James
Working in Naples, Italy
Monthly Earnings 47,500
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
I work at a private language school and my salary is 1200 Euros (about 47,500 baht)
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
400 Euros (around 15,000 baht)
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
My apartment is provided by my school including bills (granted we don't go crazy with utilities which we never do) so I don't pay anything for accommodation. But this is very rare for Italy. Teachers typically share apartments as private ones are usually a minimum of 500 Euros per month plus bills, which are expensive too
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
Transport is quite expensive but cheaper than the UK. A monthly ticket in Naples is 42 euro per person (1600 Baht) which gives you unlimited access to the city's bus and train links including that to Pompeii and Sorrento. A boat ticket to Sorrento is around 12 euros. We tend to travel a lot in the area on days off and not spend that much.
Utility bills
I pay nothing for utility bills as they are provided by my school. But I am very lucky because most teachers tend to pay a lot for utilities which are very expensive in Italy.
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
Food is a real bargain here, a nice neapolitan pizza is just 4 Euros and if you eat fresh fruit, veg and pasta, it's very cheap. International food is more expensive, McDonalds or Burger King (which I never eat because, hey, it's Italy) will set you back around 15 euros (nearly 600 baht). Two good pizzas in a restaurant with wine and cover charge will be about 20 Euros (800 TB).
Nightlife and drinking
Nightlife isn't a priority as I'm married and it doesn't compare to the nightlife found in Thailand anyway. Beer or a glass of local wine are about 3 Euros in a pub although considerably more in nightclubs. I tend to save more by not going to bars often.
Books, computers
My school has a large collection of English books I like to read so I don't buy books. Electronics cost fairly similar to other parts of the world.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
I enjoy my standard of living here. We have good food, good wine, sunshine and limoncello. Although I'm luckier than a lot of teachers in Italy who barely break even every month.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Fresh fruit and veg, pizza and wine
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
In a shared apartment, I wouldn't want to earn less than 1200 Euros per month. You'd need to earn considerably more for your own place as they're expensive (hence why so many Italian adults live with their parents!)
Phil's analysis and comment
Although the cost of living section is predominantly aimed at teachers in Thailand, it's always nice to know what teachers earn in other parts of the world. Thanks James, I think you are our first teacher working in Italy.
When I first saw your salary figure of 47,500 baht, my initial reaction was 'surely that can't be enough' but obviously having your apartment (and bills!) paid for by the school is a huge game changer. I bet it's an amazing city to live and work in.
As always, we would love to have your contribution to the cost of living section. But PLEASE don't send us just a list of figures. The figures need to be padded out with a few details. It's those back stories that really get the readers' interest. If you would rather, you can always e-mail me the answers to the survey.
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