Bob
Working in Bangkok
Monthly Earnings 136,000
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
My salary is 96,000 baht and I get a housing allowance of 40,000.
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
80,000 to 100,000 baht depending on if we have a trip to an island or somewhere in Asia. ( my partner earns 50,000 a month and we live on that & my housing allowance)
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
28,000 baht a month. We have a nice, 2-bedroom old-build condo with pool, gym etc and it's a short motorcycle taxi ride to the BTS. Most importantly, it's just a stone's throw from work.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
1k - 2k a month on cabs. I use motorcycle taxis for short rides a lot and that's so cheap, maybe 200-300 a month on those. I'd say about that much on BTS too. I dont use it much
Utility bills
My bills are relatively extortionate due to the old air-conditioning units and greedy condo management. Around 3k - 4k a month, including internet
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
Food is the big one. I order from a well known meal delivery service and for the two of us, it comes to about 2k per week - that's just weekdays so we probably splurge about that much more on the weekend eating out. So food could be around 16,000 baht a month.
Nightlife and drinking
We're a pair of lightweights and don't / can't drink much so no more than 3k a month I'd say
Books, computers
The school has an incredible library and provides us laptops so no expenses there (although I did just buy FM 2017 for 2k.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
Very comfortable. Could be lavish but I know the value of a pound to the baht and we're saving for a deposit for a place back in the UK.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Massages! Local transport and domestic travel. Air Asia is so cheap that we get to see a lot of Thailand & South East Asia on a budget.
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
Survive? 40k is plenty for a single person to survive and have a bit of fun in Bangkok. If you're intending to be here long term, you need to be looking at 50-60k minimum. I really couldn't speak for outside of Bangkok, though I imagine you'd need a lot less.
Phil's analysis and comment
Very nice Bob. You can't complain about 80-100k baht a month going into the tommy tank. And of course it always helps when you have a partner who's bringing a decent salary into the house as well.
I don't think 16,000 baht a month on food for a couple who enjoy eating out at the weekend is excessive at all. In fact, if you order from those delivery services every weekday evening, I'm surprised your monthly food bill is that low.
Must be a great time to buy a property in England as well Bob. 43 baht buys you a pound. Good times!
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