How Much Do You Spend Per Month ?

[mikethevigoman]

some people got mad at me in another thread when i said i spend 100k baht a month on average. i didnt really think this figure was very high and would expect many farang spend more than that (someone has to be renting those pent house condos).

so two questions

1. how much do you spend per month?

2. why do people get angry when you say that you spend a certain amount?

1/ same as you approx,

2/ jealousy ?

[Peter Bysouth]

some people got mad at me in another thread when i said i spend 100k baht a month on average. i didnt really think this figure was very high and would expect many farang spend more than that (someone has to be renting those pent house condos).

so two questions

1. how much do you spend per month?

2. why do people get angry when you say that you spend a certain amount?

Because you are spending too much. To live comfortable I average about 50K a month sometimes less sometimes more. If you have a steady and don,t keep paying bar fines and short time for a pump and dump, you can live well on smaller amounts.

[lazeeboy]

some people got mad at me in another thread when i said i spend 100k baht a month on average. i didnt really think this figure was very high and would expect many farang spend more than that (someone has to be renting those pent house condos).

so two questions

1. how much do you spend per month?

2. why do people get angry when you say that you spend a certain amount?

i go through on average 90,000b a month for food,family ,entertaianment,utilitysand refurbishment to my house .

[kankaroo]

Are you guys for real ????

I couldn't even imagine getting by on less than 100,000 baht PER DAY !

Sometimes I'll even spend that in an afternoon.

What is this, the third world or something ?

[Naam]

2. why do people get angry when you say that you spend a certain amount?

Because you are spending too much.

people get angry when somebody else spends too much? what logic!

[track61]

some people got mad at me in another thread when i said i spend 100k baht a month on average. i didnt really think this figure was very high and would expect many farang spend more than that (someone has to be renting those pent house condos).

so two questions

1. how much do you spend per month?

2. why do people get angry when you say that you spend a certain amount?

I don't know why your previous thread got flamed. I started to answer it and then noticed it was "closed." So I'll give you my comparison between living in the USA and living in Thailand. I'm in a rather unique position to comment on it since I live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for six months of the year and Bangkok the other six months. Santa Fe is on the high end of the cost of living scale in the USA, primarily because the city became "Californicated" a number of years ago. A number of Hollywood types live there, including Steven Spielburg, Jane Fonda and Shirley MacLaine. The Californians drove the property prices up so the average home in Santa Fe is now selling about about $425,000. My Thai partner and I spend about $4,000 a month living in Santa Fe. We have a 2,000 square foot house on a large lot just north of Santa Fe. The home is free and clear as is our car. When we are in Bangkok, we rent out the home to short-term renters for $2,400 a month furnished. We could get more but we do a thorough vetting of our renters to avoid headaches while we are overseas. So my expenses really cover utilities, gas for the car, food, and entertainment. We go out to dinner an average of three times a week and I like expensive Scotch. My partner does not spend much money and her tastes in clothing and jewelry are very modest, which is fortunate because you can spend a fortune on clothes and jewelry here.

In Bangkok, we have a nice full-service condo in the Rama IV area. We go out for dinner about 3-4 nights a week, usually at local restaurants. We don't bar-hop. We occasionally entertain. We don't own a car in Bkk, preferring to use public transportation or a taxi. Our expenses average about 60,000 baht a month.

Since I'm a double-dipping retiree (military and U.S. law enforcement), we have $4,800 USD in secure monthly income. Add the $2,400 in rent we get from our U.S. home, and we are at $7,200 USD per month. In addition, I do consulting and training under several government contracts and with private firms. I also have a substantial investment portfolio but we roll-over the income from our stocks and bonds to increase our investment wealth and also to have money on hand in case of a health emergency.

Those are a lot of numbers to digest, but that gives you an idea of my income and my overall expenses. Obviously we could live well beyond the 100,000 baht level you talk about. But why? We are very happy with our lifestyle.

