How Much To Live In Isaan Really Cheap?

[jamescollister]

OP

finy

Having just fired our factory [small ] live in workers, we have no one on site at night. Not much of a place to live, big room, hard bed, free electric. 13 km south of the big city of Buntharik. Yours for free if you want.

Internet may be a problem as you would need a dongle or aircard..

Can throw in the use of a motorbike during the day, bikes are used at night for rubber tapping.

You won't spend much as there is nothing to buy. Jim

[manxninja]

nice to see some gentlemen left in the world. I spend around 3000 a day here but im on my hols. To be honest i think i would struggle on less than 20,000 a month the boredom of village life would send me insane. But hats of to those that can beats the Uk any time.

[cdmtdm]

on less than 20k a month is not living its just existing .... you will exist only until a real emergency arises .....

I have been doing just that for over 14 years; living that is, not just existing. Please explain what a "real emergency" is?

i take my hat off to you !!! ok what happens when you need specialist medical care , heart surgery , joint replacements , cancer etc etc... or you are involved in an accident and need to compensate or engage a law firm to avoid jail... or the cost of repair to damage on your vehicle and another if its the case ...or the exchange rate continues to drop on the euro / gbp/usd.... just a few to consider but use your imagination i am sure you can think of plenty more

[PattayaPhom]

Living cheaply, fan room, no women, cheap roadside food can be done almost anywhere in Thailand. Pattaya has rooms at 1,500, utilities same price throughout Thailand and an abundance of cheap food at 25 Baht upwards...No need to be out in the boonies to live cheaply.Only problem with tourist destinations is the temptation not to stick to strict living conditions.

[puchooay]

on less than 20k a month is not living its just existing .... you will exist only until a real emergency arises .....

I have been doing just that for over 14 years; living that is, not just existing. Please explain what a "real emergency" is?

i take my hat off to you !!! ok what happens when you need specialist medical care , heart surgery , joint replacements , cancer etc etc... or you are involved in an accident and need to compensate or engage a law firm to avoid jail... or the cost of repair to damage on your vehicle and another if its the case ...or the exchange rate continues to drop on the euro / gbp/usd.... just a few to consider but use your imagination i am sure you can think of plenty more

I have mentioned many times I am covered for medical care. Why would I need to compensate people or try to avoid jail? Again,I have motor insurance.

As for the exchange rate???? I don't really need to worry about that.

Anything else?

Edited August 21, 2012 by puchooay

[cdmtdm]

on less than 20k a month is not living its just existing .... you will exist only until a real emergency arises .....

I have been doing just that for over 14 years; living that is, not just existing. Please explain what a "real emergency" is?

i take my hat off to you !!! ok what happens when you need specialist medical care , heart surgery , joint replacements , cancer etc etc... or you are involved in an accident and need to compensate or engage a law firm to avoid jail... or the cost of repair to damage on your vehicle and another if its the case ...or the exchange rate continues to drop on the euro / gbp/usd.... just a few to consider but use your imagination i am sure you can think of plenty more

I have mentioned many times I am covered for medical care. Why would I need to compensate people or try to avoid jail? Again,I have motor insurance.

As for the exchange rate???? I don't really need to worry about that.

Anything else?

yes give us a breakdown of exactly where your money goes .... because i for one dont believe you....

[puchooay]

No rent or car payments. The only household bill is electric; no western stuff, as previously stated, so electric bill well under 1000baht. Daughter at Government school. She gets 25 baht a day. That leaves about 18500 baht a month. Couple of beers a day for me. Some petrol in the car and the motorbikes, don't use the car much. Food in the house. All bought from the local markets. Car, motorbike and health insurance averages in total about 1200 a month.

Done, and please don't call me a liar.

Edited August 21, 2012 by puchooay

[cdmtdm]

No rent or car payments. The only household bill is electric; no western stuff, as previously stated, so electric bill well under 1000baht. Daughter at Government school. She gets 25 baht a day. That leaves about 18500 baht a month. Couple of beers a day for me. Some petrol in the car and the motorbikes, don't use the car much. Food in the house. All bought from the local markets. Car, motorbike and health insurance averages in total about 1200 a month.

Done, and please don't call me a liar.

so you pay per year around 15,000 baht for car , motor bike and health insurance ? can you break that down a bit, what health cover for a family can u possibly have on that amount of money ... and what about car service , tires , rego for car, bike ....and house insurance and contents ....household repairs ...visas ..... i still think you are not revealing all ......if you were single and rode a bicycle , owned your own house and did sweet FA all day without any insurance cover i might start to believe you ....remember hundreds of TV members try to live here on a budget so we are all aware of what it takes ...

