The Cost of Living
Every new arrival wants to know “can I survive or live well in Bangkok or rural Thailand on 30,000 baht a month”? or perhaps 40,000 or even 50,000? It’s always a difficult question to answer because each person has different needs, but I thought it would be interesting to compare the lifestyles and spending habits of some teachers currently living and working in Thailand. We are concerned with what they earn, but more so about what they spend money on and what it costs each of them to enjoy a certain kind of lifestyle. After each case study, I’ve added comments of my own.
Approximate conversion rates as of January 2010
33 baht to one US Dollar
53 baht to one Pound Sterling.
Joe
posted on 19th March 2009
Working in: BangkokMonthly Earnings: 71,000
Q. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
A. 41,000 from a school and 30,000 from a centre.
Q. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
A. 10,000
Q. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
A. 7,000 for a fully furnished condo
Q. What do you spend a month on the following things?
| a) Transportation | 13,000 |
| b) Utility bills | 5,000 |
| c) Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping | 15,000 |
| d) Nightlife and drinking | 2,000 |
| e) Books, computers | 2-3,000 |
Q. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
A. Comfortable by local standards, but not able to convert this internationally.
Q. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
A. Food
Q. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
A. 30,000 a month
Phil's analysis and comment
Joe is married with two children, so although he earns a relatively whopping 71,000 baht a month, his outgoings are high. I'm sure Joe would be the first to admit that if he were single, he'd be living the life of Riley on that sort of income. Although he didn't say in his e-mail to me, I bet holding down two jobs means teaching a lot of hours, but you do these things when you've a wife and kiddies to support.
Oh, the 13,000 baht for transportation includes Joe's car payments.
James
posted on 18th March 2009
Working in: BangkokMonthly Earnings: 75,000
Q. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
A. About 75,000 – 80,000 baht a month (before tax)
Q. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
A. If I actually try I can save about 20-25,000. Though I spend most of my savings on big holidays and recently furnishing my house.
Q. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
A. I pay 20,000 for a 2 bedroom duplex (condo) , comes with all the mod cons and facilities.
Q. What do you spend a month on the following things?
| a) Transportation | About 2,000 |
| b) Utility bills | 6,000 including UBC but the girlfriend pays all the utility bills anyway |
| c) Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping | 6,000 on supermarket – maybe 6 - 8,000 elsewhere |
| d) Nightlife and drinking | Don’t go out that much but enjoy a beer in the English pubs – 4-6000 |
| e) Books, computers | 500 |
Q. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
A. Excellent, I buy what I want when I want and go on holiday when I have time, always have pennies to treat myself and the g/f whenever we go out.
Q. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
A. Good Thai food, beer, cigarettes, taxis, train fares and beach life on my little getaways.
Q. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
A. I can’t understand how you can live on anything under 40,000. I would say you need 45,000 in reality.
Phil's analysis and comment
75-80,000 baht a month is a very nice salary, especially when you've got someone else paying your utility bills! I also agree with James that 40,000 is the absolute minimum for Bangkok, and you'll certainly need more than that if you're looking to fund a nice annual holiday or two.
Jason
posted on 4th March 2009
Working in: BangkokMonthly Earnings: 50-70,000
Q. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
A. 50,000 to 70,000 Baht, depending upon the hours worked.
Q. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
A. Zilch in practice, but about 20k in theory.
Q. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
A. 19k/month. I have a two-bedroom condo on Sukhumwit soi 23
Q. What do you spend a month on the following things?
| a) Transportation | 1,500 |
| b) Utility bills | 5,000 (includes a part-time maid) |
| c) Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping | 10,000 |
| d) Nightlife and drinking | 8,000 |
| e) Books, computers | 500 |
Q. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
A. Comfortable, but could be better.
Q. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
A. Food, especially good quality proper food (not street rubbish
Q. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
A. If they are happy living in a shoebox, about 40,000.
Phil's analysis and comment
Jason is an interesting case study. He earns 50-70,000 baht a month, which is a decent income for a Bangkok teacher, but lives (or tries to live) the life of someone on double that amount. 19,000 baht a month for an apartment! a part-time maid to rinse out his smalls! 18,000 baht a month on food and entertainment! Leave me out. You have to live within your means as a teacher. If Jason has a nice nest egg behind him then who can blame him for lording it up til the wee small hours. If he doesn't have a bit of floorboard money stashed away, then I'd sure hate to be his bank manager. I think I'd hate to be his liver as well.
