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Has Anyone Noticed How Expensive It Is To Live In Isaan These Days?


kristophon

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Hey,

What about US and Europé?

i would imagine its pretty much the same story.... my german colleague never stops wingin about the price of eggs...

Are you sure the inflation rate is roughly 33% over 7 years?

nat.... thats a bit of a guesstimate, as you can see, based on the price of Leo beer...

Edited by kristophon
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Are you married with Tesco or are you just visiting it because your a British and Tesco is British?

i married tesco...
I'm divorced from Tesco!!

For the record...I hate the F+++++g place!!

False prices! False promises! 1% club card points for for double the price crap - Yipee!!!!

As much horse meat as you can eat!

They are taking over the world, they are Alien W+++++s.

They failed in America which is a shame, they would probaly enjoy the horse burgers.

Tesco is British but not in our name!!!!!!!

CCC

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for me there are and have been many solid reasons to live in Thailand however purchasing consumer goods at a value price has never been one of them

what like mongering mr soi nana cowboy?...clap2.gif

Edited by kristophon
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Personally, I agree with many that the price of a lot of consumables / food & drink items in Thailand now is uncompetitive to say the least. Even where things are cheaper, then it is more like a 10-20% difference, than pennies on the pound. Rents are much cheaper, and for me, that is the biggest saving. I can and do live cheaper in Europe than I do in Thailand (in Hua Hin, where I am based). Being an outright owner of property in Europe makes one hell of a difference to the cost of living there!

However...

Shopping I Thailand can be an art form in itself. Take Tescos (against whom I have no gripes as such). If I buy Heinz Tomato Ketchup, spelled like that, I pay about 150bt a bottle. If I buy it with Thai script on the front, and 'Heinz' on the back, then it is 32bt.

Similarly cheese, and any other imported products - astronomically expensive.

So the lesson is pretty clear - eating 'comfort' foods will cost you dear. Learn to eat local products and if you *must* eat (for eg.) bacon, then learn to make your own!

Edited by korkenzieher
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Personally, I agree with many that the price of a lot of consumables / food & drink items in Thailand now is uncompetitive to say the least. Even where things are cheaper, then it is more like a 10-20% difference, than pennies on the pound. Rents are much cheaper, and for me, that is the biggest saving. I can and do live cheaper in Europe than I do in Thailand (in Hua Hin, where I am based). Being an outright owner of property in Europe makes one hell of a difference to the cost of living there!

However...

Shopping I Thailand can be an art form in itself. Take Tescos (against whom I have no gripes as such). If I buy Heinz Tomato Ketchup, spelled like that, I pay about 150bt a bottle. If I buy it with Thai script on the front, and 'Heinz' on the back, then it is 32bt.

Similarly cheese, and any other imported products - astronomically expensive.

So the lesson is pretty clear - eating 'comfort' foods will cost you dear. Learn to eat local products and if you *must* eat (for eg.) bacon, then learn to make your own!

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo pigs in my garden, noooooooooooo, thats final. coffee1.gif

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Personally, I agree with many that the price of a lot of consumables / food & drink items in Thailand now is uncompetitive to say the least. Even where things are cheaper, then it is more like a 10-20% difference, than pennies on the pound. Rents are much cheaper, and for me, that is the biggest saving. I can and do live cheaper in Europe than I do in Thailand (in Hua Hin, where I am based). Being an outright owner of property in Europe makes one hell of a difference to the cost of living there!

However...

Shopping I Thailand can be an art form in itself. Take Tescos (against whom I have no gripes as such). If I buy Heinz Tomato Ketchup, spelled like that, I pay about 150bt a bottle. If I buy it with Thai script on the front, and 'Heinz' on the back, then it is 32bt.

Similarly cheese, and any other imported products - astronomically expensive.

So the lesson is pretty clear - eating 'comfort' foods will cost you dear. Learn to eat local products and if you *must* eat (for eg.) bacon, then learn to make your own!

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo pigs in my garden, noooooooooooo, thats final. coffee1.gif

i know!... they`ll be growin cabbages next....

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As John Williams of ShadowStats.com has explained, the CPI used to be "measured using the costs of a fixed basket of goods”, but later changes in methodology were based on the argument

that when steak got too expensive, the consumer would substitute hamburger for the steak, and that the inflation measure should reflect the costs tied to buying hamburger versus steak, instead of steak versus steak. Of course, replacing hamburger for steak in the calculations would reduce the inflation rate, but it represented the rate of inflation in terms of maintaining a declining standard of living. Cost of living was being replaced by the cost of survival. The old system told you how much you had to increase your income in order to keep buying steak. The new system promised you hamburger, and then dog food, perhaps, after that."

http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts

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There is rampant inflation happening everywhere in the world today, or so I gather from the news, and anecdotal accounts by TV members reporting from their respective home countries. Every trip I make back to the USA, I am shocked at the skyrocketing prices of everything, in just a few short years. Thailand is still a relatively inexpensive place to live. There's talk lately of the baht soon to take a dive. So what? Prices will really take off the other way (UP, with a bullet in the charts!) when that happens.

And how can anyone in good conscience begrudge someone a minimum wage of 300 baht daily? And furthermore, to blame THAT factor for the upwardly spiraling cost of your favorite imported foods at Rimping and Tesco! Get real.

Unfortunatley in this world there are far too many people who think only of themselves.

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You are not being told the truth.

My wife gets 200 baht a day for food and that includes 50 baht to each of my kids for their school snacks. She also buys petrol with that. This puts a substantial meal for 4 on our dinner table, with plenty left for the 3 dogs.

