Dion
Working in Bangkok
Monthly Earnings Around 40,000 baht
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
I work at a private school in Bangkok and my salary before tax is 40,000. I also teach private students and that gets me another two to three thousand baht a month.
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
I put at least 5,000 baht away each month. I am saving this for travelling or buying big ticket items such as a new computer or camera.
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
I live in a small and modern studio apartment that costs me 13,000 a month.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
Roughly 1,000 for BTS, 500 for motorbike taxis during the week. In addition, maybe 2 or 3 taxi rides on the weekends.
Utility bills
I pay about 2,500 baht for electricity, water, internet and mobile phone package
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
Maybe 100-200 baht on weekdays and 400-500 baht a day on weekends
Nightlife and drinking
I would say about 8,000 a month on nightlife as I normally do something of a night on the weekend that involves drinking.
Books, computers
Nothing.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
It's okay. I had a high standard of living back home. I live quite comfortably but I'm not exactly saving for any international travel as such. It's a good thing I am happy to explore Thailand and I do a weekend away maybe every couple of months.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Food and taxis are definitely the biggest bargains for me.
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
20,000 baht a month to survive, 30,000 to live comfortably. 40,000 to make it worthwhile. Anything over 40,000 would open up options such as saving, travelling or living a bit more lavishly.
Phil's analysis and comment
I really like this survey because for me it showcases a typical Bangkok teacher, earning a typical Bangkok teacher's salary and spending typical amounts of money. This is absolutely what you will be living like if you come to teach in the capital on 40,000 baht, although some might consider 13,000 baht on apartment rental as a bit of a luxury.
When you are earning 40,000 baht a month, 8,000 going on nightlife is the most you can afford. 8,000 going on food is the most you can afford. And when you add together your accommodation, food and entertainment costs, you are lucky to be left with 5,000 baht a month left over and this is exactly what we see in the figures above. And that 60,000 baht a year in savings is used for things such as the odd weekend away in Thailand (where you're probably going to be watching the pennies) It certainly isn't enough money for a trip home as well.
In conclusion - is 40,000 baht a month enough to live on in Bangkok? In my opinion no.
Submit your own Cost of Living survey
