Let's Break It Down: Costs in Sri Lanka

When I first started watching people live the life I wanted to be living, i.e. travel the world nonstop, my biggest question was, "how in the world do they afford that?!?" So in full transparency, I want to answer that question for anyone who might be wondering that about me.

So often, people think that travel means you have to spend a LOT of money. While the plane ticket Sri Lanka was definitely expensive (I mean, it IS on the other side of the world), everything else was surprisingly affordable! I'm going to be sharing what was spent for Andrés and I in the month we spent in Sri Lanka, so expenses for two people!

Let's start right off with housing. We split rent three ways in a fun little three bedroom hostel-like set up with a shared kitchen. This ended up costing us $293 for the month. This didn't include internet ($10 for the month) or electricity ($23 including running air conditioning), but I'd still say it was a steal, especially because we were only one block away from the beach!

Next up comes bills in general. Along with the ones I already mentioned, I also pay a bill to keep my phone number in the US ($7.75) and we bought two SIM cards with unlimited data for the month ($10.89). All of this along with some other random bills evened out to $75 for the month!

The "house" bill was $48, and that included things like maid service and little things like aloe vera or sunscreen that we shared with everyone.

We spent $84 on "health," which included a large conatiner of protein powder, creatine, and any other supplements or medicine we needed during the month. I was actually super pleased to see it so low!

After that are our "transportation" costs. This came out to $109, which included two, month long bicycle rentals, bus/train rides, a handful of Ubers, and a private transfer back to the airport at the end of the month. Public transportation is really accessible and fast in Sri Lanka!

After that we've got our "street food" bill, which only came out to $37! This isn't because we didn't eat any street food - I'm obsessed with Sri Lankan rotti and fresh coconuts now - but because it's so affordable!

Next up is our "etc" bills. That included five, hour long massages, a new water bottle, and some new clothes, too! I'm honestly embarrassed that this added up to $207, and I'm definitely going to try to knock this down in our next month.

Our tours for the month ended up costing $352. That included a six hour long safari, a snorkeling tour, a trip to "Snake Farm," and numerous surf lessons and surf board rentals. We came in under budget for this, and Sri Lanka is definitely an affordable place to have a lot of great tour experiences!

Time for food! Groceries added up to $325 for the month, and going out to eat cost us $348. This surprised me a lot, because we didn't hold back AT ALL. In fact, we only didn't go out to eat 3 of our 28 days! We bought a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, and soooo much fresh fish. We had fresh lobster, shrimp, and red snapper while watching the sun set on the beach. I expected our food expenses to be much higher!

All of this together added up to $1,878 for two people to live in Sri Lanka for one month! I'm impressed, but I think we can do even better. Let's see what we can make happen in Thailand!