cost of living for family outside of bkk

[uthaithanirules]

There are 2 of us, me and my Thai gf. We live an hour SSE of Loei in a small village in a house with a fabulous view, which I paid 500,000 for. I give her 25,000 per month out of which she pays for food (including the occasional meal out), all the household bills, plus car repaynents and other running expenses (petrol, tax, servicing, etc). She is very happy, as am I

loei,sounds awesome

similar with me, 700000 in uthaithai, and the view still knocks me out

yeah but do you have colored toilet tiles as walls?

I was browsing the issaan houses for sale the other day online and most farang houses look like giant toilets. Yeah nice area but it seems every room was built like an ugly toilet from the thai 50's and the furniture was all bought in tesco.

Yeah you live a cheap lifestyle and its fine but don't go on putting that it's the regular price for a person raised in the west and used to not barfing everytime they open their eyes indoor.

700k furnished.. just basic decent quality mattress is 50-100k, plus basic kitchen/dining furniture an other 50-100k and 20-25k for a tv and 30-50k for a decent couch.. can't source much more than toilet tiles at homepro after that

2mb you can have something really decent if you build it yourself. Which is still really cheap.

Lol, yes, most of the furniture is from tesco. And the bathroom at least has those big ugly tiles

To be fair though, did build most of it with myself, along with her father who works for a local building company.

When i did need workers most charged about 1000B a day.

So probably would have cost about double that for a farang that has no clue about building.

Id disagree with you on furnishings though, 100k for a top end mattress, how many people back home bother spending 4k for a mattress? I think total for furnishing would have come to about the 150000 range - only bothered with one air con in the bedroom.

When we first got serious. i.e when she got pregnant

I remember freaking out becuase, her parents house, which luckily had a proper foundation and half the bottom floor concreted, I gave the mother a mere 10000B, we went on a trip, came back a week later, and the father had put in three walls, door frame and door, window frame and windows and painted it all, yes bright green

Then later extensions to the parents house, another 3 rooms, concreted and tiled would have come in at about 100000.

So there are those considerationsnas well, who her family is, where you source the materials from, how much you do yourself.

But I'd still question why you'd need to bother. I only did it this way becuase that was the 'dream' if some dude was just wanting to retire here, you could rent a small decent flat for 2-3 thosuand baht a month in a rural town, you can buy your 100k mattress but then what else do you need if you are going to spend half your days drinking coffee and reading the paper.

15000 a month for a condo in pattaya, why if you are hardly going to use the swimming pool, get sick of all the people and sit on your balcony most of the time.

It all ads up over time, almost eveeything is 20-80% cheaper here than back home, half price again out in the country vs Bangkok or the tourist areas. Who cares if your day sofa is from Tesco or not

[louse1953]

As for everyone else.

250k a month, dont think i could spend that if I tried ???

Car repayments :13000 a month, which would be the biggest cost

Electricity: someone said 4000 a month, dont know how you do that, that would be US $115 a month. Mine comes to 2000B a month, thats for 6 people, plus another 4-6 relos that visit every second week.

Kids school is 30000 a year for a 6 year old, so 2500 a month

Food: if we didnt go out to restaurants, would be sweet FA, she has a few relos with farms in the area, but even with restaurants, it would be under 10000 a month. Food I find to be the most noteable difference between living out in the sticks compared to Bangkok, usually around half price of what it is in Bangkok

Mortgage for me now is pretty much negligable

So, all up, under 30000 a month plus healthcare. Most other families around here are living of under 10000 a month

depending on the nationality is is around 80K to 150K THB per month.

including an good health insurance, car .

for the children it is the best to go to school so the integrate. (an you automatically as well) there are good schools around.

you are expat so most things you have to pay are more expensive then for Thai National.

minimum wage in thaialnd are now 300 THB per day also for the rural area.

In many areas everyone now a days goes to Mc Donalds, KFC, Burger King, Pizza compnay too and seem to have Iphone. ;-)

You have a lot to learn Auto.

