Living in Chiang Mai on $500 a month?

[Lockheed]

chooka,

I really don't believe you could live on that amount of food, unless you are on some kind of serious diet.

What about the other 2 people you live with, what do they eat?

No diet, just mornings a cup of coffee and vegemite and my wife cooks in the evening. I'm 183cm and weigh in at 81 kgs. My son loves vegemite as well as cornflakes but doesn't drink coffee, juice in the morning, has lunch at school (provided) but apparently doesn't like it. My wife refuses to each lunch as she thinks she is fat at 46kgs.

I have eaten this way for over 20 yrs as it was part of my job where we very rarely had the chance for a lunch break and my body just came use to it.

I'm into the Cheesybite Vegemite now, I thought it was a .... when they first brought it out but tried it last year, I go through heaps of it and it costs a fortune. The original Vegemite is like sex, when I was younger I used to go through heaps of it but now I'm getting older the desire is not as great.

[chooka]

Well chooka, thanks for the answer above re food ...any answer to the larger post I made a while back, about your total budget? I guess a bit of your son's food could be in the school budget, but still I find it stretching credibility ...over a long period of course.

Like many people, we can come here, and buy nothing for some years, our old clothes, our old things will cover us, but over the long run, let us say an averge of 10 years, one must need to buy certain things?

Any comments?

Yes I agree at some stage one will have to change their underwear. We love comfortably I don't go to bars or drink excessively a couple (2) of cans on the weekend is my splurge. Yes when I 1st came to Thailand I spent more, built a house, furniture, landscaping, a car etc then fair enough if you won't to add all this together and average it over the months I have been here then I would be spending around 300K per month to survive

[vagabond48]

My new meal plan,

Find grains of rice in the market, on the floor, for free. Tell my neighbor that my rice cooker is broken, and my elecricity out, can I use theirs? Use her water while washing, to save mine. Use her electric of course too.

Eat the snails in my yard, that are free, cook in neighbor's rice cooker in the the steamer thing.

Result, FREE food! Try to find a new idea like this again tomorrow!

Sorry, guys, I am just joking around, but are you all really totally serious? I want to write an article about how to live for free in CM!

Actually you can eat nearly for free in CM, if you wanted. Before I got married 3 years ago, I would go Tuesday night to the Hindu temple and Friday night to the Sikh temple and eat nice vegetarian food. You could also take home the left overs which could last 2 to 3 meals. I also went Saturday afternoon for lunch an additional religious organization. All were free but I made a modest contribution each time. Many of the foreigners I saw rarely gave anything. I used to eat M - Fri at the Vegetarian Society on Mahidal where if you wanted, you could eat for free by having a portion of brown rice and one vegetable. I would see people do that several times. In those days, I also only got around only by bicycle. Now I am strapped with a MC and car.

[Ulysses G.]

Actually you can eat nearly for free in CM, if you wanted.

An older guy I knew, lived on $700. per month from social security and used to go to all the same places that you did to survive. He also knew some place that sold big, really excellent croissants - only on Saturdays - and you could drink all the coffee that you wanted for free. It was some place out near CMU, so inconvenient for me. He also used to eat the free monthly meal at Chabad House once a month.

Edited January 26, 2014 by Ulysses G.

[beau thai]

Come on Amy and 52 - its been 12 hours since the last episode in your love story and we are waiting with bated breath. Gotta be better than a thai soap...

[Thighlander]

add a packet of ketchup to hot water......tomato soup.

[vagabond48]

You can cut your food expense by 14,3% just by doing a fast once a week. Not that difficult and probably healthy for most.

[vagabond48]

add a packet of ketchup to hot water......tomato soup.

Although I never eat at any of the fast food chains, I assume they provide ketchup so your homemade soup would be free.

[searcher22]

add a packet of ketchup to hot water......tomato soup.

We're looking for a cook. Are you free?

[Naam]

You can cut your food expense by 14,3% just by doing a fast once a week. Not that difficult and probably healthy for most.

[FiftyTwo]

add a packet of ketchup to hot water......tomato soup.

We're looking for a cook. Are you free?

Never free, but sometimes available!

Very cheap to make, about 5bht for this tray of shortbread fingers.

[CMTourist]

add a packet of ketchup to hot water......tomato soup.

I was once told by a restaurant owner in a backpacker area of Chiang Mai that the reason there were no ketchup bottles on the table is because the backpackers stole them to take back to their guesthouse rooms to make tomato soup.

Perhaps he shouldn't have blamed the backpackers, but some of his more frugal expat regulars!

[mizztraveller]

add a packet of ketchup to hot water......tomato soup.

We're looking for a cook. Are you free?

Never free, but sometimes available!

shortbread.jpg

Very cheap to make, about 5bht for this tray of shortbread fingers.

Recipe please! Surely not 5 baht though, not if butter is used.

Sent from my GT-I8552 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[FiftyTwo]

add a packet of ketchup to hot water......tomato soup.

We're looking for a cook. Are you free?

Never free, but sometimes available!

shortbread.jpg

Very cheap to make, about 5bht for this tray of shortbread fingers.

