A video showing a Bengaluru couple’s monthly budget after they moved to Manali has pulled in close to 1 lakh views. The pitch is simple: they say they now save more than Rs 30,000 a month, and they never set out to.
Anjali and Naman, who run a joint Instagram account called @anjali.aur.naman, both work corporate jobs remotely from the Himachal Pradesh hill town. Anjali opens the clip with the claim. “We accidentally started saving over Rs 30,000 every month without even trying,” she says. “We didn’t move here to save money; we moved here to experience slow travel while keeping our corporate jobs.”
Where the money went
Rent is the largest item. They paid Rs 45,000 before the move and pay Rs 28,000 now, which leaves Rs 17,000 a month. Working from home removed the commute and another Rs 3,000.
Office dinners and coffee had been costing around Rs 5,000. That spending stopped. Fewer coffee runs and snacks saved a further Rs 2,500 a month.
The one that surprised Anjali most was the weekend budget. The couple had been spending Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 a month on short breaks to decompress from tight schedules and city pressure. In Manali, she said, that expense dropped away.
She closed the video with a line she repeated as the takeaway. “We didn’t choose remote work to spend less, we chose it to live differently. The saving was just a bonus.”
Questions from viewers
Comments ranged from practical to wistful. Some people asked how to land a remote job, and others wanted tips on homestays in Manali. One user asked which company offers permanent work from home.
Naman answered that one. “Anjali got hers (remote job) through LinkedIn, and I transitioned from a regular full-time role to a remote consulting role in the same company,” he wrote.
Another viewer worried about the quiet. Having lived in a metropolitan city all their life, they said, they were used to the noise, and shifting their whole life to a remote village in Manali “feels a little unrealistic for me.” A third asked the couple to share what they earn in remote roles. A fourth wrote, “This is the Best thing.”
