Nathaniel
Working in Samut Prakarn
Monthly Earnings 45,000
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
I work at a large private Thai secondary school and my take-home salary is about 45,000 a month. I could do extra work if I wanted but I can live very comfortably on 45K so why do more?
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
I save between 10 and 15K a month and I use that 150,000 baht a year to either go home or do some travelling in Thailand.
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
I share a two-bedroom house with another teacher who actually works at a different school. We pay 10.000 baht a month and split that right down the middle so 5,000 each. Not a bad deal at all because it's a newish house in a nice quiet soi and the house is big enough for us to avoid each other if we want some privacy.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
I can take a motorcycle taxi from the end of the soi to the school where I work for 20 baht. Even with the odd taxi and skytrain fare at the weekend, I bet my transportation bill barely breaks a thousand baht.
Utility bills
We split all the utility bills down the middle and my share usually comes out about 2,000 baht. I'll usually put the air-con on for a few hours in the evening but I don't like sleeping with the air-con on because you walk up with a very dry throat.
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
I tend to use about five or six different neighborhood restaurants and coffee shops, where you can get a decent meal and a drink for about 100-150 baht. I eat lunch for free at the school canteen. I tend to avoid Western food, even at the shopping malls. I can never justify paying the prices. I guess I probably spend about 8,000 a month if you factor in supermarket stuff.
Nightlife and drinking
There's not an awful lot to do in Samut Prakarn. What nightlife there is is very much geared towards Thais. I could catch the skytrain into Bangkok but I've become bored of the scene down there so I rarely bother. I would rather stay in and play computer games with a couple of beers.
Books, computers
I like my computer games and I enjoy reading a few books every month. About 2,000 a month for this.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
Very comfortable. I live well enough on 45,000 baht and could probably live on considerably less. Not being a nightlife person certainly helps. I can remember a few years back when I could easily drop 3,000 on a weekend. Samut Prakarn is not Bangkok either. You don't have the temptations here. You're living among locals and doing what they do to a certain extent.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Pretty much everything except Western food. If you can stick to eating Thai, you'll save a fortune. And I don't mean street food either. You can get great Thai meals for around 100 baht and eat in a nice environment if you know where to go.
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
In Bangkok, I wouldn't want to earn less than 35,000 and to be honest, I don't understand why people work for that sort of money anyway. It's a teachers market out there. There always seems to be plenty of jobs in the 40K bracket.
Phil's analysis and comment
Yes Nath, I'm a Samut Prakarn boy myself. I guess it's an interesting area to live inasmuch as you feel part of the local scene, you don't see all that many foreigners at all, and yet fifteen minutes on the skytrain and you are in the heart of Bangkok. Samut Prakarn is changing slowly though. Dare I say becoming a little more upmarket (which isn't difficult when you're one of the city's ugliest suburbs) We've got a new shopping mall and there are coffee shops and restaurants springing up everywhere. Shame though that in many cases there just aren't enough customers to support them and keep the businesses open.
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