[patongphil]

Just today forked out 31,246 baht for my insurance and rego for my Toyota!!!! Must admit I lost my no claims bonus of 4,600 baht this year due to an altercation with a cow.

[rgs2001uk]

No rent or car payments. The only household bill is electric; no western stuff, as previously stated, so electric bill well under 1000baht. Daughter at Government school. She gets 25 baht a day. That leaves about 18500 baht a month. Couple of beers a day for me. Some petrol in the car and the motorbikes, don't use the car much. Food in the house. All bought from the local markets. Car, motorbike and health insurance averages in total about 1200 a month.

Done, and please don't call me a liar.

Would sure love to know what type of car insurance you have, it sure as hell aint chan neung or first class to the non Thai speakers.

Health insurance for three people, name of company please and type of cover offered.

I salute you, for about 14k a year you are able to cover all those things, I must be doing something wrong, or someone somewhere is ripping me off.

[TommoPhysicist]

No rent or car payments. The only household bill is electric; no western stuff, as previously stated, so electric bill well under 1000baht. Daughter at Government school. She gets 25 baht a day. That leaves about 18500 baht a month. Couple of beers a day for me. Some petrol in the car and the motorbikes, don't use the car much. Food in the house. All bought from the local markets. Car, motorbike and health insurance averages in total about 1200 a month.

Done, and please don't call me a liar.

so you pay per year around 15,000 baht for car , motor bike and health insurance ? can you break that down a bit, what health cover for a family can u possibly have on that amount of money ... and what about car service , tires , rego for car, bike ....and house insurance and contents ....household repairs ...visas ..... i still think you are not revealing all ......if you were single and rode a bicycle , owned your own house and did sweet FA all day without any insurance cover i might start to believe you ....remember hundreds of TV members try to live here on a budget so we are all aware of what it takes ...

As I am in a similar position, I will attempt a reply.

My car insurance is 900bht/year, car tax 900bht/year

M/c insurance 300bht/year, tax 100bht/year

Thais get free health care, so my family don't need insurance, I don't bother with health ins for me.

Hardly anyone bothers with house or contents insurance over here.

House repairs almost nothing, in the last two years I paid for two new shower hoses.

Tyres and servicing aren't done all that much, so minimal expense.

Edited August 21, 2012 by TommoPhysicist

[cdmtdm]

No rent or car payments. The only household bill is electric; no western stuff, as previously stated, so electric bill well under 1000baht. Daughter at Government school. She gets 25 baht a day. That leaves about 18500 baht a month. Couple of beers a day for me. Some petrol in the car and the motorbikes, don't use the car much. Food in the house. All bought from the local markets. Car, motorbike and health insurance averages in total about 1200 a month.

Done, and please don't call me a liar.

so you pay per year around 15,000 baht for car , motor bike and health insurance ? can you break that down a bit, what health cover for a family can u possibly have on that amount of money ... and what about car service , tires , rego for car, bike ....and house insurance and contents ....household repairs ...visas ..... i still think you are not revealing all ......if you were single and rode a bicycle , owned your own house and did sweet FA all day without any insurance cover i might start to believe you ....remember hundreds of TV members try to live here on a budget so we are all aware of what it takes ...

As I am in a similar position, I will attempt a reply.

My car insurance is 900bht/year, car tax 900bht/year

M/c insurance 300bht/year, tax 100bht/year

Thais get free health care, so my family don't need insurance, I don't bother with health ins for me.

Hardly anyone bothers with house or contents insurance over here.

House repairs almost nothing, in the last two years I paid for two new shower hoses.

Tyres and servicing aren't done all that much, so minimal expense.

Tommy what will happen one day when your really going to need first class medical care? not your family you ? ... as for house insurance sure if u dont have anything to steal well dont worry , your vehicle insurance is not 1st class and again one day when you wipe out a Thai perhpas u will learn the value of it ...service again unless u change your cars on a regular basis ( also a cost) one day it will bite u in the nuts ... as for the house if the house value is minimal agree why bother, if its not and you get hit by a decent storm the repairs become a cost ....

[jamescollister]

Good for all you that can get by on little, I can't, wife two kids, car payments, health insurance, electricity, house getting bigger bit by bit. We live on money made here, rubber and prices are well down. This month will get 80 to 90,000 Baht, sounds a lot, but when to take out things like I pads for the kids, Xmas in OZ and the list goes on.

