Let's Compare Prices Of Basic Needs

[BFD]

Here's me.

Rent: (school pays for my place, but it would be 20k)

Elec: 2500

Water: 200

Phone: 500

Mobile: 1000

Food: 10,000

Beer: 10,000

Entertainment: 5000

I make about 60,000/month teaching, so I'm able to send home roughly 30,000 to offset those looming student loans. and those nasty credit card people.

[chevykanteve]

Mortagage 89000 baht

Elec 4000

Gas 3000

Food 17000

Fuel 5000

Nights Out 20000

Water 1000

Health Ins 5500

This is not a mistake the costs are monthly conservative and I've missed loads out yes you will be able to guess that I live in bloody London!!!!!!!!!!

I've just made myself feel worse by typing it in baht, I think I need to get back to Thailand soon.

Hopefully this will cheer up anyone living in Thailand and missing the UK / OZ etc or feeling their living expenses are starting to creep up. Trust me you are better off where you are whatever you may feel about current political unrest / insurgents etc etc.

You say that gas is 3,000? Wow, that seems steep. In Roi-et, I'm paying 280 baht per (normal size) container, which normally lasts about one month. I remember when I did my postgraduate degree (Ph.D.) at SOAS (London) I lived, initially, at a hall of residence called International Hall and had to feed 5p coins into a heater to keep warm. Afterwards I rented houses in Brixton (Mervyn Road and subsequently Bonham road) and the same coin-operated heaters were in place. Do people still use those over there?

[LoveDaBlues]

Rent 55K

Elec 4K avg

water inc in rent

phone + dialup net 700

Villa + Foodland groceries 20K

Transport 0 can walk everywhere, live where I want to be

visa runs 3K avg

gf allowance 12K

Total 95K

did I leave anything out?

oh, kick in 5K for beer and nightlife

so nice round 100K total

My lifestyle here requires a minimum of this 100K so I get a bit bent about people raving about how cheap life is here. I find it outright expensive to live the decent life I require. These numbers are for 2 people only. Also remember that I have zero transport costs

Rent in BKK is the killer. You're paying as much/more than some people back in the states pay to rent a decent 3 bedroom home in a decent area.

I'm paying 6K a month for a 4 bedroom, 3 bath place. Not sure what the size is but it's plenty big.

Never figured why anyone would want to live in BKK (unless situation forces it). Easy and cheap to just fly there for a week or so when the spirit moves you.

It IS cheap to live a quality life in Thailand. Just not in the tourist areas.

rent is indeed the killer, Mr Blues. so what are your overall expenses anyhow? I pay this enormous premium, no doubt, but I am where i want to be and as I explained, my transportation costs are near zero, thus can credit my rent to whatever that amount were to come to if I had a car or whatever

paid cash for a new car; don't know what the payment would have been.

these figures for 2 of us.

I live in a small village 16 kilometers from the center of Udon Thani.

car insurance 1900

car fuel 3100

elec. 1500

water & gas 200

rent 6000

food (from tesco) 8000

meals out 4000

health insurance 3600

UBC 1600

Ipstar 4300 (no phone line here for internet)

cell phones 1000

misc. 4800

------------

Total 40,000 (if this bends you....truly sorry......life IS cheap here in the right area)

When I build my house (probably start January of 2008) the payment on it should be around 20,000. This will be offset by the rent and Ipstar I currently pay (10,000) so overall my expenses should go to 50,000 per month in the new house. (new house = 304 sqm). My fuel bill should go down slightly as the house will be 4k closer to town. Electric should go up but not too much as the walls and ceiling will be well insulated; my rental house is poorly insulated.

Life is good in LOS!

[LoveDaBlues]

Here's me.

Rent: (school pays for my place, but it would be 20k)

Elec: 2500

Water: 200

Phone: 500

Mobile: 1000

Food: 10,000

Beer: 10,000

Entertainment: 5000

I make about 60,000/month teaching, so I'm able to send home roughly 30,000 to offset those looming student loans. and those nasty credit card people.

Beer 10,000/30 = 333 baht a day! Alkie!

[torrenova]

Some rough figures I'm going through as I'm moving to a house from my condo.

Rent - 20,000

Electric - 2,500

Water - 500

Cable - 300 to 1,700

Telephone - 500

Internet - 1,000

Mobile - 500

Truck repayments - 15,000

Diesel - 1,000

Truck maintenance - 1,000

Household expenditure including food - 6,000

Entertainment - 10,000

Pocket cash - 10,000

Other - 10,000

So a rough total of around Bt80,000 per month which probably works out at Bt100,000 per month after you throw in one off items which occur throughout the year.

[mutleyg]

Mortagage 89000 baht

Elec 4000

Gas 3000

Food 17000

Fuel 5000

Nights Out 20000

Water 1000

Health Ins 5500

This is not a mistake the costs are monthly conservative and I've missed loads out yes you will be able to guess that I live in bloody London!!!!!!!!!!

