January 2020 Cost Of Living

After a few months of slacking off, I decided to get my monthly cost of living up and running again. As a 32-year-old teacher living in Bangkok, the idea is to show what I get and spend to help others plan. It also helps me keep track of my spending too. I’m not too serious about counting every baht precisely so the figures below are rounded up / down to make things easy.

I live near Hua Mak airport link with my Thai girlfriend. She’s a freelance English teacher and her income varies month to month. In general, she looks after her own expenses but I cover our rent and utilities. When we go somewhere together I normally cover 75% of the costs such as with our holiday over the New Year.

Income: 100,000 baht

With a December bonus and a few extra hours overtime, I hit 100k for the month. Usually I’m closer to 75,000 baht in the average month.

I teach 18 hours over a five-day week, Wednesday-Sunday. Midweek evenings, weekends morning to early afternoon. I spend around an extra 18 hours in the office planning, doing admin and attending meetings.

I also get income from my book, Settling in Thailand, as well as royalties from a couple of teaching books I’ve co-written.

Spent: 95,000 baht

I managed to blow pretty much everything I made which wasn’t really a big surprise as I had a lot going on in January. I’ll break it down below.

Accommodation: 17,000 baht

I live in an 82sq meter one-bedroom condo near Hua Mak airport link. It’s an older building but the condo is basically two units joined together so I have a 41sq meter living room/kitchen and a 41sq meter bedroom/study /walk-in wardrobe with a bathroom in the middle.

There’s a pool, shop and a few restaurants nearby. It’s nothing fancy but I’ve added furniture and decorations over the last year to make it nice inside. Having a huge living area and bedroom makes a big difference for the two of us.

Netflix and Spotify are must-haves for me. They make such a difference to my daily life and are great value for money.

Utility Bills: 3,500 baht

Electric (1,000 baht) Water (300 baht) Internet and Premier League Football TV (1,200 baht) Phone (500 baht) Netflix (400 baht) Spotify (120 baht)

I rarely use the AC as I have a couple of really good fans which keep things cool. My condo is quite old and the AC units are huge, I used to run them a few hours a day and my bill was over 4,000 baht a month. Those 2,500 baht fans have paid themselves off for sure.

Food: 12,000 baht

I get most of my lunch/dinner from a place called Enjoy Healthy at Seacon Square. It’s a shop that has a selection of healthy food from different companies which is usually delivered to people by motorbike drivers. However, as this shop has a collection from many different providers there’s a large choice. I usually pay around 90 baht per meal. It’s opposite my gym so I can get food daily. Breakfast is usually fruit or toast.

I also go out to eat once a week, usually a Monday or Tuesday to a Thai restaurant and pay around 1,000 baht a time. Once a month I’ll get a western takeaway like pizza, perhaps 500 baht.

Entertainment: 10,000

I like to play golf, go out for a few beers and watch movies at the cinema. Golf is usually 1,200 a time in Bangkok, beers 400 baht a time and the cinema a few hundred baht. I usually do these things twice a month or so.

I also go shopping once a month for clothes or gadgets.

Travel: 15,000 baht

This month I paid for my New Year trip which was to Korat. It was a bit of a left-field location but worked out well. Bodyslam did a free concert in town before the countdown and we went to the Hobbit Village for a night on the way home.

I normally stay in hotels which cost around 1,500 baht a night. I don’t like to splash out too much but want a little bit of quality. On holiday we usually spend most of our cash on food and tours. Korat was certainly worth a visit but we don’t have a car which made some parts difficult.

Investments: 15,000 baht

My company takes 10,000 baht out of my salary and adds 10,000 of their money to pay into a provident fund. I just received the yearly performance sheet and saw that the fund lost 1.5% this last year. However, as 50% of the amount in my account is from my company I’m still way up. This is locked in for another three years before I can access it without penalty. It also reduces my yearly tax bill.

I also put around 5,000 baht a month into cryptocurrency. I use Bitkub here in Thailand and they work really well.

Other: 22,500 baht

Both my girlfriend and I are members at Fitness First. I wanted to start going to the gym at the end of last year but knew I wouldn’t go alone so I agreed to pay for both of us, this comes to 4,500 baht a month.

I have a maid who comes weekly for six hours to clean, do laundry and iron. I pay 3,000 baht a month for this. Having a maid makes my life much easier and doesn’t break the bank.

I needed to buy a new phone as my old one was on its last legs. I went for the Xiaomi mi 9 SE and love it. I managed to get it for 6,500 baht too which was a good deal.

I use my KTC credit card to split payments interest-free on certain purchases. I did this to buy a Nintendo Switch last year and pay 2,000 baht a month.

My UK student loan is 5,000 baht per month. There’s no getting away from it so I make sure I transfer enough money back to cover it.

Every month I make a trip to Boots or Watsons and stock up on toiletries. This usually costs around 1,000 baht. I spend the same amount on cleaning products. Finally, there are a few other random bits and pieces I buy every month.

Saved: 5,000 baht

As I got paid in mid-December, I had to watch the pennies for the last week or so. However, I actually ended up saving a bit of cash which was nice. No doubt it’ll get spent soon enough in February!

I try to save 5-10,000 baht a month where possible but it isn’t always easy.

Overview

100,000 baht a month is where I need to be every month by the end of 2020. It’s tough to live and save much without affecting my lifestyle on less than 100,000 baht. I first arrived here on 34,000 baht and went up to 50,000 baht five years ago. I now find 75,000 baht is a stretch to really feel totally comfortable, especially with travel and savings. 100,000 baht is where I want to be to live securely here.

There are obviously areas I could cut back on in terms of spending but I have no real desire to. I love the space my condo gives me, would a 13,000 baht a month condo be worth moving to, to save 4,000 baht? Not in my opinion. I don’t want to spend less on food and what is life without entertainment?

I don’t struggle here and have enough money to live, however, I do have to really think about major purchases. I am lucky to have money stashed away for emergencies but it would be nice not to have to rely on that. I’ll be back at the start of March with my February costs where I’ll have around 74,000 baht to live on.