what is the total for cost of living
[Music]
hey guys welcome to a new video today is
our south african cost of living we'd
like to mention this is a cost of living
video between johannesburg and cape town
and specifically from a digital nomads
perspective yes we are digital nomads in
our own country which means we can move
around whenever we want we can work from
wherever we want and we can work
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[Music]
okay so here are the cost of living
categories that we're going to be
covering in this video we recently did a
bali cost of living as well you can see
it linked above here and we did one for
vietnam as well so check out those
videos they'll be linked in the
description below before we get on with
the video comment down below what you
think the cost of living per month is
here in south africa put a prediction
down there in the comments and we'll see
if you're right at the end of the video
i'm south african and to be honest i
don't even know what the cost of living
is so super interested to see what our
total is for the month
as per usual we used airbnb to find our
accommodation and we stayed in many
different types of airbnbs to give you
and ourselves variety for example we
stayed in a shared house in the suburbs
of johannesburg we had a big room with a
walk-in closet a beautiful big bathroom
with two sinks a toilet a bath a shower
and all the little things like shampoos
soaps and conditioners and stuff like
that and then we had various shared
spaces like a fully equipped kitchen a
garden
[Music]
a lounge area patio with a braai and we
also had a workspace with really really
fast internet at 100 megabits per second
so super important for digital nomads
coffee tea sugar milk drinking water all
of that was provided as well as cleaning
every day and laundry if you wanted it
one of the reasons we always do airbnb
is because electricity and water and
utilities are generally included in that
so it makes life and traveling much
easier we then also stayed in a couple
of studios in both johannesburg and cape
town they are the most common you can
find them all over airbnb and they
basically have everything you need a
kitchen a workspace a little lounge
obviously the bed and the wi-fi is
usually around 20 to 30 megabytes in
these studios there's often some nice
amenities like the swimming pool behind
us or a gym and some gardens so it's
always really cool to make use of the
facilities like over here there's like a
really nice workout area a lot of grass
and it's such nice outdoor nature here
if you are concerned about safety it is
always best to stay in an apartment a
complex or hotel if you are traveling in
south africa because those places
generally do have 24-hour security and
it just gives you a whole lot of peace
of mind but we are going to do a
specific video from cape town and where
to stay so look out for that all of the
above mentioned accommodations will be
linked in the description of this video
i'll be honest accommodation is pretty
expensive here especially if you're
booking on airbnb remember this is in
southeast asia
and often anywhere else in the world if
you're paying a nightly fee you often
pay way too much for the month so if
you're booking on airbnb do contact the
host message them in advance and try and
get a discount for a longer stay that'll
help you save some money so the total
for accommodation this month was
11
743
bronze
which is
pretty good considering we booked it all
on airbnb and they have crazy admin fees
it's also really difficult to find like
a place that we stayed in in bali like a
guest house with like shared kitchen and
a whole bunch of rooms so places are a
little bit more expensive so it does
work out to be about double what we paid
in bali but we must also keep in mind
the current situation in bali
accommodation is a lot cheaper there
right now and accommodation in south
africa stays the same also if you're
looking for more long-term accommodation
we highly recommend using the website
property24 they don't have crazy admin
fees and you get to contact estate
agents and sign leases directly so it's
not really an app it's just a website
with all the listings there is an app
for your phone and yeah generally they
specialize in six to 12 month rentals
and the price will be a lot cheaper you
can get anything from like six and a
half thousand rand for studio it's
around ten eleven thousand rand for one
bedroom
[Music]
okay so next category is transportation
we sold our cars in 2018 when we moved
to asia so we don't have cars here when
we come back home uh to be honest i
think if you're in south africa it's
best to just hire a car south africa is
a huge country with so much to see but
if you don't want to hire a car then
there are two apps that everyone uses
which is uber and bolt we use those apps
for the month and it cost us 2
839 rand for the month if you hire a car
you obviously have to pay for petrol as
well petrol is currently sitting at 20
rand a liter it's the highest it's ever
been i think that's thanks to the
pandemic we also have toll roads so if
you want to do a long distance drive
then check out this video above to get
an idea of how much the tolls will cost
you
[Music]
the next category is cell phone plans
and data you can get a mtn sim card or
