For a digital nomad cooking in a rented apartment, a one-person basket of ten everyday groceries costs between $15.75 a week in Medellín and $39.42 in Berlin, a gap of roughly two and a half times. Across the fifteen hubs compared here, the basket works out to between 3.2% and 9.7% of the monthly nomad budget.
The more surprising result is that the cheapest basket does not belong to the cheapest hub. Bangkok has the lowest chicken price of the fifteen but the heaviest grocery share of any budget, 9.7%, because its bread, apples and cheese cost more than in most European hubs. This article compares the fifteen hubs on the same list of items, shows where cooking at home saves real money against eating out, and points out which cities pair cheap staples with pricey protein.
How the basket is built
The basket contains one unit of each of ten items: a 500 g loaf of bread, 1 litre of milk, a dozen eggs, 1 kg of rice, 1 kg of chicken fillets, 1 kg of tomatoes, 1 kg of apples, 1 kg of potatoes, 1 kg of local cheese and a 1.5 litre bottle of water. The prices are city averages in US dollars from the most recent data update for each city, and every figure in this article comes from that one dataset, so the cities are comparable with each other even where a single price looks off. The latest update for these cities dates from March 2026.
It is a price index of staples more than a nutrition plan. One person eating this list in a week would get plenty of protein and a lot of cheese, but little oil, no coffee, no snacks and no cleaning products. Think of it as the spine of a self-catered week for a single person who cooks most evenings. Many nomads will buy less cheese and more vegetables, and the real total will move accordingly.
To compare the basket with the monthly budget, the weekly figure is multiplied by 52 and divided by 12, which gives 4.33 baskets a month. The monthly nomad budget is the figure the dataset gives for a single remote worker, covering rent, food, transport and ordinary spending. Dividing one by the other shows how much of the budget the staples take.
Weekly basket cost in 15 nomad hubs
The table is sorted from cheapest to most expensive. The last two columns split the total into chicken plus cheese, which are the two protein-heavy items, and the other eight items.
| City | Weekly basket (USD) | Of which chicken and cheese | Other eight items |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medellín | 15.75 | 7.42 | 8.33 |
| Istanbul | 18.18 | 10.50 | 7.68 |
| Buenos Aires | 19.06 | 10.54 | 8.52 |
| Belgrade | 24.03 | 13.78 | 10.25 |
| Tbilisi | 24.81 | 13.91 | 10.90 |
| Kuala Lumpur | 25.09 | 13.74 | 11.35 |
| Porto | 25.88 | 15.03 | 10.85 |
| Budapest | 27.12 | 14.78 | 12.34 |
| Mexico City | 27.16 | 14.06 | 13.10 |
| Lisbon | 28.09 | 15.92 | 12.17 |
| Sofia | 29.55 | 17.05 | 12.50 |
| Barcelona | 32.83 | 19.77 | 13.06 |
| Prague | 33.09 | 19.57 | 13.52 |
| Bangkok | 33.46 | 20.05 | 13.41 |
| Berlin | 39.42 | 22.56 | 16.86 |
Three hubs sit under $20 a week: Medellín at $15.75, Istanbul at $18.18 and Buenos Aires at $19.06. Belgrade follows at $24.03 and Tbilisi at $24.81, with Kuala Lumpur, Porto, Budapest, Mexico City and Lisbon all between $25 and $29. At the top of the table are Sofia at $29.55, Barcelona at $32.83, Prague at $33.09, Bangkok at $33.46 and Berlin at $39.42.
The mid-table cities are packed tightly: from Belgrade to Lisbon, seven hubs span just $4.06. The real separation comes at the two ends, where Medellín and Istanbul on one side and Prague, Bangkok and Berlin on the other differ by roughly $15 to $24 every week.
