chiangmaikelly Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 As far as I am concerned, pretty much everything here in Thailand is far more expensive than 'back home', including cars, food/eating out, movies, drinks, hotel rooms etc etc. With food and drink, it does depend 'where' you are buying them of course. The only things that are still relatively 'cheap' is the food you buy in the street. Nonsense. Quail eggs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giddyup Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 As far as I am concerned, pretty much everything here in Thailand is far more expensive than 'back home', including cars, food/eating out, movies, drinks, hotel rooms etc etc. With food and drink, it does depend 'where' you are buying them of course. The only things that are still relatively 'cheap' is the food you buy in the street. Nonsense. Quail eggs. I agree, ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandman77 Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Fruit juice in Thailand have the double price then in my home country Austria one liter orange juice I can buy here for 69 euro cent one big box beer with 24 bottles 9,80€ I don't understand when Thailand have so many fruit! Water in Thailand have also the double price ! Problem is also the smaler size on 7 eleven products washing powder big c etc , when you buy larger size then price is cheaper then on 7 Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiangmaikelly Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Average wage in Australia? Average wage in Thailand? Do all the Thais walk around in rags and live in the jungle? It should be obvious if one has even half a brain. Thailand is cheaper by the same percent the minimum wage is cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tatsujin Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Average wage in Australia? Average wage in Thailand? Do all the Thais walk around in rags and live in the jungle? It should be obvious if one has even half a brain. Thailand is cheaper by the same percent the minimum wage is cheaper. I obviously forgot to put my half a brain in this morning . . . what the hell are you talking about? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiangmaikelly Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Average wage in Australia? Average wage in Thailand? Do all the Thais walk around in rags and live in the jungle? It should be obvious if one has even half a brain. Thailand is cheaper by the same percent the minimum wage is cheaper. I obviously forgot to put my half a brain in this morning . . . what the hell are you talking about? Econ 101 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billmont Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 True, but there's such a thing as a taste snob as well. Be surprised how many people will ooh and ah over a $5 wine served in a $50 bottle. It doesnt mean the 5$ wine sucks really badly. I enjoy both type but of course 95% of the time ill enjoy the 50$ more. People who've trained would be 100% accurate though. Some years ago the UK Sunday Times Wine Club arrange a blind tasting with a panel of experts for a range of wines from about £2 to £10 a bottle. It was no surprise to some, but a big surprise to the experts that they chose the 2nd and 3rd cheapest to be the best and expected them to be the most expensive. A few years ago a restauranteur who I got to know quite well used his annual vacation to visit New World Wineries to select his restaurants wines for the following year. He was a wine master and it was his hobby as well in part his business. His choice of wines were always excellent and inexpensive. Production overheads are always a large proportion of sale costs whatever the product and wine is certainly no exception. New world wines have much lower overheads for obvious reasons but this does not distract from the quality. A lot of wines are now sold in thinner glass bottles with screwtops greatly reducing the cost of the old style heavy wine bottles with an expensive original cork seal and the lighter bottles reduce trasportation costs. You do not have to be a wine snob buying expensive wine to enjoy, lower priced wines can be equally as good but careful selection is required. To keep to the OP, wine is certainly more expensive and not the best quality here in Thailand. A lot of items are more expensive here in Thailand but a lot of things are much cheaper.Overall I think it is still a lot cheaper to live in Thailand leading a similar lifestyle to that in the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaizoku Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 All manufactured goods that are not made in Thaïland are usually more expensive than in other country. What make the difference here is the cost of labour, so services are (usually) cheaper (massage, house cleaning, house keeper, builders ...) Now what I would buy more if cheaper : wine, cheese, liquor, good beer. What I'm very happy about price : fruits at the local market (and sometimes also in supermarket), local restaurant, 7/11, rent motorbike, gym. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikebell Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Paint. Even stuff produced in Thailand. There is a cartel fixing paint prices whatever the brand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isawasnake Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 What about buying in bulk. I laugh here sometimes, i mean what are they thinking. A small example is i believe right now at 7 the 2 pack of heiny costs more than buying 2 singles. It is the strangest stuff, really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NomadJoe Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Mt. Dew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericjt Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Property and income taxes are much lower or non-existent, depending on which country you're from. Some food products at open markets are priced pretty cheaply. And they're fresh and good. Same for food at food stalls. Fuel is lower than in some countries. And hiring labor is much lower than in the US or UK. You can hire a live in maid for a fraction of what it would cost in most western countries. Auto insurance is less. Same for medical care, cosmetic surgery, etc. Much lower in most parts of Thailand than in most western countries. Most medicines are also more easily available and much cheaper here. Many you can buy over the counter. No prescription needed, which is a hassle and an extra expense on top of the price of the meds back home. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BabyJebus Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 (edited) Average wage in Australia? Average wage in Thailand? Do all the Thais walk around in rags and live in the jungle? It should be obvious if one has even half a brain. Thailand is cheaper by the same percent the minimum wage is cheaper. I obviously forgot to put my half a brain in this morning . . . what the hell are you talking about? He's one of those guys who married a woman who did not speak english at all.. and now hes trying to convince you(to project it on himself) that thailand is actually cheap. Edited October 21, 2012 by LivinginKata racial slur removed - rule 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chads Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 As far as I am concerned, pretty much everything here in Thailand is far more expensive than 'back home', including cars, food/eating out, movies, drinks, hotel rooms etc etc. With food and drink, it does depend 'where' you are buying them of course. The only things that are still relatively 'cheap' is the food you buy in the street. Curious, where are you from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiangmaikelly Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Average wage in Australia? Average wage in Thailand? Do all the Thais walk around in rags and live in the jungle? It should be obvious if one has even half a brain. Thailand is cheaper by the same percent the minimum wage is cheaper. I obviously forgot to put my half a brain in this morning . . . what the hell are you talking about? He's one of those guys who married a woman who did not speak english at all.. and now hes trying to convince you(to project it on himself) that thailand is actually cheap. I speak Thai and my wife speaks English and 5 other languages. She is an engineer working for a multinational company on the East coast of Thailand. She just bought us a new home. I have a daughter and 3 grandchildren who live in Quebec. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giddyup Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Average wage in Australia? Average wage in Thailand? Do all the Thais walk around in rags and live in the jungle? It should be obvious if one has even half a brain. Thailand is cheaper by the same percent the minimum wage is cheaper. I obviously forgot to put my half a brain in this morning . . . what the hell are you talking about? He's one of those guys who married a woman who did not speak english at all.. and now hes trying to convince you(to project it on himself) that thailand is actually cheap. Rubbish! I live very well, own a 5 mil baht house, drive an Isuzu pickup and spend around 15,000 baht a month on food, electric and water. It would cost me less than half to live here than it does in Australia. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chads Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Average wage in Australia? Average wage in Thailand? Do all the Thais walk around in rags and live in the jungle? It should be obvious if one has even half a brain. Thailand is cheaper by the same percent the minimum wage is cheaper. I obviously forgot to put my half a brain in this morning . . . what the hell are you talking about? He's one of those guys who married a woman who did not speak english at all.. and now hes trying to convince you(to project it on himself) that thailand is actually cheap. Rubbish! I live very well, own a 5 mil baht house, drive an Isuzu pickup and spend around 15,000 baht a month on food, electric and water. It would cost me less than half to live here than it does in Australia. Same here! I'm from Singapore and sometimes it only costs me 10,000 baht a month to live here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BabyJebus Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 i could swear that i saw you post in a thread about your wife and you stated that the day you met her she could not speak a word of english. Since when is there 2 chiangmaikelly on the forum? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BabyJebus Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Average wage in Australia? Average wage in Thailand? Do all the Thais walk around in rags and live in the jungle? It should be obvious if one has even half a brain. Thailand is cheaper by the same percent the minimum wage is cheaper. I obviously forgot to put my half a brain in this morning . . . what the hell are you talking about? He's one of those guys who married a woman who did not speak english at all.. and now hes trying to convince you(to project it on himself) that thailand is actually cheap. Rubbish! I live very well, own a 5 mil baht house, drive an Isuzu pickup and spend around 15,000 baht a month on food, electric and water. It would cost me less than half to live here than it does in Australia. How? All your expenses in australia would be from mortgage and car loan So add those to your thai lifestyle and a 5mil baht house would bring your monthly payment to 35k add 10-15k for the car etc etc You're not comparing the same lifestyle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiangmaikelly Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 i could swear that i saw you post in a thread about your wife and you stated that the day you met her she could not speak a word of english. Since when is there 2 chiangmaikelly on the forum? Nope, not to my knowledge. There is a Chiangmai. My lady speaks English at work daily as she deals with technical people from all over the world. Our dog is multi lingual too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chads Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 How? All your expenses in australia would be from mortgage and car loan So add those to your thai lifestyle and a 5mil baht house would bring your monthly payment to 35k add 10-15k for the car etc etc You're not comparing the same lifestyle. Sorry I'd have to add that I don't own a home in either country. I've rented in both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F1fanatic Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 (edited) I'm sure it depends on where in Thailand you live - certainly as far as house prices are concerned! 5m bht for house/land (in popular areas) on Phuket is nothing nowadays and will buy you v little indeed other than a nice condo in a v built up area. Living fairly frugally on Phuket, I spend nearly 50,000 bht p.m. But admittedly, I choose to pay a relatively high rent for a nice location - which is still far less than I would pay in rent for something similar in the UK. I'm always amazed at those who are able to survive (happily) on 10-15k bht p.m. for all living expenses exc. rent. How much do you pay for health insurance/elec/internet access/mobile/TV programmes etc. etc.? I think others have summarised this fairly well - anything imported from the West is more expensive in Thailand, other basic essentials used by the Thais, are cheaper. Edited October 21, 2012 by F1fanatic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qdinthailand Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 (edited) WINE. i quit drinking wine over here 900baht for the mont claire 5liter. It's quite "ok".. after a while you forget what great wine tastes like Yeah, but would you ever buy a box of Mont Clair back home? And think that 910 - 980 baht equiv. in your currency made it a 'good bargain'? First time I sniffed the Mont Clair, almost gagged. It does get better over time, in that I no longer have a gage reflex when sniffing its 'bouquet'. I've also learned to just swallow - not sniff. I'm not sure that any wine in Thailand is worth it. I suspect that it is treated like old socks; it all sits in hot warehouses, or hot trucks, long before it sits in hot stores. And don't even suggest that the air-con environment at Big C/Makro/Tops/Rimping whatever is 'proper temperature' for keeping wine. If I wasn't under doctors orders to drink wine [instead of beer 55], I would probably give up wine drinking like barefoot. Edited October 21, 2012 by qdinthailand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F1fanatic Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 (edited) WINE. i quit drinking wine over here 900baht for the mont claire 5liter. It's quite "ok".. after a while you forget what great wine tastes like Yeah, but would you ever buy a box of Mont Clair back home? And think that 910 - 980 baht equiv. in your currency made it a 'good bargain'? First time I sniffed the Mont Clair, almost gagged. It does get better over time, in that I know longer have a gage reflex when sniffing its 'bouquet'. I've also learned to just swallow - not sniff. I'm not sure that any wine in Thailand is worth it. I suspect that it is treated like old socks; it all sits in hot warehouses, or hot trucks, long before it sits in hot stores. And don't even suggest that the air-con environment at Big C/Makro/Tops/Rimping whatever is 'proper temperature' for keeping wine. If I wasn't under doctors orders to drink wine [instead of beer 55], I would probably give up wine drinking like barefoot. You're right - I wouldn't have drunk Mont Clair in my own country. But we're in Thailand, where wine is outrageously expensive. So Mont Clair becomes acceptable . Edit - To look on the bright side - it takes a while, but eventually one gets used to a cheap wine rather than the expensive wine we are used to drinking. Edited October 21, 2012 by F1fanatic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qdinthailand Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 (snip)... slavery started long ago in the USA and still alive in other forms today. Excuse me? Slavery didn't start in the U.S. - just a continuation of practices going on since the beginning of time (like the Greeks and Romans didn't own slaves? they was war booty man!). Most of the slavers in Africa were Arabs - selling souls to the Europeans and north and south American boat owners operating in the Atlantic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qdinthailand Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 I am surprised this website hasn't been mentioned in this tread yet. Unless I missed it of course. Apologies if that's the case. I have done several comparisons so far and it seems to me that in most cases where it concerned everyday living in Thailand vs San Francisco and most other western city's, Thailand comes our Waaaaaaaaay less on terms of what it actually will cost in terms of lifestyles being similar. Actually a pretty broad demographic is represented and it's continually updated. With facts I presume. I hope it's ok to post the link here Mr Mod. My humble sorry if so. Please feel free to remove if so. Cheers http://www.numbeo.com/common/ Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app Facts! We don't need Facts! We have opinions to counter your facts. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F1fanatic Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 I am surprised this website hasn't been mentioned in this tread yet. Unless I missed it of course. Apologies if that's the case. I have done several comparisons so far and it seems to me that in most cases where it concerned everyday living in Thailand vs San Francisco and most other western city's, Thailand comes our Waaaaaaaaay less on terms of what it actually will cost in terms of lifestyles being similar. Actually a pretty broad demographic is represented and it's continually updated. With facts I presume. I hope it's ok to post the link here Mr Mod. My humble sorry if so. Please feel free to remove if so. Cheers http://www.numbeo.com/common/ Sent from my iPhone using ThaiVisa app Facts! We don't need Facts! We have opinions to counter your facts. And if you live in SF or 'several other US cities', I'm sure you're right. Meanwhile the rest of us who live elsewhere, will continue to post on what we find cheaper or more expensive... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Naam Posted October 21, 2012 Popular Post Share Posted October 21, 2012 those who claim that Thailand is more expensive than their home country have lived "there" and live "here" a rather modest life style and lack therefore the basis to compare. moreover, any comparison has to take into consideration which home country is referred to. -it goes without saying that the price of a home 80 miles north-west of Boise, Idaho on half an acre land might be cheaper than a bread-and-butter Baht 5million home on half a Rai in Phuket or Pattaya. but the same price (€UR 120k) does not even pay for a generous double garage or a tiny building plot near a metropolitan area of continental Europe. -if you are from Denmark, Germany or Belgium where the taxman claws 45-50% of your income before it arrives in your pockets and charges 19-28% VAT on goods and services you enjoy the zero income tax and the 7% VAT in Thailand. -when you were used to pay €12.50-15.00 (~500-600 Baht) per hour for a cleaning lady you happily pay 8-10,000 Baht per month for a maid/housekeeper who's average hourly earnings are tiny fraction in comparison. the list is endless but the afore-mentioned three examples make up for the priciest wine available in Thailand. the situation changes of course if you work in Thailand without an expat package and have to pay income tax and school fees for two children. but then the wine price does not matter because you can't afford even the cheapest concoction. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TommoPhysicist Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 (edited) I'm always amazed at those who are able to survive (happily) on 10-15k bht p.m. for all living expenses exc. rent. How much do you pay for health insurance/elec/internet access/mobile/TV programmes etc. etc.? Health insurance = 0 Elec =1,000bht Internet access =631bht Mobile = 30bht TV proggys = 0 (all downloaded) @Naam No wine, too poor to participate. Edited October 21, 2012 by TommoPhysicist Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EarthAlien Posted October 21, 2012 Share Posted October 21, 2012 Ive noticed things like fridges are quite a bit cheaper in Thailand than Australia. So are motorbikes and new cars. If you eat local and live local its alot cheaper. Fridges, white goods etc as well as motor scooters are definitely cheaper here,... but as for cars,.. you've got to be joking. They are a lot more expensive here, and try buying anything with an import label and you're likely to pay up to double for the same thing back home (certainly in the US and AU) Another poster mentioned that pizza was more expensive and yet I have found the opposite. I can take my wife and kids to Pizza Co. and get an extra large pizza, pasta, chicken wings, garlic bread for around 500bht ($17) same meal in Aus would cost at least $40 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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