We blew our yearly budget of $28K in one month in Taipei!

We spent this past month living large in Taipei and ended up blowing our yearly budget of US$28K in just one month! We wanted to experiment what it would be like to travel without budget limitations and it turns out that we actually have very expensive taste and feel most comfortable living in luxury. 

So without further ado, here is our budget breakdown for March 2021, our most expensive month as slow travelers yet!

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To keep things simple, all the prices below have been converted to USD.

Accommodation

Accommodation: $169.84 / person / day (OR $5,265.26 / person / month).

31 nights at the Regent Taipei, Corner Suite Room

We like our neighborhood so we decided to stay at the Regent Taipei just 2 blocks down from our usual apartment rental. Our usual apartment just has one door, tile floors and no bathtub and after staying at the Regent, we have now grown accustomed to double entry doors, marble floors and a jacuzzi. Unfortunately, these don’t appear to be available filters on AirBnB so it might be hard to find those properties.

⇒ In total, for the month of March 2021, the 2 of us spent $10,530.52 on this amazing suite for a total of 31 nights 

Groceries

Groceries: $0 / person / day (OR $0 / person / month).

Why cook when you don’t have to? Plus, we didn’t have a kitchen at the Regent anyways so we didn’t have a choice but to eat out every meal.

⇒ In total, for the month of March 2021, the 2 of us spent $0.00 on groceries since we ate out all of our meals!

Dining Out

Dining Out: $100.14 / person / day (OR $3104.45 / person / month).

248 meals eating out or 100% of our meals for 2 people (bye bye Intermittent Fasting!)

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Did you know there are exactly 30 delicious restaurants in Taipei that have received a Michelin star in 2020? Well, we didn’t either until we decided to dine at one everyday this past month. We also went to the occasional lunch box place at $3/meal so I think it balanced out the ~$100 meals per person. On the days we had 10+ course meals, we didn’t even feel hungry for the next meal and saved money by having a light snack.

⇒ In total, for the month of March 2021, the 2 of us spent $6,208.90 on restaurants. Our restaurant budget covered 248/248 meals (breakfast, lunch, mid-day snack or dinner).  

Transportation

93 UberBlack rides

Transportation: $21.86 / person / day (OR $677.69 / person / month).

UberBlack baby! We put away our public transport card and utilized UberBlack for all of our transportation. It was much more convenient to get picked up from the Regent and get dropped off directly at the Michelin star restaurant and back. The Taiwanese like nice luxury cars so we were mostly riding in either a Mercedes, Audi or BMW and the service was impeccable! We went from Blue rewards to Diamond in just 2 weeks and at this level, we are accumulating 6 reward points per $ spent on our trips.

⇒ In total, for the month of March 2021, the 2 of us spent $1,355.58 on private transportation.

Entertainment

Entertainment: $62.58 / person / day (OR $1940.16 / person / month).

Ok, we used to enjoy almost free activities like hiking and biking and spending time in nature but did you know there’s a lot of fun paid activities too? Here are the following activities that we enjoyed in Taipei: took a domestic flight to Penghu and back(just because we missed flying), skydiving, VIP tickets to the symphony and ballet, clubbing and KTV. Since we go to bed around 10pm, the clubbing was usually pretty quiet which was fine by us because we like avoiding crowds.

⇒ In total, for the month of March 2021, the 2 of us spent $3,880.32 on activities.

Shopping

Shopping: $100.48 / person / day (OR $3115.17 / person / month).

Our shopping budget is usually close to $0 because as nomads, whatever we end up buying we will have to carry with us. But since we’ve been in Taiwan for a year now, we decided to relax our shopping habits and replace our wardrobe which had a lot of holes from wearing the same 10 items of clothing for 3 years. Mrs. NN never owned a piece of nice jewelry so I decided to surprise her with a $2,000 gold bracelet (still a stellar deal!) in the shape of a Shiba Inu (dog) as a souvenir for our time in Taiwan – it’s practically an investment.

You can see a pretty good replica of the neckless here!

⇒ In total, for the month of March 2021, the 2 of us spent $6,230.34 on frivolous shopping. 

Our Bottom Line

So here is a recap of everything we spent in March 2021 in Taipei:

Category	Amount
Accommodation	$10,530.52
Groceries	$0
Dining out	$6,208.90
Transportation	$1,355.58
Entertainment	$3,880.32
Shopping	$6,230.34
TOTAL FOR MARCH 2021	$28,205.66

While we prided ourselves as being valueists and lived happily on a reasonable budget, there’s no going back now!! It’s a good thing Dogecoin has been on a surge lately because our new taste for luxury is not cheap. So there you have it, if you want to live a month in Taipei with no restraints, it’s totally doable if you allocate your 12 month budget into one month. We were able to eat so much, see so much and ride in so many different Ubers on a budget of US$28K.

We know that this is a pretty big change in lifestyle but we are LOVING it! Let us know if you’ve similarly experienced a lifestyle upgrade. Was it worth it?