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Expenses Living as a Digital Nomad in Santiago, Chile
Welcome to my August 2019 Expense Report. This was my first month living as a digital nomad in Santiago, Chile!
There are definitely cheaper places to live the digital nomad lifestyle, but I felt that Santiago was a good value overall and my spending was right in line with my projections.
For a detailed guide of Santiago for Digital Nomads check out my breakdown here.
Total Spending
Category | SUM of Amount |
Airbnb | -$952.00 |
Food & Drink | -$853.68 |
Groceries | -$489.40 |
Co-working | -$255.00 |
Side Trips | -$217.00 |
Health & Wellness Products | -$67.04 |
Gym | -$64.00 |
Ubers | -$58.76 |
Gifts & Donations | -$50.00 |
Entertainment | -$41.89 |
Shopping | -$27.20 |
Grand Total | -$3,075.97 |
Airbnb
$952 Accommodation
A comfortable 1-bedroom apartment can be had in any of the best neighborhoods for between $900-$1,500.
I lived in Santiago, Chile with a program called Remote Year. Remote Year is a work and travel program that I would highly recommend to anyone wanting to test out the digital nomad lifestyle. The accommodation was included in my total Remote Year cost, so I don’t know the exact cost specifically for my apartment for the month.
However, I found the exact place we stayed at on Airbnb for $952 all in for two guests for the month.
This apartment was within close proximity to anything you would need. A decent size grocery store was right underneath us with delicious $5 bottles of wine! The co-working space was only three blocks away and a gym was a 15-minute walk.
Food & Drink and Groceries
$1,343 total for restaurants, alcohol, and groceries for the month is definitely not cheap. Food and drink costs in Santiago are much higher than in other South American countries and are comparable to many places in the US.
These two categories combined were my highest spending areas for the month.
Food spending is normally an issue for me anyway.
You could definitely save money in this area by not going out to eat as much, but August in Santiago was my first month on Remote Year so there were many large group dinners going out to restaurants that I didn’t want to miss out on.
Co-Working
$255 Co-Working Space
I can’t recommend WeWork Galeria Vivo enough! This place is brand new, very nice and everyone there was very friendly.
Side Trips
Work hard, play hard. Chile offers a wide range of climates and awesome places to see. Patagonia anyone? $217 total wasn’t too bad. I was able to go to Valparaiso, Chile, snowboard in the Andes at La Parva resort and went on a wine tour in the Casablanca region.
Conclusion
For my August 2019 Expense Report, the five categories above account for 90% of my total spending for the month.
Food and drinks were the most expensive area and may deter some from spending significant time in Santiago as a digital nomad.
Santiago earned a 5/10 NomadonFIRE Score for the cost of living (COL), as my total spending for the month was just over $3,000.
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