I usually buy my food on the street -- i eat rice with pork or noodlesoup with beef in the morning ($1), eat some springrolls or whatever for lunch ($1), and go to the market and buy a grilled fish ($2) or some chicken ($4) with some rice and vegetables ($0.50).
You can easily get someone to do the cleaning and shopping for you, but I like to hop on my motorbike and do the shopping myself. I sometimes work from restaurants and chat with the staff (they get paid a bad salary, but their work atmosphere is really relaxed and have lots of time to chat).
As for the financials, I was lucky to get an exit with my business that basicly covered all the money I was personally in debt for plus a little extra. I rent my house completely furnitured through an agency which specializes in couples that are getting divorced, which brings in around $1000 a month. This covers my morgage and health insurance.
I live off money I had left after the exit (around $25k), and just accepted a freelance gig for a few grand which I'm really enjoying.
All in all, one of the best choices I made in my life, it really is so incredibly different here, and you really learn what it's like to live in a country without decent doctors, for example. At this point I do really start to miss my family and friends back home, but I'm very happy the Khmer are a very friendly kind of people, so I made a lot of friends here. I don't really hang out with expats, since they are generally still part of the whole lifestyle I want to avoid.
A friend of mine works as a cleaner for someone who is general manager of a real estate agency, and she knows a lot of people. I helped that friend out a few times in the past, now she helped me find that villa.
Furthermore, a lot of negotiating. Original price was $450, I ended up getting $250 if I paid 6 months in advance.
You can easily get someone to do the cleaning and shopping for you, but I like to hop on my motorbike and do the shopping myself. I sometimes work from restaurants and chat with the staff (they get paid a bad salary, but their work atmosphere is really relaxed and have lots of time to chat).
As for the financials, I was lucky to get an exit with my business that basicly covered all the money I was personally in debt for plus a little extra. I rent my house completely furnitured through an agency which specializes in couples that are getting divorced, which brings in around $1000 a month. This covers my morgage and health insurance.
I live off money I had left after the exit (around $25k), and just accepted a freelance gig for a few grand which I'm really enjoying.
All in all, one of the best choices I made in my life, it really is so incredibly different here, and you really learn what it's like to live in a country without decent doctors, for example. At this point I do really start to miss my family and friends back home, but I'm very happy the Khmer are a very friendly kind of people, so I made a lot of friends here. I don't really hang out with expats, since they are generally still part of the whole lifestyle I want to avoid.