So, I'm wondering 3 things:

1. Does your own personal income(so minutely detailed for us) answer the OP's question?

2. What makes you think anyone, other than maybe your wife/GF/Mia Noi/etc., remotely cares how much money you make?

3. What motivates you to post such personal data for the world to see?

One thing about TV, I never ceased to be amazed by some of the stuff I read here. Thanks for the info.

[Ijustwannateach]

My cardboard box is free, and my students throw rice at me. What do I need money for?

[seonai]

well i can live quite comfortably on 40, 000 baht a month on Phuket

depends on what u r used to

[007]

some people got mad at me in another thread when i said i spend 100k baht a month on average. i didnt really think this figure was very high and would expect many farang spend more than that (someone has to be renting those pent house condos) ...

You're right! It's not excessive spending. A hundred thousand baht per month equals just 3,300 baht a day: 300 baht for hotel, 100 baht for taxi, 300 baht beer tab, 2,000 baht having two gals short-time in the late morning and evening, respectively. 600 baht for bar fine for one of the girls (morning girl being a freelancer). Sum: 3,300 baht...

[Furbie]

i spend 500 Baht a month. 150 for a haircut (tip included) and 350 for manicure and pedicure (tip included). otherwise no expenditure at all.

Dr. Naam, you are my hero.

did i mention that my wife does all the spending?

The cost of my haircuts has gone up. It was 20 baht and is now 25 baht. I go to my favorite watering hole about once a week. A big bottle of Archa beer costs 30 baht there and I normally drink three bottles. If I am in a festive mood I will drink four bottles. I used to get a haircut once a month but since the price has gone up, I get it cut every five weeks. I reckon for a month I have change left over from 500 baht. I almost forgot, sometimes I run out of cigarettes when I am drinking so I must buy a pack there. That adds another 46 baht so there is no change left from my 500 baht. That's how much I spend.

Life is way too short to drink Archa beer, even at 30 baht a bottle.

[backflip]

"The home is free and clear as is our car."

I eat free-range chicken. Is that the same concept?

[Naam]

some people got mad at me in another thread when i said i spend 100k baht a month on average. i didnt really think this figure was very high and would expect many farang spend more than that (someone has to be renting those pent house condos).

so two questions

1. how much do you spend per month?

2. why do people get angry when you say that you spend a certain amount?

I don't know why your previous thread got flamed. I started to answer it and then noticed it was "closed." So I'll give you my comparison between living in the USA and living in Thailand. I'm in a rather unique position to comment on it since I live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for six months of the year and Bangkok the other six months. Santa Fe is on the high end of the cost of living scale in the USA, primarily because the city became "Californicated" a number of years ago. A number of Hollywood types live there, including Steven Spielburg, Jane Fonda and Shirley MacLaine. The Californians drove the property prices up so the average home in Santa Fe is now selling about about $425,000. My Thai partner and I spend about $4,000 a month living in Santa Fe. We have a 2,000 square foot house on a large lot just north of Santa Fe. The home is free and clear as is our car. When we are in Bangkok, we rent out the home to short-term renters for $2,400 a month furnished. We could get more but we do a thorough vetting of our renters to avoid headaches while we are overseas. So my expenses really cover utilities, gas for the car, food, and entertainment. We go out to dinner an average of three times a week and I like expensive Scotch. My partner does not spend much money and her tastes in clothing and jewelry are very modest, which is fortunate because you can spend a fortune on clothes and jewelry here.

In Bangkok, we have a nice full-service condo in the Rama IV area. We go out for dinner about 3-4 nights a week, usually at local restaurants. We don't bar-hop. We occasionally entertain. We don't own a car in Bkk, preferring to use public transportation or a taxi. Our expenses average about 60,000 baht a month.