Doug
posted on 7th January 2009
Working in: BangkokMonthly Earnings: 54,000
Q. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
A. I earn around 54,000 per month. Sometimes more if I have to substitute teach.
Q. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
A. Not much, sinceI have a child on the way. I figure my expenses just about match my income. However, Sometimes I can hide 5,000
Q. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
A. I pay 13,000 per month for a 50 square meter apartment.
Q. What do you spend a month on the following things?
| a) Transportation | 3,000 |
| b) Utility bills | 3,500 |
| c) Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping | 5,000 |
| d) Nightlife and drinking | 1,500 |
| e) Books, computers | 1,000 |
Q. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
A. Pretty much equal to what I had in America, just minus the car. Luckily, I don't need one here
Q. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
A. The public transportation system.
Q. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
A. Probably 50-60,000 baht/month in order to maintain a lifestyle equivalent to "the west." With that said, you can survive with a small level of comfort on 35,000 baht/month.
Phil's analysis and comment
Doug earns a very nice salary - make no mistake. I just feel that he could be saving (or hiding) more than 5,000 baht a month (even with a kiddy on the way) Perhaps he needs to eat more Thai food and take public transport a bit more often. That said, I never begrudge a man sinking his teeth into a hearty rump steak or jumping into an air-conditioned taxi while the Bangkok massive stand sweltering at their bus shelters.
Eddy
posted on 10th November 2008
Working in: ChonburiMonthly Earnings: 100.000
Q. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
A. about 100,000bt give or take - when school's out from March to June I hope to be working my knackers off!
Q. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
A. Now that I have all my toys (about 6 guitars, 4 amps, effects etc, mountain bike and weight training machine and the love of a good woman) about 60 - 70,000bt
Q. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
A. We live right on the ocean with just a stretch of two lane road and restaurants between my balconies and the oggin. It's a three story house with four bedrooms and a roof garden going at a steal - 6000bt per month (including sunrises from my bedroom window and sunsets over the sea from my balcony
Q. What do you spend a month on the following things?
| a) Transportation | 3000bt - cost of diesel for my pick-up |
| b) Utility bills | Arrrrhh - 800bt for my house and 23,000bt for the rent, telephones, internet, accountant, electricity/air-con for my school. |
| c) Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping | 8,000bt - woman like to eat while we like to get our lips around a brace or two of Britneys a night |
| d) Nightlife and drinking | 5000bt - I think a couple of hundred baht on beer a night at home is actually self-vindication of my life choices - I couldn't fund that kind of habit back in England - so I owe it to the boys stuck back there! |
| e) Books, computers | about 700bt - just bought a new one for 10,000bt after using my last desk top for 8 years. Got boxes of good books - anyone like to swop? |
Q. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
A. This is the life!!
Q. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
A. Gotta be my ocean view from my massive house - where else can you live like this in the world? Damm lucky I ran into a young lady who was given it by her Mum and needed quick rent money!
Q. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
A. Well, I arrived here from Cambodia in 1997 with 500bt - after a year of traveling around India. It's all in your head and where its at! I lived like a king compared to my backpacking times on 20,000bt a month - I walked everywhere (Samsen Rd to Victory monument/ Taksin bridge to teach in Lumpini tower/Asoke to Samsen soi 1 - where I lived). It took me three weeks to justify plunging my hand in my wallet for a bacon (50bt) baguette
Phil's analysis and comment
Interesting stuff. What you have to infer from the above - and what Eddy doesn't state directly - is that he obviously has some sort of private school / freelance teaching sideline going on as well as his regular teaching gig. I'm looking at the reference to the utility bills of course. All in all, I'm not sure how the 100,000 baht income is broken down exactly but it's probably none of my business anyway.
So what have we got? 100,000 baht a month coming in. 70,000 baht of that getting stashed away for a rainy day. He's got a four-bedroom mickey overlooking the ocean with spectacular views of the sunset from his balcony. All this he rents for a steal. He runs a motor. He's walking distance from beachside restaurants. Folks, I think we've met Thailand's happiest foreign teacher!
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