Recipe please! Surely not 5 baht though, not if butter is used.

I was using palm/coconut oil margarine from Yok, 55bht a kilo. Tulip special soft flour 36bht/kg.

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/easy-shortbread-1283

With an added teaspoon of vanilla extract, to hide the slight coconut flavour of the marg. (coconut flavour shortbread is just so wrong)

Butter, apart from being expensive, tends to make baked items too heavy. Marg. gives a lighter, fluffier result.

Edited January 27, 2014 by FiftyTwo

[wolfmanjack]

Bread I baked my self. I make 750 grm batches for about 15 baht not counting the gas to bake it. I have no idea what that costs.

Meals at the local eatery were 25 baht for years. They have just recently raised them to 30 baht and they fill me up. They have a menu of over 30 items so you do not have to eat the same thing every day.

If you ate an egg sandwich for breakfast at 10 baht then 2 other meals at the local eatery for 30 baht each you would spend a total of 70 baht a day for food. Add a bottle of coconut water per meal and you are right about 100 baht per day for 3,000 baht per month. It would be less if you made your own bread like I do.

A fairly large studio condo with a swimming pool on Chang Klan road is about 4,000 baht a month. Electric ran about 1,000 baht a month. Water 100 baht. Phone with internet is 700 baht.

Total is less than 9,000 baht a month. That leaves around 6,000 baht a month for extras. A single person could live in $500 a month easy and in a hel of a lot better style than in the USA. A studio apartment 15 years ago in my home town was $400 a month. I hate to know what they are now.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

And here is a great dinner: canned fish with baked beans and rice.

That's 6 baht and 43 satang per serving if you get the beans dried at Muang Mai market and Aro brand tomato paste.

All food groups right there!

[circusman]

And here is a great dinner: canned fish with baked beans and rice.

That's 6 baht and 43 satang per serving if you get the beans dried at Muang Mai market and Aro brand tomato paste.

All food groups right there!

4210204769.jpg

Yes, all food groups but no eating satisfaction. YUCK!

[Mapguy]

+1

[binjalin]

And here is a great dinner: canned fish with baked beans and rice.

That's 6 baht and 43 satang per serving if you get the beans dried at Muang Mai market and Aro brand tomato paste.

All food groups right there!

4210204769.jpg

jeeze has it really come to this...? 6 baht 43 satang

[Thighlander]

100_1070.JPG

Bread I baked my self. I make 750 grm batches for about 15 baht not counting the gas to bake it. I have no idea what that costs.

100_1076.JPG

Meals at the local eatery were 25 baht for years. They have just recently raised them to 30 baht and they fill me up. They have a menu of over 30 items so you do not have to eat the same thing every day.

If you ate an egg sandwich for breakfast at 10 baht then 2 other meals at the local eatery for 30 baht each you would spend a total of 70 baht a day for food. Add a bottle of coconut water per meal and you are right about 100 baht per day for 3,000 baht per month. It would be less if you made your own bread like I do.

A fairly large studio condo with a swimming pool on Chang Klan road is about 4,000 baht a month. Electric ran about 1,000 baht a month. Water 100 baht. Phone with internet is 700 baht.

Total is less than 9,000 baht a month. That leaves around 6,000 baht a month for extras. A single person could live in $500 a month easy and in a hel of a lot better style than in the USA. A studio apartment 15 years ago in my home town was $400 a month. I hate to know what they are now.

The Thai food looks a lot like the place by the bookstore, next to the Technical College. Owners are from Lamphun. Been in there 100 times+ and never had a bad meal. Photo looks great.

Great fruit cart in the alley.

[HeIsDaffy]

I don't think you read your own article.

USD500 was for monthly rent.

Then, after that, the article stated that the average person from Australia should have plenty left over to spend on whatever they want, like coffee, massage, dinners out, cable TV packages.

I, though, do not want massages, cable TV, coffee, dinners out, unless it is in nice places up in the mountains,

Coffee is for the birds unless you drink it where it is grown.

USD500 for rent is a reasonable amount, I think, if you require more than one room.

I would like to have just one or two rooms in a traditional wooden Thai house, and save the rest for travel by public trains, bus, rot deng. THere are very many interesting trains to see here in Thailand.

Also, I would not be wasting my money on Golf.

I think I could live retirmentwise, exclusive of healthcare and paid female companion about USD1000 plus the USD500 for rent in Chiang Mai.

Then, I would like to contract for a 22 to 28 year old girl to take care of me on a yearly basis, but I do not yet know how much this will cost because I will begin searching next month or End of March, probably.

All this mistaken looking for love is totally money misspent. You just need to calculate it in to your monthly retirement expenditure.

500 for rent. Then USD1000 for everything else. Plus some number, maybe 10000 Baht for a female companion.

This is far cheaper than Australia and you do not need to give up the perks, as the article said, like coffee out.

[HeIsDaffy]

"When you're spending $500 a month or less on rent, you've got lots of flexibility with other, smaller expenses like nights out, new clothes and cable TV packages."

You see?
500 per month for rent.

Then you go from there.

And, if any of you plan to live on beans and bread, then I think you can pretty much give up on the female companionship for 10000 Baht per month.

