Dave
Working in Chacheongsaw
Monthly Earnings 34,000
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
34,000
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
10,000
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
4,500 – a big old two-bedroom house with huge gardens, a circular driveway gates garage outside rooms, covered area basement (too scared to go down as the trapdoor is very small) – no BS its nice.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
3,000
Utility bills
1,300
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
3,000
Nightlife and drinking
3,000
Books, computers
120 on games
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
I know I have no future but for the time being life is not to bad.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Food
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
Honestly I don’t know – If you make 50k you spend 50k you make 30k you spend 30k. My mate who was out here on an expat salary was making 2500 quid a month with no rent or bills and he spent it all every month
Phil's analysis and comment
For those who don't know it, Chacheungsaw (where Dave lives) is about an hour's commute from Bangkok. I'm sure Dave will forgive me when I say that it's hardly the Las Vegas of Eastern Thailand. In fact I sometimes think its only claim to fame is that you can spell the name fifty different ways! A teacher's salary of 34,000 will go a long way in Chachoengsaw (there's another one)
It's worth pointing out that Dave runs a motorcycle (probably an essential) and sounds a bit like a health food freak. Most of his food spending seems to go on milk and muesli. Have I got that right Dave?
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