Colin
Working in Bangkok
Monthly Earnings 40,000 baht
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
I've worked at the same Thai secondary school for about five years and my salary recently went up from 35K to 40K. It's the first time teachers have had a raise for many years but the school saw a need to stop the high turnover of teachers. Whether the extra 5,000 a month will put an end to that it's too early to say.
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
5,000 baht if I'm lucky.
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
I rent a condo just a couple of sky-train stops from the school and it costs 8,000 baht a month. The condition of the building is not the greatest but I love the convenience. It's a large studio apartment but over the years I've divided it up so it feels like a one-bedroom place.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
No more than about 1,500 a month even with the odd weekend taxi fare. I would love to buy a car but I can never seriously see me driving in Bangkok.
Utility bills
We rarely turn on the air-conditioning so bills are deliberately kept very low. Probably around 800 - 1,000 baht a month for electricity and water. The free wi-fi is a real bonus.
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
I live 100% on Thai food purely because I think Western food is such poor value for money in this city. If we eat street-food and shop for fruit and salads at the local market, I can keep the food bill down to about 6,000 a month. My Thai partner is currently unemployed so I am having to keep her as well. She only has an earning potential of probably 20,000 a month but even that would be a nice extra income.
Nightlife and drinking
We very rarely go out even at the weekend.
Books, computers
I download a couple of books a month from Amazon and buy the odd paperback at a second-hand shop so maybe about 500 baht. My four-year old laptop is still going strong.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
Not great at all. We have to watch every penny because it's not easy to support two people on a 40,000 baht salary.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Definitely food if you know where the bargains are.
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
For a single person living in Bangkok, I would say 50,000 to 60,000 would give you a reasonable standard of living. If you have an unemployed Thai partner then add 50% to that.
Phil's analysis and comment
Colin, good to see that your school has finally raised teacher salaries. I think we are definitely beginning to see more and more schools offering something better than that 30,000 baht 'survival package'. Long may the trend continue if indeed it is a trend.
We would love to get your cost of living surveys and you can do so by filling in the on-line form. Tell us about your lifestyle!
Many teachers unfortunately fill in the form and just provide a list of figures and no back story. The survey from Colin above is how I think most readers like things. The figures are there but there are also glimpses into the teacher's actual lifestyle. It's those glimpses that make these surveys interesting. Many thanks for your contributions.
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