Quite Easy To Live On 30,000 B A Month !

[bravingbangkok]

Being a wannabe HiSo and associating with genuine HiSo people has to be frustrating and must be a miserable existence trying to afford it. I no longer own a suit and if wearing fancy clothes is a requirement for going somewhere, you can be VERY sure that I wouldn't go.

At the age of mid 20's I have lost all interest in clothes, such a waste of money.

[patklang]

there's no such thing like "you need to spend a minimum of xxx Baht". it's all a matter of personal demands and of course personal financial means. those who look down on others who have to make ends meet with lower amounts than what they spend are (in my eyes) nothing but sorry clowns.

Very good point Naam.

There are many sorry clowns though,and i would never look down on a 68 yo guy who is perfectly happy with his life,if thats what he chooses.I say good luck to him and hope he has a long and happy life.

The sorry clowns can go to hel_l.

[MrHammer]

What I would miss the most on a low budget is travelling around SE Asia. Its very cheap to fly to say Hong Kong or Hanoi for a few days off, but on that low budget thats not really possible.

[fullservice]

Just close these sort of topics. It's like:

A: "I like onions"

B: "I don't"

So who is right? Nobody its all up to oneself!

[toptuan]

At the age of mid 20's I have lost all interest in clothes, such a waste of money.

I'm with you. Nudism is a money-wise lifestyel!

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I spent 15000 last night in pattaya, no i didnt take a woman, i have a severe hangover though !.

And pain in your backside?

[moe666]

Thaivisa, the best free entertainment on the web. How a post about one old duffer living by his on standards leads to such name calling and criticism is beyond me.

[IanForbes]

It is quite easy to live on less than 30,000 baht in most places in Thailand. I can't speak for Bangkok, and I think it would be much more difficult in Phuket, but just about everywhere else that is a reasonable figure.

Lots of nice rooms in Chiang Mai for 6000 baht a month, with TV, small fridge and internet.

You can easily live on $5 a day for food. I do it all the time. That is under 5000 baht a month.

One pay for play lady a week adds another 8000 baht a month.

Rent for a small motorscooter to get around comes to 2000 baht a month.

That adds up to a total of 21,000 baht a month, which leaves the remaining 9000 baht for beer and other stuff.

I spend my winters in Thailand where I rent a nice room at a reasonable hotel in Chiang Mai, and from there I travel around a lot. I have a pension of 60,000 baht a month and never come close to spending it all. I take flights down to Krabi, and Jomptien for one or two week get-aways, and take fishing trips to other parts of the country. I also spend a fair chunk of change on the ladies, and usually have 2 or 3 visits a week from a few regulars. That keeps this old bugger happy and I'm much more active than any guy of similar age back home.

Life couldn't be better and it's cheaper to live in Thailand than stay in Canada where I own my own home with no mortgage payments.

The only thing I would add is I am talking about living a single life and NOT as a family. Raising a family would be much more difficult, and especially if you were talking about sending children to university, but Thais survive on much less all the time.

Edited June 5, 2009 by IanForbes

[track61]

This is one of those everlasting threads whose subject is completely subjective, which is what causes it to grow faster than I can keep up.

All I wanted to add was to thomo who said, "I hope I'm never 67", say that again when you are 66.

[Gary A]

A farang woke up with a terrible hangover one morning and discovered that more than 15,000 baht was missing from his wallet. He quickly called his friend and asked him what had happened the previous night. His friend told him that ringing the bell was expensive but that he was having a great time. The hungover farang said, whew, I thought that maybe I had lost the money.

[IanForbes]

This is one of those everlasting threads whose subject is completely subjective, which is what causes it to grow faster than I can keep up.

All I wanted to add was to thomo who said, "I hope I'm never 67", say that again when you are 66.

I second that. I'm 69 and having more fun now than I had when I was 20. I get more action at a fraction the cost. In my twenties I was trying to impress the ladies. Now I don't have to. The ones who like me know who I am and phone me up if they want some company. The great thing about it is I can budget my expenses and I don't get caught paying for something I don't want or doing something I don't wish to. I guess I'm just selfish. I can be generous, but on my budget.