Since I'm a double-dipping retiree (military and U.S. law enforcement), we have $4,800 USD in secure monthly income. Add the $2,400 in rent we get from our U.S. home, and we are at $7,200 USD per month. In addition, I do consulting and training under several government contracts and with private firms. I also have a substantial investment portfolio but we roll-over the income from our stocks and bonds to increase our investment wealth and also to have money on hand in case of a health emergency.

Those are a lot of numbers to digest, but that gives you an idea of my income and my overall expenses. Obviously we could live well beyond the 100,000 baht level you talk about. But why? We are very happy with our lifestyle.

So, I'm wondering 3 things:

1. Does your own personal income(so minutely detailed for us) answer the OP's question?

2. What makes you think anyone, other than maybe your wife/GF/Mia Noi/etc., remotely cares how much money you make?

3. What motivates you to post such personal data for the world to see?

One thing about TV, I never ceased to be amazed by some of the stuff I read here. Thanks for the info.

i'm neither related nor affiliated with Farang Prince but i found his breakdown quite interesting as it gives me some insight about the life style of my fellow TV-members. interesting is also that no negative reactions can be seen when another fellow posts:

"ah lives on six thousand baht a month, me socks are 8 years old and have holes, me breakfast is 12 baht and ah never spend no mo' than 35 Baht (tip included) for "dinner". bar fines? what the eff? ah screws whatever is not up on a tree till the count of three."

[farang prince]

Honesty is a bitch sometimes Track61. When I post on Thai Visa, I always try to be as open and honest as possible. Why hide anything? If for some reason you resent my honesty, or resent my lifestyle, then deal with it. And Dr. Naam is right...it is interesting to see how other people live in LOS. I admire everyone who has made the decision to create a life for themselves here. It isn't always easy and we all can learn from both our mistakes and our successes.

[astral]

I have added a Poll to make it easier to get a general picture of member's expenditure.

[rgs2001uk]

some people got mad at me in another thread when i said i spend 100k baht a month on average. i didnt really think this figure was very high and would expect many farang spend more than that (someone has to be renting those pent house condos).

so two questions

1. how much do you spend per month?

2. why do people get angry when you say that you spend a certain amount?

I don't know why your previous thread got flamed. I started to answer it and then noticed it was "closed." So I'll give you my comparison between living in the USA and living in Thailand. I'm in a rather unique position to comment on it since I live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for six months of the year and Bangkok the other six months. Santa Fe is on the high end of the cost of living scale in the USA, primarily because the city became "Californicated" a number of years ago. A number of Hollywood types live there, including Steven Spielburg, Jane Fonda and Shirley MacLaine. The Californians drove the property prices up so the average home in Santa Fe is now selling about about $425,000. My Thai partner and I spend about $4,000 a month living in Santa Fe. We have a 2,000 square foot house on a large lot just north of Santa Fe. The home is free and clear as is our car. When we are in Bangkok, we rent out the home to short-term renters for $2,400 a month furnished. We could get more but we do a thorough vetting of our renters to avoid headaches while we are overseas. So my expenses really cover utilities, gas for the car, food, and entertainment. We go out to dinner an average of three times a week and I like expensive Scotch. My partner does not spend much money and her tastes in clothing and jewelry are very modest, which is fortunate because you can spend a fortune on clothes and jewelry here.

In Bangkok, we have a nice full-service condo in the Rama IV area. We go out for dinner about 3-4 nights a week, usually at local restaurants. We don't bar-hop. We occasionally entertain. We don't own a car in Bkk, preferring to use public transportation or a taxi. Our expenses average about 60,000 baht a month.

Since I'm a double-dipping retiree (military and U.S. law enforcement), we have $4,800 USD in secure monthly income. Add the $2,400 in rent we get from our U.S. home, and we are at $7,200 USD per month. In addition, I do consulting and training under several government contracts and with private firms. I also have a substantial investment portfolio but we roll-over the income from our stocks and bonds to increase our investment wealth and also to have money on hand in case of a health emergency.

Those are a lot of numbers to digest, but that gives you an idea of my income and my overall expenses. Obviously we could live well beyond the 100,000 baht level you talk about. But why? We are very happy with our lifestyle.

