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Just saw someone post about this. I’ve passed by here before. Looks like they have self service machines and a cafe next to it.
Enjoy Laundry Cafe in 九眼桥
锦江区顺江路21号
营业时间：10:00am-9:00pmhttp://weibo.com/u/5906093296?sudaref=www.baidu.com&retcode=6102&is_hot=1
If you’re male and don’t have fashion model hair, you probably don’t need to be paying more than 60 for a decent hair cut.
The trick is to find a nice looking local salon near you and check the prices. They will usually have tiers for stylists; something like basic (30-40) , master (50-60), super saiyan (80-100), but in my experience, for just a haircut, basic is fine. Maybe if you need a perm or color it would be worth going up, but then also maybe you should reconsider your life goals jk.
If you like the haircut you got, remember the stylists’ number (why don’t they just go by names?) and request that stylist each time for more consistent results.
They will always give you a hair wash first. They might try to upsell you at this point by suggesting different fancy shampoos, like one with mint, at this point you just say you want the regular putong kind to avoid paying extra. Head massages are usually included but they’ll still ask if you want one.
Pricing is also often separated into member and non-member prices. To become a member you usually need to leave a deposit of 100-300 minimum and they’ll open an account for you. This will usually give you a 20% off discount which is worth it if you plan on getting a lot of haircuts. Deposit less if the store is some sketchy place that might close down in the next month.
If you’re into gaming, you should join the Chengdu Gaming Federation Wechat group. There’s an active community there and you’ll hear about meetup events which happen weekly? to play retro games.
Leave your wechat name here and someone will invite you into the group.
If I’m only counting food and utilities (excluding alcohol, entertainment, gifts etc), then I can be around 2500.
It seems like you’re also only counting food?
When I first came to Chengdu 5 years ago I was living on about 3000 a month but those were not good times for me. I was extremely underweight (145lbs 5’7″)and really had to limit my social events.
Now I’m more concerned about maintaining more muscle mass (160 lbs) so I’m eating a lot more protein (meat!!!) and more calories. I guess it comes down to defining “healthy food” which differs with each lifestyle. I’m probably splurging on things like butter, bacon, coffee, chicken, beef, sausage, cheese etc.
I’ve also made a lot more friends throughout the years which means more social outings, more gift giving, and more social dining which really ramps up the spending and I think it’s worth it.
Certain utilities have also gone up like internet and phone data as well as the availability of recreational “medicines”.
So whereas I think it’s certainly possible to survive on 2500 RMB or less (like many Chinese do), but it would not be an enjoyable existence in my opinion. I’d like to see the budget of someone that can to prove me wrong though. I’m always looking for ways to save a little extra.
I guess some takeaways from looking at my budget are:
- You can save a significant amount of money in eating cheap meals like noodles (avg 12RMB), or homemade meals (avg 26RMB). Eating out at nicer places (avg 61RMB) can cost at least 5x the amount of cheap meals. Although it’s important to consider the nutrition you’re getting. Food is by far the biggest factor in my budget.
- I average about 56RMB on alcohol per session, which is about 2 drinks. Reducing or increasing this by +/-1 drink doesn’t really change the budget that much. I also consider the value of social interaction. I feel that I might be slightly less happy when abstaining from going out for social drinking for the sake of my budget.
- I believe shopping would be the variable with the greatest difference between each individual.
Not including travel, rent (also varies significantly), and shopping. I think that a budget-minded foreigner can manage to live comfortably on less than 5000RMB a month in Chengdu.
You will have to unlock it with the carrier which should be as easy as calling, asking, and punching a code into your phone, assuming you’ve fulfilled the contract with them if you bought it subsidized.
Then you’ll be free to use any Chinese GSM carrier (Unicom, China Mobile). You should check the model number and the bands it supports if you want to be on 4G
How does everyone feel about those fitness trackers/heart rate monitors (fitbit, xiaomi miband, smartwatches etc.) Worth it or not?
We just got some parallel bars and pull up bars in my complex so I’ve been sticking with a body weight exercise regimen instead of finding a gym. I was skeptical at first, but I’m in surprisingly good shape without lifting weights. I’ve definitely lost some mass, especially in my legs and chest, without a squat rack and bench. But anyways, not having gym access isn’t a legit excuse for not working out.
On another note, I’ve stopped taking creatine after I noticed my hair thinning… damnit.
I believe you can’t send the laptop battery, so if it’s built in, they will probably deny it. They will definitely examine all the contents before they accept it.
It makes perfect sense actually. Your security guard/admin personnel receive a piece of mail with a foreign language on it. So they set it aside in a corner for eternity.
My security guards are actually pretty proactive and will show me international mail that they receive so that I can decipher where it should go to.
Here’s mine. Travel was a visa run which involved a lot of drinking, though those alcohol costs were bundled into travel.
Coffee was put into the “medicine” category for me.
I tried to spend less on alcohol this month, but still exceeded last months. Thinking about going on a month long detox for May and then rewarding myself with a large shopping expenditure.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with my budget for this month. Only around 4k minus travel.
Hmm interesting. My Nexus 7 tablet does have 4G capability, but I don’t normally keep a sim in there. So if the device can’t reach Google on wifi, then switches to cellular and still can’t reach Google… it will continue to use cellular data? Well that’s a major flaw then.
Seems silly that Android would do this only on stock Android. But anyways, using an Android device in China is a pain in many other ways as well.
I’m experimenting with a custom rom (Cyanogenmod) without google services, using alternatives for all Google apps and it has not been a good time. I’m probably like most Western users, too invested in the Google ecosystem to find this solution convenient. ugh do I need to buy an iPhone?
