

Shopping ($1,800): Let’s start with the wifi and data situation. Over-worried as I was about my access to the internet, I both pre-bought SIM cards and then had to get new ones as we figured out that there was a delay in activation with the ones I bought. Overall I spent a tad over $300 for wifi and that included two separate airport SIMs ($35 each) that lasted one week, a whole lot more spent on Mobal SIM and service ($140) for two weeks, and then about $110 on a Kyushu pocket wifi--for unlimited data and fast speeds. If I had been experienced, I would have worked it so that I had the Kyushu set up pre-trip and ready to go at the airport, thus eliminating the need for all the other solutions. Lesson learned! Next time I just go with the pocket wifi and don’t worry about SIM cards.

Off the top, I spent $450 on general shopping, $475 on clothing, $200 on household items, $190 on gift related things, bought one book (Wallpaper City Guide Tokyo), and dropped $80 at Sanrioland merchandise stores. I regret none of it. In fact, if I had more room to carry stuff I probably could have easily doubled this. Next time I go to Japan I’m gonna shorten the trip so I can just blow all the money on shopping. Consume, consume, consume! Seriously the amount of cute, cool, delightfully designed, beautiful items on sale here are just ridiculous. I went to Loft Shibuya near the end of my trip, and they literally closed down on me at 9PM, so I guess that means someone was watching over my bank account. Thank you shopping gods.

The two hundred dollars worth of household stuff I bought were simply a whole bunch of cute hand towels, wraps, various knick knacks for my home, a stand up rice scooper that I was very intrigued by, three special bird letter openers, and an entire matching set of bird inspired ceramic holder thingys. Like I said, I could have spent all my money shopping in Japan…

Given how little room I had in my traveling bag—and an unwillingness to have too much to carry in-between AirBnbs—I had to curb my buying to small items. Thus most of my gifts for others constituted stickers, baby socks, baby 20mL Tiger thermoses, and uh, more socks. Also I am bringing back an Afuri dry ramen because my friend was kind enough to take back all my housewares to San Diego. At the very end of the trip, I bought an extra roller suitcase, which didn’t hold much, but it was enough to get me over the hump.

I also collected quite a few totes, many Tanuki to Kitsune items (in fact I spent probably $100 on Tanku to Kitsune items once I realized I could only get them in Japan), and resisted just about every stationary item I wanted, save a few key items. Stationary alone could put a huge dent in any Tokyo visitor’s budget.

And then we get to it, $475 on clothes! Everyone in Tokyo dresses amazing. Literally, everyone. And part of the reason is because clothes shopping there is amazing. (Overall the shopping scene is great but the shopping for men's stuff is out of this world.) From American vintage to high end streetwear, to everything in-between, shopping in Tokyo is the absolute dream. Fortunately for my wallet, I couldn’t pull off the the Japanese worker style -- more swag needed--  and also didn’t have much room for extra clothes so everything I bought was (mostly) out of necessity.

Upon arriving, Tokyo was much colder than we thought, so an extra sweater was bought in Harajuku, as well as a denim linen jacket from Zara, and white shoes to replace the ugly orange New Balances that my friend insisted I toss. (Oh yeah, even the Zara in Tokyo is way better. I’ve never bought a single thing at Zara Stateside but immediately bought three must-have items in the Roppongi Hills Zara.)

I did cave and get a pair of linen jeans, denim shorts, and a shirt from the first store I walked into in Daikanyama (and eyed an amazingly looooong denim jacket), and then promptly left the area because I knew the shopping there was going to be great. And on my second-to-last day, my friend wanted to drop by a store and it just so happened to be one I had passed by weeks ago, filled with linen Tibetan type stuff and so of course I had to buy a few things there. In sum, the five hundred or so dollars I spent on clothes was a mere drop in the bucket. I’ll be back for you Daikanyama and all other shopping districts, I’ll be back!

Overall, thirty-five days in Tokyo cost nearly $9,000, which was more than I anticipated but also perhaps less? If I scaled way back on the housing, if I shopped a whole lot less, and took way fewer taxis between AirBnbs, I think it would have been possible to slash that number by half, easily.

If two weeks in Vietnam cost $1,800 and two weeks in Bali cost $1,350, Tokyo would have been about $3,300 for two weeks, all-in. And by living there the cost would be stretched much lower, as I had a friend who was living in Tokyo for about $1,500 monthly rent, in a great area, with a fantastic space. No way you could do that in NYC or SF. Tokyo is a very livable city, much more than advertised I think. Should I move there? Of course I should!