So, I'm wondering 3 things:

1. Does your own personal income(so minutely detailed for us) answer the OP's question?

2. What makes you think anyone, other than maybe your wife/GF/Mia Noi/etc., remotely cares how much money you make?

3. What motivates you to post such personal data for the world to see?

One thing about TV, I never ceased to be amazed by some of the stuff I read here. Thanks for the info.

i'm neither related nor affiliated with Farang Prince but i found his breakdown quite interesting as it gives me some insight about the life style of my fellow TV-members. interesting is also that no negative reactions can be seen when another fellow posts:

"ah lives on six thousand baht a month, me socks are 8 years old and have holes, me breakfast is 12 baht and ah never spend no mo' than 35 Baht (tip included) for "dinner". bar fines? what the eff? ah screws whatever is not up on a tree till the count of three."

good afternoon good doctor, glad to see the surgery is open for business as usual, and pearls of wisdom are the prescription of the day. me thinks you have way too much time on your hands, you are way too observant, but as usual hit the nail on the head. so cynical for one so young

[Naam]

good afternoon good doctor, glad to see the surgery is open for business as usual

am i really THAT bad?

[Naam]

Honesty is a bitch sometimes Track61. When I post on Thai Visa, I always try to be as open and honest as possible. Why hide anything? If for some reason you resent my honesty, or resent my lifestyle, then deal with it. And Dr. Naam is right...it is interesting to see how other people live in LOS. I admire everyone who has made the decision to create a life for themselves here. It isn't always easy and we all can learn from both our mistakes and our successes.

for me it is indeed interesting to know on what people are spending in Thailand 200k a month as well as how it is possible to lead a satisfactory life on a fraction of this amount. it is in my (not so) humble opinion not an art to spend 200k or much more (any dummy is able to do that IF the money is there) but for a farang i consider it an art to live on 20k or even less monthly. and let me assure you... i don't look down on the latter but i admire them!

[JOHN2]

I'm not here to scrimp aand save,what's the point in that??

I never keep count of what i spend but overall including all my overheads money to the gf and her family,plus i'm out almost every night i would say around 250k per month, if not more.

[xyborg]

I spend about 450000 per month 400000 of which goes on drugs, women ,beer and gas.

[farang prince]

I spend about 450000 per month 400000 of which goes on drugs, women ,beer and gas.

If you are spending that much on drugs, women, beer and gas, I hope you set aside another 1,000,000 for your Thai defense attorney.

[xyborg]

Dont be ridiculous, I am a Thai defense attorney tsk tsk!!

[Ijustwannateach]

As I've said on the last half-dozen reincarnations of this thread, I lived moderately happily for a year on an average monthly wage of 23K, factoring out costs related to my employer cheating me. Then I figured, who needs rent? Who needs running water?

Caveats: the only things that I couldn't really do on that wage were pay for insurance or save money. Both were medium to long range concerns; if you're very young it doesn't matter as much but I'm no longer (sob!) so very young...

"S"

[NovaBlue05]

After paying my mortgage....about 35-40K THB/mo. But I live in a major eastern US city so it's much cheaper than Thailand .

[farang prince]

As I've said on the last half-dozen reincarnations of this thread, I lived moderately happily for a year on an average monthly wage of 23K, factoring out costs related to my employer cheating me. Then I figured, who needs rent? Who needs running water?

Caveats: the only things that I couldn't really do on that wage were pay for insurance or save money. Both were medium to long range concerns; if you're very young it doesn't matter as much but I'm no longer (sob!) so very young...

"S"

Ah, but you are like fine wine...getting better with age.

[jetjock]

Are you guys for real ????

I couldn't even imagine getting by on less than 100,000 baht PER DAY !

Sometimes I'll even spend that in an afternoon.

What is this, the third world or something ?