verticum sim card at the airport when
you land like we did the sim card will
cost you just two rand which is like
virtually one cent or 10 cents and then
the data will set you back around 85
rand per gigabyte the more you buy the
cheaper it'll get to top up your data
you'll have to just either download the
mtn or verticom app you can do it
through the app or if you don't do that
you can go into any pick and pay or spa
and go to the tools and the ladies will
be willing to help you with loading data
when you get to the cell phone store you
will need to bring your proof of id or
your passport and a proof of residence
but if you don't have proof of residence
and you only have a hotel booking that
should do so the total for our data
plans and our airtime for the month was
450 round or around 28 dollars
[Music]
next category is gym and supplements
this is south africa brew there's boot
fighters and rugby players everywhere so
gyms and protein shakes are in abundance
brother so don't worry
but in all seriousness south africans
are very active people whether it be
playing sports or going to the gym or
doing yoga all sorts of stuff our
biggest gym chains are virgin active
planet fitness and viva gym they are
world class gyms and they are everywhere
but if you want more intimate crossfit
or yoga gyms there's plenty of those too
you're looking at paying around 250 to
300 per session or around 750 bucks per
month for unlimited sessions we've been
doing mostly outdoor activities like
going for hikes and runs with friends
and then when we do work out we normally
do it at the outdoor gym on the
promenade in cape town so our gym costs
for the month have been zero but we do
have a friend who runs this epic
crossfit gym in four ways called wicco
fitness they do offer a trial week so if
you're interested in checking out this
gym check the link in the description to
sign up for your free trial week
thanks coach
[Music]
okay our next category is entertainment
what on earth do we do here for fun well
in johannesburg we're all about our
cafes day drinking restaurants markets
and music festivals and for the month
rhett and i basically just caught up
with all our friends and families we had
many brides we went out drinking and
eating good food if you're a tourist
there's lots of historical sites for you
to visit here in johannesburg and then
in terms of cape town oh my goodness
there's so much to do there it's
actually overwhelming we'll put together
a video one day about what to do in cape
town there's just so much to do there so
stay tuned for that video some of the
things that rhett and i did for the
month we went on the wheel in caitanya
you saw our live video i went for some
painting lessons red went for a run all
these types of things there's so much to
do here so entertainment cost us
150 rand for the month it was fine
[Music]
the next category on the list is
insurance all of our personal belongings
and electronics and camera gear are
insured with an insurance broker back
here in south africa and then when we
are traveling we never travel
outside of south africa without using
our travel insurance called safety wing
which will cover us for any of those
travel related things that may go wrong
such as flights being missed or
postponed or our luggage getting stolen
or lost and also for the odd medical
emergency safety wing has you covered
for that too and it also covered us for
our quarantine when we were quarantined
in belly tongue and when we needed to
come home during covert so i highly
recommend using safety wing a link to
that will be down in the description
below but when we do come home we do put
safety wing on pause it's very very easy
it's like a netflix subscription you can
pause it and continue it whenever you
want so we've paused it for now because
they don't actually cover you when you
are in your home country i believe they
do cover for the first like month but
after that you don't get covered when
you are in your home country our total
for insurance is
hundred and
eighty two rand or one hundred and sixty
seven dollars for the month
[Music]
and then utilities this month they were
zero this month and that's because
airbnbs always include electricity water
and internet so we didn't have to pay
for any of that this month but if you do
want to get an idea of what utilities do
cost here in south africa stay tuned for
our cape town cost of living video we'll
be renting out an apartment and the
utilities will be on us so that'll give
you a good idea stay tuned that video
will be here in the new year
[Music]
all right the next section is the
miscellaneous section things that don't
fall into the categories above usually
that's the laundry
my haircut
and the pharmacy needs we usually come
to a strip mall like this they're
everywhere wherever you stay in joburg
you can get to one within at least five
kilometers of where you staying and
these places have everything from a
pharmacy to shopping to groceries
dining areas little cafes barber shops
there's just basically everything you
need here you don't need to go to one of
the big malls you can just come to one
of these strip malls
and get all your stuff done here cost of
the laundry this month was around 200
rand is around 35 rand per kilogram
next section in the michelin section is
always a haircut for me that's usually