Next time in Japan: Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium and Naoshima!

Vietnam 🇻🇳

Here we go, after two weeks in Bali I went to Vietnam for just about the same amount of time. What I discovered was that Vietnam is supposed to be the new hot spot: for entrepreneurs, for traveling, for doing it all. And apparently Vietnam is even cheaper than Thailand and other surrounding Southeast Asia locations. The conversion I used was one US dollar to 22,750 Vietnamese đồng, VND. Needless to say, lots of calculators were used on this trip.

Housing was $380 total, split among eight days in Hanoi and five in Saigon. Seeing as we had three people, we AirBnb-ed whole apartments, one for $65 a night and the other, located in a fancier high rise, for $80 per. Overall both living situations were lovely, as each of the three of us had our own bedrooms and all the amenities we needed.

A non-stop flight from Taipei to Hanoi -- but back from Ho Chi Minh -- was roughly $300, plus we added an intra-country flight from Hanoi to HCM, which cost $120. (Who knew Vietnam was so tall!) Overall flights back and forth cost about $400. Taxis to and from all the airports cost $140 total, with most of that cost coming from Taipei, as a cab to the airport is about $40. Going from airport to AirBnb in Vietnam cost an average of maybe $12, even with generous tip. Total housing and travel expenses: $920.

Oh I also Uber-ed quite a bit, and took taxis, as it was most necessary in Saigon and partially necessary in Hanoi. Uber trips in Saigon averaged $0.90 to maybe $1.40 and that made coming back and forth between places super easy. Cabs in Hanoi were actually pricier, probably due to longer distances traveled but even with taxi-ing everywhere, the total cost was probably about $60. And oh right, SIMs were $14 for 10GBs over thirty days. So, about normal.

In contrast to Bali, the food in Vietnam was delicious and it was hard to go wrong. We lived on a beautiful street that served chicken pho right across the way and it was $1.50 for a glorious bowl. Overall the food in Hanoi was roughly $2-5 dollars, and to honest, my daily boba was probably more than most of the meals we had. Oh yeah, I found boba in Vietnam and lots of it! The Gong Cha in Hanoi was about $2.50 per cup and I went like every other day. I think I drank more boba than Vietnamese coffee this whole trip, easily.

Meals down south in Saigon got pricier, as we moved away from street foods and more into restaurants and such. Prices were roughly double for everything, and there were a whole lot more non-street options to explore. Overall I spent about $250 dining out — with caveats below — and roughly $60 on various snacks and boba. The biggest single dining expenses were about $12-18 for more upscale dinners in Saigon such as a catfish place, a vegetarian restaurant, and stuff like that.

I did do one big dinner for everyone in Hanoi, at Ưu Đàm Chay, which was $60 for four of us. I reaaaaally wanted the pineapple fried rice so I made us go to this fancy spot. Delicious and lovely presentation, but also ultimately disappointing from a pineapple fried rice perspective. Lesson I'll never learn: Don't order stuff in fruits just because it's in a fruit...

We watched one movie in Saigon, at about $5 per person. I'm happy to report that there are four popcorn options, and they can all be half/half-ed! We also went karaoke twice, once in each city, for a total of $250. I forgot the hourly rate but I think mostly the bill was drink related. Either way, singing is priceless and the decked out rooms and not-too-horrible electronic interface were doable.

And other than a Bavarian rose showcase we randomly went to that featured a nine-dollar entrance fee, it was just museums, museums, museums, which were about $2 per. In theory we went to some night clubs but Vietnamese night clubs apparently have no cover and you just waltz right in. You basically have to buy a table -- I have no idea for how much -- but we mostly just stood in the back, with the penned peasants, and then left quickly. Overall “play” was super cheap. Keep in mind that I didn’t actually do that much some days except stay-in at the AirBnb playing League and only emerging to eat... So take what you will out of that.

What I did do more in Vietnam than in Bali was shop! I bought a fantastic striped Faguo duffel at L'Usine Dong Khoi for way too much, used some hard American cash to buy bowls for my house, picked out some plastic jewelry and a trinket or two, plus some baby clothes for the nieces. Oh, and a  book I figured I could get nowhere else called A Summer in Sapa, which was located in the War Remnants Museum gift shop. Gotta support local writers you know. Oh wait, she's a white expat... I also got a haircut in Saigon, at a salon, for about $18.