Groceries as a share of the monthly nomad budget
A basket price means little without the budget around it. A $33 basket is easy to absorb in Barcelona, where the monthly nomad budget is $4,503, and heavy in Bangkok, where the whole month is planned around $1,490.
| City | Monthly nomad budget (USD) | Basket per month (USD) | Share of budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barcelona | 4503 | 142 | 3.2% |
| Lisbon | 3462 | 122 | 3.5% |
| Porto | 2948 | 112 | 3.8% |
| Belgrade | 2668 | 104 | 3.9% |
| Prague | 3525 | 143 | 4.1% |
| Berlin | 3991 | 171 | 4.3% |
| Istanbul | 1789 | 79 | 4.4% |
| Budapest | 2460 | 118 | 4.8% |
| Medellín | 1393 | 68 | 4.9% |
| Buenos Aires | 1595 | 83 | 5.2% |
| Tbilisi | 2069 | 108 | 5.2% |
| Sofia | 2346 | 128 | 5.5% |
| Mexico City | 1824 | 118 | 6.5% |
| Kuala Lumpur | 1373 | 109 | 7.9% |
| Bangkok | 1490 | 145 | 9.7% |
The share runs from 3.2% in Barcelona to 9.7% in Bangkok. Barcelona, Lisbon and Porto all land below 4%, because their budgets are high while their baskets sit in the middle of the pack. In Barcelona the basket costs $142 a month against a $4,503 budget. Prague, at $143 a month, takes 4.1% of a $3,525 budget.
The lower-budget hubs are where groceries bite. Kuala Lumpur takes 7.9% of its $1,373 budget, Mexico City 6.5% of $1,824, Sofia 5.5% of $2,346, and Buenos Aires and Tbilisi both 5.2%. Medellín, with the cheapest basket at $68 a month, still takes 4.9% because its budget is also the second lowest of the group.
Food is a minor line in a European budget and a significant one in Southeast Asia. Bangkok is the extreme case, where the weekly shop eats nearly a tenth of the month.
Self-catering versus eating out
The eating-out comparison used here is seven meals at an inexpensive restaurant, one a day for a week, set against one basket. It is not a like-for-like meal count, because a basket covers breakfasts and snacks as well, but it shows how the price of a casual meal compares with the price of the raw ingredients.
| City | Basket (USD) | Seven cheap restaurant meals (USD) | Difference (USD) | Difference per month (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barcelona | 32.83 | 103.25 | 70.42 | 305 |
| Lisbon | 28.09 | 88.48 | 60.39 | 262 |
| Berlin | 39.42 | 88.48 | 49.06 | 213 |
| Tbilisi | 24.81 | 71.19 | 46.38 | 201 |
| Sofia | 29.55 | 74.83 | 45.28 | 196 |
| Porto | 25.88 | 66.36 | 40.48 | 175 |
| Belgrade | 24.03 | 56.56 | 32.53 | 141 |
| Budapest | 27.12 | 57.61 | 30.49 | 132 |
| Prague | 33.09 | 60.55 | 27.46 | 119 |
| Mexico City | 27.16 | 54.18 | 27.02 | 117 |
| Buenos Aires | 19.06 | 42.84 | 23.78 | 103 |
| Istanbul | 18.18 | 37.59 | 19.41 | 84 |
| Medellín | 15.75 | 23.52 | 7.77 | 34 |
| Kuala Lumpur | 25.09 | 23.94 | -1.15 | -5 |
| Bangkok | 33.46 | 19.18 | -14.28 | -62 |
In thirteen of fifteen cities the basket is cheaper than seven casual meals. The biggest weekly gap is in Barcelona at $70.42, followed by Lisbon at $60.39 and Berlin at $49.06. Over a month, replacing a daily cheap lunch with home cooking is worth roughly $305 in Barcelona, $262 in Lisbon and $213 in Berlin. Tbilisi follows at $46.38 a week, about $201 a month, which matters in a city where the full budget is $2,069.
The two exceptions are Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. In Bangkok an inexpensive restaurant meal costs $2.74, so seven meals come to $19.18 and the basket, at $33.46, is $14.28 more expensive. In Kuala Lumpur the meals are $3.42 each, seven cost $23.94 and the basket at $25.09 is $1.15 above them. Medellín is a near miss: seven casual meals cost $23.52 and the basket $15.75, so cooking saves $7.77 a week, about $34 a month. That is a small enough amount that convenience can easily win.
This is where the usual advice to cook at home goes wrong. It holds in the expensive cities of Western Europe and in the mid-range hubs of the Caucasus and Balkans. It does not hold for a nomad in Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur who is happy to eat at casual restaurants most days. In those cities, the grocery shop is for breakfast, fruit and the occasional home dinner, not for replacing every meal.