Didn't move here so my wife, kids and I could live a hard life, could have done that in a 9 to 5 job back home. Came to have a good standard of living and that costs. Jim

[thehelmsman]

Living cheaply for some is like a badge of honor. They thrive on the fact that they can live so cheaply while others spend more. If the people in my village made my $$$ they would live much more extravagantly than I do. So its kinda funny to hear farang bragging about how little they spend. I wouldn't think of sending my lady and baby to a government hospital as others seem to think is OK. Oh well - what do I know..................

[Phronesis]

This is exactly why Thailand has strict immigration laws. Men wanting to live here on the cheap and give nothing back. Obviously your freelance writing doesn't pay well so why not stay where you are and get a real job. Thailand doesn't need more freeloaders.

What strict Immigration Laws Thailand have? Thailand doors are open for everyone.

When I was 22 years old I was also doing a lot of freelance work and hardly hit more then 20,000 Baht a month. Now after 20 years plus I am paying over 40,000 Baht in taxes every month for my freelance work. 3 weeks Isaan and 1 week Bangkok.

To the OP: Come over here and give it a try.

Mobile Content, I do not believe you...

If you are a freelancer then you are not subject to a "pay as you go salary tax". You would be raising your own invoices.

If you really did have the intelligence and dilligence to generate enough income to get anywhere near a 40000 THB tax bill, you would have (somewhere during your "20 years plus" as a freelancer) also had the intelligence and dilligence to set up a company in a zero tax jurisdiction from which to raise your invoices (thus eliminating your 40000TBH tax bill entirely).

Even if you were loath to set up a company in a zero tax jurisdiction, you could have, as a simple alternative, used the services of an umbrella company in HONG KONG to forward your invoices and deposit the payments into your tax free HSBC account (of course they charge a few percent of the invoice total for this service).

To the OP:

Perhaps you already have some Thai friends in rural Isaan. If so, you can offer to rent a room in one of their houses in the village for 1000THB a month. If a poorer village they would be grateful for the income. You can then buy sticky rice and some other produce from your fellow villagers (or perhaps even trade for some english lessons) and cook for youself in their outdoor kitchen. You can drink water from the village well (but make sure you boil it first) You can also forage for mushrooms, bamboo shoots, frogs, tadpoles, rats and insects, with your hosts. Fishing is also fun if you avoid the whiskey drinking. Once a week you can head into the internet shop in the nearest big village to upload your work and check on the outside world. Total living costs per month 2000THB. Cultural experience...priceless

Edited August 21, 2012 by Phronesis

[Thaddeus]

Living cheaply for some is like a badge of honor. They thrive on the fact that they can live so cheaply while others spend more. If the people in my village made my $$$ they would live much more extravagantly than I do. So its kinda funny to hear farang bragging about how little they spend. I wouldn't think of sending my lady and baby to a government hospital as others seem to think is OK. Oh well - what do I know..................

There are thirteen of us living in a shoe box in the middle of the road.

[CWMcMurray]

Living cheaply for some is like a badge of honor. They thrive on the fact that they can live so cheaply while others spend more. If the people in my village made my $$$ they would live much more extravagantly than I do. So its kinda funny to hear farang bragging about how little they spend. I wouldn't think of sending my lady and baby to a government hospital as others seem to think is OK. Oh well - what do I know..................

There are thirteen of us living in a shoe box in the middle of the road.

Oh yeah... Well there are 15 of us living in a matchbox

( sorry, I just couldn't resist)

[CWMcMurray]

Now for the serious answer to the OP..

You advise that you make 3k ((USD?) per month and want to save 3k in a month and a half....

That means spending 1,500 or 45,000 thb for 6 weeks

This is easily doing for a single guy in isarn or actually even on a beach bungalow on one of the islands ( depending on your tastes)

Life would actually not even be that hard...

[cooked]

Living cheaply for some is like a badge of honor. They thrive on the fact that they can live so cheaply while others spend more. If the people in my village made my $$$ they would live much more extravagantly than I do. So its kinda funny to hear farang bragging about how little they spend. I wouldn't think of sending my lady and baby to a government hospital as others seem to think is OK. Oh well - what do I know..................

There are thirteen of us living in a shoe box in the middle of the road.

roads? we would have thought ourselves lucky to have a road when I were a lad.

He isn't bragging, is he? He is a little surprised, as I am, at how much people (probably from humble origins) claim to need to live.

