Sal
Working in Phitsanulok
Monthly Earnings 40,000
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
I earn 40,000 baht a month working for a private language center.
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
20,000 baht. This usually goes to paying for my travels to other countries so there really isn't much left in the kitty. I will aim to save more in the new year so that I can return to university at the end of my contract.
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
2,250 baht - my housemate also pays 2,250 which makes it 4,500 in total for a 2-bedroom 2-bathroom house with a small Thai kitchen, outside washing up area and a garden. We live in what is intended to be student housing quite far out in a village outside the town.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
1,750 baht each per month on scooter rental and about 200B each per month on gas as we live about 15 minutes from the school and city
Utility bills
A maximum of 600 baht each for water and electricity (we use the AC often) and we pay government rates for the electricity. We also spend about 600 baht a month on miscellaneous for the house (cleaning supplies etc).
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
About 5,000 baht each per month. I buy most meals from the street vendors or small Thai restaurants (ranges from 30 - 70 baht per meal). We also do a monthly shop for basic groceries and we buy a lot of fresh fruit which can be pricey in our area. We go to a Western restaurant about once or twice on weekends. Sometimes I cook but admittedly I'm rather lazy when it comes to that
Nightlife and drinking
Nothing as we really don't have much here except the odd bar with overpriced craft beer, and neither of us are beer drinkers.
Books, computers
Very little as I have an e-reader and laptop from which I stream movies and series. I'm not really into technology and gadgets either. I do sometimes buy interesting stationery and bits and bobs from the 20B store but that's about it,
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
I would say very comfortable and could probably be more luxurious if I lived in one of the more expensive condos or ate at the Western restaurants often but it doesn't really appeal to me and I'd rather use my money to travel. Having a housemate to share costs with certainly helps a lot too. One can easily live off 15 - 20,000 baht here whilst maintaining a cosy lifestyle but the payoff is that there isn't much to do or see here. I'm not a big shopper so most of my money goes to savings and paying off loans
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
The food and housing if you move away from the city centre.
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
In my area 30,000 baht would be more than enough to live comfortably with a few indulgences here and there and 20,000 baht a month to live simply.
Phil's analysis and comment
You don't see many job ads advertised for Phitsanulok but 40,000 for a language centre position sounds OK. Certainly when you're only paying a couple of thousand baht to rent your share of a decent-sized house. It's a shame that Sal still has loans to pay off because I bet that extra pocket money would make a big difference.
If anyone fancies doing a cost of living survey, I've now put the questions on-line to make it easier and quicker for you. Please spare half an hour if you can.
A number of teachers complete the surveys with just a list of figures. I don't wish to sound ungrateful but that's not really what we're looking for. There needs to be some sort of 'story' behind the figures as it were (it certainly makes the surveys more interesting to read) Many thanks!
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