I couldn't help notice you are from Scotland so I can understand by the dictionary definition of Scotch why you are able to get by on such a meager amount !

Dictionary definition for Scotch.

Scotch (skŏch)

n.

(used with a pl. verb) The people of Scotland.

Scots.

Scotch whisky.

adj.

Scottish. See Usage Note at Scottish.

Offensive. Frugal with one's money.

[backflip]

"...I'll give you my comparison between living in the USA and living in Thailand. I'm in a rather unique position to comment on it since I live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for six months of the year and Bangkok the other six months.""

What does THAT have to do with how much you spend in Thailand?

"Santa Fe is on the high end of the cost of living scale in the USA, primarily because the city became "Californicated" a number of years ago. A number of Hollywood types live there, including Steven Spielburg, Jane Fonda and Shirley MacLaine. The Californians drove the property prices up so the average home in Santa Fe is now selling about about $425,000."

Just because some people from CA bought property in Santa Fe doesn't make it California. The average house price in Santa Fe is somewhat less than 300K USD. Since you didn't mention the price of YOUR home, we can assume that it is worth substantially less than the average. If you're going to compare Santa Fe to California, Santa Fe would be Modesto, a very modest farming community in the Central Valley. There is a big difference, though. If you drive a couple hours from Modesto, you're in San Francisco, and you can enjoy the culture. If you drive from Santa Fe, you can find yourself in Albuquerque. Woohoo! It's Modesto without the culture.

"My Thai partner and I..."

Oh, brother.

"I like expensive Scotch."

And rainbows and unicorns. Scented candles are a favorite, I bet.

"I'm a double-dipping retiree (military and U.S. law enforcement)..."

Semper Fi, bro.

"Those are a lot of numbers to digest..."

Frankly, I'm ready to throw up, much less digest your fantasy.

[alexth]

From what I can see from the poll, it looks like farangs like to party a lot

[farang prince]

"...I'll give you my comparison between living in the USA and living in Thailand. I'm in a rather unique position to comment on it since I live in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for six months of the year and Bangkok the other six months.""

What does THAT have to do with how much you spend in Thailand?

"Santa Fe is on the high end of the cost of living scale in the USA, primarily because the city became "Californicated" a number of years ago. A number of Hollywood types live there, including Steven Spielburg, Jane Fonda and Shirley MacLaine. The Californians drove the property prices up so the average home in Santa Fe is now selling about about $425,000."

Just because some people from CA bought property in Santa Fe doesn't make it California. The average house price in Santa Fe is somewhat less than 300K USD. Since you didn't mention the price of YOUR home, we can assume that it is worth substantially less than the average. If you're going to compare Santa Fe to California, Santa Fe would be Modesto, a very modest farming community in the Central Valley. There is a big difference, though. If you drive a couple hours from Modesto, you're in San Francisco, and you can enjoy the culture. If you drive from Santa Fe, you can find yourself in Albuquerque. Woohoo! It's Modesto without the culture.

"My Thai partner and I..."

Oh, brother.

"I like expensive Scotch."

And rainbows and unicorns. Scented candles are a favorite, I bet.

"I'm a double-dipping retiree (military and U.S. law enforcement)..."

Semper Fi, bro.

"Those are a lot of numbers to digest..."

Frankly, I'm ready to throw up, much less digest your fantasy.

Gee, Backflip, I guess we won't be trading Christmas cards this year. Make sure you get your rabies shot.

Edited October 27, 2007 by farang prince

[ZukiSuzuki]

"My Thai partner and I..."

Oh, brother.

"I like expensive Scotch."

And rainbows and unicorns. Scented candles are a favorite, I bet.

"I'm a double-dipping retiree (military and U.S. law enforcement)..."

Semper Fi, bro.

"Those are a lot of numbers to digest..."

Frankly, I'm ready to throw up, much less digest your fantasy.

[ZukiSuzuki]

From what I can see from the poll, it looks like farangs like to party a lot

Or lie.