Rent in Bengaluru: Rs 45,000. Rent in Manali: Rs 28,000. For Anjali and Naman, a couple who moved from the city to the Himachal Pradesh hill town and kept their corporate jobs, that Rs 17,000 gap was the biggest piece of a saving they say they never planned.
“We accidentally started saving over Rs 30,000 every month without even trying,” Anjali says at the start of a video the pair posted on their Instagram account, @anjali.aur.naman. It has drawn close to 1 lakh views.
Money was not the reason for the move. “We didn’t choose remote work to spend less, we chose it to live differently. The saving was just a bonus,” she says. They wanted slow travel while holding on to their careers.
Where the money went
Working from home removed the commute, which saved Rs 3,000 a month. Office dinners and coffee had cost about Rs 5,000. Fewer coffee runs and snacks saved another Rs 2,500.
Anjali called the weekend spending the biggest surprise. In the city they had spent Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 a month on getaways to decompress from tight schedules. In Manali that line mostly disappeared.
What viewers asked
Commenters wanted to know how to land a remote job, and some asked about homestays in Manali. Naman answered the first question: Anjali found her remote job through LinkedIn, while he moved from a full-time role to a remote consulting role at the same company.
Not everyone was sold. One user asked whether evenings get too quiet, saying a lifetime in a metropolitan city made moving to a remote village feel unrealistic. Another asked the couple to share their salaries.
Sources
- 'Saved Rs 30,000 living in Manali': Corporate couple reveals unexpected perks of mountain life- Moneycontrol.com
- Bengaluru corporate couple ‘accidentally started saving ₹30,000 a month’ after relocating to Manali to work remotely | Mint