Item by item: where staples are cheap and where they are not
A few cities own most of the extremes in the ten price lines.
Istanbul is the cheapest city on bread at $0.50, tomatoes at $0.89, apples at $0.86, potatoes at $0.61 and bottled water at $0.31. Medellín takes milk at $0.67, rice at $0.78 and cheese at $3.22, and Buenos Aires wins eggs at $1.37. Bangkok has the cheapest chicken at $3.08.
At the other end, Berlin is the priciest city for eggs at $2.99, rice at $2.43, chicken at $9.87 and potatoes at $2.00, and its cheese, at $12.69, is the second dearest. Prague is the dearest for tomatoes at $3.21. Mexico City is the dearest for bread at $2.02, Bangkok for apples at $2.88, and its cheese is the highest of all fifteen at $16.97. Tbilisi and Kuala Lumpur share the top of the milk table at $1.69 and $1.70.
Fruit is the item where tropical location does not mean cheap. Apples are a temperate crop and probably mostly imported in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, where they cost $2.88 and $2.61 a kilo, against $0.86 in Istanbul and $1.03 in Belgrade. Local tropical fruit may well be cheaper there, but it is not part of this basket.
Cheap staples, pricey protein
A basket total hides a pattern: in some cities the starch and vegetables are cheap while chicken and cheese are not. Chicken is the clearest example. The table compares one kilo of chicken fillets with one kilo each of rice, potatoes and tomatoes.
| City | Chicken 1 kg (USD) | Rice, potatoes and tomatoes, 1 kg each (USD) | Chicken price relative to those three |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bangkok | 3.08 | 4.50 | 0.68 times |
| Budapest | 4.81 | 5.23 | 0.92 times |
| Kuala Lumpur | 3.72 | 3.83 | 0.97 times |
| Berlin | 9.87 | 7.60 | 1.30 times |
| Istanbul | 4.18 | 3.17 | 1.32 times |
| Buenos Aires | 4.00 | 3.00 | 1.33 times |
| Prague | 8.53 | 6.38 | 1.34 times |
| Mexico City | 6.32 | 4.48 | 1.41 times |
| Sofia | 7.65 | 5.22 | 1.47 times |
| Barcelona | 7.45 | 5.06 | 1.47 times |
| Tbilisi | 6.42 | 4.36 | 1.47 times |
| Porto | 6.16 | 4.11 | 1.50 times |
| Medellín | 4.20 | 2.77 | 1.52 times |
| Lisbon | 6.94 | 4.53 | 1.53 times |
| Belgrade | 6.65 | 4.33 | 1.54 times |
In Bangkok chicken costs 0.68 times the price of the three staples together, which means it is cheaper than a kilo each of rice, potatoes and tomatoes. In Kuala Lumpur the ratio is 0.97 and in Budapest 0.92. At the other extreme, chicken in Belgrade is 1.54 times the three staples, in Lisbon 1.53 times, in Medellín 1.52 times, and in Porto 1.50.
Belgrade, Porto and Tbilisi are the clearest examples of cheap staples with pricey protein. Their eight non-protein items come to $10.25, $10.85 and $10.90, the fourth, fifth and sixth cheapest in the group. Yet chicken costs $6.65 in Belgrade, $6.16 in Porto and $6.42 in Tbilisi, roughly double Bangkok's $3.08. Chicken and cheese together take 57% of the basket in Belgrade, 58% in Porto and 56% in Tbilisi.
Medellín is a different case. Its chicken at $4.20 is the fifth cheapest of the fifteen, yet it costs 1.52 times the three staples because rice, potatoes and tomatoes are so cheap there. The $15.75 basket is still the lowest of the fifteen.
The reverse pattern appears in Bangkok, where staples are pricey and chicken is cheap. The eight non-protein items cost $13.41, the third highest of the group, and chicken at $3.08 is the lowest. A chicken-heavy meal costs less there than the basket total suggests.