[FolkGuitar]

We eat 98% of our meals either in Thai restaurants or from Thai food vendors. I'll cook 2-3 times a week at most; Sunday breakfast, perhaps some ethnic dish for dinner mid-week. We're not 'trying' to keep the meal prices down, we just prefer to eat local Thai foods. And to date, we've never had a 'bad' meal. We've had some that weren't great, just ordinary, but never a 'bad' one that we didn't want to finish. All at usually under 50 baht per meal each. Once in a while we get the urge to eat at Dukes or Loco Elvis, etc., perhaps the Empress Buffet, etc., but our usual fare for the two of us costs under 1,000 per week. Unless one is a steady drinker, or pays bar fines regularly, it's just not hard to live cheaply in Thailand if you live on the Thai economy.

[Thighlander]

and at the place I mentioned, not only did I never get a bad meal, I think I bought two entrees one time, ever....usually seems to be a perfect amount of food.

[beau thai]

100_1070.JPG

Bread I baked my self. I make 750 grm batches for about 15 baht not counting the gas to bake it. I have no idea what that costs.

100_1076.JPG

Meals at the local eatery were 25 baht for years. They have just recently raised them to 30 baht and they fill me up. They have a menu of over 30 items so you do not have to eat the same thing every day.

If you ate an egg sandwich for breakfast at 10 baht then 2 other meals at the local eatery for 30 baht each you would spend a total of 70 baht a day for food. Add a bottle of coconut water per meal and you are right about 100 baht per day for 3,000 baht per month. It would be less if you made your own bread like I do.

A fairly large studio condo with a swimming pool on Chang Klan road is about 4,000 baht a month. Electric ran about 1,000 baht a month. Water 100 baht. Phone with internet is 700 baht.

Total is less than 9,000 baht a month. That leaves around 6,000 baht a month for extras. A single person could live in $500 a month easy and in a hel of a lot better style than in the USA. A studio apartment 15 years ago in my home town was $400 a month. I hate to know what they are now.

Agree with all that and intrigued you can get a large studio on Chang Klan in a condo with a pool for 4k - are you willing to name the condo as I have a friend who would be very interested. Pm me if you prefer.

[beau thai]

We eat 98% of our meals either in Thai restaurants or from Thai food vendors. I'll cook 2-3 times a week at most; Sunday breakfast, perhaps some ethnic dish for dinner mid-week. We're not 'trying' to keep the meal prices down, we just prefer to eat local Thai foods. And to date, we've never had a 'bad' meal. We've had some that weren't great, just ordinary, but never a 'bad' one that we didn't want to finish. All at usually under 50 baht per meal each. Once in a while we get the urge to eat at Dukes or Loco Elvis, etc., perhaps the Empress Buffet, etc., but our usual fare for the two of us costs under 1,000 per week. Unless one is a steady drinker, or pays bar fines regularly, it's just not hard to live cheaply in Thailand if you live on the Thai economy.

Not so sure about the food at LocElvis but the Karaoke is great fun. Sooo bad its hilarious - and set up that way of course! Maybe hence the name?

[lmfao]

Really easily if Thais can do it on 5000 a month???

[freedomnow]

Yep, it is really easy to get by on 16k per month if you are not wh***ing/boozing 24/7.

It won't last though, prices bound to go through the roof soon....luckily their property market is not wide open to foreign buying which tends to sends day-to-day cost through the roof.

C.M. has been great for me anyway ! Thank you CM

[BohemianDaddyo]

Don't think I'd want to live on $500/mo there, but there's always ways to supplement your income no matter where your located in life I'd think.. You can drop me off anywhere in the world with no money, and I'll find a way to earn a living to put a roof over me head and food in me belly. In coming to Chiang Mai April 7 for a month tour of Thailand w/an expat eye to retire by year's end, I asked a local expat there from Cali if a budget of $1500/mo would be enough and he said "you could literally get 30 massages a month and eat out 21 meals a week and still be okay." I wish I still needed 30 massages a month w/happy ending and could eat 21 meals week to be happy in life like teenager.. Ha!

[BohemianDaddyo]

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Yep, it is really easy to get by on 16k per month if you are not wh***ing/boozing 24/7.

It won't last though, prices bound to go through the roof soon....luckily their property market is not wide open to foreign buying which tends to sends day-to-day cost through the roof.

C.M. has been great for me anyway ! Thank you CM alt=wai2.gif>

That's an astute fact re. the Thai laws restrictive toward foreign real estate investment/investors. At first I was dismayed, but If US capitalist style of foreign investment laws were in Thailand, there would be no advantage to living in Thailand for farangs and their major tourism industry would collapse around them in heading to Vietnam and other countries in SE Asia.. It was big pocketed big monied foreign investors and old hedge fund operators turning to income property that drove prices sky high in Orlando last year and even Tampa to some extent that drove me elsewhere in FL to look and invest.

Just look at this terrific luxurious apt I can get for less than 25% of the budgeted passive income I plan to live on in Chiang Mai from just one 4plex apt building here in Florida!

Edited March 5, 2014 by BohemianDaddyo