Steven
Working in Satun
Monthly Earnings 46,000 - 56,000
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
I work at a public school with an English program and get a 36,000 baht salary from that. I also make 10,000-20,000 extra a month from on-line teaching and tutoring neighbours.
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
Quite a lot because there's nothing to spend your baht on in a rural town. From my salary I save about 20,000 a month, plus whatever tutoring I do, so I can realistically save up to 40k a month
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
I rent a really nice detached house for 4,000 baht a month.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
I have my own motorbike and gas is about 22 baht a litre at the moment, so probably less than 100 baht a month on gas.
Utility bills
I pay about 1200 for utility bills and 650 for internet.
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
Food down here is about 40-50 baht a meal and there's no Pizza Hut or McDonalds to fritter away cash on
Nightlife and drinking
Nightlife is cheap too, as it's almost non-existent. A big Leo beer at a restaurant is 70baht.
Books, computers
Virtually nothing.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
Very, very comfortable. I've lived here five years now and have a very nice set-up with a piano, oven, TV and Xbox and a fully furnished house. There's very little to do in a small town like this, but I've equipped my house and lead a comfortable busy life, while managing to save a ton.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Food of course and lately, gas. My 40 baht a month water bill always makes me chuckle too.
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
I comfortably get by on less than 20,000 baht down here, and if I could just do tutoring in the evenings and quit the day job, that would be doable - and great at the same time.
Phil's analysis and comment
An interesting survey from Steve there and much to comment on.
When you're earning up to 56,000 baht a month in a town where there's nothing to splash your cash on - and spending just 4,000 baht on your accommodation - you're always going to be saving plenty and Steve's figures prove it.
Steve practices what I'm always preaching - make your home environment as nice and comfortable as possible. That way you're not going outside 'looking for things to do' because you can't stand being at home. He's got his piano, his X-box console, etc. Steve enjoys just staying at home. There might be folks who'd say 'well you could sit in the house and play games anywhere in the world. He's not enjoying what Thailand has to offer'. But Steve's probably not interested in strolling around the market or riding bicycles around a public park and chatting to locals. He's been in Satun five years already. Perhaps the novelty of 'being in Thailand' has long worn off? It's all about doing what YOU want to do and how YOU want to live your life.
I get the impression Steve could be surrounded by glitzy shopping malls and all the fast-food joints under the sun, he'd still live the same lifestyle.
What interested me most about this survey was Steve's final comment about possibly giving up the day job and surviving on the income from his on-line tutoring and private students. It begs the question 'how little work is it possible to do and still enjoy life? What's the minimum number of well-paying hours you could teach, earn enough to get by and yet have LOADS of free time to enjoy?
Keep these cost of living surveys coming guys. You're doing a great job! Apart from the jobs page, this is the most popular section of the ajarn website. People love reading this information. Even my brother, who's a bank manager in England, loves reading them!
If anyone fancies doing a cost of living survey, I've now put the questions on-line to make it easier and quicker for you. Please spare half an hour if you can.
Submit your own Cost of Living survey