[chrisandsu]

There are 2 of us, me and my Thai gf. We live an hour SSE of Loei in a small village in a house with a fabulous view, which I paid 500,000 for. I give her 25,000 per month out of which she pays for food (including the occasional meal out), all the household bills, plus car repaynents and other running expenses (petrol, tax, servicing, etc). She is very happy, as am I

loei,sounds awesome

similar with me, 700000 in uthaithai, and the view still knocks me out

yeah but do you have colored toilet tiles as walls?

I was browsing the issaan houses for sale the other day online and most farang houses look like giant toilets. Yeah nice area but it seems every room was built like an ugly toilet from the thai 50's and the furniture was all bought in tesco.

Yeah you live a cheap lifestyle and its fine but don't go on putting that it's the regular price for a person raised in the west and used to not barfing everytime they open their eyes indoor.

700k furnished.. just basic decent quality mattress is 50-100k, plus basic kitchen/dining furniture an other 50-100k and 20-25k for a tv and 30-50k for a decent couch.. can't source much more than toilet tiles at homepro after that

2mb you can have something really decent if you build it yourself. Which is still really cheap.

Lol, yes, most of the furniture is from tesco. And the bathroom at least has those big ugly tiles

To be fair though, did build most of it with myself, along with her father who works for a local building company.

When i did need workers most charged about 1000B a day.

So probably would have cost about double that for a farang that has no clue about building.

Id disagree with you on furnishings though, 100k for a top end mattress, how many people back home bother spending 4k for a mattress? I think total for furnishing would have come to about the 150000 range - only bothered with one air con in the bedroom.

When we first got serious. i.e when she got pregnant

I remember freaking out becuase, her parents house, which luckily had a proper foundation and half the bottom floor concreted, I gave the mother a mere 10000B, we went on a trip, came back a week later, and the father had put in three walls, door frame and door, window frame and windows and painted it all, yes bright green

Then later extensions to the parents house, another 3 rooms, concreted and tiled would have come in at about 100000.

So there are those considerationsnas well, who her family is, where you source the materials from, how much you do yourself.

But I'd still question why you'd need to bother. I only did it this way becuase that was the 'dream' if some dude was just wanting to retire here, you could rent a small decent flat for 2-3 thosuand baht a month in a rural town, you can buy your 100k mattress but then what else do you need if you are going to spend half your days drinking coffee and reading the paper.

15000 a month for a condo in pattaya, why if you are hardly going to use the swimming pool, get sick of all the people and sit on your balcony most of the time.

It all ads up over time, almost eveeything is 20-80% cheaper here than back home, half price again out in the country vs Bangkok or the tourist areas. Who cares if your day sofa is from Tesco or not

Maybe he has the personality of one of those dead fish , so never has to leave his oasis ?

[jonnyscot]

We're outside the tourist area a couple hours north of Bangkok,,, 2 x kids 7year old and 9 years old, we don't now have rent but last early last year we were renting, good quality 2 story 3 bed 2bathroom house in nice village with garden at 6k per month, we installed our own aircons,,

Now we're in new build and monthly costs for aircons X 5 up to 8 hours per day costing maximum, 3200 per month that's including water charge which is minimal,, food costs - 12000/15000 per month, Internet 690 per month, car insurance 3k per month, health insurance around 3.5k per month(I think), car fuel - 3k per month, we took the kids out of private school last year as there was a reputed good quality govt school which we are happy with so far, but private school costs in the provincial town before were 20k per child per term including English program

[jonnyscot]

We're outside the tourist area a couple hours north of Bangkok,,, 2 x kids 7year old and 9 years old, we don't now have rent but last early last year we were renting, good quality 2 story 3 bed 2bathroom house in nice village with garden at 6k per month, we installed our own aircons,,

Now we're in new build and monthly costs for aircons X 5 up to 8 hours per day costing maximum, 3200 per month that's including water charge which is minimal,, food costs - 12000/15000 per month, Internet 690 per month, car insurance 3k per month, health insurance around 3.5k per month(I think), car fuel - 3k per month, we took the kids out of private school last year as there was a reputed good quality govt school which we are happy with so far, but private school costs in the provincial town before were 20k per child per term including English program