Overall, two weeks in Vietnam cost $1,800 give or take, with half of that going to transportation and housing. I guess overall the bill is more than Bali but it definitely felt like there was more to do. And plus, the food was way better and a lot cheaper. Pho dreams!

Next up: Japan, aka “the place that will take all my money…."

Bali: 🏖, 💩, 🐦

What does two weeks in Bali look like? Let’s take a look… The exchange rate for Indonesian rupiah is currently IDR $13,680 to one US dollar. For the purposes of my trip I just divided everything by 13,500 because big numbers are confusing.

Flights cost a total of $650, with tickets being bought a week beforehand on the way there and then three days before on my way out. We flew Air Asia there, and I was wary of the budget airline, but it was fine even with a layover in Kuala Lumpur -- and overall cheaper even with the extreme baggage fees. On the way back though, I opted for China Airlines and a direct flight, which was about $400 one way. (Just had to get home!) Tack on about $100 for getting to and from the airport six separate times, and the total cost of getting door to door from Taipei to Bali was about $750.

Housing was cheap, as we had two people and opted for hostel-like conditions. The first AirBnB was bare bones and clean, and the second one was very nice, with daily breakfast and cleanings. The first one was $23 per night and the second $17. Split that between two people, plus tip, and all our housing costs came out to about $150 each for two weeks.

We didn’t scooter around, as recommended, so mostly it was walking around. But there were still taxis needed to go from Canggu to Ubud, about an hour's ride away, and that was roughly $18 one-way. Overall I spent maybe $40 on taxis and a handful of Ubers, but really didn’t ride in a car unless it was to another town.

SIM cards were easy to acquire, and even though I ran out of 10GB data three days before I left, I just got anther one, to the tune of $16 total, so about a dollar per day for 3G/LTE action.

Food was a problem, as we were in pretty touristy places and the options were limited to Westernized sit-down spots, or warungs, which were local road side restaurants (that mostly served the same thing). We avoided most of the upscale/midscale dining places, and shied away from all the "amazing fusion" food Bali is apparently becoming known for. Also, keep in mind I basically eat once or twice a day, so my food bill was pretty low.

Food in beachy Canggu was more expensive certainly, but overall a basic meal cost $4-7, with prices scaling up by a dollar or two either way. Portions were large, acai bowls and healthy type smoothies were plentiful, but finding cheap decent local food was mostly a bust. We did splurge for big dinners at La Favela ($65 for two), Room 4 Dessert ($60), and an Indonesian tapas place ($17) but otherwise most of the food was around ten bucks. Oh, except for my airport hamburger on the way back, that was a whopping $16 by itself. Also the one local chain I tried, a fried chicken place, gave me diarrhea for two days. So there's that...

Snacks of all kinds were consumed, to the tune of $25, plus $7 on groceries which probably means water and drinks, and maybe another $7 on laundry, extra paper towels, and toilet paper. I paid $6 for two packs of cigarettes, which came in just about the same for my drinking costs, since I don’t drink. Also, I didn’t really shop/buy anything, aside from $6 worth of trinkets at a gift store and $20 for a pair of big poofy pants that I'm very excited about.

“Play” in general cost $65 and that included $30 for the Bali Bird Park, $6 for Agung Rai Museum of Art, and about $20 for beach chair and surfboard rentals. (Standard beach rates were $7.50 for a chair and $3.50 for two hours with a board.) I actually did very little, so that represents the low end of what could be possible. There were no temples, shows, or much of anything else on my play list, so mostly it was just birds birds birds!

Overall the two weeks in Bali cost $2,000 all inclusive. As you can see, most of the cost is in getting there, but once in paradise you could live there for semi-cheap -- although not as cheap as you'd expect. Was paradise worth it? Well, I came back two weeks early, skipping Gili Islands and more surfing at Uluwatu, so you tell me!

Moving On...

So I'm moving on to another blog! Same programming, different address. Actually maybe I'll be back here for Ways and Means, but otherwise it'll be at "Atelman, Nooooo!" Mainly I wanted to test out Blogger's new responsive themes and it made more sense to switch than to retrofit this one. Plus Jon Wow has been around since 2010, which is incredibly long for me! So yeah, here: atelman.blogspot.com