I've just made myself feel worse by typing it in baht, I think I need to get back to Thailand soon.

Hopefully this will cheer up anyone living in Thailand and missing the UK / OZ etc or feeling their living expenses are starting to creep up. Trust me you are better off where you are whatever you may feel about current political unrest / insurgents etc etc.

You say that gas is 3,000? Wow, that seems steep. In Roi-et, I'm paying 280 baht per (normal size) container, which normally lasts about one month. I remember when I did my postgraduate degree (Ph.D.) at SOAS (London) I lived, initially, at a hall of residence called International Hall and had to feed 5p coins into a heater to keep warm. Afterwards I rented houses in Brixton (Mervyn Road and subsequently Bonham road) and the same coin-operated heaters were in place. Do people still use those over there?

I've never seen a heater that takes coins directly but there are still many gas and electricity meters in houses that are no longer fed by coins but by buying credit through top up cards in the same way as pay as you go mobile phones. The gas figure is cheap in comparison to some with larger houses than mine (average London semi detatched)

I've just finished building a house for the wife in Thailand and am currently dreaming of the bills being so so cheap. Sad really as I should be dreaming about living in it asap!!!!!! unfortunately I've still got to keep paying the bills over here for another year or so

Brixton eh! you should have bought a house or two back then as they are now very very expensive.

[Jim Abbott]

Living expenses: - per month (Countryside)

Electricity - 9000B

Water - 2000B

Phone - 500B

Mobile - 3000B

Internet - 1000B

UBC - 1500B

Food local - 6000B

Food Shopping BKK (twice per month) - 12000B

Beer - 6000B

Personal entertainment (Pattaya 1 - 2 days per month) - 30000B

Wife - 30000B

Daughter - 15000B

Car Repayment - 40000B

Diesel- 10000B

Misc. crap - 10000B

Cheers,

Soundman.

170K in the countryside? LOL, thanks a lot for your post, soundman; you make me feel a helluva lot better. Enjoy yourself

[Jim Abbott]

Rent 55K

Elec 4K avg

water inc in rent

phone + dialup net 700

Villa + Foodland groceries 20K

Transport 0 can walk everywhere, live where I want to be

visa runs 3K avg

gf allowance 12K

Total 95K

did I leave anything out?

oh, kick in 5K for beer and nightlife

so nice round 100K total

My lifestyle here requires a minimum of this 100K so I get a bit bent about people raving about how cheap life is here. I find it outright expensive to live the decent life I require. These numbers are for 2 people only. Also remember that I have zero transport costs

Rent in BKK is the killer. You're paying as much/more than some people back in the states pay to rent a decent 3 bedroom home in a decent area.

I'm paying 6K a month for a 4 bedroom, 3 bath place. Not sure what the size is but it's plenty big.

Never figured why anyone would want to live in BKK (unless situation forces it). Easy and cheap to just fly there for a week or so when the spirit moves you.

It IS cheap to live a quality life in Thailand. Just not in the tourist areas.

rent is indeed the killer, Mr Blues. so what are your overall expenses anyhow? I pay this enormous premium, no doubt, but I am where i want to be and as I explained, my transportation costs are near zero, thus can credit my rent to whatever that amount were to come to if I had a car or whatever

paid cash for a new car; don't know what the payment would have been.

these figures for 2 of us.

I live in a small village 16 kilometers from the center of Udon Thani.

car insurance 1900

car fuel 3100

elec. 1500

water & gas 200

rent 6000

food (from tesco) 8000

meals out 4000

health insurance 3600

UBC 1600

Ipstar 4300 (no phone line here for internet)

cell phones 1000

misc. 4800

------------

Total 40,000 (if this bends you....truly sorry......life IS cheap here in the right area)

When I build my house (probably start January of 2008) the payment on it should be around 20,000. This will be offset by the rent and Ipstar I currently pay (10,000) so overall my expenses should go to 50,000 per month in the new house. (new house = 304 sqm). My fuel bill should go down slightly as the house will be 4k closer to town. Electric should go up but not too much as the walls and ceiling will be well insulated; my rental house is poorly insulated.

Life is good in LOS!

No LovDa, not the least bit bent on that. Folks that live out where you do have low costs, I understand this. I dont feel too bad after seeing your numbers as I really thoroughly enjoy where I live (heart of Sukhumvit). Every minute here is a joy for me. A huge reason for this is that I dont like road travel anymore. I logged a million miles in the states over 25 years. So at 50K, plus you had the outlay of car expense (one time), I'm ok with paying out my 100K for the lifestyle that I love. Living upcountry would serve me no purpose as I adore the constant activity of the big city. I always have the option of visiting these places if I choose though. For me, with no transport, living in these places would be a huge bore. With transport, at least for me, would be too much stress. I'm ok with my situation. everyone has different pleasures and situations. I will be getting my rent down to 20K or so within a year as my friend's condo will be completed in this area and I will rent from him long term. I'm good with this situation in a large way. enjoy