Monthly Cost of Living in Thailand – June 2016

Monthly Cost of Living in Thailand – June 2016

Welcome to the June 2016 report on my monthly spend in Thailand. To start with check out the about me page to learn a little about me and my circumstances. It will also explain the high accommodation prices below.

Total Income:  78,300 THB

Total Spend:    67,000 THB

Saved:   11,300 THB  

Breakdown

Accommodation – 30,000 THB

My standard monthly repayment towards my  2 bedroom 64 sq metre condo. This money is from the UK, not a Thai bank.

Utility Bills –   3,099  THB

The main change in this section this month is that I changed my phone package. I now pay 399 Baht a month for 5 GB data and 150 minutes of free calls. I used to pay 299 but didn’t get any minutes and only 1.5GB of data so I’m very happy with the new option.

I have a Sports365 subscription which costs 600 Baht a month and means I can watch all the football in English and some other sports too. I imagine I’ll watch some of the Olympic Games soon but to be honest it’s mainly for the football. They offer a second package at 1,000 Baht a month which includes the cricket and rugby but I’m not too into those sports.

My girlfriend pays our electricity bill ( roughly 1,200 Baht a month ) and I cover the monthly maintenance fee and water bills which are usually around 1,350 in total. The only other bill is our internet which we get through True . I hear some people complain about True but for 750 Baht a month we get 18MB internet and have only had one day in 2 years where it went down.

Transport – 1,000 THB

I usually take a bus to work which costs me between 13 – 25 Baht a day depending on whether I take the air-con or regular bus.

Add on a couple of van rides to central Bangkok and a couple of taxis and my total transport bill was only around 1,000 Baht for the month.

Food –  8,219THB

A bit of a lower cost as I included a couple of the more expensive meals in the entertainment section below.

My normal daily eating routine involves a couple of yogurts and fresh fruit for breakfast, a homemade sandwich for lunch and a rice dish for dinner. The total cost is around 170 Baht a day when you add drinks.

I also went out for dinner a couple of times with my girlfriend and we usually pay around 300-500 baht per meal so it isn’t too expensive. We normally split the cost. We normally go to Kaset Nawamin Train Market twice a month and enjoy the food and atmosphere there – it’s worth a look if you’re bored of the other train markets in Bangkok.

General Shopping –    6,999 THB

I normally don’t buy a lot and shopping is something I hate but this month was probably my biggest shopping month in a long time.

I decided to buy some new things for my condo which makes up the majority of the cost here. A new towel rack and shower head for my bathroom, a TV wall mount and some decorations came to 5,000 Baht.

I also bought the new Xiaomi Mi Band 2 – a dvice which measures your vital stats and records exercise. I’m planning to get healthy and hope it will give me an incentive. It cost 1,600 Baht. At the same time I also bought a new phone case for 399 Baht. These were my first purchases from Lazada.co.th and overall I have been quite impressed. I used to shop a lot online in the UK and this site has become my new go to online shop for Thailand.

Entertainment –   2,250THB

My main form of entertainment is going out eating and having a few drinks. In the UK my entertainment was watching football and heading to the pub once or twice a week.

When I head out for dinner with friends I usually spend around 500 – 700 Baht which normally includes a few beers and lots of food.

I also play badminton here in Thailand and it costs about 250 Baht a month to play 4 times and buy some shuttlecocks. I should really do more sport and will have a look at changing my schedule to have time for my local gym which charges 30 Baht per session.

Travel –    0 THB

I didn’t travel this month and didn’t book any future travel. I will go away for a few days in August and most probably I’ll book hotels etc then.

Others – 15,433 THB

This month saw my mother’s birthday and father’s day in the UK so I had a couple of presents to buy. The easiest thing is to send vouchers to friends and family at this time. I know it’s not very personal but at least they can buy something they like.

This month I got a cleaner in to make my condo look like new. She only came once at the end of the month but for 500 Baht she cleaned for 4 hours and the place looks much better. I think she will come once or twice a month from now on to help us with the cleaning.

I also pay to have all my clothes washed, ironed and hung which costs around 300-400 Baht a month on average. This month I paid 1,200 which should last around 3 or 4 months.

Add on to this a few regular monthly expenses like getting my haircut

My monthly payment of 9,733THB towards my second condo is the largest cost in this section. In around a year it will be completed and rented out. The payment will remain at around 9,000 Baht but rental income should be around 7-8K per month so in the long term this wont be a large cost to me. As I have said before I plan to overpay on the deposit towards the end to keep the mortgage cost down.

Saved  11,300THB

Another good month of savings. These savings will go to my UK bank account to cover my trip there in September. With the current exchange rates I will get a bit more in Sterling than expected which is a bonus. I wish I had kept more back instead of transferring it earlier but never mind.

I have a plan every month to try and save around 15,000 Baht but normally I fall just short but in the end cutting back on a few things to save money isn’t worth it. I could have saved more but spent 7,000 Baht in the last 3 days of the month buying decorations for my condo.

My girlfriend stopped drinking last month and I’ve found myself drinking less too which has save a fair amount of money. In the past I would probably spend 4-500 Baht a week on beers and that is down to around 200 a week now. It isn’t a huge saving but it is an area where I think Thailand isn’t as cheap as people think.

Overview – Monthly Cost of Living in Thailand – June 2016

June was a fun month and a decent one for saving too. One of my main goals at the moment is saving for my holiday to the UK I feel now I have saved enough to pay for everything so in the future my savings will stay in Thailand and be used here or to plan for a future vacation.

In all honesty the money I save doesn’t really get put into long term savings. I have been thinking about this recently and I have the bonus that my condo will be paid off in 3 or 4 years and then the 30,000 Baht a month it costs me can be saved but I’m not sure that I wont need to use this money for other things. It has made consider whether Thailand is the best place to be long term – I wrote an article about this here on Ajarn.com. 

Bangkok is cheap to live in until you need to buy something out of the ordinary. Food, utilities and transport are cheap but most other things are expensive, or around the same price as back in the UK. I certainly wouldn’t recommend trying to live in Bangkok on less than 50,000 THB a month.