[mortenaa]

Its quite amazing that someone can live for 30,000 per month. I don't know about other places, but BKK you don't live great in a 5,000 Baht room.

I spend a minimum 150,000 Baht per month.

Apartment 35,000

Car 40,000

Petrol 4,000

Shopping and food 10,000

Partying 10,000

Internet, cable, mobile 6,000

Then its gadgets, trips, hotels, etc etc..

For me i like to go out for restaurants several times per week. Nothing fancy, but this is quality of live to me, compared to the place that im coming from where, its way too expensive to live and dine out.

[SoiGirlHunter]

>>>>What does he do? Every weekday he takes bus in from his house to hotel in BKK that he likes. Buys latest copy of Singapore Wall Street Journal (printed nightly off satty feed after market closes in New York). He buys himself a coffe and a couple of buns, and sits there for 2 to 3 hours reading the paper cover-to-cover. Makes notes on what stocks he wants to buy/sell. Takes bus back home in the afternoon, and puts everything into his computer. Makes up his plan to buy/sell stocks. By now, with 12 hour time difference from BKK to New York, he is ready to go on-line with his broker (after he has supper) and make whatever stock trades he wants. Broker is just opening in New York for new day session<<<

i never heard a more perfect way to have your asss handed to you in the stock market.

i have been trading for 13 years

[SoiGirlHunter]

>One pay for play lady a week adds another 8000 baht a month

is it really that expensive up there?\\

not saying that sarcastically. just wondering

SGH

[cpofc]

its horses for courses really.

Most people lob here as a tourist first before becoming an Ex Pat. Living life as a tourist here everyday would be great if you could afford it, not to mention, survive it. Most common workers where i come from save up for a year to give the ferret a run in thailand for two weeks! Spending 5 grand of their hard earneds in two weeks.

But can you live like that full time? Most of us cannot. So you can expect some lifestyle changes should you decide to live here full time. Unless you have wads of cash. Big wads of cash coming in on a regular basis.

As my mate, who was a lowly paid Communicator in the Australian Embassy in the early 80's said to me at the time. It is extremely cheap if you want to live like a Thai. if you want to live like a farang then it gets expensive.

The trick is to find the happy medium between the two.

30,000 per Month? Yes, can be done, no problem. Especially since he doesn't drink alcohol, and probably can live without Air Con 24 hours per day. Cigarettes at 60-70 baht a pack arent going to break anyone's bank either.

But you really need to have some good solid, honest Thai friends in order to maintain a low budget like that. You can be ripe for the picking otherwise. it helps if you have friends that can steer and advise you or go to bat for you if you are being taken down.

of course it goes without saying, to gather those true, loyal, trusted and honest thai friends depends entirely on YOU. Your attitidue, politeness, etc. Thailand is truly a place where you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar. If you were a drunken abusive prick, I doubt you would survive on that little amount of money,

I agree, 65,000 Baht per month is definitely 'over the top' in my opinion, where i live you would be flat out trying to spend that sort of money, unless I were frequenting Karaoke clip joints a few times per week.

[maichai40]

Yes, very easy to live on 30,000 Baht per month in Thailand, but I wouldn't particularly want to in Pattaya.

As a matter of interest I actually kept records of what I spent in a recent 5 month stint in a village outside Khon Kaen using an excel spreadsheet.

Average monthly expenditure for day to day items........

Shopping & Food 6150

Beer 2550

Cigarettes 1350

Petrol for motorbike 1320

Electricity, Gas & Water 420

Allowance for my Lady 5000

Total 16790

I have no rent costs, but during this period spent about 60,000 on the house and bought some furniture and other items.

Drinking and eating at home, but plenty of spare cash for nights out even if only have 30,000 per month.

She has 2 children

My actual total spend over the 5 month period was 190,000

Excuse me, i take your post as an example, because my upinion is that here people don't say all.

Your list seems very short to me. I have more or less same expenses as you in the categories you listed (except the allowance, i give 2.000 for family) but at the end my total is more than double than yours, why?

So you don't have:

- internet connection (so how can you speak to us?)

