Christopher
Working in Bangkok
Monthly Earnings 55,000
Q1. How is that income broken down? (full-time salary, private students, on-line teaching, extra work, etc)
I work full-time (five days a week including weekends) at a private kindergarten in Bangkok and my take-home pay is around 55,000 baht a month.
Q2. How much money can you save each month?
Not enough is the simple answer to that one. I returned to England last month for a two-week holiday and that wiped out virtually all I had saved over the previous 12 months.
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
I pay 13,000 baht a month for a one-bedroom apartment in a newish apartment building near to a sky-train station. I live alone so there is no one to share the bills with.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
I take the sky-train to and from work every day and I might use taxis on my days off. I guess this comes to around 3,000 a month.
Utility bills
Electricity, water and phone, etc come to about 4,000 baht a month.
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
This is the one expense that I would love to reduce / keep down but I just don't seem to be able to. I live in an area that's full of nice cafes and trendy Western restaurants so it's always tempting to just drop in to one of these places after work rather than cook at home. As a result I can easily drop 400 baht on an evening meal with a beer or two. Even more at weekends. When you factor in supermarket shopping (breakfast food, snacks, etc) I get through 15,000 baht a month on food and eating out very easily
Nightlife and drinking
The main 'problem' for me is that I drink with a crowd who all earn significantly more than I do. None of them are teachers by the way. They will think nothing of going out on a Friday and Saturday night and dropping a thousand baht in a Bangkok Britpub (and that's just a warm-up for whatever we do afterwards) Sometimes we'll go on to some trendy rooftop bar and it'll be goodbye to another thousand. I would say 'socializing in Bangkok' costs between 15,000 and 20,000.
Books, computers
I don't really bother much with that stuff.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
When I did my research before coming to work here, I jumped at the offer of 55,000 baht a month for a full-time job. I read that many teachers were surviving on 30K so I was earning double that!
It feels to me as though Bangkok gets more and more expensive every week and while you can live OK on 55,000 baht, I feel that there's plenty I just can't afford to do.
I've tried to analyze where I could save money. For instance, I could move to a cheaper apartment and I have looked at many places over the past six months but paying even 5,000 baht a month less would mean a serious downgrade in my accommodation standards. I could save money by eating Thai food or cutting down on my nights out, but I work hard five days a week. If a guy can't have a couple of nights out with friends, then there seems to be little point to being here.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Taxi fares is the only thing that comes to mind. Everything else is on a par or just below the costs in other cities I've lived in. I've been quite shocked at how expensive Bangkok is if you strive to live at a certain level.
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
I'm surviving now - on 55,000. To be really comfortable, even as a single guy, I would say you need to be aiming at 80,000-100,000.
Phil's analysis and comment
Interesting survey there Chris. Firstly, I agree you 100% about Bangkok becoming more and more expensive. As one pal of mine said on social media recently - "price-wise, what we are seeing now is Bangkok slowly but surely coming into line with other international cities"
One of the first things an old boss back in England said to me though, Chris - "you always have to live within your means". You're spending 15,000 (with bills) on accommodation, 15,000 baht on food and 20,000 baht on nights out. That's virtually your whole salary gone right there. Nothing saved! It's a lifestyle that you simply can't sustain, tough though it is to admit.
That's interesting what you say about having a circle of friends that all earn significantly more than you. It sounds quite stressful. It reminds me of when I earned a very basic teacher salary and I would get visitors come from overseas and meet up with them in the evenings after work. They didn't care about costs. They were on holiday with a big fat wallet riding on their hip. I couldn't afford 200 baht a drink in some Thong Lor cocktail lounge (this was the early 90's by the way) but they thought nothing of it. In the end, I had to break off contact with certain people just to avoid having to meet up with them. I guess I could've pleaded poverty - but who wants to do that?
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