Anton
Working in Shanghai
Monthly Earnings 90,000
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
I work at a regular language centre for kids. My basic pay is 60,000 baht a month but we also get a 20,000 baht housing allowance and 10,000 baht travel allowance. There are also bonuses but I haven't included those.
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
45,000
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
I pay 12,000 baht for a nice, clean but VERY small shoe-box. It's not close to the city center but near to my work so I don't really mind. Most of my colleagues pay almost double what I pay to be closer to the city center.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
I have a bicycle that I use to get around. If it is raining I will use the subway. Probably not more than 300 baht a month
Utility bills
With the air-con running, utility bills are around 2,000 baht a month
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
I don't cook food at home. I live on mainly fruit and protein shakes during the day and I buy dinner in the evenings. Probably around 10,000 baht a month including my protein shakes
Nightlife and drinking
I don't go out much at all so this expense is next to zero.
Books, computers
I pay around 500 baht a month for my internet and download whatever I need.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
I am very comfortable. I tend to spend a lot of my money doing online shopping. That said, my accommodation is VERY cheap compared to others in the city and I don't go out drinking, so I save a lot there.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Shoes! I buy so many pairs of shoes online (the fake ones) But be careful because they have different level of "fakeness" if I can say it like that. The really cheap ones are horrible, but I bought a pair of the latest Nike Airmax for just 1,000 baht and they look exactly the same as from a proper Nike shop. So many good fake products for really cheap prices.
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
Well, my Chinese colleagues earn a lot less than I do but I would say 40,000 baht a month for a foreign teacher as an absolute minimum, but even that would not be very comfortable. I am actually very close to the bottom of comfortable, but I want to save a lot. Still comfortable, but living any tighter and I would hate it. I keep myself happy with buying little luxuries online.
Phil's analysis and comment
Thank you Anton. We don't get too many cost of living surveys from China but it's nice to know what teachers earn there. No place seems to divide opinion quite like China. Teachers seem to love it or hate it!
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