Possible move to Cambodia soon

300 - 500 $ food and accommodation?
I don't think so.
A khmer surely can.
But not an expat.
That's MY opinion.

It would not be impossible to live on a low budget, I have a friend who rents a 1 bedroom apartment for $100 per month, no frills, small amount of furniture and out of the way a little. If you want to live on $300 per month, then it will be a real budget life style, on $500 per month it could be done a little better, most people I know are on $1,000 per month expenditure.

There are always expenses you forget about, laundry could set you about $20 per month, mobile phone $10 per month, internet $20 per month, I probably spend about $270 per month eating out all every time, and yes cigarettes and beer are cheap, it is still amazing that cash still ebbs away.

Thanks!!
Waggle

yes I suppose $70 a week wont get you far what was I thinking?
Waggle

In 2011 I lived for 6 months in hotels (eating out) and lived well (with gf) on $700 a month.
Prior to that I lived in a large house in a provincial town on less, cooking myself but enjoying expensive imported cheese, ham etc some of the time, and buying petrol but not buying or repairing the motorbike. For a time had a maid 9 hours per week but eventually I invested in a washer and dispensed with maids and laundries...
But you really need to think about those less obvious costs .. medical, travel, books/internet/pubs, cravings for imported food, .. if you are not happy to scrimp and scrounge a little (eg motos not tuk tuks)then $1000 would be more comfortable.

PS Included beer!

Many things changed since 2011.
You could eat for 1$ ... now, for this price, you can have a noodles soup.. not much more.

But I rarely ate that cheaply.

A year later prices were the same. Since 2012?

An expat can hardly live like a Khmer. Most of them have a 150$/month salary. But they share rooms with 2 or 3 other peoples and eat some meat once or twice a week.
When you are sick, if you decide to do it the cheap way, you have local clinics.... but there, it's not that sure that you could find a "good" doctor. One day my kid get sick (allergic reaction to a spider bite). I decided to stop to a local clinic as it was urgent. The doctor made an injection. When i asked him what he put in that injection, he asked me "Why do you want to know". It took me 30 seconds to realized that he was not joking at all.
He finally answered me when i was ready to call the police.
Whatever... the point is, as Makewa said, that medical expenses can sometimes be a surprise. 30$ for a "foreigner" doctor in most of the good clinics.
You wont need 12 months to figure out if you want to stay here or no.
After 2 or 3 months you will know it for sure.

Thanks everyone for your feed back most welcome,seems to be a lot of conflicting info when I read other threads ie: Visas, how much money you need in a bank before you can set foot in the country, but suppose will get there eventually!!
Waggle

No conflicting infos.
1 year BUSINESS visa 280$ approx./year.
25$/month
Don't waist your time investigating on another visa type.
They wont ask you anything for this visa. Just the money and your pictures.

About the cost of living, very hard to answer as we don't know your lifestyle !
For exemple, inside Phnom Penh, you can find a 2 bedrooms khmer style house for 200$/month. You can also find a 2 bedrooms western style service apartment for 2,000$/month.

You really have to come and see buy yourself.

Keep me in your address book and don't hesitate to ask me whatever you want to know.

Wow thanks for your quick reply much appreciated!! & yes will take you up on your kind offer as will have many ?????
Waggle