Digital Nomad Budget Report: $2,000 Per Month in Berlin, Germany
One of the biggest questions we had when we were considering becoming digital nomads was the cost, and the most helpful resources we found were other blogs discussing expenses in detail! So we’re paying it forward by doing the same thing.
We’ll be doing these reports every month. This one is for a month in Berlin, Germany -- the most expensive place in our current plans.
To see more about all this, check out our YouTube video on living on $2,000 a month as digital nomads in Berlin!
The Goal and Outcome
Our goal is to stay at or under $2,000 (USD) every month, total, for both of us. All prices in this post are converted from euros to USD when relevant!
We figured that Germany was the one country where we might go over our budget. Other countries, such as Thailand, we expect to be much less expensive.
With that said, we came REALLY close to meeting our budget. Our grand total for the month, for both of us (not each) was $2,007 USD.
What Wasn’t Included
There are a couple of things we didn’t include in this breakdown:
Flights to Berlin - technically these should have been included in last month’s report, since that’s when we flew here. Since this is our first report, though, they didn’t end up going anywhere. The total cost for those was $76 thanks to years of slowwwwly collecting frequent flyer miles.
Health insurance - this varies so much from person to person that our specific numbers are probably not relevant to your situation, so we didn’t include them.
The Breakdown of Living on $2,000 a Month as Digital Nomads
Rent and utilities: $928
Internet: $71
Cell phones: $80
Transportation: $135
Groceries: $202
Medicine: $5
Tourism/entry fees: $19
Eating/drinking out: $567
Grand total: $2,007 USD
Explanations of the Categories:
Rent. At $928 a month, our rent was a little overpriced by Berlin standards, but thanks to a combination of factors, we ended up with relatively few options. A lot of this had to do with the fact that we had been planning until fairly late in the game to stay in Berlin longer, so we had to scramble a bit for a suitable apartment at a reasonable price for only two months.
Internet. Many Airbnb apartment rentals include this, but ours didn’t, so we had to buy internet through Vodafone Hotspot for our computers.
Cell phones. We have (and LOVE) Google’s Project Fi. This lets us keep our American numbers, send unlimited texts from tons of countries, and use data at $10/gigabyte in those same countries. We’ve found it to be the ideal carrier for digital nomads so far. To learn more, check out this blog post about it!
Transportation. Most of this is the cost of our monthly tickets. We got the 10 AM Berlin AB tickets, which means unlimited bus and train rides within the AB zones (which is all you’ll need most of the time) after 10 AM on weekdays and all day on weekends. We tend to be night owls anyway, so not commuting in the morning was easy for us!
Groceries. This includes lots of bottled water, plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables (and Pfifferlinge!), and enough chocolate to satisfy Gustavo’s addiction!
Medicine. I had a really bad headache for a few days and needed painkillers!
Tourism. This was the cost of our entry fees to the Olympic Stadium. The rest of our sightseeing was free.
Eating/drinking out. We ate out a lot. A LOT. As in, at least once a day, and sometimes twice a day. We knew this would be a big expense, because for us, exploring local food is one of the greatest joys of traveling. Neither of us is the partying/nightlife type, so this was almost entirely food rather than alcohol. This also includes lots of takeout that we brought home for dinner after going out for the day, like falafel sandwiches and kebabs from Turkish restaurants.
Could We Have Spent Less?
In short, yes. Theoretically we could have saved about $200 if we had had the time to find a less expensive apartment with internet. We could also have saved a lot on food if we had eaten inexpensively at home a lot more often.
With that said, lots of restaurants in Berlin are really inexpensive compared to the San Francisco Bay Area. We also saved quite a bit by not going out to party or drink (except for the occasional caipirinha), so if you're into that scene, the costs might balance out.
If we had really been cutting corners on everything possible, I think we could have done it on $1,500 for a month total. That would have involved a lot of very simple and cheap homecooked meals in a cheaper apartment.
Final Thoughts
We were aware of our budget throughout the month, but rarely felt like we were seriously restricting ourselves because of it. For our lifestyles, at least, living on $2,000 a month as digital nomads in Berlin (for both of us, not each) is definitely realistic and comfortable.
We were actually both a little surprised by how comfortable the budget felt.
The only reason we didn’t come in slightly under budget was because I made a mistake at the beginning, forgetting to convert the price of our train tickets from euros to USD. This made us think we had about $20 more than we actually did.
We also have a YouTube video about our budget as digital nomads in Berlin at this link! Check it out and leave a comment there or here to let us know your thoughts. What would you have done differently?