I am relocating from the UK to Nong Bua Lamphu area of Thailand and was wondering what sort of money I would need to live happily. Would £400(UK) per week be sufficient ?

I could easily manage on £400/20,000Bt per month.

Should be more than enough, but depends on your lifestyle and how many snouts are in the trough

Define happily - Won't be long before the savages jump on this.

It's me my wife and 8 year old daughter that's moving from the UK to Thailand to the family home so just wanted some idea of living costs on a weekly or monthly basis. A source of income can give me approx £350 to £400 a week so was just wondering if this would be enough.

Define happily - Won't be long before the savages jump on this.

Define savages..... Do you mean the normal doom and gloom bridge-dwellers in TV?

It's me my wife and 8 year old daughter that's moving from the UK to Thailand to the family home so just wanted some idea of living costs on a weekly or monthly basis. A source of income can give me approx £350 to £400 a week so was just wondering if this would be enough.

All depends on what level of schooling you want for your daughter.....

£400, does that include schooling fees, rental fees etc etc? if so, i think it will be alittle tight

Define happily - Won't be long before the savages jump on this.

Define savages..... Do you mean the normal doom and gloom bridge-dwellers in TV?

As well as THE I can support my family for only 10K baht a month - or perhaps THE I can't possibly live for less than 200K baht a month. It's getting a little damp down here...................

It's me my wife and 8 year old daughter that's moving from the UK to Thailand to the family home so just wanted some idea of living costs on a weekly or monthly basis. A source of income can give me approx £350 to £400 a week so was just wondering if this would be enough.

who's family home? how many dependants? the car,the bike, the buffalo,and maybe,only maybe some family members you didnt know you had so untill all is revealed 20,000 should be enough.

Yeah, 80,000/month should be enough, although probably won't allow for much in the way of savings.

All depends on how you want to live though. Same as in the West. Some people live off $1500/month, while others spend $50,000/month.

You can do so. May not be so comfortable, home schooling, however, unless employed and in possession of work permit/visa, meeting minimum payment requirement, or in position of education then legally you will be unable to do so, and probably won't get a visa for your family

Define happily - Won't be long before the savages jump on this.

Being able to buy a few beers/day, without having the wife nagging about it?

You can do so. May not be so comfortable, home schooling, however, unless employed and in possession of work permit/visa, meeting minimum payment requirement, or in position of education then legally you will be unable to do so, and probably won't get a visa for your family

As he is moving to the Family home in Thailand, I think that it is reasonable to assume that his wife is Thai, so no visa necessary for her and probably the child.

Yes you can survive on that but your daughter won't go to an international school.

Schooling is highly overrated. If she's a daughter well then we know how they make can make money so no need to school them. I never even finished university and I"m already retired at 31.

Like many posts on this forum with similar questions, unless you give a lot more information it will be impossible to give accurate advice

Yes you can live on 20,000B a month but if your lifestyle demands it then you can only live on 100,000 or more a month.

Some of the few questions that need answering before one can give sensible advice would be:

Education requirements for the daughter (as previously stated)

Amount and type of vehicles you own and whether you are going to get 1st class insurance.

Do you and your wife like drinking (a lot) and want to go out a few evenings a month.

Do you plan to take holidays.

Do either or both smoke.

Is there any other sort of income i.e will you or your wife work.

Can you manage on Thai food only which is relatively cheap or will you buy Farang foods.

Do you need or want satelite TV and internet.

Do you plan to take out medical cover here.

Do you plan to live the more comfortable style as in the UK or are you willing to come down to the Thai way of living.

Will you be helping out/keeping other members of her family.

These are just a few questions and I am sure other forum members can come up with others.

Thailand is no longer as cheap as it was (though still so in comparison say to the UK) partly due the drop in value in exchange for the BP or Euro. To give an example, petrol for motorbikes has risen 100% in about 7 years.

Saying all that I live in rural Thailand with family and live a good life (we do not drink Alcohol) and I would say my costs per month is approx 60,000B, so with your 400BP per week (77,000B per month) should be ok but again as said before will maybe not leave much for savings or emergencies.

Hope your planned move goes well and you enjoy Thailand, even with all it's little quirks, as I do.