[SantiSuk]

I like to live below my means, so I welcome the counter-cultural celebration of living on the cheap as a relief from the look-at-me and must-borrow-to-get-the-latest-iphone culture.

[CWMcMurray]

Although in OPs situation, I would probably apply for a double entry tourist visa an then plan to spend 6 months bouncing around to different parts of Thailand ( a month here a month there), with a comfortable budget (for single guy not looking to party) of 30k per month saving usd 2 k per month

Then after 6 six months go from there...

Even possible to bump up living expenses to 45k if he likes to go out and party a bit and that would still allow him a decent savings over 6 month period

Edited August 22, 2012 by CWMcMurray

[DILLIGAD]

There are thirteen of us living in a shoe box in the middle of the road.

Are you from Yorkshire, C?

[cooked]

is the reference you are looking for.

[TommoPhysicist]

Tommy what will happen one day when your really going to need first class medical care? not your family you ? ... as for house insurance sure if u dont have anything to steal well dont worry , your vehicle insurance is not 1st class and again one day when you wipe out a Thai perhpas u will learn the value of it ...service again unless u change your cars on a regular basis ( also a cost) one day it will bite u in the nuts ... as for the house if the house value is minimal agree why bother, if its not and you get hit by a decent storm the repairs become a cost ....

Funny you should mention that, I might have to have my Gall Bladder removed, 30k in a government hospital, of 50k in a BK private hospital ...... cheap as chips.

As for car insurance, well my wife does most of the driving and no driving license, so the insurance is invalid anyway. PIckup is 20 years old and still goes, guess servicing isn't that important.

Her house on her land, nobody in the village has insurance, I guess it could burn, but not much risk of anything else.

Seems to me that people in the west are obsessive about insurance, nobody else in the world bothers that much.

Edited August 22, 2012 by TommoPhysicist

[DILLIGAD]

Seems to me that people in the west are obsessive about insurance, nobody else in the world bothers that much.

Until you kill a local !

[TommoPhysicist]

Seems to me that people in the west are obsessive about insurance, nobody else in the world bothers that much.

Until you kill a local !

How many locals did you manage to kill in your home country?

[NewlyMintedThai]

Tommy what will happen one day when your really going to need first class medical care? not your family you ? ... as for house insurance sure if u dont have anything to steal well dont worry , your vehicle insurance is not 1st class and again one day when you wipe out a Thai perhpas u will learn the value of it ...service again unless u change your cars on a regular basis ( also a cost) one day it will bite u in the nuts ... as for the house if the house value is minimal agree why bother, if its not and you get hit by a decent storm the repairs become a cost ....

Funny you should mention that, I might have to have my Gall Bladder removed, 30k in a government hospital, of 50k in a BK private hospital ...... cheap as chips.

As for car insurance, well my wife does most of the driving and no driving license, so the insurance is invalid anyway. PIckup is 20 years old and still goes, guess servicing isn't that important.

Her house on her land, nobody in the village has insurance, I guess it could burn, but not much risk of anything else.

Seems to me that people in the west are obsessive about insurance, nobody else in the world bothers that much.

Why doesn't she get a drivers license??

[TommoPhysicist]

Why doesn't she get a drivers license??

How would I know?

Ever tried getting sense from a woman?

[NewlyMintedThai]

Why doesn't she get a drivers license??

How would I know?

Ever tried getting sense from a woman?

Nice.

[cdmtdm]

Tommy what will happen one day when your really going to need first class medical care? not your family you ? ... as for house insurance sure if u dont have anything to steal well dont worry , your vehicle insurance is not 1st class and again one day when you wipe out a Thai perhpas u will learn the value of it ...service again unless u change your cars on a regular basis ( also a cost) one day it will bite u in the nuts ... as for the house if the house value is minimal agree why bother, if its not and you get hit by a decent storm the repairs become a cost ....

Funny you should mention that, I might have to have my Gall Bladder removed, 30k in a government hospital, of 50k in a BK private hospital ...... cheap as chips.

As for car insurance, well my wife does most of the driving and no driving license, so the insurance is invalid anyway. PIckup is 20 years old and still goes, guess servicing isn't that important.

Her house on her land, nobody in the village has insurance, I guess it could burn, but not much risk of anything else.

Seems to me that people in the west are obsessive about insurance, nobody else in the world bothers that much.

well i guess you wont have to worry soon, seeing you are going to have major surgery in a public hospital ..good luck with that !!! make sure its your gall bladder they take out btw ....