Michelle
Working in Chiang Mai
Monthly Earnings 30,000
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
I'm a volunteer at a primary school / kindergarten so I don't necessarily have a salary. However I have several friends and people from my church who help support me. On average, I probably receive about 30,000 baht a month but this varies. Some months I will receive hardly anything and other months it's a lot.
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
On average, I spend about 17,000 baht a month, so that would mean I save about 13,000 baht each month.
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
I live with two friends in a small house and we pay 4,000 baht a month for rent (split three ways)
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
I have my own motorcycle and I spend about 55 baht a week on gas.
Utility bills
Our bills are split three ways and work out at 210 baht each for wifi and approximately 300 baht each for water and electricity.
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
it's hard to say. Looking at my records, it could be anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 baht, depending on how often I splurge at Remping or get a sandwich at Subway or go out with friends. During the week, we get a free lunch at work, so breakfast and dinner are the only meals where we're on our own. Mostly we will eat street food or cook our own food at home. Going out to eat with friends is the killer, since usually it'll be a higher class restaurant
Nightlife and drinking
I don't do nightlife as a rule but I do enjoy my coffee, however, I try to hit the lower priced coffee shops. I also splurge on horseback riding about twice a month, which costs 500 baht an hour.
Books, computers
I recently had some computer expenses that came up to about 4,000 baht.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
I like to live as closely to the people around me as possible, and since most of my friends and coworkers are of lower income, I try not to flaunt the fact that I have more money than them. Yet I live very comfortably.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Food. It's so cheap!
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
If you live carefully and do it right, you could live on 16,000 baht a month after your start-up costs (motorbike, household furnishings, etc.) However, foreigners also have lots of visa expenses, travel home costs, etc.
Phil's analysis and comment
I'm not really up on how the volunteering thing works so I might pass on commenting here. I've always been under the impression that if you do volunteer work, you got a bit of pocket money, a roof over your head and perhaps 'three hots and a cot' but that clearly isn't the case where Michelle is concerned. But she seems happy enough living the simple life in Chiang Mai.
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