Yes, nobody on Thaivisa can survive on anything less than 400,000 baht per month.

I thought we already discussed this. Most guys here need the below.

Per month

Rent: 100,000 Baht

Food: 50,000 Baht (farang food only, imported milk and bread)

Electricity: 10,000 Baht

Alcohol: 30,000 baht (only drink German beer)

Holidays: 100,000 Baht (5 star hotels only)

Schooling: 100,000 Baht (need gold pens obviously)

Car: 100,000 Baht (Ferarri rental)

Then you can save about 20,000 per month and hope you dont get sick. So probably 700,000 baht per month is what most people on here are on.

Peace

The Govt states 40k a month for you to have for the visa, depending on your life-style that figure would be about right.

Consider the average Thai doesnt make in a month what you have in a week so without going crazy you should be just fine, certainly until you find your feet and your own level of living expenses etc.

Edited October 15, 201213 yr by CharlieH

Yeah, 80,000/month should be enough, although probably won't allow for much in the way of savings.

All depends on how you want to live though. Same as in the West. Some people live off $1500/month, while others spend $50,000/month.

I tried $50,000.00 a month, but I was not able to eat western food like i like too. Add it the cost of AC and a few nights out and i was way over that.

Yeah, 80,000/month should be enough, although probably won't allow for much in the way of savings.

All depends on how you want to live though. Same as in the West. Some people live off $1500/month, while others spend $50,000/month.

I tried $50,000.00 a month, but I was not able to eat western food like i like too. Add it the cost of AC and a few nights out and i was way over that.

I think you need to go on a diet Jack if $50,000.00 wasn't enough for you.

I love these threads. They bring very little value as everyone is different and everybody has different requirements / expectations. People think you can move here and live for virtually nothing. But what is not disclosed is that while you can exist on 20K bht a month that is not the norm as most westerners simply cannot go from how they were living to living like a Thai would. 20K baht for a Thai is doing well being that most only average 6 to 12k baht a month. It all seems so easy on paper but that is not the reality.

Good Luck but plan to spend double that in the long run.

Yes, nobody on Thaivisa can survive on anything less than 400,000 baht per month.

I thought we already discussed this. Most guys here need the below.

Per month

Rent: 100,000 Baht

Food: 50,000 Baht (farang food only, imported milk and bread)

Electricity: 10,000 Baht

Alcohol: 30,000 baht (only drink German beer)

Holidays: 100,000 Baht (5 star hotels only)

Schooling: 100,000 Baht (need gold pens obviously)

Car: 100,000 Baht (Ferarri rental)

Then you can save about 20,000 per month and hope you dont get sick. So probably 700,000 baht per month is what most people on here are on.

Peace

Beer. You forgot beer. And massages with happy endings. He'll never make it on your budget.

Back to a serious note. I never hear about home schooling on here. Is it not possible in LOS? In the US a lot of families do it because they don't think the schools are rigorous enough. It's accredited if you use a vendor. I could ask a neighbor how much they pay for the program. They have two kids doing it.

Some of the schooling is online, and the exams are online, and the results are online, but the kids study at home with adult supervision.

The home schooled kids get higher marks on college entrance exams than those who went to public school.

Edited October 15, 201213 yr by NeverSure

You cannot possibly live on less than 500,000 Baht per month.

It's me my wife and 8 year old daughter that's moving from the UK to Thailand to the family home so just wanted some idea of living costs on a weekly or monthly basis. A source of income can give me approx £350 to £400 a week so was just wondering if this would be enough.

I see that you are new to this forum. Unfortunately your question has attracted an above average amount of unhelpful replies.

I am sure that you will have no problem living here with that income, especially in that area and you have no rent to pay.

It is also a good idea to have some emergency capital.

You don't mention what the source of your income will be, are you absolutely sure that it is secure and dependable? It is no fun when your budget uses your full income and that income suddenly dries up.

I suspect that you may be considering renting out your house in the UK. If so, what happens if the house remains unoccupied for a while. What happens if the tenant stops paying rent? What happens about the unexpected cost of repairs if the tenant trashes the place?

I know about this, because I have been there.

Of course, you may be deriving your income in a different way, but it is still important to consider how safe that income is.

Good luck and I hope that things go well for you and you find a good life in Thailand