The Thai Shopping Basket......Cost Of Living ( And No Not That Again ).

[krisb]

it sounds like alot are paying alot. i mean if you took out not paying a mortgage like in the west, lots seem to paying similar prices for general living. would i be right saying this? even those outside bkk.

[rgs2001uk]

Excellent stuff overherebc!!...........looks like a pragmatic guide to me

How much would you expect to pay annually for property, vehicle and health insurance?

Depending on type of cover and company used, prices are about as follows,

property about 6 or 7k per year, some banks will give a discount if you pay for 3 years upfront, vehicle, dependant on model and if you have no claims lets say 15-20k per year, health again based on age and type of cover, lets say 25-30k per year for something half decent.

[overherebc]

The figures I quoted represent costs for an ex-pat diet and a general comfortable lifestyle at home. I eat very little Thai food, my wife also eats a lot of western style food, and I cook a lot myself. Most of the food is of a similar price to UK and some more expensive than UK because it's imported. Veggies etc I buy at the local corner shop. Go to a Thai restaurant in UK and order a Beer Singha.

Take out the mortgage payment I quoted at 8500 and then add what you pay for rent.

If I added in what we spend on wine, meals in a good restaurant in BKK when we stay there,the odd weekend away in Thailand, the weekend breaks in Saigon, Singapore or Macau etc etc I don't think I would like to see the final figure but those things are personnal choice and everyone is different.

[CHRISTIANa9]

After reading thru the thread, guess minimum is 30,000 baht per month.

[theblether]

I'll have the draft cost chart ready by Thursday at the latest......we can have a little fight about some of the details.

It wouldn't be TV if we didn't have a battle........any suggestions in the meantime are very welcome and many of the responses so far gave been excellent.

[krisb]

After reading thru the thread, guess minimum is 30,000 baht per month.

Id think that 30k is an absolute minimum for the folks that are living in Patts, Phuket, BKK and the likes. Seems almost expensive to me. 1 of the reasons I like Thailand is its cheap I like the quiet country so life its alot cheaper. although we arent there 8 months a year, its perhaps 15k a month... No mortgage we built and paid cash,.. ride bikes so no car but thats ok,..power bill maybe 1000b a month.., food comes from the local market and father in laws farm.., beer 400b a carton,..water we have a bore cost 30k setup,.. bit of fuel for bikes.., bottled water for me to drink is cheap,.. theres a few other bits and pieces like coke, chocolate whatever and fair enough I dont live there full time so it wont cost as much. Edited August 20, 2012 by krisb