- TV cable or UBC

- health insurance for you and wife

- no children

- you don't buy plane tickets for holiday or go home sometimes

- never use hospitals, medicine etc

- no repair/change oil/tires for your motorbike

- never go restaurant

- no new clothes, shoes etc

- never buy a gift for anybody

- no visa needed

- you and wife don't own a mobile and don't need credit for it

and my list could go on and on.

I am not critic with you personally, i just want to say that here many forget about a lot expenses thay make during a month.

I am sure that your "real" expenses are at least the double, excluding extras like furniture etc. Am i right?

[mmushr00m]

Utilities - 1500

maintanance fee -1500

transport - 2000

food - 10k

Internet - 0 (included in maintenace fee)

health insurance - 0 (company provides)

cable - 0 (some channels provided and I dont watch enough TV to warrant getting cable)

phone - 300

Clothes - 1000 (hardly buy anything but I am sure it averages out to 1000 a month)

Gym fee - 1500

Entertainment including toys and the odd night out - 10k (on average thru a year, there are months when I behave myself)

Total = B28k a month for a pretty basic lifestyle

So technically I am living on less then 30k a month. BUT there are probably months when I surpasses that amount by quite a bit.

[Geekfreaklover]

30k is easy to live on if you have lived in thailand for a while. And if you are not supporting a third parties family. I managed to find a two bedroom townhouse in Sukhumvit, near the skytrain for 8k. so with bills, electricity and internet (I don't watch TV, so no UBC) it's 10k. Food is probably antoher 10k with the rest spent on beer and misc items, ink for the printer, stationary for working, telephone top ups, petrol etc. Not that much more than 30k, and I have two kids in school. School fees my father pays, so that is a big bonus.

Saying that I have in the past lived on 200k plus a month. Greediness on my part when business was good.

Easy to live on 30k. I reckon if I was living alone and stopped drinking then could probably get by on half of that. If you are a vegitarian then maybe less.

Edited June 6, 2009 by Geekfreaklover

[simonphuket]

Total = B28k a month for a pretty basic lifestyle

You're not paying any rent??

Hmm, let's see:

Rent - 6000

Electric - 500

Cable - 400

Tel+internet - 760

Mobile - 1500

Car - 9000

Petrol - 4500

Food - 8000

Clothes - 2000

Insurances/memberships - 3000

total of 36k, for me and my misses. Add another 10k/month for saving for 2 return tickets EU, visa every 3 months, and some other small expenses. Still, this is for 2 persons, and she has a decent job...

We are lucky with a low rent for a fairly big house and we both have minimum of 2 meals/day at work, free of charge. No siggies, and maybe 2 beers a day at home. Should add some for repair furniture, TV, camera, whatever unexpected costs...

[basjke]

I know of many people who live happily on a fraction of that cost and live in a nice village also.It is called paperbox village.

[Gaccha]

Just close these sort of topics. It's like:

A: "I like onions"

B: "I don't"

So who is right? Nobody its all up to oneself!

Mods-- the topic title needs to be changed to:

"status anxiety within transnational migration groupings to the periphery by self-identified cosmopolitans without resources"

Please make it so.

[Apecks]

theres no young teenage gangs roaming around and he can go for walks at night,and he doesnt have pyshiatric patients and druggies living in his building.

Now this is in Pattaya

Where in Pattaya does he stay? Maybe he needs to open his eyes a little

[spysee]

I have spent 15K only in one month here, but I dont pay rent. Some months I spend 5 times that. But I can see it can be easy to live on 30K a month. I have a friend from Germany who live on 30K a month in Bangkok.

[mmushr00m]

Total = B28k a month for a pretty basic lifestyle

You're not paying any rent??

No. no rent, bought a condo, hence the monthly maintenance fee

But if I was to rent, the going rental for a similar unit is 20k, so minus 1500 and add 20k to my budget

[Neeranam]

It all depends on how you want to live Yes 30,000 Baht is possible but for a normal family life with school fees , car etc i think 100,000 is nearer the mark

I pay about 10,000 on the car/month ,60,000 a year for school, one international trip a year(4 of us and that's the mot costly by far).

couldn't do it on 30,000 but need nowhere near 100,000. Can do it on 50,000 but 60,000 very comfortable in Khon Kaen but I would need 70/80 in Bangers

Edited June 7, 2009 by Neeranam