Working in Phuket

Monthly Earnings 33,000

Q1. How is that income broken down? (full-time salary, private students, on-line teaching, extra work, etc)

My full-time salary is 1,650 baht per day multiplied by 20 days. Factor in a bit of tax and an end of semester bonus or two and it comes out to around 33,000 per month.

Q2. How much money can you save each month?

Around 10,000 baht a month.

Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?

I share a house with another person and my half-share of that is just 5,000.

Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?

Transportation

I ride my scooter to work. I live next to the coast but work in town, so about 800 baht a month on gas.

Utility bills

Water is a fixed cost at 200 baht while electricity comes in at 1500-1700. We use the A/C every night but not during the day.

Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping

I usually cook at home at night but I buy food during the day. I also just have oats or cereal in the morning. Groceries for dinner and breakfast are about 2,000 baht a month and lunch is around 50 baht per day.

Nightlife and drinking

I do go out on weekends. Maybe once a month I'll have a fun spending night with friends, but usually we BBQ at home on weekends or have dinner and drinks at inexpensive restaurants.

Books, computers

I bought my laptop and most of my electronics online from Lazada at a fraction of the price it would have cost in my home country.

Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?

I live comfortably here, it's a beautiful place, there is plenty do to and to explore without breaking the bank.

Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?

The cost of living is much less than back home. Drinks are expensive, but food is cheap and accommodation is affordable.

Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?

One will always want more, but I do live comfortably on my salary and I do manage to save money. If my salary was more, I would love to think that I would be able to save more, but I'd probably do a lot more things and my spending would increase.

Phil's analysis and comment

 numbers don't really stack up for me. Assuming dinner is the main meal of the day, it means Colin spends 66 baht a day on breakfast AND dinner. I know cooking at home can reduce costs considerably but even so... 

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