-

Our daily food budget is 170 without the fuel or kids pocket money, and that's for 6-7 in the house. In addition to that I'll spend 500 or so on a weekly trip for milk, eggs cleaning supplies etc.

But that's from the cheapest wet market in town, and it is skimping by farang standards for sure, most foreigners would require at least double that, and still wouldn't be getting food they're used to.

Two years ago 100 baht was sufficient, basic fruit/veg/meat prices have gone up that much.

Of course nothing to do with Isaan in particular, in that respect Bangkok is actually cheaper than upcountry.

wow... your mrs must really feel like she hit the jackpot ay...
Firstly, my Mrs didn't marry me for financial reasons. I feel like I hit the jackpot. She comes from a modest family, as I do and knows the value of money. I guess maybe others here married rich middle-class Thai women?

I'd say we are a pretty normal family with a budget. Certainly not 'kee neeiow' but just 'prayaat'. Seems like many farang are extravagant or have extravagant wives.

I pay about an average of 6,000 baht a month in the supermarket for things like rice, cheese, toiletries, stuff for the house. Also about 3,000 a month in Makro on drinks and snacks.

I pay about 10,000 baht a month on my kids' private school. Would it be better to be extravagant and put them to the temple school?

I give my wife 10,000 baht a month for other things although she is saving most of that for the future.

I also try to put 10-20k aside for the future when I can.

We went to Scotland last year which cost 200,000 baht on flights alone.

We just bought a house for just over 2.5 million baht, have a paid up up car and brand new motorbike.

For 100 baht my wife can buy some chicken and make lasagna, spaghetti bolognaise, pizza, stew, soup, shephers's pies etc. She is a trained cook - we mostly eat farang food but just don't spend unnecessarily buying it out, although we do eat in Pizza hut and MK once a week.

Are we really much different to other families in the rest of the world?

I certainly am not the guy in Tesco with the sleeveless t-shirt and an entourage of bumpkins and their kids throwing everything into his basket.

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I need some pigs that don't crap and some chickens that don't cluck.

Self sufficiency is the only way to go for the cash strapped in LOS.

Keeping that 800k in the bank for the visa is so difficult when you see those tempting bogof offers in Tesco though.

CCC

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The bath is going up and up,

The "bath" is plummeting at the minute actually.

From what I understand, many of the same people who bought into the thai stock market, and bond markets a couple of months ago, are withdrawing their funds, and bringing them back to the US and Eurpoe. What has changed? Why the change of sentiment now? Nice to see the baht drop. But, what is causing the outflows?

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Well compared to a lot of other places I wouldn't say it is expensive to live in isaan but like other posters have said prices do seem to be going up all over LOS. I'm wondering if it is affecting people more in small villages or well to do people in other parts. I guess it's all relative. But basic things like fuel for your motorbike or fish, meat, etc basics are common to everybody.

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It's not just Isaan. The cost of living everywhere in Thailand has gone up considerably over the last 5-6 years. The Baht is strong and Thais are making and spending a lot of money. Prices are going up more every day.

The purchasing power of each unit of money in every country in the world is going down, including the baht, because there OS so much more of out.print money and prices will rise.hardly the definition of strong.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

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It's not just Isaan. The cost of living everywhere in Thailand has gone up considerably over the last 5-6 years. The Baht is strong and Thais are making and spending a lot of money. Prices are going up more every day.

The purchasing power of each unit of money in every country in the world is going down, including the baht, because there OS so much more of out.print money and prices will rise.hardly the definition of strong.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Baht is relatively strong against other currencies which puts pressure on ability to export.

Impact on people living in issan? I would need somebody who knows to answer.

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Some weeks ago I went into Tesco and bought some rambutan, as I eat a lot of fruit and with the big sale sign I couldn't go wrong. Fishing my way through the last dreggs of fruit to find the nice fruit I walked head held high at the cheap after dinner snack I had bought.

On the way home I drove past the local market to see stall holders with rambutan piled high, superb quality at 15 baht a kilo less.

My fruit,veg and meat are now purchased from the market, my washing powder,booze etc from tesco but look out for their deals. Tesco actually have items they lose money on to get you through the door ( well in the UK anyway ), many Thai ladies get a certain product and stick with it forever. My ex would only use a certain type of washing up liquid, the fact that there was one on offer next to it at half the price didn't matter, same ingredients but different make blink.png .

Prices are on the rise but the whole picture needs to be looked at, rent, electric, petrol (gasolene), diesel, mechanics, computer nerds, road tax, cigs ( evil things ), police fines etc etc are still cheap in comparison to my country of birth.

Just one of Thailand's problems now are for those Westerners that pay for an expensive long haul flight to Thailand expecting a cheap holiday, it would be much cheaper to visit a cash strapped Southern European country, if you can plan your holiday around the riots.

I have met several two week millionaires that won't be back next year and they have been coming here for years and they were being deadly serious.

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I am in Australia at the moment.Cigarettes are $18 a pack.What are they in Mara Sarakham $3.If they go up to much I will not return.Also cold here but if it to expensive I will not return I will tough it out in Australia,freezing,until I go to the Great Temple.

Is that $18 for how many in the pack, Mickjin? I quit smoking in 2004 and left Oz in 2005. I think they were $13 for a pack of 40 back then.

I left CM in February to come back to China, partly because it was too expensive to live in CM, and the wages for a teacher were too low there. It is much cheaper to live in China, and the wages are higher here than in Thailand.

Sorry should have said 30 in a pack in AU 20 in LOS

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145B for a big mac set nowadays. What's the place coming to at all. Next guys will be complaing that 100b won't even get you two changs.

At my local in Chiangmai 2 large Chang's is 120bht and that's happy hour!crying.gif

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