about 200 rand a month just come to the
local barbers this one in particular is
in l'eno shopping center put a link in
the description for you
thank you very much malek
mediterranean and this man specifically
is from algeria up in africa
thank you
thank you thank you
to close off the miscellaneous section
we also did a pharmacy run when we
landed back in south africa and got all
the things we'd need which would
normally last for a couple of months and
the total for that was around 900 rand
or about 60 dollars so our total for the
miscellaneous section is 1 300 rand or
around 80 dollars
[Music]
the next section is food which is split
into groceries eating out and dining in
now that we have access to a kitchen
we've been doing a lot of our own home
cooking south africa has some of the
best grocery stores we've ever seen and
it's definitely a world leader in fresh
produce so it's a great place to do some
home cooking so this month we spent a
total of 4 000 rand on groceries if you
don't have a car and you don't feel like
ubering go ahead and download this app
pick and pay asap you can choose all the
groceries you need for the week and
they'll deliver it to your door within
an hour it's amazing i'll put a little
link or a little code down in the
description and if you use that code
when you sign up for pick and pay asap
we'll each get 50 rand or file next
order then dining and eating out because
we were away from home for so long we
had a ton of catching up to do with
friends this month that means our eating
out and entertainment bowl was a lot
higher than normal we spent 4 400 rand
eating out and that included a couple of
wine tastings with friends i can
definitely see that expense coming down
quite a bit in the coming months and
then finally dining in we use ubereats
exclusively for this because we spent a
lot of time cooking ourselves and eating
out our dining in bowl was 1300
rand this month which is considerably
less than what we spent in bali i think
in bali we spent over 7 000 rand or 454
dollars on ordering in so it's a lot lot
better this time around overall even
with the expensive dinners with friends
our foodball this month came to 9758
rand or around 609
that's around 100 cheaper than our food
ball in bali which is super surprising
[Music]
and the next category is visas we're
obviously south africans so we don't
need visas but there are a lot of visa
exam countries i'll put a list of those
countries on the screen now if your
country is on this list you'll get a 90
day free visa on arrival but if you do
need to apply for a visa do check this
link below okay it's time to share the
grand total with you guys but before i
just want to say that
if you notice my face is looking a
little round and pudgy in certain cutes
isn't it that's because i got my wisdom
teeth removed on monday and it is friday
today saturday today yeah and my
sweating still hasn't gone down it's
been a rough one if you follow us on
instagram you already know all about it
yeah shane a lot of pain not a fun
procedure to go through yeah it was
hectic
but anyway let's get to the total cost
for our cost of living in south africa
between johannesburg
and cape town obviously those are the
most expensive cities in south africa
thank you degree
but it's most likely where you are going
to end up as a tourist or as a digital
nomad okay so let's get into it what is
the total for cost of living
eighteen hundred
and sixty eight dollars
wow
that's hectic i didn't expect it to be
that expensive really
so it's around 200 more expensive than
our barley cost of living
yeah but uh interesting to see some of
the sections were cheaper like the food
100 cheaper than bali but definitely
more expensive on the accommodation side
almost i think just over double the
price for accommodation here i thought
we would save a little bit of money with
like visas and not going to the gym not
going to the gym and like cost of food
she sure didn't expect that so like
things like the phone and the
miscellaneous is a little bit more
expensive it's like double the price
yeah for those kind of things food is
around the same depending on what you do
we didn't eat out as much we ate at home
more so it's cheaper obviously if we ate
more at home in bali that would have
also been cheaper for sure we really
splurged in bali so that price was crazy
for food yeah also just a disclaimer
these cost of living videos never
include our flights as they're always
changing and very month-to-month and
then secondly this is for two people to
live comfortably so if you are traveling
by yourself obviously a lot of the
sections will be halved like the food
etc so keep that in mind as well but you
will still have to pay accommodation the
full turtle for yourself but there are a
lot of options like shared houses and
things all over south africa so
well you saw that in the video anyways
we'll go and check the comments now of
this video once it's posted to see if
you guys were right um were you guys
surprised by the total i certainly was
hectic let me know what you think in the
comments below yeah we hope you guys
found this video helpful if you did
please give it a thumbs up and subscribe
to our channel there's going to be
incredible travels coming from south
africa so stay tuned we'll see you guys
in the next one bye
[Music]
so