Hub by hub: what the basket says
The cheapest baskets: Medellín, Istanbul, Buenos Aires
These three hubs cost $15.75, $18.18 and $19.06 a week. Medellín leads because milk, rice and cheese are the lowest of the fifteen, and its basket of $68 a month is 4.9% of the budget. Istanbul has the cheapest bread, apples, potatoes, tomatoes and water, and the basket takes only 4.4% of a $1,789 monthly budget. Buenos Aires is the cheapest for eggs at $1.37 and its potatoes at $0.64 are close to the lowest.
The caveat is that eating out is also cheap in Medellín and Buenos Aires, at $3.36 and $6.12 for a casual meal, so the weekly saving from cooking is modest: $7.77 in Medellín and $23.78 in Buenos Aires.
The middle: Belgrade, Tbilisi, Kuala Lumpur, Porto, Budapest, Mexico City, Lisbon
These seven hubs sit between $24.03 and $28.09 a week. In Belgrade, the basket at $104 a month is 3.9% of a $2,668 budget. In Porto, it is 3.8% of $2,948. Budapest takes 4.8%, Lisbon 3.5%, Mexico City 6.5% and Tbilisi 5.2%.
This group is where self-catering earns its place, with Kuala Lumpur as the exception. Porto saves $40.48 a week against seven casual meals, Budapest $30.49, Belgrade $32.53, Mexico City $27.02, Tbilisi $46.38 and Lisbon $60.39. Those are the hubs where a rented kitchen plus a weekly market visit is worth planning around.
The priciest baskets: Sofia, Barcelona, Prague, Bangkok, Berlin
Sofia costs $29.55 a week, Barcelona $32.83, Prague $33.09, Bangkok $33.46 and Berlin $39.42. Berlin is the most expensive basket and its chicken at $9.87 is the highest price of any item in this comparison apart from cheese. Prague combines the priciest tomatoes with the second priciest chicken at $8.53.
These cities do not all call for the same response. Barcelona and Berlin have large restaurant bills, so cooking saves about $305 and $213 a month against a casual daily meal, and Prague saves about $119. Bangkok is the exception where the basket costs more than seven casual meals.
How to plan a home-cooking month
Start from the budget rather than the basket. The numbers above point to a few rules that hold across the fifteen cities.
- Check the price of a casual restaurant meal first. If it is under about $4, as in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, cook only for breakfasts and the occasional dinner.
- Build the week around the cheapest local protein. Chicken in Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, eggs, milk and rice in Medellín and Buenos Aires, and cheese in Medellín cost far less than the same items elsewhere.
- Buy the item that is local and cheap, and skip the one that is imported. Apples in Bangkok cost $2.88 a kilo, while tomatoes and potatoes are the easy buys in Istanbul and Buenos Aires.
- Watch cheese. It is the single most variable item, from $3.22 a kilo in Medellín to $16.97 in Bangkok, and it can swing a weekly basket by more than $13 on its own.
- Rent an apartment with a working kitchen. A listing that says kitchen may mean a hotplate, which limits what you can do with a kilo of chicken.
What these numbers do not show
Averages hide a lot. Supermarket, street-market and corner-shop prices differ in every city, and a central district can cost more than the city average. Seasonality matters too, especially for tomatoes and apples.
The basket also leaves out oil, spices, coffee, tea, cleaning supplies, alcohol and prepared food, which add up over a month. Restaurant prices in the comparison are for the cheapest tier, so a nomad who prefers mid-range places will find the case for cooking stronger.
Prices move after every update. Currency swings matter too: cities with volatile currencies, such as Buenos Aires and Istanbul, can look cheaper or dearer from one month to the next. Treat the table as a guide to the order of the cities and the rough size of the gaps, and check local shelf prices on arrival.
From the same publisher
This site shares a publisher with the shop Pradawne Dary (pradawnedary.pl), which sells tarot, runes, pendulums, bracelets and dreamcatchers. The three pages below are in Polish and unrelated to the topic of this article.
- Tarot and oracle card decks: the shop's collection of tarot and oracle cards, boxes and spread cloths, with guidance on choosing a first deck.
- A guide to the 24 runes of the Elder Futhark: a Polish-language table of the runes with their names, sounds and meanings.
- Stone dowsing pendulums: a collection of pendulums made from stones such as amethyst and rose quartz, with a guide to picking a first one.
