William
Working in Bangkok
Monthly Earnings 35,000
Q1. How much do you earn from teaching per month?
I work at a private language school in Bangkok doing evenings and weekends. I work three hours each evening and five hours on Saturdays and Sundays. Teachers are paid 350 baht an hour so for a 100-hour month, I receive 35,000 less a bit of tax.
Q2. How much of that can you realistically save per month?
Almost nothing. Every time I manage to scrape 10,000 baht together, there is always some unexpected expense like needing a new laptop or having to make a trip to the dentist.
Q3. How much do you pay for your accommodation and what do you live in exactly (house, apartment, condo)?
I live on the sixth floor of a very ordinary apartment building, where most of the residents are Thai. In fact I think I am the only foreigner. I have a fairly large studio apartment and pay 5,000 baht a month plus bills.
Q4. What do you spend a month on the following things?
Transportation
My daily commute consists of a 10-baht motorcycle ride to the main road and then several stops on the sky-train, Probably around 2,000 baht a month if you factor in the odd taxi when I finish work feeling tired at 9.00 pm and just want to get home quickly.
Utility bills
I have air-conditioning but only turn it on for a few hours in the evening and in the late afternoon as I am getting ready for work. The water and electricity rarely break 500 baht a month.
Food - both restaurants and supermarket shopping
I only eat Thai food and I try to keep my spending down to 200 baht a day or less (which is relatively easy to do) I've got to the stage where I don't miss Western food at all because when I do have it (which is rare) I'm always left disappointed. I think Western food is overpriced here and seems to get more expensive by the month. So my food bill is around 6,000 baht a month.
Nightlife and drinking
Almost nothing. I can't go out at the weekends because of work and during the week, I never really feel like it anyway.
Books, computers
I enjoy reading and download a couple of books a month and I do like my gadgets. I suspect this may all come to about 3,000 baht a month on average
Q5. How would you summarize your standard of living in one sentence?
It's OK. Nothing special. I realise that I am just treading water at the moment and there's a limit to how long I can tolerate giving up my weekends and doing the evening shifts. I'm already thinking of looking for full-time employment at a school when the busy recruitment period starts in March. At least that way I will have my evenings and weekends free.
Q6. What do you consider to be a real 'bargain' here?
I think Thai food at what I call 'working class Thai restaurants' is great value at around 60-70 baht a dish. It's worth paying that bit extra compared to 40 baht street food stuff.
Q7. In your opinion, how much money does anyone need to earn here in order to survive?
As much as possible? LOL. I don't think 35,000 baht is anywhere near enough for Bangkok if you are looking for regular Western treats. 40-50K minimum. Hopefully I can start earning that amount in the future.
Phil's analysis and comment
Ah, the life of the private language school teacher. Fun for a while but eventually it wears you down.
I remember at the very first language school I worked at, we had a small group of female teachers who were teaching mainly for something to do. They were all housewives married to expats on decent relocation packages. They weren't doing it for the money. However they all refused to do evenings and weekends, They only wanted morning or early afternoon work. "Who wants to work in the evenings and at weekends when all your friends are out enjoying themselves?" they would argue.
This is true of course but most language school teachers aren't married to wealthy expats and need the work. So they do the evenings and weekends when their friends are elbow-bending in pubs and they are free during the day when those same friends are working. The language school teacher has a kind of 'alternative existence'. You are reluctant to go out on a Friday or Saturday night because you have a heavy teaching schedule the following day. From Monday to Friday, you can't go out for the day because the fact that you have lessons in the evening is constantly at the back of your mind.
It's definitely a lifestyle you have to adapt to. I did it for a number of years and although I never minded working either a Saturday or a Sunday (but not both!) I always hated leaving the building so late at night during the week - after what my fellow colleagues often referred to as the 'graveyard shift'
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