Nathan
Working in Chiang Rai Province
Monthly Earnings 30,000
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
I work for a Thai government school just outside Chiang Rai town and my salary is 30,000 baht for a very easy 14 contact hours a week. Even fewer hours if the students don't turn up thanks to an administration cock-up!
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
I don't save any. I spend it all. I only plan on being here until the end of next term anyway and then I'll go back home. All of my spare cash, after paying for the necessary expenses, goes on travel.
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
I pay 2,500 baht a month for a rundown studio apartment in a rundown apartment building. I know I'm going against the grain but I made my mind up when I first got here a year ago that I wasn't going to fritter money away on rent. If I was here for the long term, then yes I would look for something far better.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
I bought a bicycle for a few thousand baht and I cycle the two kilometres to the school and back each day. That cycle ride is a lovely thing to do each morning - unless it's raining of course!
Utility bills
Water and electricity come to a few hundred baht. If the weather is hot, I'll just sit around the apartment in my boxer shorts and sweat. But I'm really not at home that much - even on the weekends.
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
Again, like the rent, I try to live as cheaply as possible. Breakfast will be a bowl of cereals and a slice of toast, lunch I have at school (free) and then I'll eat street-food in the evening. Even at the weekends I eat Thai food and avoid the overpriced Western joints. I bet I spend less than 5,000 a month on food. But oh boy, there are days when I could just murder a good burger.
Nightlife and drinking
I will sometimes have a beer with my evening meal if I'm at a place that serves alcohol but I don't go out to pubs or clubs or places that I know are going to drain my wallet. I've never been a night owl. I'm generally tucked up in my sweatbox at 11pm because I usually have an early start when it's a schoolday.
Books, computers
Nothing.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
I have enough money to do what I most love to do - and that's travel. I've been all over Northern Thailand by plane, train and automobile and explored every village and town. It's been fantastic and I've met some amazing people. Every weekend and every day off, I'm on a bus to somewhere.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Transportation and street food.
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
30,000 baht a month is nowhere near enough to survive here for anything other than short term and I realized that very early on. I lived in Chiang Mai for a while and I'm not sure how any foreigner survives there on less than 40K. I moved to Chiang Mai purely because you haven't got the temptations of what has become a very Westernized city.
Phil's analysis and comment
I don't envy Nathan's sweaty apartment (or his sweaty boxer shorts for that matter) and I couldn't go without Western food at least once in a while. However, there's a purpose to Nathan's frugality and that is to save money for travel. The North of Thailand around Chiang Rai Province is easily my favourite part of Thailand as well. If Nathan's only doing this teaching and travelling gig for the short term, then not a problem.
As always, we would love to have your contribution to the cost of living section. But PLEASE don't send us just a list of figures. The figures need to be padded out with a few details. That's what really gets the readers' interest. If you would rather, you can always e-mail me the answers to the survey.
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