Troy
Working in Bangkok
Monthly Earnings 65,000 baht
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
My salary is 40,000 baht from a government school English program and I also earn 25,000 baht doing extra classes for a language school and private tutoring
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
I like to alternate my months. One month I will save 40,000 and the next month I will splurge out and go partying or travelling. This balances things for me and keeps me entertained as well as saving a fair bit of coin.
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
I live in a condo that has a rooftop pool, gym and a 28 square metre room with a huge balcony - and I only pay 3,900 baht per month. Living nine kilometres from the city center really does make a huge difference to your cost of living, especially accommodation.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
It varies from month to month, but I have my own motorbike so about 200 baht for petrol.
Utility bills
On average my utilities are 2,000 baht and mobile phone is another 599.
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
I don't normally eat at restaurants or cook my own food because it's a hell of a lot cheaper to eat 40 - 70 baht meals at footpath restaurants. I would say 200 baht a day for three meals is very doable.
Nightlife and drinking
Nightlife is good out here as there are tons of university bars close to Ramkemhang University. Big beers are around 90 baht and a bottle of whiskey and soda around the 700 baht mark
Books, computers
Not applicable.
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
I lead a very comfortable life in Ladprao and manage to save some coin for travel and the odd trip back home to see the family. The key to saving money is to eat local food, live in cheap comfortable accommodation and refrain from going to tourist areas every weekend. 7/11 is also a sneaky way to burn through your cash because of all the home comforts you can find there.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
Hands down the food and accommodation if you're willing to live outside the "tourist areas"
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
I started off with a 35,000 baht salary and I found it quite difficult to adjust my standard of living. Eating western food and drinking at Sukhumvit every weekend burnt through my salary very quickly. If you can adjust and learn to eat and live smartly then 35k is certainly doable and you could save 5 to 10k a month too.
Phil's analysis and comment
Troy is clearly a man who's careful with his money and his lifestyle certainly wouldn't be for everyone. He lives in a very modest apartment (it has to be for less than 4,000 baht regardless of where it is) and he shuns Western food in favour of a triple daily dose of streetfood. But it's a standard of living that works well for Troy. He has plenty of cash to keep back for those trips home and weekend vacations in Thailand, etc. It's simply a case of where your priorities lie.
One of the things I enjoy about these surveys is how no two people's thought processes are ever the same. Everyone comes at things from different angles and I applaud Troy for hilighting the temptations of the local 7-11. I've never given it much thought but he's absolutely right. I pop into my local 7-11 about three times a week and although I'm only there to buy one thing, I always end up coming out with more. 7-11 can be an impulse buyer's worst nightmare.
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. And don't worry if you've sent me a survey and it's not on-line yet. I have it safe. I just like to space them out a bit.
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.
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