Monthly Cost of Living in Thailand October 2016
Welcome to the October 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: 60,000 THB
Total Spend: 108,000 THB
Saved: Loss of 48,000 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. This is a higher cost than most people have but I get a top floor corner unit and own the property. Buying isn’t for everyone and is something that you should consider before making a buying decision.
Utility Bills – 2,800THB
I pay for the water, condo maintenance fee, internet, my phone and 365 Sport TV package every month and my girlfriend covers our electric bill.
As we were away for the first couple of weeks of the month we spent a little bit less on the bills but in general they are always around the 3,000 Baht mark for me and an extra 1,200 which my girlfriend pays for the electricity.
I could probably live with slower internet and have a slightly shorter shower but in all honesty I would maybe only save a couple hundred baht a month so it isn’t worth it. Utility bills are cheap in Thailand, especially if you don’t overuse the air conditioning. I bought a good fan which I use in the day and it keeps my room cool and has reduced my average bill by about 500 Baht a month.
Transport – 1,150 THB
I use a mixture of buses, songthaews and taxis to get around. I don’t live near the BTS/MRT and didn’t head into central Bangkok this month.
The Bangkok bus route gets a bit of a kicking from many expats but I can thoroughly recommenced it. The air-con buses in particular are great, ice cold and pretty efficient outside the main rush hour. The non air-con buses are OK for short journeys in the day or any journey at night although you are prone to a few bad smells which come through the open windows. The red buses start from 6.5 Baht a journey and the air-con buses from 11 baht – they are a steal!
Food – 7,000THB
Only a half month for me in Thailand but I still spent a fair amount on food. I see some other people who write reports on costs of living in Thailand who say they spend less than 5K a month, it seems impossible to me unless you eat street food 3 times a day.
For me I prefer to pay for decent food and go shopping in the supermarket a couple of times a week to get decent food to cook.
Going to restaurants in Thailand is cheap, even good joints don’t cost the earth and it is one of the best things about living here. Sure I get the occasional street meal but in all honesty I would rather go to a restaurants and pay 70-100 Bat for a good plate of food in a good environment.
General Shopping – 1,100 THB
I bought a few bits and pieces this month for my condo. Nothing exciting, just some new towels and a glove to use for the oven. Whilst these things are little purchases it is surprising how quickly they can add up and eat into your budget, especially if you are making around 30K a month as a teacher.
Entertainment – 200 THB
I had a quiet couple of weeks in Thailand and my only entertainment was playing badminton a few times.
I have been crazy busy since I came back to Thailand from my trip to the UK (see below) and have been working most nights until gone midnight so haven’t had time to go out very often.
Travel – 55,000 THB
This is the big cost of the month, my trip to the UK. I had 11 days back home with my girlfriend and we did a lot, spent a lot and had an awesome time. I had been saving up for the trip and spent about what I expected to. The majority of the money I spent came from my UK account so I didn’t have to worry about exchanging etc.
I spread the costs of the trip over several months by buying tickets, gifts in the previous months.
Whilst there I did buy a lot of clothes and other items which I will use in Thailand. I estimate I spent around 10-15K on such items which should mean less of a spend on these over the future months.
Check out my article showing my costs for my trip to the UK for a more detailed run down of costs in this section.
Others – 10,750 THB
I had some website related costs this month too such as renewing packages, plugins and I bought a couple of new things to make some improvements when I have time to update the site….
Also I go 50/50 with my girlfriend on a new condo on the new BTS line near to where we live. The condo is currently under construction and we are due to continue making these payments until April next year. When finished we plan to rent it out for around 7k a month which means we will have to cover around 1 or 2 thousand baht a month on the mortgage.
Loss – 48,000 THB
This was always going to be a month with a loss when you consider my trip to the UK. The same happened when I went to Singapore earlier this year.
Every other section was normal but in the “other” section I did have over 5,000 Baht of website costs which is considerable but something I can’t avoid.
When you take off the 55k I spent in the UK I would have saved 7,000 THB so all in all it wasn’t terrible.
Overview – Monthly Cost of Living in Thailand October 2016
Overall a 48K loss doesn’t look good on paper but if you have been following my cost of living reports over the past few months you will have sen that I managed to save more than this to cover the cost before I went.
As I was away for a couple of weeks it impacted on the amount of money I actually made. Normally I’m around the 70-75K bracket but this month only 60, 000 Baht. Next month is actually looking a bit slow too but hopefully things will pick up and I’ll get to 65-70k+ again which will help as I have new things to save up for.
Next month I see myself being busy with a couple of new projects and will try to keep my spending down. There aren’t any real big events in November for me so it should be easier to keep things under control.
