🍲 How I Eat Well on $10 a Day in Saigon – Honest Meals, Simple Joys

🌿 How I Eat Well on $10 a Day in Saigon – Honest Meals, Simple Joys
I used to believe that good food came with a high price — Michelin stars, tasting menus, imported cheese. But since moving to Saigon, I’ve learned something far more delicious: real food doesn’t need to be expensive. It just needs to be real.

I live in Ho Chi Minh City with my husband. We’re both from the Mekong Delta, and we cook most of our meals at home. But even when we eat out, we eat like locals — with simplicity, seasonality, and a lot of nước mắm.

Here’s what a typical $10 day of eating looks like for me — not as a traveler, but as someone living here, day by day, bowl by bowl.

 
☀️ Breakfast – Street Simplicity (20,000 VND / $0.80)
If I don’t make breakfast at home, I stop by a tiny stall near the alley. A warm bánh mì trứng (egg sandwich) or a bowl of cháo trắng with pickled radish.

It’s quick, cheap, and somehow always comforting.
Cost: 15,000–20,000 VND (~$0.60–$0.80)

 
🍲 Lunch – A Local Bowl of Comfort (35,000 VND / $1.40)
Lunch is usually hủ tiếu — a Southern noodle soup with a clear, fragrant broth. I often go to the same vendor under a big tamarind tree. She doesn’t speak English. She doesn’t need to.

The broth changes slightly with the season. The price almost never does.
Cost: 30,000–35,000 VND (~$1.20–$1.40)

 
☕ Afternoon Coffee – My Ritual (40,000 VND / $1.60)
This is my small indulgence. A quiet café tucked inside a colonial house. No blaring music, just the clinking of spoons and soft laughter in Vietnamese.

A cappuccino here costs about 40,000 VND, and I stay for an hour or two to read, reflect, or write.

Coffee in Vietnam isn’t just caffeine — it’s culture.

 
🌙 Dinner – Home-Cooked and Shared (80,000 VND / $3.20)
We cook together in the evening — usually rice, a veggie stir-fry, a soup, and grilled fish or tofu. Everything is bought from the local market that morning.

For two people, dinner rarely exceeds 70,000–90,000 VND (~$2.80–$3.50), and often includes leftovers for lunch the next day.

Sometimes we eat outside on the balcony, listening to the night roll in with the breeze.

 
🧾 What’s the Total for a Day of Real Eating?
Meal                          Cost (VND)                     Cost (USD)
Breakfast                   20,000                            $0.80
Lunch                         35,000                            $1.40
Coffee                        40,000                            $1.60
Dinner                        80,000                            $3.20
Total                         175,000 VND                  ~$7.00
Even with a generous budget for dinner and café time, I spend well under $10 a day.

Some days it’s even less. Some days I skip coffee. Some days we eat leftovers.
But every day feels full — not of luxury, but of nourishment.

 
💭 Eating Like a Local – Not Cheap, Just Real
People often ask: “Is food in Vietnam cheap?”
I think they mean “Can you live well without spending much?”

And the answer is yes — but not because prices are low.
It’s because the culture values freshness, community, and balance.

I don’t diet. I don’t track macros.
I eat like my grandmother did — a bit of rice, some vegetables, a fish cooked with care, and always soup.

This isn’t a guide to cutting costs.
It’s a reminder that simple food is enough.

 
🔗 More from Living in Vietnam
– What I Spend in a Day Living in Saigon – Real Life, Real Prices
– Why Americans Are Leaving Their $75K Jobs for Vietnam
– 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Escaping Burnout

 
✨ Curious what life tastes like in Vietnam?
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